Physical Surroundings of the 19th Century Madwomen

Vincent Chiu

English 221 003

Word Count: 2,070

Thursday, April 10, 2008

*Physical Surroundings of the 19th* Century Madwomen

In 19th century literature, the madwoman concept was developed as a facet for expressing the female defiance beginning to emerge during this century. The rage and frustrations of this period’s female authors often reflected the sentiments of the large majority feeling the weight of the restrictive gender roles fixed by Victorian society. As examined by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar’s work The Madwoman in the Attic, it is argued that the trope of the madwoman was used as the female author’s dark double. By reflecting her dark side, it was through this character that the author was able to personify the feelings of anxiety and desires for release from the oppression of the period’s gender categories. Two prominent examples of this madwoman concept are seen in the novel Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte, and the short story The Yellow Wall-Paper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. In both works, the authors use the physical surroundings of the oppressed women to reflect their mental state, giving the reader a clearer image of the function of the madwoman trope adding to the commentary of the effects of male oppression.

In the novel Jane Eyre, the reader is introduced to a madwoman who is depicted very darkly, emphasized by the protagonist’s contrasting depiction as a serene and innocent woman. The madwoman, Bertha Antoinetta Mason, wife of Mr. Rochester, is described as having a “discoloured…savage face” (Bronte, 283), with rolling red eyes and a “fearful blackened inflation of the lineaments” (Bronte, 283). This immediately sets the reader to see Bertha as a monster, as she would be appalling to anyone who saw her. Looking back at the surroundings the characters find themselves in, the reader sees that Thornfield is not truthfully a location of beauty. Though seeming large and majestic at first, the inability of Jane to properly see...