She was enraged that her own flesh and blood had allowed her to be kept up in an attic under such conditions and was unable to express these feelings calmly but only through bloodshed. Though she was crazy from the start, being kept up in an attic with no friends and just Grace Poole, a person who was paid to watch her, Bertha Mason led a very solitary life for which she begrudged both her brother Richard and Rochester her estranged husband. .
Bertha becomes increasingly envious of Jane as the story progresses. Two nights before her wedding Jane was disturbed in her sleep and she later recalls the unsettling event to Rochester. .
" The shape standing before me had never crossed my eyes within the precincts of Thornfield hall; The height, the contour were new to me It seemed sir, a woman tall and large with thick and dark hair hanging long down her back But presently she took my veil from its place; she held it up, gazed at it long, and then she threw it over her own head Sir, it removed my veil from its gaunt head, rent it in two parts, and flinging both on the floor, trampled on them" (317) .
Through this passage it is evident that Bertha was covetous of Jane because she was marrying her estranged husband. No woman in her right mind would burst into someone else's bedroom in the middle of the night and try on their wedding veil and then proceed to tear it in half and step on it. The tearing of the veil symbolized how Bertha's existence tears apart Jane and Rochester on their wedding day. .
Until her wedding day, Bertha Mason's existence remained unknown to Jane. Jane was very close to being the next Mrs. Edward Rochester until her wedding was disturbed by two men. One of these men being Richard Mason who revealed to her Bertha Mason and her real identity as the wife of Rochester. Bertha's presence and life pose a problem for the God fearing Christian that Jane was. She could not in good faith marry Rochester anyway knowing that his first wife was still alive.