Essay: Elsie Browning Michie – Outside the Pale: Cultural Exclusion, Gender Difference, and the Victorian Women Writer

Elsie Browning Michie in her book, Outside the Pale: Cultural Exclusion, Gender Difference, and the Victorian Women Writer, argues that the first encounter emphasizes the power differences between Jane and Rochester.  Michie adds that this difference in power is represented in terms of size and gender, later of wealth and class through oriental imagery of Mahomet and the mountain.  Jane cannot control his horse, but Rochester is able to ‘master’ that horse though he is injured. He asks her to bring the horse to him, she cannot; instead he asks her to help him to walk to the horse. He tells her “the mountain will never be brought to Mahomet, so all you can do is to aid Mahomet to go to the mountain; I must beg of you to come here”, Jane Eyre (p.98).  The first encounter between Mr. Rochester and Jane also disrupts the power dynamics as thought by the Victorians – the male is in the position of authority – by reducing   the authority of Mr. Rochester, making him as an equal to Jane. The first meeting is the first step in the construction of the new masculinity in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Deflating Rochester’s masculinity to be equal to Jane and to be in need of her assistance is the first step in Charlotte Bronte’s new version of masculinity. Rochester’s fall from the horse to the ground is a moment of paramount significance in Jane Eyre because it changes Jane’s relationship as a servant inferior to her employer. At this moment, the novelist Charlotte Bronte intervenes in her history and begins to speak to Rochester as a man with sense of equality. The moment of Rochester’s fall is the first step in the new construction of masculinity proposed by Charlotte Bronte. This step can be figured out as the step of equality.
The next step in the new masculinity presented in Jane Eyre is Bertha, the madwoman in the attic of Rochester’s house. The madwoman in the attic is no more than the mad cat in the red room, Jane Eyre at the Gateshead. Bertha destroys not only the house of Rochester but she destroys the hegemonic masculinity of Rochester. Bertha is the dark side in the life of Rochester and the Victorian man. Charlotte Bronte presents the character of Bertha to critique the bad treatment of patriarchal man during the Victorian period to woman. She is put inside the attic of Rochester’s house. She is locked in a room for ten years. She goes crazy like   ‘some wild animal’.  She is mad and she wants to destroy everything in the house of Rochester.  Jane first sees Bertha when the madwoman tears her veil before the wedding day. Jane Eyre describes Bertha as “It was a discoloured face—it was a savage face. I wish I could forget the roll of the red eyes and the fearful blackened inflation of the lineaments”, Jane Eyre (p.242). These are the physical features of Bertha which reflect the psychological nature of Bertha. Bertha becomes the icon of the rebellious woman against the hegemonic masculinity of the Victorian man. The following lines describe the real situation of the Victorian woman in the form of Bertha kept in her room. Jane Eyre depicts the scene saying:
In the deep shade, at the farther end of the room, a figure ran backwards and forwards. What it was, whether beast or human being, one could not, at first sight tell: it grovelled, seemingly, on all fours; it snatched and growled like some strange wild animal: but it was covered with clothing, and a quantity of dark, grizzled hair, wild as a mane, hid its head and face.   Jane Eyre (p.250).
Bertha has become the most famous figure in literary criticism. This is because her case provides the title   of a major 1979 book of feminist theory, Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar’s The Madwoman in the Attic. Basically, the concept is that the strongly powerful, fervent, and brilliant woman who is seen as crazy and in need of confinement by the masculine world embodies the nineteenth-century woman novelist, whose abilities threatened the dominant patriarchal literary society in the nineteenth century. Clearly, Bertha’s case has a lot of remarkable implications for Charlotte Bronte as an author, and for the “Autobiography” of the character of Jane Eyre. Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar argue that Bertha is a kind of dark double for Jane, symbolizing Jane’s “ire”, the anger and hatred contained socially in all women, until at times it threatens to burst forth in madness.  Jane Eyre sees her past – especially the red room in Gateshead – and the fears of her future.

Rochester is a patriarchal gentleman of the Victorian society with the most qualities of the dominant society over women. Bertha Mason is the reflection of his hegemonic masculinity. However, his amenability to change plays an important role in the construction of the modern masculinity that Charlotte Bronte has established in Jane Eyre. Had Rochester never changed, Jane Eyre would be the second Bertha. He is hiding the secrets of love relations and his marital relations with his wife, Bertha Mason. Such secrets make him a man of mystery. His marriage to Bertha is not a real love marriage; that is why he has suffered a lot of this marriage. He indulges himself into lots of love relations. He puts Bertha in the attic of his house justifying that she is mad. This may not be true, because putting a woman in one room for ten years actually makes her mad. This is against her emotions and her rights as a woman. The destructive behaviour of Bertha is a reaction against the humiliation of her feelings. Destroying the bedroom of Rochester and the wedding veil of Jane is a revenge of Rochester’s marriage to Jane. Unless Rochester tends to change his patriarchal behaviour, an inferior feeling towards women, he will not marry Jane Eyre. Charlotte Bronte destroys his sense of dominance over women and makes him finally dominated by Jane Eyre. After meeting Jane Eyre for the first time, he wants to silence her; he wants her to leave him alone.  He is astonished to see such a brave girl. This is not the normal girl that he used to deal with at Thornfield. This girl is not of the private sphere. Rochester at the beginning is treating her with a sense of superiority. Jane Eyre sees in his face a gaze of the ‘sultan’ before a ‘slave’. This is when he tends to give her gifts and dresses before engagement. Jane refuses the sultan/slave relation. She describes that moment:
I ventured once more to meet my master’s and lover’s eye; which most pertinaciously sought mine, though I averted both face and gaze. He smiled; and I thought his smile was such as a sultan might, in a blissful and fond moment, bestow on a slave his gold and gems had enriched: I crushed his hand, which was ever hunting mine, vigorously, and thrust it back to him red with the passionate pressure, Jane Eyre (p.229).
Jane Eyre wants both Rochester and her to be equal partners not sultan/slave partners. She wants Rochester to be changed; to be soft not harsh and to come down to an area of equal roles. Rochester develops according to the wish of Jane Eyre. The sultan/slave relationship in reality has begun to change at the moment of Rochester’s fall at the first meeting. The relation of servant/employer; the dominant/submissive or even the masculine/feminine is changed.  At this moment, Charlotte Bronte intervenes in her history through Jane and began to speak to the man, Rochester as an equal. This is the real change in the character of Rochester that develops step by step till the hegemonic masculinity of the Victorian man has disappeared; till both Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester become totally of the same stuff.   Tessa Adams and Andrea Duncan argue, in their book The Feminine Case: Jung, Aesthetics and Creative Process, that the male character, in Jane Eyre does not develop as an animus hero figure in the classical sense. Transformation takes place through inversion and Rochester experiences an enantiadromian – inversive – metamorphosis, a rendering down as he is the ‘lapis’ of alchemical transformation.  The mad behaviour of Bertha is similar to the manly and harsh behaviour of Charlotte Bronte towards her society. Bertha, Jane and Charlotte Bronte are different faces for one woman struggling against the follies of the Victorian society in general and the Victorian man in particular. The rebellious behaviour of Charlotte Bronte makes the Victorian society accept her as an equal partner to man.
The need for Rochester to change his masculine behaviour is important for the marital happiness in Jane Eyre. Earlier in the novel, Rochester declares that what he likes in a person is adaptability   a “character that bends but does not break”, Jane Eyre (p.222). Rochester is the centre of change and his change is alchemical. He is affected by Jane Eyre and challenges his society to fall in love with Jane, the governess, which is not the norm of the patriarchal society. Mrs. Fairfax is astonished to see both Rochester and Jane fond of each other. She warns Jane that she is still young and does not know men. Mrs. Fairfax is right because she knows the story of Bertha. Rochester finally tells Jane the truth of his previous marriage; in turn Jane Eyre refuses to be his mistress.  After Jane Eyre’s leaving Rochester, he has experienced a total change doing penance for his attempt to trap her into bigamy and to seduce her. Rochester reconciles to God and to both Jane and Bertha. He has done his best to save Bertha when she burns his house. He suffers the loss of his sight and his right hand.
The physical change is not separated from the psychological change within Rochester. He abandons the amorous love relations out of the circle of marriage life. He has changed his view about Jane Eyre as an inferior to him. Now she is the best woman with whom he will enjoy his life. Charlotte Bronte destroys every potentiality of Rochester’s hegemonic masculinity. His house is a sign of his wealth and social rank. His sight is the sign of his power, so is his right hand. His blindness means that he cannot reshape Jane through his gaze which is discussed as a sign of power.  Charlotte Bronte weakens every power he has a man; the power over Jane Eyre is his hegemonic masculinity.
Rochester has experienced an inner change in his thought about Jane Eyre as a woman. He changes step by step till he recognizes the sense of equality. He denies his superiority as a man over Jane as a woman. He explains “I don’t wish to treat you like an inferior: that is (correcting himself), I claim only such superiority as must result from twenty years’ difference in age and a century’s advance in experience”, Jane Eyre (p. 114). So, he claims superiority because of differences in age not because of differences in social rank or because of gender. Rochester finally acknowledges her as his equal and his likeness. He says before his proposal
“My bride is here,’ he said, again drawing me to him, ‘because my equal is here, and my likeness. Jane, will you marry me?” Jane Eyre (p. 217). He finally reconciles his faults which make him feel superior not only to Jane but also to the other people around him. He sacrifices his sight and right hand to save Bertha. Rochester becomes a new man with a new masculinity in which he repents to God and reconciles his relations with other people. Rochester deviates from the traditional Victorian ideal of masculinity. Jane Eyre is the catalyst for this change that makes him a gentleman not by birth but through his behaviour. Jane Eyre is also the reward for this new masculinity in Rochester. She finally accepts him as a husband. She feels also rewarded. Jane Eyre finally acknowledges:
“Mr. Rochester, if ever I did a good deed in my life—if ever I thought a good thought—if ever I prayed a sincere and blameless prayer—if ever I wished a righteous wish,—I am rewarded now. To be your wife is, for me, to be as happy as I can be on earth”, Jane Eyre (p. 379).
Finally, the changed Rochester is more beautiful to Jane. She declares that “I love you better now when I can really be useful to you than I did in your state of proud independence, when you disdained every part but that of the giver and the protector”, Jane Eyre (p. 379).  Because of this change in Rochester, she feels to be an equal partner and she is proud to be the happiest wife on earth.