自十九世紀夏洛特·勃朗特的《簡·愛》首次出版以來，瘋狂一直
是小說批評研究的焦點。小說中羅徹斯特先生的妻子柏莎·梅森一直是
瘋女人的代名詞。 然而，她真的瘋了嗎？ 為什麼瘋狂常常與女性聯
繫在一起？ 本論文旨在論證《簡·愛》中的瘋狂與小說的社會和文
化背景有關。本文研究旨在挑戰“伯莎是瘋女人”的長期說法。本文
欲證明柏莎的瘋狂是如何由維多利亞時代的性別文化和社會制度構建
的。 在第一章中，將探討如何理解瘋狂以及維多利亞時代社會中瘋狂
如何與女性氣質聯繫在一起。 在第二章中，本文將視珍·瑞斯的小說
《夢迴藻海》為《簡·愛》的虛構前傳，分析柏莎在西印度群島的過去
並探討在《夢迴藻海》中，柏莎·梅森變成了安托瓦內特·梅森·科斯
威，是如何變成了一個歇斯底里的女人。 在第三章中，儘管小說中的
男性主角羅徹斯特先生從未被認為是瘋子，但將以殖民醫學診斷項目
熱帶神經衰弱的框架下審視羅徹斯特先生的精神狀態。

Since the first publication of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre in the nineteenth 
century, madness has been the attention in the critical studies of the novel. Mr. Rochester’s wife Bertha Mason in the novel has been the synonym of the madwoman. However, is she really insane? Why is madness often associated with women? My thesis aims to argue that madness in Jane Eyre is related to the social and cultural context of the novel. My study intends to challenge the long-term discourse that Bertha is a madwoman. I intend to prove how Bertha's madness is constructed by the Victorian gender culture and social institution. In Chapter One, I will explore how madness is understood and how madness is linked to femininity in Victorian society. In Chapter Two, I will analyze Bertha’s past in West Indies, as what is depicted in Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea, which is taken as the fictional prequel of Jane Eyre in my analysis. I will examine how Bertha Mason, who is renamed as Antoinette Mason Cosway in Wide Sargasso Sea, turns to be considered as the hysterical woman. In Chapter Three, although the male figure Mr. Rochester is never considered as mad in the novel, I will examine Mr. Rochester’s mental condition under the framework of the colonial medical diagnosis, tropical neurasthenia.

Table of Contents
Introduction.....................................................................1
Chapter One: Madness in the Victorian Context...................................11
Chapter Two: Reconstruction of Female Madness...................................21
Chapter Three: Is That Man......................................................35
Conclusion .....................................................................49
Works Cited ....................................................................54

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