This date commemorates the publication of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. This novel is renowned for its inclusion of the groundbreaking character Bertha Mason. Characterized as a strange wild animal who was locked away from civilization in an attic, Bertha was not a madwoman, but she was the madwoman. That is, she constituted significant research and debate, and was a turning point towards a feminist use of the madwoman trope. By connecting the depiction of Bertha with the context of Jane Eyre, feminist undertones can be detected. Charlotte Brontë uses the character of the madwoman to demonstrate the justification for female anger—that female fury is not “irrational” in its extremity, that any woman could fall to “madness” simply in their anger at their role in society.