Jane Eyre
Bertha Mason
The hidden wife
Rochester's wife, kept in the attic at Thornfield Hall, whose presence haunts the house.
Bertha Mason is the secret at the center of Thornfield. She is Rochester's wife and the sister of Richard Mason, and she lives locked in a padded room on the third floor under the watch of Grace Poole. Her wild laugh, strange cries and midnight appearances are the mystery that Jane hears long before she understands.
The story shows Bertha only through the horror she causes: a fire in Rochester's bed, a bite on her brother's arm, a torn bridal veil. Rochester calls her wife and calls her mad, and in this adaptation she is violent, uncontrolled and entirely shut away from everyday life. The reader sees mostly fear and little of who she was.
In the story
Contains spoilers.
Bertha is behind the strange laugh and the night fire that Jane puts out, a deed blamed on Grace Poole. When her brother visits, she attacks him in the night. Two nights before the wedding, a savage figure in white enters Jane's room and tears the veil in two. At the wedding, Rochester takes the party up to the third floor and shows them his wife as she lunges at him.
After Jane leaves, Bertha sets Thornfield on fire at night. The innkeeper says she leapt from the burning roof before Rochester's eyes. Her death leaves Rochester free but ruined, and Thornfield a blackened shell.
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