Thanks to Patty who wrote:

I just need to chime in, being a “Jane Eyre” scholar and a big fan of Chattering Mind. Bertha Rochester, as she is named in Bronte’s novel, is indeed the “madwoman in the attic,” but as contemporary Jane Eyre scholars like myself have noted, she is silenced, suppressed, and remains the dark “other” in contrast to Jane Eyre’s Anglo “goodness.”

“Wide Sargasso Sea” is one novelist’s way to try to give voice to the supposedly “mad” woman who is suppressed so that Jane can win her man and her fortune. I do love “Jane Eyre,” but I am also very sensitive to how non-Anglo women are portrayed in 19th century novels. We can enjoy Bronte’s novel while also acknowledging the class, race and “prettiness” issues that divide the women in this novel in ways that tell us volumes about how social relationships were constructed in the Victorian age. Just some food for thought on a provocative novel that we all enjoy.