Jane Eyre was written in 1847 by Charlotte Brontë; set in 19th century Victorian England following the titular character Jane Eyre as she goes through her life from an orphaned childhood to adulthood full of love. Brontë wrote Jane Eyre as a gothic romance wherein Jane Eyre meets a man in her adulthood with whom she falls in love as she works as a governess for his illegitimate daughter, Adèle. But as the tale unfolds we see many different events happen with increasing undertones of horror as many things stop the couple from marrying, like Bertha Mason, his “mad” wife. Brontë’s novel has inspired many other iterations like Within These Wicked Walls by Lauren Blackwood and Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, but these iterations focused more exclusively on the horror or supernatural elements within the original novel over the romance, but when looking up Jane Eyre analyses, the horror elements are greatly under-examined.
The Oxford Dictionary defines horror as “a painful emotion compounded of loathing and fear; a shuddering with terror and repugnance; strong aversion mingled with dread; the feeling excited by something shocking or frightful. Also in weaker sense, intense dislike or repugnance” (OED), while the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines it as, “painful and intense fear, dread, or dismay”, “intense aversion or repugnance” or “the quality of inspiring horror : repulsive, horrible, or dismal quality or character” (Merriam-Webster). But how is this tied to the novel Jane Eyre?
A few of the horror elements are seen in the characters Mr. Rochester, the first wife, and the own personal turmoil that Jane Eyre struggles with throughout the novel. Mr. Rochester is around 20 years Jane’s senior and is keeping many secrets from her, including the existence of his wife. During the time of which this novel was written, this age gap and the reason for his wife’s captivity are not as unusual for the time as they would be now, as some of the other options would have been institutions (which were dangerous and horrible at the time) and the audience was meant to sympathize with Mr. Rochester, as was Jane. But his acts were still deplorable and repugnant, leaving Jane no longer able to marry this man as he is already married, which, in itself, is a horrifying realization for a young 19 year old girl who wants nothing more than to marry the love of her life. The marriage and secrets are amplified in the other iterations of Jane Eyre by adding more horrifying twists to the characters. In Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, Maxim de Winter is a widowed man due to his first wife dying due to a boat “accident.” Maxim is still 20 years the senior of our main character while also hiding a secret: he killed his wife. Both characters are cold and calculated with how they treat their supposed loves and treat them as though they are only decorations, even as they pursue them, hiding their first wives away with embarrassment. With a clear difference in Within These Wicked Walls by Lauren Blackwood’s main male love interest; Magnus Rochester is kinder and closer to the main character’s (Andromeda) age. The domineering nature from the original Mr. Rochester is put into Andromeda’s mentor, Jember. He is abusive and cold towards the girl he raised.
Next, the first wife or “the mad woman in the attic” is seen in all three novels in different ways. In Jane Eyre, Bronte has Bertha Mason haunting the house. Jane hears the laughter she gives when speaking to another worker in the house, Grace Poole. Jane describes Bertha as terrifying and compares her to a vampire often because of what she looks like and does. Bertha is terrifying to Jane and haunts and stalks her throughout the novel as even being in her room one night, not doing anything but staring at her in an almost Edward Cullen from Twilight kind of way; continuing the vampiric mannerisms she has. While Rebecca is haunted by Maxim’s first wife, Rebecca. She haunts both Maxim and the FMC throughout the novel in different ways, mostly tormenting Maxim mentally as he deals with the idea of his haunting and fear of being found out to be her killer. The only difference is, again, in Within These Wicked Walls where the “mad woman” is the Evil Eye, a curse, actual supernatural occurrences that are attached to Magnus and his house.
Lastly, the inner turmoil that Jane deals with is a different set of psychological monsters. All three female protagonists deal with their inner confidence and independence from those they depend on and feeling as though they are not good enough for love or the good things they receive. While this is not a stereotypical kind of horror characteristic, it is a realistic, psychological horror that breaks the reader from the figurative or literal supernatural happenings and they relate with the main heroine in a way that shows the horrifying real world they were trying to escape from by reading the novel. Their own struggles with their looks, past traumas, and current wanting to be loved but not feeling as though they deserve it.
But if these elements can be seen by modern authors attempting to adapt Bronte’s original 19th century gothic romance, why is there little to no discourse on the matter? When looking for any discourse on the subject of horror within the novel Jane Eyre, not much pops up unless it also involves another novel. Adrienne E. Gavin speaks about a different descendant of Jane Eyre in her article “‘deepen[ing] the power and horror of the original’: Caroline Clive’s Paul Ferroll as Descendant of Jane Eyre”. Gavin talks about Caroline Clive’s Paul Ferroll and how Clive took already horrific characteristics and amplified them. Gavin states that, “After a few years, each man takes dramatic action to rid himself of his unloved wife. Rochester by keeping Bertha secretly locked up as a madwoman in a third-storey room and Ferroll, ‘deepen[ing] the power and horror of the original,’ by actually killing his first wife Anne as she sleeps” (Gavin, 36). She continues speaking on the fact that Rochester and Ferroll are both cruel and calculating when it comes to how they treat their second wives, “Rochester and Ferroll are prepared to dishonour themselves and their second wives for love. This might be seen as nobly putting true love above all else were it not for the cruel streaks in their natures that see them using their positions of power to test their lovers’ feelings in heartless and selfish ways” (Gavin, 39). Confirming the idea that Rochester is, in a sense, a horror character and this is ignored by the fact that the audience is seeing him through the eyes of the young and naive main character.
The audience can be a lot like the main character, Jane, because, like her, they want to ignore the red flags and finally have someone who wants to love them as well, even if they are keeping live women or skeletons in their attics. The ultimate fear is that, if they leave that one man, no one else will love them. Especially those like Jane where they have no family or friends to turn to if anything were to south. While also believing that their history and childhood was much worse than any future that they can gain from the man.
Works Cited
Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Smith, Elder & Co, 1847.
Blackwood, Lauren. Within These Wicked Walls. Wednesday Books, 2021.
Du Maurier, Daphne. Rebecca. Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1938.
Gavin, Adrienne E. “‘Deepen[Ing] the Power and Horror of the Original’: Caroline Clive’s Paul Ferroll as Descendant of Jane Eyre.” LISA, vol. VII – n°4, no. Vol. VII – n°4, 2009, pp. 64–86, https://doi.org/10.4000/lisa.839
Edited by Lilli Eve
 | A guest post by
|