indies

I just read a big chunk of the novel last night and a lot was revealed. Jane's wedding was halted by a certain Biggs, and Mr. Mason exposes Rochester's dark secret: Bertha Mason. Jane picks up and leaves Mr. Rochester lying on his face. All of this however, was heavily preceded by many signs and clues. First, earlier there is the split of the tree, the relationship, accompanied by the moth from the WEST INDIES. This seemingly meaningless intrusion in Ch. 23, is very relative to Jane's and Rochester's split, ultimately cause of an untimely meeting and a dark secret from the WEST INDIES. Bronte uses many signs some clear, and others hard to find. One that seemed obvious to me were the child dreams. First, it plainly states earlier in the book that Bessie said child dreams foreshadowed bad things. Then before Bertha enters the room, Jane has two distinct, very dark dreams of a child. This not only foreshadows the immediate frightening appearance of Bertha, but also the eventual intrusion at the wedding later that day. The child could be significant in other ways too, maybe it's the child that Jane and Rochester would have had were it not for his prior engagement, or even could be foreshadowing something further along in the book: Jane abandoned with a child. Purely speculation, but you never know. Similar to how I thought that Grace Poole was the "secret" all along, but in turn, she was just there to gaurd the "secret" of Bertha Mason. Also, although I may be jumping around a bit, I think Rochester was right to keep her in his own house, mental institutions were cruel and dark places in those times, the patient's rooms were basically jail cages that the public could stare into. The "hospitals" were no more than zoos where people laughed at and taunted the inhabitants. I don't think the fact that Bertha was black changes very much of the story, but is important in viewing how others viewed blacks at that time. The Masons obviously had money, and were recongized in society, but still faced some form of racisim. I think if Bertha had been paired with a counerpart "white" insane person, we would see the difference more clearly. I don't think that Jane was trying to give us a message about racism, just simply wrote from her perspective, which could be a little biased.
I am begining to enjoy this novel a little more, but it is still hard to read while you're in bed...late at night...after a long day...fighting to stay awake and underline and denote...