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Bertha In 'Jane Eyre,' Emma In 'Madame Bovary': Were The 'Mad' Heroines Of Victorian Literature Really Sane?

First Posted: 06/20/10 06:12 AM ET Updated: 05/25/11 05:15 PM ET

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Madame Bovary

BBC News :

The violent and feral Bertha Rochester in Jane Eyre, the mysterious Woman in White whose escape from an asylum begins Wilkie Collins's gripping thriller, and the terminally delusional Emma in Madame Bovary.

But were they really mad? Would we today recognise them as mentally ill or were our heroines merely misunderstood, not to mention a tad inconvenient?

Read the whole story: BBC News

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