Schizophrenia

Psychological Terminology:

 

According to the World Health Organization, symptoms of schizophrenia include:

• Hallucination: hearing, seeing or feeling things that are not there.

• Delusion: fixed false beliefs or suspicions not shared by others in the person’s culture and that are firmly held even when there is evidence to the contrary.

• Abnormal Behavior: disorganized behavior such as wandering aimlessly, mumbling or laughing to self, strange appearance, self-neglect or appearing unkempt

• Disorganized speech; incoherent or irrelevant speech

• Disturbances of emotions: marked apathy or disconnect between reported emotion and what is observed such as facial expression or body language [1]

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To get a understanding of what having this condition is like, below is a simulation:

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Literary Context:

 

While the text itself does not name schizophrenia as the mental illness afflicting Mrs. Bertha [Mason] Rochester, her symptoms would indicate that something very similar was the cause of her behavior. Bertha Mason was portrayed as having all of the abnormal behaviors listed above. Throughout the novel, she was heard laughing to herself in a way that was "distinct, formal, mirthless" (Bronte 127). [3] Sometimes she made "eccentric murmurs" or "snarling, canine noise, and a deep human groan[s]" (Bronte 131, 248). [3]

 

When Jane Eyre first laid eyes on Bertha, she was seen wandering aimlessly, moving "backwards and forwards" (Bronte 342). [3] Looking at her, Jane Eyre certainly thought she had a strange appearance because Bertha "grovelled, seemingly, on all fours... like some strange wild animal" (Bronte 342). [3] As for being unkempt, all we know is that her hair was "wild as a mane [and] hid [her] head and face" (Bronte 342). [3] Lastly, Bertha is reported to have disorganized speech by her brother. Mr. Mason told Mr. Rochester that when she bit him she also “sucked the blood" and " said she’d drain [his] heart” (Bronte 251). [3]

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While Bertha makes for an excellent creepy figure in a Gothic novel, it's important to note that the correlation between schizophrenia and violence is small. In fact, according to Dr. Angermeyer, usually people "appear to be at an even lower risk of being violently attacked by someone suffering from severe mental disorder than by someone who is mentally healthy." [4]