In the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, Bertha suffers from a severe mental illness. Mr. Rochester, Bertha’s husband, locked Bertha in the attic and hired someone to look after her when her mental illness became prominent. Although Rochester did take some measures to provide care for Bertha, she needed far more help than what was provided to her. One option could have been for Bertha to live in a mental asylum. In the 1800’s, the care of people with mental illness began to change from believing they needed to be kept in custody, to believing they needed to receive adequate care (Disability in the 19th Century). Due to Mr. Rochester’s status, he traveled to London frequently; around the time of this novel being written, Hanwell Asylum was established and opened in London. This availability makes an asylum a reasonable alternative to locking someone in the attic. At Hanwell, Sir William Charles Ellis was the superintendent upon the asylum’s opening in 1832. He firmly believed in caring for the “well-being, and of the comfort and happiness of the patients” (Clitherow 285). Hanwell was one of the first asylums to instill the importance of humane treatment of patients which set new standards in the Victorian age (A Victorian Mental Asylum). Sir Ellis resigned from Hanwell in 1838, citing his discomfort with the proposed expansion which he believed would not be in the best interest of the patients (Clitherow 286). The pictures below show replicas of equipment found in the basement of Hanwell. This equipment is what Sir Ellis was attempting to eliminate in his time at Hanwell. The links below are digitized copies of Sir Ellis’s written works about Hanwell.

Sir W. C. Ellis, M.D. A treatise on the nature, symptoms, causes, and treatment of insanity : with practical observations on lunatic asylums and a description of the Pauper Lunatic Asylum for the county of Middlesex, at Hanwell.

A letter to Thomas Thomson, Esq. M.P.

Works Cited 

Clitherow, James. “Resignation of Sir W. C. Ellis at the Hanwell Asylum .” The Phrenological Journal, and Magazine of Moral Science, vol. 11, 1838, pp. 285–286., https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=ldU11h2SpisC&pg=GBS.PP12&hl=en. Accessed 2023.

“Disability in the 19th Century.” Historic England, https://historicengland.org.uk/research/inclusive-heritage/disability-hi....

“A Victorian Mental Asylum.” Science Museum, https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/medicine/victorian-....