The Representation of the Doubleness of Selfhood in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre and Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea
In this study of Charlotte Bronte 's Jane Eyre and Jean Rhys 's Wide Sargasso Sea I aim to consider the representation of the doubleness of selfhood, and how both between and within the two novels a continuous mirroring of double identity, (reflecting like a hall of mirrors), can be traced. I will concentrate chiefly on the duality of the female personae, although I will also consider briefly the concept of doubling across gender boundaries.
Miller maintains that 'doubles may appear to come from the outside as a form of possession, or from the inside, as a form of projection ' [1]. Both novels explore this doubleness, between and within characters.
In Jane Eyre, the character of Bertha Mason can be viewed as both an external double and a projected double to Jane herself. Jane is full of vengeful, raging ire, (of which her name is indicative), and can thus find her literal double in Bertha. Her ire first manifests itself in the 'red room ' scene of the opening chapter, foreshadowing the aggression which Bertha is to act out later. The 'fiend-like ' Jane is threatened with being 'tied down ' in 'bonds ' (p7) if she will not submit to her oppression, just as Bertha is tied down after her attack on Rochester, her patriarchal oppressor. While Jane is described as 'a mad cat ' (p7), the fully-realised madwoman we are told, flew at Mason and 'worried [him] like a tigress. ' (p253).
Jane 's battle for acceptance within the patriarchal prison in which she lives, however, necessitates a suppression of this anger. It is this stifling of her selfhood which generates the projected double, which will later actually emerge from Jane 's psyche into a materialised separate entity - the stereotype of female madness. Bertha becomes the perpetrator of Jane 's impulses, acting out the hidden rage which burns fiercely within her.
In Lowood, through the pacifying influences of Helen Burns and Miss Temple, Jane acquires restraint. However, this passivity can only be
Miller maintains that 'doubles may appear to come from the outside as a form of possession, or from the inside, as a form of projection ' [1]. Both novels explore this doubleness, between and within characters.
In Jane Eyre, the character of Bertha Mason can be viewed as both an external double and a projected double to Jane herself. Jane is full of vengeful, raging ire, (of which her name is indicative), and can thus find her literal double in Bertha. Her ire first manifests itself in the 'red room ' scene of the opening chapter, foreshadowing the aggression which Bertha is to act out later. The 'fiend-like ' Jane is threatened with being 'tied down ' in 'bonds ' (p7) if she will not submit to her oppression, just as Bertha is tied down after her attack on Rochester, her patriarchal oppressor. While Jane is described as 'a mad cat ' (p7), the fully-realised madwoman we are told, flew at Mason and 'worried [him] like a tigress. ' (p253).
Jane 's battle for acceptance within the patriarchal prison in which she lives, however, necessitates a suppression of this anger. It is this stifling of her selfhood which generates the projected double, which will later actually emerge from Jane 's psyche into a materialised separate entity - the stereotype of female madness. Bertha becomes the perpetrator of Jane 's impulses, acting out the hidden rage which burns fiercely within her.
In Lowood, through the pacifying influences of Helen Burns and Miss Temple, Jane acquires restraint. However, this passivity can only be
References: 1. Karl Miller. Doubles. Studies in Literary History (Oxford University press 1985) p416 2. Gilbert and Gubar The Madwoman In the Attic - 'A Dialogue of Self and Soul: Plain Jane 's Progress ' p349 3. Coral Ann Howells Jean Rhys 'the madwoman comes out of the attic ' p115 4. Gilbert and Gubar The Madwoman in the Attic p343 5. In Wide Sargasso Sea Rhys 's re-writing of the unquestioned imperialism of Jane Eyre from the point of view of the white Creole woman, is central to an understanding of the novel. Although space limits an exploration of this issue within the essay, it must be noted that colonialism in the Rhys text can be seen as another double - the 'other side ' of the imperialistic assumptions of Jane Eyre. 6. Coral Howells p121 7. Coral Howells p122 8. Coral Howells p121 9. Miller p47