According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term “freak of nature” became a part of general vocabulary in 1847. The popularity of this term demonstrates the general public’s obsession in 1840’s Britain with the bizarre and abnormal. In this same year, Charlotte Bronte published her classic novel Jane Eyre. The connection between the appearance of the term “freak of nature” and Jane Eyre is interesting when considering the role of Bertha Mason in the context of the novel and the time period in which it was written.

The Education Act of 1870 opened up the academic world for the lower/working classes. Before this act, only kids of the upper and middle class could afford to go to schools. It also was uncommon for the lower class kids to go to school because they were working in the factories or in their families buisnesses/farms. Once this act was established it allowed kids of lower and working class to attend for a reasonable amount of money. Now, while reading the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens I began to noitice that education was hardly mentioned within the novel.