On the level of characters, Lacan’s theory about feminine sexuality and the symbolic order has been deployed demonstrating that the phallus maintains a firm hold over Jane Eyre but lapses into a state of subversion in Rebecca due to Jane’s relinquishing of her subjectivity and sexuality whereas the narrator keeps them . Female sexuality embodied in Bertha Mason is depicted as deviant and cast out of the symbolic order since Bertha is deprived of speech. Building on Lacan’s psychosexual model, Bertha has been analyzed as the mirror image of Jane. Indeed, in Jane’s encounters with Bertha the mirror has been a crucial factor especially in the night before Jane’s wedding. In addition, it is in the imaginary stage that this subject is handed …show more content…
Bronte’s novel develops a connection between Jane and Bertha where the latter acts as the imaginary ego with the knowledge to pass to the speaking subject. However, this knowledge is given a repulsive form when depicting Bertha as an animalistic figure denied language in itself which in turn leaves her out of the symbolic order. Male figures of the novel, namely Rochester and St. John, powerfully exercise the disruption that brings Jane to a state of submission and objectivity. She accepts the life of isolation in Rochester’s service as well as allows St. John words to close her narrative.
The third section of this research has employed the queer theory to prove that Jane Eyre has concealed the allusions to the female-female desire underwriting it to adhere to the conventional heterosexual female Gothic plot. On the contrary, Rebecca is shown to have subverted the traditional molds of female and male Gothic as the character of Rebecca grants more space to explore the queer homoerotic subtext.
The queerness has been analyzed considering two points. The first has been the marriage plot which ends Jane Eyre ensuring the dominance of heterosexuality, but opens Rebecca giving rise to suspicions and doubts about the heterosexuality of du Maurier’s novel. The second point has been the interplay between the characters in each