Bertha Narratives

Yeah, I know we're way past The Crooked Line, but I'm still really struck by the similarities between Shaman and Bertha Rochester (of Jane Eyre notoriety). From her seemingly insane antics as a child, to her antagonism with her husband, Shaman is encompassed by the "Bertha narrative" much more thoroughly than Jane's, to which she professes a connection. Yet she's still tinged with shades of Jane; an unwanted child, foisted onto schools and boarding houses. The girls with which she forms attachments are different evocations of Helen for Shaman, and they go in and out of her life just as quickly. I'm of the opinion that Shaman's story is the merging of both the Bertha and Jane narratives, this strange amalgamation of submission and frustrated rage. Shaman is largely ineffectual and crippled because of these conflicting psyches within herself. I have a theory that at their foundations, the Bertha and Jane narratives are one in the same, yet have twisted away from each other as they've grown.