Caffeine Junkies

Lonnie Bradley || Samantha Calkins || Racheal Manning

Bertha Artist Statement

When writing Bertha's profile, we wanted to highlight the themes of gender and imperialism that are so prevalent in how her character was written in both Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea.

In r/unpopularopinion, Bertha is troubled by the captivity of zoo animals. Stripped of their natural habitat and placed into enclosures for humans to gawk at, it’s little wonder Bertha sees herself in these zoo animals. This parallel between Bertha and animals was inspired most notably by her characterization in chapter 26 of Jane Eyre, when Rochester takes Jane to meet Bertha, and we see Bertha through Jane’s eyes: “Whether it was beast or human being, one could not, at first sight, tell. It groveled, seemingly, on all fours; it snatched and growled like a wild animal” (Bronte, 246). Jane Eyre, written by a white English woman and from the POV of a white English woman, is underlaid with the imperialist idea that foreigners with darker skin are savages. The words dark, black, and purple are used repeatedly to describe Bertha throughout Jane Eyre. They are meant to illustrate her beastliness, her subhumanity; her skin is not white enough and her heritage isn’t English enough to qualify as properly human. When writing this post, we also wanted to show how Bertha might have compared herself to animals, but not in a degrading manner. Rather, she sympathizes with their captivity and fear. She notes that the behavior of captive animals is different from that of animals in the wild. She too behaves differently when she’s trapped in a marriage with a man who despises her, in a cold and foreign land, stating in her post, “Imagine living your life free in the beauty of nature, and then one day being whisked off to be trapped in a foreign land with nothing that gives you joy or excitement”. Like the animals who gnaw at the bars and pull out their own hair, Bertha tries to cope with her changed reality in seemingly destructive ways.

The thread r/RelationshipAdvice reveals details about Bertha and Rochester’s troubled marriage. The goal of this post is to reveal how isolated Bertha is from her former life in Jamaica and how vulnerable she is regarding the power dynamic of the marriage. Rochester is manipulative and doesn’t care for her happiness or well-being; he’s taken her to a foreign land, taken her money, and seems intent on keeping her isolated. The power dynamics of gender are at play here: the man must be the one in control, and Rochester is bent on making it so. Rochester’s manipulative nature is shown all throughout Jane Eyre, particularly in the scene where he gaslights Jane after she saw Bertha rip her veil: “‘Now, Janet, I’ll explain it all to you. It was half dream, half reality….figments of imagination, result of a nightmare’” (Bronte, 240). In our post, his manipulation is especially emphasized when Bertha mentions how he twisted the marriage counselor’s words for his own agenda to move Bertha to the attic. Gendered power dynamics are also challenged on behalf of Bertha— she is the one bringing money into the marriage, whereas in Charlotte Bronte’s time leading up to now, it’s more socially accepted that the man in the family to be the “breadwinner”. In reality, Rochester married Bertha to elevate his social status and wealth, making love even less of an incentive for their relationship. We also wanted to hint at how Bertha’s upbringing and social conditioning as a woman may have made her more vulnerable to Rochester’s actions. In Wide Sargasso Sea, Bertha was under very high pressure to marry Rochester as soon as possible. We referenced that in one of the first sentences in the post: “I was taught growing up that marrying is a woman’s highest duty.” In addition to this, we wanted to show how Bertha immediately thinks it's her own failing that causes Rochester to not love her anymore. She laments, “...my manner is so different from an English girl that I can’t measure up now that we’re back in England.” This thinking is also present within Wide Sargasso Sea, where Bertha begs Christophine to make her a love potion so that Rochester will love her again (Rhys, 68) Both themes of gender and imperialism are at play here. Bertha is aware that her Creole background means that she will never fully measure up as a “proper English lady”; at the same time, she senses that her duty as a woman is to make her husband love her.

Bertha’s thread r/AmITheAsshole hones in on the themes of gender and imperialism in regards to showing anger. The post is a play on the scene in which Rochester brings Jane and a few others to meet Bertha Mason to prove that his previous marriage wasn’t functional, and Bertha proceeds to attack him: “ the lunatic sprang and grappled his throat viciously, and laid her teeth to his cheek” (Bronte, 247). In the post, Bertha states that she and Rochester have been separated for fifteen years (Mr. Mason states on page 244 that Rochester and Bertha married fifteen years ago). Bertha is portrayed as dreamy in Wide Sargasso Sea, so in our modern-day interpretation she is a stay-at-home author who writes in her attic. In Jane Eyre, there is the feminist theme of a female protagonist with an independent spirit. Although Bertha was not allowed this characterization in Jane Eyre, we wanted to extend that theme to her in this post. She has her own source of income and doesn’t need Rochester’s favor or love anymore. Despite that, Bertha is still allowed to feel betrayed or angry. Like in Jane Eyre, when Bertha finds Jane’s wedding veil, she tries it on and then angrily ruins it. “But presently she took my veil from its place… then she threw it over her own head, and turned to the mirror,” and “ it removed my veil from its gaunt head, rent it in two parts, and flinging both on the floor, trampled on them” (Bronte, 239). Bertha’s Creole background means that she is already seen as savage; moreover, women are often called crazy whenever they show anger. Even in a circumstance where it was perfectly reasonable to be angry, Bertha is punished for it. In our post, we showed this unfairness by having Bertha ask: “My friend…told me I overreacted. AITA?” 

Blanche Artist Statement

For Blanche's r/changemyview thread, we focused on the exchange between Blanche, her mother, and Rochester concerning governesses in chapter seventeen. In order to make a jab at Jane, Blanche suggests that Rochester should send Adele to school, but he replies that he could not afford it. Blanche retorts that governesses are also expensive, saying that Rochester never considers “economy and common sense”, then recounts her experiences with governess and how they were all awful “incubi” (Bronte, 149). We linked this to public universities with pricey tuition for subpar education and professors as a modern day equivalent. In the chapter, Blanche talks extensively about the pranks she and her brother would play on the governesses to “turn the tables” for sport (Bronte, 149). The closest sort of pranks we could think of that students might play on their professors (and one that could make evident that Blanche was not making the most of her education, perhaps leading to her view) was to use ChatGPT for her papers in order to “test” their quality as a professor. Because Blanche is well educated and advocated for a more expensive form of education for Adele, we figured she was still pro-higher education, but of a different, “higher quality” sort, which we connected to ivy league schools.

The second post, r/AITA, focuses on the nature of her and Rochester’s relationship. In particular, it plays with the events of Chapter 19, in which a fortune teller, later revealed to be Rochester in disguise, tells Blanche that Rochester is not as wealthy as he seems. Blanche is devastated by this, put in a “prolonged fit of gloom and taciturnity” (Bronte, 225). Later, the expected engagement between the two is broken off entirely, in favor of Rochester marrying Jane. In this post, we decided to modernize the fortune teller by linking the idea to a witch on Etsy, telling Blanche about Rochester’s wealth by responding to her questions online. This kept the element of Blanche hearing it through what she perceives to be mystical means, while also keeping it inside of Rochester’s home, still hosting Blanche and others at a party. We frequently make reference to Rochester’s wealth throughout the post, setting it up as the primary reason Blanche was involved with Rochester in the first place. We decided that contacting the Etsy witch would be Rochester’s idea, in order to directly connect him to the response, and to hint at Rochester himself being the Etsy witch, just as he disguised himself as the fortune teller. As Blanche explains how they broke up after the fact, she mentions in the post that she can’t afford to waste her time with people who lie about their wealth like Rochester. While this references her intent of using him for his fortune, it also gives a nod to the pressure Blanche would have been under at the time of the novel. When her character is first mentioned to Jane, Mrs. Fairfax mentions how neither she nor her sister have large fortunes, and how her father’s estates were “chiefly entailed,” with her brother taking nearly everything (Bronte, 185). This means that, whether Blanche is eager to find a wealthy husband or not, there are not many other options for her. She is acting in accordance to the gender roles and limitations of her time, gaining capital in the only way she knows how—through the men around her.

The third post in r/unpopularopinion expands on Blanche’s opinions on this. This one draws from both her motivation to marry Rochester and secure his fortune, and also from a conversation she has at Rochester’s estate in Chapter 17. Blanche, in an effort to win Rochester’s approval, complains about the men of her generation, admonishing them for their vanity, putting their physical appearance over values such as physical strength and athleticism. She resolves that her husband will not compete with her, but be a “foil” (Bronte, 208). We linked this to modern day dating culture, with Blanche upset and dejected at the men she meets who desire to split costs and finances from the first date. Her points center around an idea of tradition and adhering to gender roles and stereotypes, and we thought that this could translate into the traditional idea of men being the provider in the relationship. Blanche, meanwhile, places her own role within the value of beauty and providing support to her husband. She lists beauty as a woman’s greatest value—”her legitimate appanage and heritage” (Bronte, 208). We tried to link that idea of value to Blanche’s argument in her post, saying: “You have to be someone worthy of admiring in order to be admired.” Her desire for wealth and the way she legitimizes it is rooted in these inherently misogynistic values, ones that incentivise her to go after Rochester in the novel, and that continue to act as a motive within her posts.