Although some criticism exists regarding Jane Eyre’s character on stage, early theatrical versions of Bertha’s character are largely unexamined. In this article I offer a twofold analysis of three stage scripts based on Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847) (premiering in 1867, 1870, and 1877). I show how each play contains drastic plot changes that deemphasize Bertha’s madness in favour of rendering her a promiscuous deviant. Simultaneously, the scripts cleanse Rochester’s character of sexual and marital scandal. The emergent plot alterations ultimately polarize Bertha’s and Rochester’s moral profiles and reduce feminist aspects that we have come to associate with Charlotte Brontë’s original novel.

尽管对简爱在舞台上的角色存在一些批评，但伯莎角色的早期戏剧版本在很大程度上未经审查。在本文中，我对基于夏洛蒂·勃朗特( Charlotte Brontë) 的《简·爱》（1847）（1867、1870 和 1877 年首映）的三阶段剧本进行了双重分析。我展示了每部戏剧如何包含戏剧性的情节变化，这些变化不再强调伯莎的疯狂，而是让她成为一个混杂的越轨者。同时，剧本清洗了罗切斯特的性丑闻和婚姻丑闻。突然出现的情节变化最终使伯莎和罗切斯特的道德形象两极分化，并减少了我们与夏洛蒂勃朗特的原著相关的女权主义方面。