Briar Rose/Jane Eyre- A connection

Chapters 16-25 (continued)

Throughout these chapters a lot has been mentioned about the Holocaust because we are now getting stories from people who know what has happened in certain parts of Europe. Josef Potocki, for example, was in Chelmno where Gemma was. However, Potocki wasn't placed in the concentration camps because he was Jewish, but because he was gay. People who were considered as "the other" were put away to be killed. This included a huge amount of people from different backgrounds, races, and orientations. It brought to mind Bertha Mason in Bronte's Jane Eyre. She was locked in the closet because she was said to be mad, however what drove her husband Rochester to lock her up was her past and how different and foreign it was to him. And, look at that, how did Bertha die? She lit Thornfield on fire and jumped to her death from a balcony. The fire represents the rage Bertha and Jane felt throughout their doubling character life, however ties back to the Holocaust and how tons of people had died.

-Nicole