Words of Madness / Female Worlds: Hysteria as Intertextual Discourse of Women’s Deviance in Jane Eyre

Abstract

This paper aims to accomplish the following objectives: locate instances of female madness or hysteria in Charlotte Brontë’s novel as illustrative of women’s deviance and otherness; outline the evolving nature of critical interpretations of madness in Jane Eyre from Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, to Helen Small, analyse the way(s) female madness is constructed through discourse strategies in the novel, and interpret Jane Eyre as a narrative through which female hysteria is constructed and deconstructed through intertextual discourse.