Antoniette Cosway

     In Wide Sargasso Sea, "Bertha Mason" is portrayed as being a false name for Antoinette Cosway. The character of Jane Eyre and Antoinette are portrayed as being similar, independent, vivacious, imaginative, young women with troubled childhoods, educated in religious establishments and looked own by the upper classes. also they both marry Rochester. however Antoinette is more rebellious than Jane and less  mentally stable.
 
      Antoinette is the protagonist in the novel. when the novel begins Antoinette is a lonely young girl growing up in post-emancipation Jamaica. after an escalating series of of violent encounter Antoinette and her family of white creoles are forced to flee from their estate. after that she was forced to a marriage with Rochester. rest of the tale describes her complicated and uncomprehending life with her husband. delusional and paranoid Antoinette awakes from a dream and set out to burn down the house.        
   
         The book purports to tell Antoinette's side of the story as well as Rochester's and detail how she ended up alone and raving in the attic. According to the book, Antoinette's insanity, infidelity, and drunkenness are the result of Rochester's misguided belief that madness is in her blood and that she was part of the scheme to have him married blindly.

Antoinette is a far cry from the conventional female heroins of 19th and 20th century novel, who are often more rational and self restraint.

Olive Schreiner.

Olive Schreiner (24 March 1855 – 11 December 1920) was a South African author, and intellectual. She is best remembered today for her novel ' The Story Of an African Farm' which has been highly acclaimed for the bold manner in which it deals with some of the burning issues of the day, including agnosticism, existential independence, individualism, the professional aspirations of women, and the elemental nature of life on the colonial frontier. In more recent studies she has also been identified as an advocate for those sidelined by the forces of British Imperialism, such as the Afrikaners, and later other South African groups like Blacks, Jews and Indians – to name but a few. Although she showed interest in socialism, pacifism, vegetarianism and feminism amongst other things, her true views escape restrictive categorizations. Her published works and other surviving writings promote implicit values like moderation, friendship and understanding amongst all peoples. Although she may be called a lifelong freethinker, she continued to adhere to the spirit of the Christian Bible and developed a secular version of the worldview of her missionary parents, with mystical elements.
Karel Schoeman, the South African historian and leading authority on Schreiner's life, has written that she was an outstanding figure in a South African context, albeit perhaps not quite the same abroad.

     Olive Emilie Albertina Schreiner is her full name. She was the ninth of twelve children born in the missionary society at Wittebergen in the Eastern Cape, near Herschel in South Africa. Her parents are Gottlob Schreiner and Rebecca Lyndall^. She was named after her three older brothers, Oliver (1848–1854), Albert (1843–1843) and Emile (1852–1852), who died before she was born. Her childhood was a harsh one as her father was loving and gentle, though impractical, which led to difficulties for the family; but her mother Rebecca was intent on teaching her children the same restraint and self-discipline that had been a part of her upbringing. Olive received virtually all of her initial education from her mother, who was well-read and gifted.

 Noted works:

• The story of n African Farm, 1883 (as "Ralph Iron")
• Dreams, 1890
• Dream Life and Real Life, 1893
• The Political Situation in Cape Colony, 1895 (with S. C. Cronwright-Schreiner)
• Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland, 1897
• An English South African Woman's View of the Situation, a critique on the Transvaal difficulty from the pro-Boer position, 1899
• A Letter on the Jew, 1906
• Closer Union: a Letter on South African Union and the Principles of Government, 1909
• Woman and Labour, 1911
• Thoughts on South Africa, 1923
• Stories, Dreams and Allegories, 1923
• From Man to Man, 1926
• Undine, 1929

Mrs. Bertha mason

         Bertha  Mason is a fictional character in the novel Jane Eyre. it was written by Charlot Bronte.  Bertha Merson is the violently insane first wife of Edward Rochester, locked in the attic.

           Bertha Merson is a complex presence in Jane Eyre. the mystery surrounding Bertha establishes suspense and terror to the plot and atmosphere. further Bertha serves as a remanent and reminder of Rochester's youthful librtinism. she is the great tragedy of Rochester's life. she is the first wife of Rochester and she is the obstacle in Jane's and Rochester's love must overcome. she is the catalyst that proves Jane's moral virtue and Rochester's ultimate redemption.

   Bertha’s family heritage is complex and puts her in a difficult position. She’s half-Creole and half-English, raised in Jamaica among the British aristocrat half of her family, and already not exactly a part of one world or the other. Rochester claims that she was drunken and promiscuous and that her excesses brought on her madness when she was young, but he’s not exactly an objective witness.It’s clear that she and Rochester never really got along and that they hadn’t gotten to know each other at all before they got married. As a result of all this, Bertha spends most of her adult life locked in a room—a few years in a room in Jamaica, and ten years in the attic at Thornfield.

         Bertha is presented as being exotic and unbirdles. she is violent, clearly insane and exhibits an animal nature. however it has been suggested by some critics that Bertha's character runs parallel to that of Jane's with Bertha being a kind of darker double of  her English country part.

       
     Yet Bertha also misinterpreted as symbol. some seen her as  a symbolic representation of trapped Victorian wife. she finds no outlet for her frustration and anxiety. also Berth seem to be the outward manifestation of Jane's interior fire. Berth express the feelings that Jane must keep in check.