"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's narration is revealed as unstable, offering problematic insight into a character long considered unflinchingly honest. In du Maurier's later literary adaptation of Jane Eyre, Bertha's parallel character, the eponymous Rebecca, comes to the fore, while the novel's 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's 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.

Rebecca

http://commons.clarku.edu/vpadrl/1053/thumbnail.jpg

Rebecca oder das jüdische Weib in ihrem religiösen Berufe : eine Federzeichnung

von Abraham Levi

Portraitbüste Agnes Sorma [Illustration]

Max Levi

Agnes Smedley: Eine Frau allein [Rezension]

N. H.

Na 50 Nachlass Arthur Schopenhauer - 'Schopenhauer-Archiv', 496 - Mietvertrag zwischen Arthur Schopenhauer und Rebecca Dorothea Kayßer

abgedruckt in: Schopenhauer-Jahrbuch 32 (1945/48), S 155-156

Agnes Resener, Brustbild

Signatur des Originals: S 36/F01607

Charlotte Wolter als Agnes Bernauer, Rollenbild, in: Melchior Meyr: Herzog Albrecht, Wien : Burgtheater

Signatur des Originals: S 36/F02198

Charlotte Wolter als Agnes Bernauer, Rollenbild, in: Friedrich Hebbel: Agnes Bernauer, Wien: Burgtheater

Signatur des Originals: S 36/F02208

Agnes Zimmermann, Brustbild

Signatur des Originals: S 36/F02255

Agnes Nicholls, Brustbild

Signatur des Originals: S 36/F05582

Agnes Nicholls, Brustbild

Signatur des Originals: S 36/F05583

Agnes Sorma als Nora, Rollenbild, Brustbild, in: Henrik Ibsen: Nora oder ein Puppenheim

Signatur des Originals: S 36/F06629