Bertha Mason Research Paper

Should Mr. Rochester have divorced Bertha Mason. This is a very complex question as it seems that Mr. Rochester wants to get a divorce, but he can’t ever bring himself to get a divorce. Another reason why he may have not been able to divorce her was because of the time it took place. As this book takes place in the 1800s, it wasn’t until after the 1857 Matrimonial Causes Act, which was passed 10 years after Jane Eyre, that divorces became more common and less frowned upon. Divorce nowadays though due to mental illness is not all that common. According to a study done in 2011 by the University of Groningen, which is a public research university in the Netherlands, found that a variety of mental disorders all had an increase in chance for divorce from anywhere between 20-80 percent. The first reason why Rochester may have not gotten a divorce from Bertha Mason was that he felt guilty for locking her up. This could be because if he never locked her up then he could’ve helped her get better. Now we don’t know what all his reasons were to lock her up, besides the fact that she was

Before 1857 divorces were extremely rare, very expensive, and were only granted through a private act by Parliament. Along with divorces being very rare and very expensive, you could not divorce someone because of adultery, cruelty, or desertion. Bertha did try commit cruelty towards Rochester as she tried to bite him. Now you could also say that she was guilty of desertion due to her mental illness, but you could also say Rochester committed desertion as he has her locked up in her room and hired Grace Poole to make sure Bertha doesn’t disturb the rest of the house. You could probably make the better argument that Bertha would have better grounds for divorcing Rochester, but due to her mental illness and it being before 1857 it would be nearly impossible for her to divorce