Curable or Condemned?: Madness, Race, and Moral Boundaries in Jane Eyre

This paper examines Jane Eyre through the intersecting lenses of nineteenth-century psychological theory, feminist criticism, and colonial discourse. While Charlotte Brontë’s portrayal of Jane and Bertha has often been interpreted through the framework of gothic doubling, this essay argues that their apparent similarity—especially their shared emotional volatility—is ultimately disrupted by racial and ideological hierarchies embedded in the novel. Drawing on the contemporaneous discourse of “moral insanity,” the paper explores how Jane’s fiery temperament is rendered intelligible, reformable, and ultimately rewarded, whereas Bertha’s parallel traits are pathologized, racialized, and contained. Brontë’s engagement with phrenology—particularly George Combe’s theory of inner multiplicity and self-development—provides a framework for understanding Jane’s narrative arc as one of moral growth. Bertha, by contrast, is denied psychological depth, introspection, and narrative agency. Her madness is portrayed as fixed and hereditary, tied to her ambiguous racial status as a white Creole woman. The novel thus constructs an asymmetrical dynamic: one character is cured and assimilated, while the other is excluded and extinguished. Ultimately, The novel gestures toward emotional connection between Jane and Bertha, but it ultimately reaffirms the social and racial divisions that determine which lives are granted agency, growth, and closure.