Assignment 11

Chapter 26 has finally put our curious minds to rest and informed us of the mystery surrounding Thornfield Manor. The mad woman in the attic turned out to be Bertha Mason, Rochester’s wife of 15 years. She went crazy after they were married however, and Rochester didn’t have the heart to toss her out so he kept her a secret and assigned Grace Poole to look after her 24 hours a day. The wedding ceremony was brought to an abrupt end right before vows were to take place by Bertha Mason’s brother and an acquaintance. Jane was in complete shock and was told everything about Bertha then and there, and was brought back to Thornfield to see just how crazy the woman was for herself. Up until the end of the chapter, I think Jane handled the whole situation very well and stayed levelheaded. If the same thing were to happen to me, I would have reacted much differently. I am curious as to how Bertha became so insane, as the book doesn’t mention it. She is an intriguing character that we will hopefully come to learn more about in the book. Now that Rochester’s dark secret has been revealed, I think people will begin to pity him for his unfortunate situation. I think he had many hard decisions to make and tried to do the best he could. Hopefully, he will sort things out and not further damage his and Jane’s relationship.