Frankenstein, Jane Eyre and Snow White with a gender-based perspective: 'The Madwoman in the Attic' and the beginning of

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https://english.elpais.com/culture/2026-03-31/frankenstein-jane-eyre-and-snow-white-with-a-gender-based-perspective-the-madwoman-in-the-attic-and-the-beginning-of-feminist-literary-criticism.html

Frankenstein, Jane Eyre and Snow White with a gender-based perspective: ‘The Madwoman in the Attic’ and the beginning of feminist literary criticism

Constanza Pérez Z.
Madrid - MAR 31, 2026 - 15:58 EDT

A Spanish publisher has released a new edition of Gilbert and Gubar’s renowned 1979 book, which analyzed the work of Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, the Brontë sisters and Emily Dickinson from a new angle

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Alicia de la Fuente, the philologist who helms the Spanish publisher, explains why she decided to take on the task: “It is a book that forms the backbone of feminist literary criticism. It is a text that remains entirely relevant today, and we wanted to make it accessible to everyone.” The essay, which started out as an academic paper, won the U.S. National Book Critics Circle Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

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Bertha Mason, the wife of Edward Rochester in Jane Eyre, lives her life trapped in the attic of her mansion by the decision of her husband, who believes that she has lost her mind. Mason represents the woman who is marginalized by the patriarchy, dubbed hysteric or crazy when she decides not to fulfill that which is expected of her: to be docile, servile, passive and self-sacrificing. Literary critics Gilbert and Gubar saw in this figure a constantly recurring archetype in the works of Victorian women writers, a way of expressing the malaise and frustration the authors themselves experienced. A way of liberating oneself, and saying that which was forbidden, of exhibiting their experiences in a literary space dominated by men and a patriarchal canon.

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De la Fuente agrees on the extent to which other women writers have been overlooked, and proposes viewing the book as a bridge between different strains of feminism — between how it was understood in the 19th century, in the 1970s, and today. “I think it’s a text that remains relevant because of the authors it focuses on, but I also believe it helps us to ask why other authors aren’t being discussed,” she notes. The editor would like to see other texts published that engage with this one, and fill in its gaps. Because even today, there are madwomen in the attic everywhere who rebel, and from their attics, write about the experience of being a woman.

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