The Wife Upstairs

Hawkins begins her novel with an epigraph from Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. Both The Wife Upstairs and Wide Sargasso Sea are adaptations of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre that highlight the voice of Edward Rochester’s wife, Bertha Mason. Brontë’s original text features Bertha as an ancillary character who never speaks but whose presence is central to the novel as an obstacle to Jane and Rochester’s relationship. Written in 1966, Wide Sargasso Sea follows Bertha’s life in the West Indies prior to her marriage to Rochester and move to England. A Dominican-British author, Jean Rhys humanizes Bertha, whose ethnically ambiguous background as a Creole woman and possible mental illness make her an outcast. While Brontë’s text silences Bertha, Rhys and Hawkins amplify her voice, the latter reimagining her as Bea, a complex character capable of great violence and love. Hawkins’s inclusion of an epigraph from Wide Sargasso Sea signifies her understanding of the literary significance surrounding Bea as a character and her intention to add to that history.

This understanding leads Hawkins to shift the narrative perspective throughout her novel. Brontë’s original text unfolds from Jane’s perspective while Rhys’s adaptation focuses solely on Bertha’s. Hawkins chooses to feature both Jane and Bea’s voices with sections alternating between the two women. This choice adds a layer of complexity and suspense to the novel. Hawkins employs cliffhangers at the end of each chapter that leave the reader on edge. The subsequent chapter often offers an alternative perspective of the events featured in the preceding chapter. Throughout the novel, the reader balances these varying perspectives and attempts to understand what is truth and what is deceit.

While Jane’s narration follows Jane in the moment, Hawkins structures Bea’s narration as a series of journal entries that she writes while trapped in the panic room. She weaves in flashbacks to highlight significant moments that Bea reflects on in her journal entries. These choices differentiate the two narrative perspectives. The personal nature of a journal also makes Bea’s narration seem more reliable and trustworthy. Throughout the novel, this question of truth reverberates.

Part 1 begins from the perspective of Jane Bell, an outsider navigating the privileged society of Thornfield Estates. Jane is aware of her outsider status and sees through the shallow displays of kindness characteristic of Thornfield Estates society. She criticizes these performances of kindness and observes:

[C]harity functions are big around here, I’ve noticed, although I never can figure out what they’re actually raising money for. The invitations I see lying on end tables or fastened to refrigerator doors with magnets are a word salad of virtue signaling (17).

Jane shows contempt for her employers and steals from them regularly. Despite this disdain, Jane is drawn to Thornfield Estates as a symbol of what she aspires to attain. She is particularly drawn to Eddie and Bea Rochester’s home: “[T]he yard is just as green as the other lawns in the neighborhood, but shaggier, and the pretty purple bushes that bloom out front have climbed too high, blocking off windows on the first floor” (22). These hints of imperfection lead Jane to stop at the house regularly while working and foreshadow her later connection to Eddie and Bea.

Parts 1 and 2 introduce the major themes and conflicts of the novel. Hawkins builds suspense surrounding Jane’s background through Jane’s constant allusions to what she is hiding, which she admits includes her real name (her apparent last name, Bell, is notably the alias the Brontë sisters published under). The meeting of Eddie and Jane in Part 1 solidifies the significance of their relationship to the novel. They are drawn to each other as outsiders in this community and recognize characteristics of themselves in each other, which ultimately helps Jane start to shed her false persona.

Complex relationships are central to the novel. Eddie and Jane struggle to balance their pasts with their connection to one another. Bea feels ambivalent toward Eddie, who imprisons her in the panic room but for whom she feels deep love and attraction. Bea and Blanche Ingraham, best friends from childhood, navigate a history of discord that infiltrates the lives of everyone around them. These conflicts propel the plot forward and embody the central themes of the novel, including the difficulty of escaping one’s past.