摘 要

《简爱》和《蝴蝶梦》两本书的整体架构和主要人物设定都十分相似，在女主以贫民身份嫁给身为贵族的男主角的甜蜜爱情故事下，有两位没有话语权的女性值得被分析，她们就是伯莎梅森和罗蓓卡。二人虽然身处中层阶级和上层阶级却没有幸福的婚姻，甚至有着不同程度的精神障碍。她们为了自由和自己的幸福，采取激烈的手段对男权进行了反抗。伯莎梅森用大火毁掉了囚禁她的桑菲尔德和丈夫，罗蓓卡控制住丈夫的命脉—曼德利庄园，并且公然将情人带到庄园里。本文将从精神分析的角度分析两位女性角色的婚姻观，展示19世纪和20世纪的英国社会中女性的婚姻观。她们二人的婚姻经历足以启发如今仍旧被男性歧视和压迫的女性们，公平和幸福都需要自己去争取。

关键词：精神分析理论；伯莎梅森；罗蓓卡；婚姻观

Abstract

The overall structure and main characters of the two books Jane Eyre and Rebecca are very similar. Under the sweet love story of the female lord married to the noble character as a nobleman, there are two women who have no right to speak deserving to be analyzed, they are Bertha Mason and Rebecca. Although the two are in the middle class and the upper class, they do not have a happy marriage, and even have different levels of mental disorders. For the sake of freedom and their own happiness, they take fierce measures against the male power. Bertha Mason ruins Thornfield and her husband who imprisoned her with a fire. Rebecca controls her husband's lifeline: Manderley, and publicly brings her lovers to the manor. This article will analyze the marriage views of two female characters from the perspective of psychoanalysis in order to show the views of marriage of women in British society in the 19th and 20th centuries. The marriage experience of both of them is enough to inspire women who are still discriminated and oppressed by men now. Fairness and happiness need to be won by themselves.

Key Words: psychoanalysis; Bertha Mason; Rebecca; view of marriage

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Jane Eyre and Rebecca 1

1.2 Carl Gustav Jung’s Psychoanalysis 2

1.3 Framework of the Thesis 2

2 Features of Bertha Mason’s and Rebecca’s Views of Marriage 4

2.1 Bertha Mason: Introverted maintenance 4

2.2 Rebecca: Extroverted destruction 5

2.3 Comparison of their Views of Marriage 7

3 Reasons for Bertha Mason’s and Rebecca’s Views of Marriage 9

3.1 Existence of Persona 9

3.2 Overlook of Shadow 10

3.3 Repression of Animus 11

4 Conclusion 13

References 14

Acknowledgement 16

Interpretation of Bertha Mason’s and Rebecca’s Views of Marriage with Psychoanalysis

1 Introduction

1.1 Jane Eyre and Rebecca

Rebecca tells the story of a man and two woman's two separate but intertwined misshapen marriages, in which the man's first wife Rebecca has died at the beginning of the story, but her figure has been staying in Manderley, affecting the still alive hero and heroine. Rebecca is the book's invisible heroine, the real mistress of Manderley. Every scene, word and deed of Manderley shows her sense of existence. The second wife, “I”, who lived in the shadow of Rebecca in her marriage, finally had her husband from his body to his heart after Manderley was consumed by fire.

Jane Eyre records the life of the protagonist Jane Eyre, she is strong and independent on her heart, not afraid of power, do not love money, have the correct values and love view, finally got the uncle's heritage and married with the beloved man, can say that her life although bumpy but also successful. However, another woman in the book who does not give much attention is the opposite of Jane Eyre. Bertha Mason, the first wife of Rochester, was born in a rich farmer's family and grew up happily until her married age was married by her father to the Rochester family. A marriage without love is doomed to not last long, but for the sake of the family, Bertha Mason must endure inner torment, she knows clearly that she and Rochester are not in love. So she is imprisoned in the dark attic, in the name of madness, and the people outside do not even know that Rochester has such a mad wife. After many fruitless resistances, she had to take the way of mutual destruction, with a fire to end their own lives, the destruction of her physical and mental captivity of Thornfield.

1.2 Carl Gustav Jung’s Psychoanalysis

As the core theory of Jung, personality mass theory takes the mind as the research object and holds that the mind or personality structure of a person is a whole, which is composed of consciousness, individual subconscious and collective subconscious. Consciousness, at the very top, is the part that is perceived; The individual subconscious in the second layer, including all forgotten memories, perception and repressed experience; The collective subconscious is at the lowest level, including the genetic traces of the patterns of activity and the inventories of experience in the structure of the human brain from generation to generation. It is also called prototype, including four main types: Persona: the outer layer of a person's personality that conceals his or her true self, always acting according to the expectations of others and not in accordance with his or her true personality. Anima: any of the basic feminine qualities or traits found in a man. When Anima is highly concentrated, it can make a man easily agitated, depressed, etc. Animus: a basic male trait found in women. When animus is highly concentrated, it makes women aggressive, power-seeking, etc. Shadow: the innermost layer of personality, the lower racial inheritance of bestiality, similar to Freud's "id".

In addition, Jung divided people's attitude into two types: introversion and extroversion. Introverted people tend to have internal mental energy, which is conducive to inner experience and fantasy. They are far away from the external world and interested in the essence of things and the results of activities. Extroverted people tend to have external mental energy and tend to be objective. They are sociable and interested in various concrete things in the external world.

1.3 Framework of the Thesis

The paper utilizes Jung’s psychoanalytic theory as the rational support to analyze Bertha Mason and Rebecca’s views of marriage. Based on psychoanalysis, the body of the paper will be divided into 3 parts. In the first chapter, it introduces the main information in Jane Eyre and Rebecca, explains Carl Gustav Jung’s Psychoanalysis and makes literature review. Then in the second chapter, it analyzes Bertha Mason’s and Rebecca’s views of marriage as well as their similarities and differences. In the third chapter, the paper illustrates why Bertha Mason and Rebecca would form their views of marriage. After comparing the two woman's attitudes towards unfair marriage in the book and observing woman's views on marriage at present, this paper is mainly to illustrate that women need equal treatment, women also have the right to pursue their happy life.

2 Features of Bertha Mason’s and Rebecca’s Views of Marriage

2.1 Bertha Mason: Introverted maintenance

Bertha Mason's view of marriage: marriage is based on money and lust. She married a gentleman of a rich family like her, though she had not known him well. She is only a puppet in the marriage role, no independent choice, what she can do is to follow the orders of his father and brother, and sacrifice her own marriage for the family interests. She is very similar to the ancient Chinese women, before marriage age, she stayed at home and obeyed her father’s request, after the marriage, her husband became her leader. She can accept a marriage without love, but a rich life and the most basic freedom is necessary for her. That's why she fought so hard when she was locked up in the attic. According to Jung's classification of personality, Bertha mason, who has a family genetic mental disease, is an introverted person. She is prone to inner experience and fantasy, has little communication with the outside world, and strictly abides by the rules of society. Therefore, when she suffers from mental illness and captivity, she acts like an animal, using violence to stick to her heart without asking for help to other people.

In Jane Eyre, Bertha Mason is just a supporting role; she appears in the climax of the article, mainly to promote the development of love between the hero and heroine. She has no right neither opportunity to say anything to defend herself. In the book, the voice she can give out is “demoniac laugh-low, suppressed, and deep-uttered (Jane Eyre, 2001: 149)”. But that does not mean she is nobody. Through the introduction from Rochester and her own performance, it is easy to recognize that she is the representative of women in the society at that time, her view of marriage is usual.