Betha Mason (Character from Jane Eyre)

Bertha Mason, though a minor character in Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, played a pivotal role in the love story between Jane and Rochester. Bertha remains mysterious throughout the first half of the novel and, the times that she appears, the cryptic actions reveal her state of mind. She is the impediment to Jane and Rochester’s impending marriage and her actions later lead the two to reconcile. Bertha was a mentally impaired woman. Her …

…happy. She was retaliating for what she felt was an unjust way of life, locked up in an attic apartment. In the end however, love won out and Bertha received to the justice that her criminal and insane behavior deserved. Although it can be said that Bertha was given a bad rap and that she could not control her actions because she was mentally impaired, it is obvious that she deserved everything she was dealt.