Representation of the Uncontrolled Body

A Spanish new paper just published:

Bertha Mason: representación del cuerpo femenino descontrolado en Jane Eyre de Charlotte Brontë
Inmaculada Caro Rodríguez

Revista Internacional De Culturas Y Literaturas, (28), 119–132 (2025)

The figure of Bertha Mason serves as a powerful embodiment of the uncontrolled female body perceived as a threat in Victorian society, as depicted in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. Through Bertha’s characterization, Brontë explores the anxieties of the time regarding women’s independence. Bertha is portrayed as exotic and uncontrollable, reflecting Victorian social concerns. Her apparent madness turns her into a danger that must be confined, symbolized by her imprisonment in the attic of Thornfield Hall. This physical confinement serves as a metaphor for the social and psychological repression imposed

on women. In contrast, the protagonist Jane Eyre represents the Victorian ideal of selfdiscipline and bodily control. Bertha’s tragic fate, culminating in her possible suicide and the destruction of Thornfield, constitues both ambiguous liberation and the elimination of a threat. The analysis of these characters aims to examine the struggle for female emancipation within the restrictive norms of their time, with the intention of uncovering the dynamicsç of power and control in Victorian literature, taking into account Foucault’s approach to social control.