"The Widow" Bertha

Looking back on everything that happened in the past ten years now, Edward Rochester only felt it was absurd.

He never thought that there would be a day when Bertha Mason was sober, and when she was sane, she returned to the way Rochester first saw her ten years ago: beautiful, bold, with a kind of wildness and arrogance that did not belong to Great Britain.This instinct from Latino blood didn't make Rochester feel amazing or different. Every time he communicated with Bertha, he only felt annoyed.

But Bertha was right about one thing.

Since their marriage had failed so badly, something had to be learned from it.Almost everything about Edward Rochester's past was based on lies, and he didn't want to, and he was tired of doing so in the future.

So he told Miss Jane Eyre everything.

During the process of Rochester's narration, she was silent from the beginning to the end. The petite girl who stood there listened carefully, her expression changing unpredictablely because of his narration.

Until the end, when Rochester's memories ended, he said in a low voice: "That's it, Miss Jane Eyre. God rarely opened his eyes and returned Bertha Mason's sanity to her. The idea of ​​feigning death to escape was initiated by her, and I will never deny that it is a good thing for her and me to completely sever the relationship."

The words fell, and the room was silent.

When Rochester thought that Jane Eyre would not respond, she said softly: "Sir, why did you tell me this?"

Rochester closed his eyes.

"As I said, I don't want people I care about to be kept in the dark." He seemed to want to maintain his calm, but Rochester's tone betrayed him, "Miss Jane Eyre, after telling my experience, you Do you have any thoughts?"

"If you didn't hide it, then I think you and Mrs. Bertha are poor people who have been tricked."

"poor guy!"

Rochester smiled self-deprecatingly: "I am so rich that I would be considered pitiful by a tutor without father or mother. Miss Jane Eyre, do you think I, a poor man, deserve to start a new life?"

"That's why," whispered Miss Jane Eyre, "and therefore you have been concealing the fact that you were married. The rest of Thornfield Hall feel that you should find a suitable lady to marry."

"So you, like everyone else in Thornfield Manor, also think that I should choose a suitable lady and walk into the palace of marriage together."

"I, like the rest of the manor, once thought that Miss Ingram was the object of your fancy."

"I do have someone I like."

"I'm sorry that this happened."

"Don't be sorry, it's not Miss Ingram that I'm interested in."

"Not Miss Ingram, and which lady is so lucky?"

"It's you."

"..."

"Miss Jane Eyre, I am telling you all this because the woman I am in love with is you. Now that I have this opportunity to start a new life, I hope that the bride who walks into the church with me is you."

"...sorry, sir."

Jane Eyre could hardly contain her emotions.

It should be a beautiful thing to be happy for someone who admires to show his heart.But Jane did not show any positive emotions after hearing this.She stood there for a long time, her originally pale face turned bloodless due to excitement: "Forgive me for not being able to promise you."

Rochester laughed desolately: "Ha, because a young lady is destined not to fall in love with a man with my appearance and personality, is she?"

"No, sir."

At this moment, Jane's mind was very clear. She was very excited, but Jane could even catch all the traces of her emotions and thinking changes.The tutor, who always liked to hide his emotions with avoiding eyes, somehow got the courage to raise his head and look directly at the face of his sweetheart.

"Because I love you," she said.

Rochester froze in place suddenly.

Jane: "Because I love you, I can't forgive myself for falling in love with a man who has a wife, and I can't forgive you for hiding it from everyone for so long. If Mrs. Bertha hadn't recovered her senses, wouldn't you want me to be a wife?" Are you a criminal who committed bigamy? You have a family, and I can't agree to your request."

"what!"

Rochester seemed to be irritated by Jane Eyre's words, he stood there, clenched his fists, trying to maintain his emotions by pacing, but he felt that it was not the case when he took a step.

The gentleman with the figure of an athlete is at a loss and angry at this moment, like a young boy with no experience.

"I have been punished for ten years," he said bitterly. "Isn't that enough? From now on, Bertha is no longer Bertha. She can pursue everything she wants without any burden. Do I have to continue to sit where I am?" , to bear this suffering that should have ended long ago!"

Jane Eyre did not speak.

She didn't know how to speak, and a young girl would never have more life experience than Rochester.Reason told Jane that Bertha's offer to escape by feigning death by setting fire to the manor was already the most appropriate and least harmful solution.

But emotionally, how can she accept the fact that her sweetheart's wife is still alive with peace of mind?

Even though his wife was Bertha!

There was no reason for Rochester's anger, but at the same time Jane was also very angry, she didn't even know why she was angry—for Bertha's experience in the past ten years?But Mr. Rochester also had no choice.Suffering such deception for the man she loves?But he was the one who imprisoned Bertha in the attic for ten years. Would he do the same to himself if he suffered from the same disease?

Jane is even more angry at her own powerlessness. Although she knows that everyone is already doing their best so as not to affect the future life, Jane feels that things should not be like this, and it is wrong to end up like this!

But what should it be like?

Jane, who lived in the nineteenth century, had never thought about the possibility of a free divorce. Such a concept did not exist in her mind.Jane noticed such injustice but couldn't find any ideas. All she could do was shake her head again and again.

Jane didn't think that she could continue to remain calm in front of Rochester, and she didn't think that she could continue to stay in Thornfield Manor.

"Sorry, sir," she repeated her response again, "forgive me for not promising you, this result is wrong."

After she finished speaking, she retreated to the door as if she was fleeing, and turned and left without moving her head.Rochester was left alone in the empty room, alone.

It was at this time that Bertha ran into Jane Eyre.

She had a "narrow encounter" with a hurrying girl in the corridor, and if Bertha hadn't stopped first, the two would have knocked each other down.However, Jane was really not in the mood to talk to Bertha. She just suppressed her intense emotions, simply nodded to Bertha, called "Ma'am" and left directly.

Bertha: "...?"

What's happening here?

Turning her head to watch Miss Jane Eyre disappear in the corridor, Bertha opened the door and walked into the living room in a daze. What she saw was Edward Rochester's face as black as a pan.

Oh……

This is a failed confession.

Wait, how come?

Rao Bertha was stunned: Even though "Jane Eyre" is not as widely discussed among the public as other romance novels, no one would question the love between Rochester and Jane Eyre.The two of them are undoubtedly in love with each other, and now the truth is revealed, how can they still fail in their confession?

"Edward?" Bertha asked tentatively.

"...I'm fine."

What responded to her was Rochester's blunt tone, the man really wanted to use all his strength to maintain his sanity: "What do you want me for?"

Seeing Rochester's appearance, Bertha almost felt sorry for him.

Think carefully about the ending of the original "Jane Eyre"... When Miss Jane Eyre accepted Rochester, his manor was destroyed, because of a fire in Bertha, not to mention his blindness and disability, he was no longer the same place. The able-bodied man in the position of controller and Miss Jane Eyre, who has an inheritance of [-] pounds as a dowry, are no longer the unequal relationship between the head of the house and the tutor.

But now, Edward Rochester is still rich and healthy, Jane Eyre is still the tutor who was born as an orphan, and even his sweetheart's wife is alive and kicking.For a young nineteenth-century woman, Rochester's confession can only bring pain.

This is a bit of a pity, obviously such a regretful ending can be avoided.

Bertha muttered something in her heart, but...she didn't think it had anything to do with her.

You can't just hide in the attic and wait to die just because of someone else's marriage, right?If she had a chance to help in the future, Bertha would still be willing to help, but it was impossible for her to die.

"It's nothing."

Therefore, Bertha didn't ask too much about what happened just now, and put on a tone of indifference: "I just want to ask, when do you plan to set the fire?"

Rochester: "Colonel Dent thinks it should be done as soon as possible, either today or tomorrow. Do you have any other ideas?"

"Indeed."

Bertha nodded: "I want to burn Thornfield myself."

——Arson, of course, needs to be done professionally!

More importantly, Bertha wanted to end everything that had happened in the past ten years with her own hands.

The author has something to say: ① The theory comes from the part about "Jane Eyre" in "The Madwoman in the Attic-Female Writers and the Literary Imagination of the 19th Century": "Beginning with Richard Chase, many critics have regarded Rochester as sees his disability as a 'symbolic castration', a punishment for his early debauchery, a way of expressing Charlotte Bronte's (and Jane's) fear of male sexuality. heart, and can therefore only conceive the signs of a marriage with the weakened Samson."

Jiang Hua also believes that the decisive reason for whether Jane Eyre and Rochester can get together does not lie in the superficial sympathy and the existence of Bertha. There is an age that is almost insurmountable between the hero and heroine in Jane Eyre The class gap, and the portrayal of Jane Eyre being "admonished" from a prickly little girl to become a qualified governess, leaving angrily and finally returning also has its own integrity.So Jane and Rochester will definitely be together in the end. They are a natural couple, but it will not be that simple. Jane is such a good girl, so she should see the wider sky as she wishes, and then make her own life choices!

Rochester: [walks in with an oversized banner]

Bertha:? ? ? ?What are you doing?

Rochester: Congratulations on Miss Marple's departure from Thornfield Manor.

Bertha: ... =. =