Women’s isolation in Brontë’s Jane Eyre Introduction The typical female gothic novel presents a blameless heroine triumphing through a variety of passive-aggressive strategies over a male-created system of oppression and corruption, the “patriarchy”(Hoeveler, 9). As a feminine gothic novel, Jane Eyre shares the similar feature. This essay suggests that the oppression and corruption created by the patriarchy in Jane Eyre reflected in females’ isolation in gothic environments. Firstly, Jane is isolated and repressed by male patriarchs in every gothic environment. From the “Red Room” to “Lowood Academy”, from Thornfield to Moor House, the protagonist Jane Eyre always moves from one gothic environment to another. Jane’s isolation mainly embodied …show more content…
The first assumption emphasis on the physical basis of mental illness, which is, Bertha’s madness is congenital illness. However, from Rochester’s perspective, this physical illness is considered related to moral aspects. “Bertha Mason is mad; and she came of a mad family; idiots and maniacs through three generations! Her mother, the Creole, was both a madwoman and a drunkard!—As I found out after I had wed the daughter: for they were silent on family secrets before”(292). In Rochester’s opinion, the gestation of her madness is specifically linked to her drinking and to her sexual appetites—failures of the will, not the body. And in this way, Rochester holds Bertha’s morally accountable for her illness (Elizabeth, 106). In addition, Rochester sees himself as a victim who is set up by Mason and his own family. When Jane tells him that he could not marry because that he has a wife, Rochester says “I had determined and was convinced that I could and ought…I meant to tell my tale plainly, and make my proposal openly: and it appeared to me so absolutely rational that I should be considered free to love and be loved…” (Brontë, 310) However, though Rochester sees himself as rational and reasonable, he still locks Bertha in the attic and conceals her