She Was Not Even Normal : Unreliable Narratives of Female Insanity in Jane Eyre, Rebecca, and Wide Sargasso Sea

In my thesis, I interrogate narrative reliability related to depictions of female insanity in Jane Eyre, Rebecca, and Wide Sargasso Sea. By subjecting the trustworthiness of her storytelling to criticism, especially as regards the concealed madwoman, Bertha Mason, Jane\u27s narration is revealed as unstable, offering problematic insight into a character long considered unflinchingly honest. In du Maurier\u27s later literary adaptation of Jane Eyre, Bertha\u27s parallel character, the eponymous Rebecca, comes to the fore, while the novel\u27s unnamed narrator remains in the shadows, and bases much of her storytelling upon hearsay, rather than the autobiography of Jane Eyre. The most transparent narrative voice, however, is Antoinette, the main character of Wide Sargasso Sea, the 1966 prequel to Jane Eyre. Despite her madness, Antoinette\u27s narration makes no attempt at dissemblance, speaking forthrightly about her marriage and experience, proving a truthful narrator and openly rejecting the marginal status the earlier narrators try desperately to hide