On Aug. 4, 2016, S.E. Smith published an article on Bustle.com saying that attributing mental illness to Donald Trump is hurtful to people with mental illness. This is a reaction to the recent clamor on the internet to diagnose Trump.

I am not a person with much tendency towards politics, so instead of finding my place in the debate, I fulfilled my role as a lazy voter by going to my bookshelf and picking up one of my favorite books of all time, Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre." It's well-weathered from years of shoving it in backpacks, reading it on trains, annotating it on the Green. When I looked at it for the hundredth time, however, something new occurred to me. In this chaotic time of our changing political world, I wondered where that 'madwoman in the attic' in "Jane Eyre," Bertha Mason, fit into all of this. Yes, she comes from the 1800s and at first glance may seem completely incomprehensible in her actions, but I believe her portrayal in "Jane Eyre" can be a lesson to us all in dealing with the modern-day issue of mental illness.

For anyone who hasn't read the novel or who can't remember it from their freshman English class, "Jane Eyre" follows the story of the orphan Jane Eyre, who attends a religious institution and becomes a governess for the daughter of Mr. Rochester, a rich and powerful man and the owner of Thornfield Hall. During Jane's stay at the Hall, she notices some mysterious occurrences in the middle of the night, including an episode during which Mr. Rochester's bed is set on fire. Jane eventually finds out, rather painfully, after her wedding to Mr. Rochester is interrupted, that these strange episodes were orchestrated by Bertha Mason, the first wife of Mr. Rochester. Mr. Rochester was forced to marry her when he was young, and only learned later of her family's history of madness. He keeps her in an attic room of the house to prevent her from inhumane mental asylums, or so he says. Jane is, of course, shocked by this, and eventually runs away. She learns later that Bertha sets fire to the house and commits suicide, which allows Jane to be with Mr. Rochester.

I wanted to understand Bertha Mason from the medical perspective. Charlotte Bronte gives vague clues in her descriptions of Bertha. It is clear that the Brontes not only had access to but were highly interested in medicine, as evidenced by the well-used Modern DomesticMedicine that they kept in their house, as documented by the British Library. It seems likely that this was Charlotte Bronte's source for Bertha Mason's symptoms, as it is unclear whether or not she would have encountered someone with any of the illnesses Bertha Mason may have had. In their paper "Did the 'Women in the Attic' in "Jane Eyre" have Huntington Disease?," Elizabeth A. Coon and Anhar Hassan explore the various possibilities. It is clear that the disease is hereditary, as Mr. Rochester says: "...she came of a mad family; -- idiots and maniacs through three generations!," and describes her mother as "a mad woman and a drunkard!" This follows the three tenets of Huntington's Disease, a degenerative nerve disease, as established by Dr. Huntington himself. According to Huntington, the disease is hereditary, sufferers of the disease have a tendency towards insanity and suicide, and the onset of the disease usually occurs in adult life, all of which apply to Bertha Mason. Huntington's is also characterized by abnormal movements, which follows Jane's descriptions of "movements of the wild beast" and a figure moving "backwards and forwards...wether beast or human being." Onset of Huntington's is also fairly rapid, which corresponds with Mr. Rochester's description of Bertha's illness: "'her character ripened and developed with frightful rapidity.'" Coon and Hassan's article concludes that Bertha did have many features of Huntington disease. However, they do address "other diagnostic considerations" for the symptoms displayed by the character, such as Huntington-disease like 2 (HDL-2), a similar illness that is inherited through the mother and is much more common in those of African descent. This may fit Bertha's characterization more, as it is known she inherited the disease from her mother, who was Creole, while her father was a European settler. Coon and Hassan also propose psychiatric disorders such as bipolar affective disorder and schizophrenia, which also run in families. Mr. Rochester's description of Bertha having "lucid intervals of days to weeks," and then violent outbursts correlates with hypomanic and manic periods of bipolar disorder, while inappropriate emotional reactions, such as Bertha's "curious laugh-distinct, formal, mirthless," are common symptoms of schizophrenia. Though much less likely, the authors also consider porphyria, a disorder in which there is an overproduction of a protein that assists hemoglobin in the bloodstream, or Graves' disease, an immune system disorder in which the thyroid overproduces hormones, which both cause "bloodshot eyes," which Bertha is described as having.

While pondering the possibilities, we must also keep in mind that Charlotte Brontë's characterization of the 'madwoman in the attic,' a woman with mental illness, may have been exaggerated and dramatized for effect. Many critics, contemporary and modern, consider the portrayal cruel and dehumanizing of those with mental illness. As noted in an article by the British Library, "The figure of Bertha Mason," Jane calls Bertha a "'clothed hyena'" and describes her as an "it." What is the purpose of such a harsh portrayal? Though the 'madwoman in the attic' is feared, most readers also sympathize with Bertha's plight, including those from the Victorian era. According to medical standards at the time, Mr. Rochester's practices of locking Bertha up and tying her down with rope would have been considered inhumane. So while some critics think Charlotte Brontë's description of Bertha Mason simply biased against those with mental illness, others believe it was meant to raise awareness about the plight of the mentally ill. Jane, like the readers, feels sympathy for Bertha and even says to Mr. Rochester, "'It is cruel - she cannot help being mad.'" Either way, Charlotte Brontë's depiction of the 'madwoman in the attic' is illuminating of the sympathy for those with mental illness at the time, and, though we still have sympathy today, we seem to have not improved much in our understanding of mental illness.

If we follow Coon and Hassan's assessment, the possibilities for Bertha Mason's illnesses were: Huntington's disease, bipolar affective disorder, schizophrenia, porphyria and Grave's disease. These run the gambit from very common, like Grave's disease, of which there are more than 3 million U.S. cases a year, to rare, like Huntington's disease, which is documented in fewer than 200,000 people in the U.S. per year. Our illnesses haven't changed, but it is tempting to think that our attitude towards and treatment of mental illness since the 1800s has improved by leaps and bounds. This is not necessarily the case, and the representation of Bertha Mason in "Jane Eyre" lends an interesting insight into the world of Victorian mental asylums and our attitude towards mental illness today. According to a report in 1845 in "The Westminster Review" investigating the conditions of mental asylums across the country, the public at large was much more benevolent towards the mentally ill than they had been in years before. And this survey of mental institutions itself shows the attitude of the time, as its purpose was to investigate the humanity of treatments and to correct any "abuses." The conditions in these facilities even improved after the report was published. So is this different form our attitude towards mental illness today? According to Dr. Caroline Carney Doebbling, though nearly 50 percent of adults experience mental illness at some point in their lives, there is still a large amount of stigma associated with it. "People with mental illness may be blamed for their illness or viewed as lazy or irresponsible," she writes. And what's even more devastating is that only 20 percent of people who have a mental illness receive professional help, often because it is difficult to distinguish mental illness from "normal behavior." Have we really changed, then?

The portrayal of Bertha Mason and the public reaction to it, therefore teaches us that we are not as advanced as we think. We still stigmatize, not just people with mental illnesses, but people everywhere, and we must not make the mistake of thinking we are at all perfect. It's amazing what a figure from a Victorian novel can teach us about ourselves.