{"id":221,"date":"2017-03-07T05:55:34","date_gmt":"2017-03-07T05:55:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/?p=221"},"modified":"2020-08-31T20:39:01","modified_gmt":"2020-08-31T20:39:01","slug":"bertha-is-not-his-equal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/2017\/03\/07\/bertha-is-not-his-equal\/","title":{"rendered":"Race, Gender and a Repulsive Rochester"},"content":{"rendered":"

On page 214 Mr. Rochester says \u201cCome, be silent, Richard, and never mind her gibberish: don\u2019t repeat it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Previously in the novel, Bertha bite Mr. Mason so hard that Rochester had to tell Jane about\u00a0<\/span>Bertha and call in a surgeon. In this quote, Rochester is on edge, not because\u00a0<\/span>of what had happened but because he didn\u2019t want people finding out about\u00a0<\/span>Bertha. His main concern was not protecting her but was protecting himself from\u00a0<\/span>criticism and judgement. This is interpreted because of the language that\u00a0<\/span>Rochester uses in the quote: \u201cbe silent and don\u2019t repeat it.\u201d These phrases are\u00a0<\/span>derogatory towards Bertha and her condition because Rochester is not allowing\u00a0<\/span>her to get the proper treatment that she needs. Instead of putting her in a\u00a0<\/span>mental institution that could help her, he is locking her away upstairs. This\u00a0<\/span>is not acceptable because it is the nineteenth century and it is no longer\u00a0<\/span>acceptable for the mentally ill to be treated from home. He is making Bertha\u00a0<\/span>seem like a rabid animal instead of showing concern for his wife. I say this\u00a0<\/span>because Bertha vigorously bit Mr. Mason and left him to cry out for help. This\u00a0<\/span>ties into the idea that Rochester is not as good of a character as I thought he\u00a0<\/span>was. He locked up his mentally ill spouse in the attic, not for her own good<\/span>
\n<\/span>but for his own personal benefit of keeping her a secret. I think this because<\/span>
\n<\/span>from a new historicist approach we know that the public during this time period<\/span>
\n<\/span>was aware that treatment from home was not acceptable.<\/span><\/p>\n

The semicolon in the sentence draws attention to the phrase \u201cdon\u2019t repeat it.\u201d The emphasis\u00a0<\/span>on this phrase proves that Rochester just wants the situation to disappear. He\u00a0<\/span>is neglecting the fact that Bertha needs his help, not his \u201chospitality.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>Rochester cannot come to terms with the fact that Bertha is his spouse and even\u00a0<\/span>though Bertha has a mental illness he still cannot respect her. In the middle\u00a0<\/span>of the quote the phrasing becomes even more fragmented and disjointed, \u201cand\u00a0<\/span>never mind her gibberish.\u201d The \u201cand\u201d in the beginning of the fragment makes me\u00a0<\/span>think that Rochester is using an aggravated and annoyed tone in his voice. This\u00a0<\/span>is important because it shows how little Rochester appreciates what Bertha has\u00a0<\/span>to say. It also brings in the idea that Bertha is indeed from a different\u00a0<\/span>country and has a different complexion than Rochester. This means that Bertha\u00a0<\/span>actually may not be speaking gibberish but Rochester thinks it is because she\u00a0<\/span>is of a different race. The race factor emphasizes that Rochester does not\u00a0<\/span>respect Bertha for more than one reason, it could be because of her race,\u00a0<\/span>because of post colonialism or because she is a woman. This is important to the\u00a0<\/span>entirety of the woman because it shows race and gender affected the way one was\u00a0<\/span>treated.<\/span><\/p>\n

This quote paints Rochester in a different light, he is no longer considered a<\/span>
\n<\/span>victim but rather someone who is focused on protecting himself. He is belittling<\/span>
\n<\/span>towards Bertha because he thinks he is better than her since he is from the<\/span>
\n<\/span>United Kingdom, because he has a fair complexion and because he is a man.<\/span>
\n<\/span>Rochester is not the character I had hoped he would be instead he is a little<\/span>
\n<\/span>bit racist and a little bit sexist. The most important thing is that because<\/span>
\n<\/span>Rochester is a wealthy man of light skin, he is easily able to get away with<\/span>
\n<\/span>locking a colored woman upstairs in his attic.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On page 214 Mr. Rochester says \u201cCome, be silent, Richard, and never mind her gibberish: don\u2019t repeat it.\u201d Previously in the novel, Bertha bite Mr. Mason so hard that Rochester had to tell Jane about\u00a0Bertha and call in a surgeon. In this quote, Rochester is on edge, not because\u00a0of what had happened but because he … Continue reading Race, Gender and a Repulsive Rochester<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3324,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[138876,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spring-2017","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3324"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}