Feminist Criticism In A Dialogue Of Self And Soul: Plain Jane's Progress?
Feminist literary criticism is a direct product of the 1960s ‘women’s movement’, recognising the ‘significance of the images of women that are promulgated by literature’ (Barry, 116). Feminist critics see it as vital to challenge such portrayals – particularly in relation to aspects of ‘conditioning’ and ‘socialisation’, and what is considered an ‘acceptable version of the ‘feminine’ (Barry, 117).
Gilbert and Gubar’s “A Dialogue of Self and Soul: Plain Jane’s Progress” offers a provocative critique, employing the character of Bertha Mason and her entrapment in the attic at Thornfield as an emblematic approach to the repression of omnipresent patriarchal standards of Victorian Society. Portrayed as the ‘truest and darkest double’ (360) to the novel’s protagonist, Bertha becomes a manifestation the thoughts and feelings that Jane feels she must subdue.
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Gilbert and Gubar focus on Bertha’s involvement in - and subsequent impeding of - the relationship between Jane and Edward Rochester. Bertha becomes a physical manifestation of Jane’s unexpressed anxieties around the impending marriage and the submission that should ensue as ‘the image of Bertha in a “white and straight dress”’ (360) appears before her. Likewise, Jane’s wish to be free of the servitude that she experiences at Thornfield, particularly Rochester’s mastery over her; is acted out as Bertha burns down the house, destroying herself in the process. The destruction of Bertha alongside Thornfield Hall symbolises Jane’s liberation from her ‘dark double’ that came into existence through her submission at
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