One of the things that seemed interesting to me throughout the book was the comparison of Jane and Bertha. At the very beginning of the book Jane is abandoned by her family, she is placed with Mrs. Reed, despite the fact that Mrs. Reed wants nothing to do with her. Jane is tortured, forced into exile and her family does everything they can to ignore her. Bertha experiences a very similar situation, her family is aware that she is insane yet they jump at the chance to trick Mr. Rochester into marrying her. She is left with a man unaware of her condition. While living with Mr. Rochester Bertha is trapped away in her room, guarded, she isn't allowed to leave her room and Mr. Rochester does everything he can to keep her existence unknown to everyone. Both Bertha and Jane have very little control of their situation, Jane is too young to take matters into her own hands and Bertha is mentally unstable. As the book develops we begin to read about scenes that mirror in both Bertha and Jane's life.

When Jane is sent to her room at Gateshead she is shut away, alone in a room surrounded with red walls. She wakes up terrified and trapped, Mrs. Reed does all she can to ignore it, immediately warning her children to stay away from Jane. When Jane moves to Thornfield a situation unsettlingly familiar occurs. Jane is in her room when she smells smoke, she walks into Mr. Rochester's room to find that he is surrounded by flames. I feel that the flames are a symbol reflecting the red walls, Bertha is expressing how she is trapped just as Jane was. In the morning Rochester acts as if nothing happened he doesn't mention Bertha to anyone and she is ignored no one other than Grace Poole and Rochester are even aware of her existence.

Although Bronte definitely forces you to see the symmetry in their living conditions she also does a very good job of separating the characters. Bronte keeps Jane simple, and plain she lacks passion and controls her temper extremely well. In the scene when we are first introduced to Bertha she is dehumanized. Charlotte Bronte describes her as a monster, a type of creature rather than an actual human. As the reader we notice that Bertha is full of passion and anger, she doesn't apperciate being locked away and kept secret. Bertha is constantly escaping from her room and wrecking havoc, Jane on the other hand didn't mind keeping a low profile. During one of Rochester's party Jane does everything she can to go unnoticed.

I think that Bronte did an amazing job developing two women in Rochester's life that were neither too similar or too different. I was interesting to experience the characters in situations close to one another and read about the different outcomes. In my essay I feel that I could elaborate on the characters Bronte describes.