Thursday, November 4, 2010
Young Bertha/Antoinette and Young Jane
What do these two girls have in common, even though they are brought up (almost) half a world away? How are they different? Give specific examples to illustrate your assertions. What reasons might Rhys have for writing Antoinette's (Bertha's) childhood as she does?
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They both don't understand what it means to be in a family. Jane grew up with an aunt who didn't love her and was shipped off to Lowood a girls school. Bertha grew up with a mother who seemingly didn't love her, she was very troubled and didn't have many friends, and she was also shipped away from her family to a nun's school.
ReplyDeleteYoung Bertha and Jane are both basically ignored and scorned by their families. Jane is only with the reed family because Mrs. Reed promised her late husband to care for her, and is treated horribly, and Bertha's wishes and actions are completely ignored by her mother, who doesn't notice when she goes to the river with Tia, and doesn't ask her opinion of getting remarried. however, they are also different because Bertha at least has a family and friends, whereas Jane is completely alone. i think Rhys writes Bertha's childhood the way she does to present reasons as to why she eventually goes insane. these reasons are probably that she is ignored by her mother, who already appears insane, and has gone through several struggles in the short part of the book we've read. her father is gone, she's treated like nothing, her friend tricks and steals from her- the kid's just had a bad life.
ReplyDeleteJane and Bertha both go to a boarding school that preached God. They both are scared of the people they live with. Jane is scared of John Reed and Bertha admits she is frightened by her mother. Both of them are not happy in the places they grow up and are bullied. The households they are both brought up in are wealthy, and they both find a friend in one of the servants.
ReplyDeleteJane suffers more in her boarding school than Bertha, Jane is not fed well and the teachers are strict. Bertha's boarding school is full of nice nuns, and pretty good food, she talks about the bread and butter. Jane got cold unedible food.
Rhy's reasons might be to show how Bertha suffered, and to get her reader to pity Bertha.
Jane Eyre and Antoinette are similar in their upbringings in the way that they are both pushed to side in their home lives. Jane is abused by John and the step mother favors her children and does not seem to care about Jane. In the same way Antoinette's mother favors her baby son putting Antoinette last in her care. The two girls are different because Jane was an orphan living with her aunt and cousins, while Antoinette lived with her immediate family. Rhys might have wrote Antoinette's childhood to show us how Antoinette changed throughout the years and how she slowly becomes a crazy woman in an attic.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Fytima but I also have my own comment to MAKE!!...I espouse(in my steiner voice) that Jane and Bertha is the same because they grew up in without parently figures in their lives. They kind of learned to be strong on their own. Bertha's mother was more worried about what people thought of her then to be a parent to Bertha, while Jane had no parents besides her aunt who pushed her away. They both learned to stand on their own at a young age.
ReplyDeleteIt think that the two girls both are sort of neglected as a child although young Bertha has a mother who cares for her and Young Jane has Aunt who cares for her (or so it may seem), they are both not really nurtured in a way that benefits their growth. They are different in the way of not having a father that was in the picture all the time. I think that Rhys writes of Antoinette's childhood as she does because she wants to compare how Antoinette( Bertha ) behaves when she was young and how she has changed when she is introduced to England and Rochester.
ReplyDeleteThese girls are alike because first of all the book is in first person. Also, not talking about he characters, there are parts that talk of the garden and nature, which makes me think of Jane Eyre where how the mood changed depending on what the weather was like outside.
ReplyDeleteDifferences between the two girls is that first of all even though Antionette's mom was crazy, she still had her in her life. Jane's parents died when she was young and only had her aunt to care for who was a horrible care taker. Antionette is a creole and Jane is basically a white orphan. Jane had that independent spirit in her, Antionette does not.
One similarity is that they both are lingual in the French language. They were both also ignored when they were young, no one ever listened or cared for them. Mrs. Reed never asks Jane if she wants to go to LoWood she just ships her off. For Antionette she is not asked if she wants or feels like getting married, she is just put into the situation.
The ignorance of Antionette's family and her mother being a little mad herself gives me a little foreshadowing why she went insane later in her life. Being ignored, her mother being insane, being unloved, and being forced to marry just for money.
Both young Jane and young Bertha grow up in mad households with somewhat twisted families with various issues. Young Jane had to endure the troubles of not being loved in the Gateshead home, being abused mentally and physically by the Reeds. As for Bertha, Bertha had to endure ridicule from various figures in her life. Growing up in Jamaica, Bertha had to take grief from natives because of her family being former slave owners, as well as not being loved by her own mother, who thought more about her sick brother than her. Both Jane and Bertha endured bullying as a child, and both had to live without parent figures. The difference between the two is that Jane did not have to endure problems with race, because everyone in her tale was pretty much white. Bertha, on the other hand, had to deal with the troubles of home life as well as life as a white female in a predominantly black society. Rhys writes Bertha's childhood as troubling and traumatizing to foreshadow her rise to insanity; because with all Bertha has faced so far, it is not hard to believe Bertha will be driven to madness.
ReplyDelete@ Erica Jane was not completely alone, she had Bessie and Helen and met some other girl at Lowood that was sort of like a friend
ReplyDeleteBoth Antoinette and Young Jane grew up without any kind of love in their life. They never really knew what a family was because, though they had a family, they never had the love and respect from them. Both of them were basically on their own. Both girls were shipped away to some kind of school. Though they are a lot alike, there are differences between them. Jane grew up with no parents and with just an aunt and cousins that didn't love her or treat her with any respect. Antoinette actually grew up with a mother, though she didn't love her. They both also got sent to different types of school. Jane was sent to Lowood, an all girls boarding school. Antoinette was sent to a nun's school. I think that Rhys writes Antoinette's childhood as she does to show the similarities and differences to Jane's childhood and to give us background information on her that might become useful or valuable later on in the story.
ReplyDelete@shabria-Right.
ReplyDeleteCapriece H.
ReplyDeleteThey are closer to people besides their mother. Jane is close to the maid, Bessie and bertha is close to Aunt cora. They were both raised by their aunts. they went to boarding schools with religious strict women. They are different because bertha grew up with more of a father figure than jane. Bertha have Mr.Mason and Jane have no one. The reason she writes Bertha's childhood the way she does is because she wants the reader to feel how Bertha feel and understand her point of view and what she is going through.
Bertha and Jane both go through traumatic experiences with their childhood. They go to boarding schools that has to do with religion. Well Bertha has a brother who is mentally challenged but Jane has no family what so ever. They also seem to have the same experience with supposed "mother figures." Jane has a very mean mother. But Bertha had to deal with her mother that later turned out no disregard her and turn in to a mentally unstable woman. I believe that Rhys writes her life like this because she wants to compare who Rochester married to the woman Rochester was in love with and wanted to marry. They both have an equally dissatisfying life but with different painful experiences.
ReplyDelete@darius--I KNOW RIGHT
ReplyDelete@erica, you forgot to capitalize the R when you said Reed. I had to point it out (:
ReplyDelete@ Vicky I meant she was alone at Gatehead Manor not at Lowood I didn't read as far as when Bertha was sent to school
ReplyDelete@AlimahBby:)- you made a good point in the beginning sentences.
ReplyDeletethey also both got hit in the head and bled
ReplyDelete@fytima.. i agree with your comment. they both seemed disconnected from their families and often would rather spend time by themselves, bertha would eat dinner alone usually or just explore coulibri and jane would engulf herself in books as a child. twith that being said, they are also quit different. Jane was brought up in a rather wealthy household where as bertha was poor and generally stayed poor. Bertha was not a total orphan like jane aswell. i believe bertha's story was written as such simply to show her side of the story.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, Young Bertha/Antoinette and Young Jane are similiar characters most obviously because they both are "in love" with Rochester.Both Jane and Antoinette are ridiculed and they both feel unloved.Even though the two young women are brought up in different places of the world, most attributes of women are universal. The young women are both ridiculed and have a poor class status. An example of Bertha/Antoinette being ridiculed is," white cockroaches".
ReplyDeleteThe two young women differ because of the modernized version of Bertha/Antoinette, we get to see reasons why Bertha/Antoinette eventually becomes "mad" in "Jane Eyre". Also Bertha/Antoinette lives with her mother and brother when she is young(she knows who her mother and immediate family is). Jane never really has a stable home where she is loved truly.
Bertha/Antoinette lives in a society where she does not fit in with the people in Jamaica who are of African descent.
Young Antoinette and Young Jane both have in common that they had rough childhoods. Antoinette though she had a mother, unlike Jane she was still very alone in life because her mother often didn't want her daughter to be around usually telling her "let me alone". Also Antoinette's mother was crazy hence the reason she talked to herself, and the family grew up very poor and without a father. Since Antoinette is white and very poor she is often reffered to as a white cockroach. She is treated even worse than the former slaves who are still known as niggers. All of these factors added up together equal a very rough childhood. Jane Eyre is similar to Antoinette because she too has had a rough childhood. Jane grew up with a family who despised her and treated her the way most people treat "white cockroaches" in the Carribean. Jane also has only one friend just like Antoinette does as a child. But Jane is also very different from Antoinette because Jane lives a more harsh life than Antoinette because Janes best friend dies and she has no real family to grow up with unlike Anotoinete.
ReplyDeleteJane and Bertha both were brought up in homes where little attention was payed to them and they had to understand things on their own. They were both also in boarding schools, however Bertha's experience was not as tragic as Jane's. Bertha's brother is very sick and so was Jane's only friend, who eventually dies.
ReplyDeleteSomething I've noticed is the differences in social class. Antoinette seems to be dealing with a bit of racism (i.e. being called a white cockroach). In contrast Jane seems to only deal with rich vs poor. They are similar in that they are both being portrayed as social outcasts, but the reasons for this are different.
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