"The Widow" Bertha

Jane Eyre admits that she envies Bertha.

She is not envious of her beautiful face, nor of her noble birth in old-fashioned dresses—in the face of the equally beautiful and noble Miss Ingram, Jane Eyre has never felt jealous or envious.

What she envied was that Bertha revealed from her words that she had been to many places, seen many people and things, and possessed extremely rich experience; Passed so many gentlemen who were officers or officials present.

Jane never regrets that she lacks the advantage of appearance and rich wealth, but...she has to admit that Bertha lives so presumptuously and dares to speak and act, which is what she wants to do, but she still can't do it appearance.

Before that, Jane Eyre thought about what was hidden in the attic of Thornfield Manor countless times.a murderer?A vampire?Or a ghost, a madwoman?No matter which idea it is, it will not be such a beautiful and capable lady.

As for how Jane Eyre knew?

It was so easy that Bertha encouraged her to look it up for herself, and Jane did.In the huge manor, besides Mr. Rochester and Bertha, there is another person who definitely knows about it.

That is the mysterious maid Grace Poole, who helped Bertha pass the message to Jane and led Jane into the two locked doors of the attic.

Grace was not a particularly bright man.Jane just lied, "Bertha told me that Mr. Rochester did this to protect her safety", and Grace introduced Jane Eyre as "one of his own", and expressed everything as if he was complaining or confiding. said.

"It's protection, but Mrs. Bertha has suffered a lot these years." At the end, Grace even choked up a little. "Mr. Rochester claimed that he was single and locked his wife in the attic. He is free, but Where's the lady?"

Bertha... Mrs.

It turned out to be the case.

It turns out that the mysterious Bertha, the beautiful Bertha, is none other than Mr. Rochester's wife.She was once insane and locked up in the attic by her husband, but now she has recovered.

To be honest, Jane was not shocked after learning of this fact. On the contrary, she felt that her heart, which had been hanging faintly, suddenly fell to the ground with Grace's words.

What else could it be?With such a beautiful woman hidden, it is more logical to be a wife than a lover.

"Mrs. Bertha doesn't care about it," Grace was still rambling about her feelings, "but she has been locked up for so many years. Even I, emotionally, cannot forgive Mr. Rochester for concealing it."

Jane can forgive.

Because it has nothing to do with her.

But she couldn't forgive herself.

It is wishful thinking to take the initiative to hire your own family.And this patriarch even has his own wife, and his wife is... such a unique person.

After realizing this, the throbbing and emotions that once surged up in Jane's heart all became the source of her shame.

Jane doesn't think she can continue to stay in Thornfield calmly. Should she meet Bertha every day and remind herself that she liked her husband?

Jane Eyre didn't sleep well all night.

In the early morning of the next day, she almost exhausted all her courage before entering the study and asking Mr. Rochester to leave voluntarily.

"When the matter is over," she said, trying her best to maintain a calm posture, "I will leave Thornfield."

When Jane Eyre's words fell to the ground, Mr. Rochester was silent for a moment, and then frowned: "No."

Jane: "I am not asking for your opinion, sir, but I am offering you my resignation."

Rochester: "I said, no."

Rochester, who came back to his senses, showed an almost stubborn expression of resistance: "You can leave as soon as you say, how is Adele's studies? Miss Jane Eyre, in vain, I think she is a very responsible lady on weekdays, and never I held prejudice against Adele because of her background. I was mistaken, you are just an ordinary person who is afraid of getting into trouble. No, you can’t just leave.”

Bertha: "..."

Faced with the employer's doubts, Jane just bowed her head: "Although I am hired by you, sir, I am a free person."

Rochester: "You—"

Bertha held her forehead and couldn't bear to look straight at the side.

What kind of death-style straight man speeches are these!It's fine to treat Bertha so straightforwardly. Anyway, the two of them have a lot of bad debts in their dark history, and they have seen each other in embarrassment.Miss Jane Eyre is his sweetheart, is it right for you to speak like that!

"Edward," Bertha said helplessly, "Aren't you still discussing the follow-up of the murder with Colonel Dent?"

Rochester glanced over.

Bertha winked at him: "I'm here to talk to Miss Jane Eyre. There are so many things going on recently. You should calm down and deal with them one by one."

The implication is that you should calm down and talk about this matter, don't do stupid things like ten years ago.

Fortunately, although Rochester didn't trust Bertha very much, he still had some self-knowledge—knowing that he would definitely not be able to deal with this matter calmly.

Seeing Jane Eyre with the usual expression, he just felt so angry that he shook his hands and left angrily without saying a word.

The door of the study was slammed to death, and the room where only two women were left suddenly became quiet.

Bertha stared at Miss Jane Eyre who was standing by the door: "Do you want to go?"

Miss Jane Eyre wished she could lower her head even lower: "Yes, Bertha...Mrs."

Bertha was silent for a moment, and then suddenly broke into a smile.

"Okay."

Leaning against the table, she said with a smile, "I just plan to leave Thornfield too. Where do you want to go? Maybe we can drop by."

Jane Eyre:"……"

Hearing Bertha's words in a casual tone, Jane Eyre raised her head in shock.

She didn't seem to understand what Bertha meant. Miss Jane Eyre looked at Bertha for a moment, as if to confirm whether the "leave" she said had the same meaning as the "leave" she proposed: "Madam, you mean... ...?"

Well, that's about the same.

Jane Eyre looked up again, although her pale face was full of shock, Bertha did not miss the inquiry and curiosity in her sight.This is the anger a young girl should have!

She is obviously a very thoughtful girl, but because she stays in the girls' school all the year round, she suppresses her nature forcibly, so she has to be a kind and polite tutor with low eyebrows - although only in this way, Jane Eyre can live a better life in the Victorian era go down.But this made Bertha who came from the 21st century feel awkward.

"In any case, let's wait until this murder case is completely solved."

Seeing the desire to explore in Jane Eyre's eyes, Bertha's mood improved a bit, and she slowed down her tone: "Miss Ingram alone is enough for Edward to be busy, and he still has to pay me a breakup fee and sign a contract." .According to the first-come-first-served principle, your resignation must come after me.”

"..."

Now Miss Jane Eyre was completely incomprehensible.

Seeing how she wanted to ask but didn't dare to ask, Bertha twitched her mouth again.

Well, let's help Rochester.

Although Bertha doesn't care what happened to Rochester, Miss Jane Eyre is innocent after all.She found out the result by herself, and she made up her mind to leave. She probably couldn't accept that she fell in love with a married man.

Bertha now just wants to get out of here, to cut off everything from the past.This bad debt can't be counted on a governess.

"simple."

Bertha tilted her head, and said nonchalantly, "I know you like Edward, and that's why you feel that you can't stay in Thornfield Manor any longer."

A sentence fell to the ground lightly, but it shocked Jane Eyre's body.

"I do not mind."

Before the young girl could react, Bertha continued: "Anyway, I'm leaving, so you can be completely honest with Rochester about what happened afterwards, and just pretend that I never existed."

Miss Jane Eyre clutched her dress, and said in confusion, "...I... don't understand what you mean by 'go', Mrs. Bertha."

"Don't call me Mrs. Bertha," Bertha laughed. "I'm Miss Marple now, remember?"

"..."

"What they want to catch is the crazy woman in the attic. What does it have to do with me, Miss Marple?"

Jane Eyre understood immediately.

Bertha intends to use the false identity of "Miss Marple" to the end. No matter what the ending of "Mad Woman" is, it has nothing to do with her, because in the eyes of everyone, she has a brand new identity!

but……

From then on, Bertha was no longer Bertha.

"I don't quite understand." Jane frowned slightly, "In order to leave Rochester, you would rather die?"

Bertha sneered.

There were obvious traces of disdain on her dignified and beautiful face, and Miss Jane Eyre did not flinch, because she knew that Bertha's disdain was not aimed at herself.

"You are right, my dear Jane," said Bertha, still in that languid tone, as if she didn't care about anything, "you are a free man. But why am I not? I I would rather die, not to leave Rochester, but because I also yearn for freedom."

"I left just because I wanted to, it had nothing to do with anyone."

"Remember what you said yourself hereafter, Jane," said Bertha, "to go or stay because you have the power to come and go as you please, and so do I."

And Miss Jane Eyre was speechless for a long time.

Bertha knew that it was difficult for her to understand such a statement. Even though Jane Eyre was naturally intelligent and had a rebellious spirit in her bones, she was still a girl who was born and raised in the nineteenth century.

In this era, a married woman wants to take the initiative to kick her husband away, even at the cost of feigning death, and brazenly says that she "longs for freedom" as an excuse-it is a shocking thing after all.

Miss Jane Eyre certainly did not have the concept that women can take the initiative to divorce.

Bertha would not look down on her because of this. In the final analysis, it was just the constraints of the times. The public women in the Victorian era were short-sighted, not because they were not clear-headed, but because this era did not give them the opportunity to have ambition and vision.

"Forget it, it's not too late to talk about it after the case is over."

So she didn't say much, just ended the topic lightly, and asked easily: "Are you hungry? I'm already hungry, why don't we have breakfast together?"

As for the rest, let Miss Jane Eyre think for herself.

The author has something to say: ①The theory comes from an industry point of view that Jiang Hua agrees with: in the novel "Jane Eyre", Bertha and Jane Eyre are opposite and unified.On the one hand, the image of Bertha is "warning", and Bertha's experience is an example of all "women trying to have (male) vigorous energy" in the Victorian era, and she always advises Jane Eyre not to do so; on the other hand Bertha is also the double image of Jane Eyre. Her anger, hatred and aggression, even in the way of venting her emotions, are Jane Eyre’s repressed nature that cannot be freely revealed after being disciplined by the girls’ school——Jane Eyre in the original book The experience of love is almost the experience of all women in the [-]th century. Jane Eyre was stubborn, sharp and full of resistance when she was young. However, the society at that time did not allow women to have such strong negative emotions, and they were not allowed to resist. They are "lunatics".Therefore, in "The Madwoman in the Attic-Female Writers and the Literary Imagination of the Nineteenth Century", it is believed that Jane Eyre described by Charlotte Bronte still has these human natures when she becomes an adult. Where did they go?The author subconsciously projects it on Bertha.

In this article, Bertha is no longer a lunatic, but according to Jiang Hua's understanding of the novel, Bertha still has everything that Jane wants to have but does not have, that is, to express herself wantonly, to indulge her emotions, and to have freedom.

Maggie: May I ask when can I meet my "lover" whom I have never met?

Jiang Hua: Hurry up, Rochester is ready to burn the manor after being issued a card!

Rochester: ...Wait a minute?What about not dismantling the original cp?

Ginger Flower:?Then I didn't say that you can do it in a dozen chapters?If it was so easy to get married, I would be Edward Norton's wife by now, okay? ? ?