Charlotte Brontë

Charlotte Nicholls(néeBrontë; 21 April 1816 – 31 March 1855), commonly known asCharlotte Brontë(/ˈʃɑːrlətˈbrɒnti/,commonly/-teɪ/),was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the threeBrontë sisterswho survived into adulthood and whose novels became classics ofEnglish literature. She is best known for her novelJane Eyre, which she published under the male pseudonymCurrer Bell.Jane Eyrewent on to become a success in publication, and is widely held in high regard in thegothic fictiongenre of literature.
Brontë enrolled in school at Roe Head,Mirfield, in January 1831, aged 14 years. She left the year after to teach her sisters,EmilyandAnne, at home, then returned to Roe Head in 1835 as a teacher. In 1839, she undertook the role of governess for the Sidgwick family, but left after a few months. The three sisters attempted to open a school in Haworth but failed to attract pupils. Instead, they turned to writing; they each first published in 1846 under the pseudonyms of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. Although her first novel,The Professor, was rejected by publishers, her second novel,Jane Eyre, was published in 1847. The sisters admitted to their Bell pseudonyms in 1848, and by the following year were celebrated in London literary circles.
Brontë was the last to die of all her siblings. She became pregnant shortly after her wedding in June 1854 but died on 31 March 1855, almost certainly fromhyperemesis gravidarum, a complication of pregnancy which causes excessive nausea and vomiting.
Charlotte Brontë was born on 21 April 1816 in Market Street,Thornton(in a house now known as theBrontë Birthplace), west ofBradfordin theWest Riding of Yorkshire, the third of the six children ofMaria(née Branwell) andPatrick Brontë(formerly surnamed Brunty), an IrishAnglicanclergyman. In 1820her familymoved a few miles to the village ofHaworth, on the edge of the moors, where her father had been appointedperpetual curateofSt Michael and All Angels Church. Maria died of cancer on 15 September 1821, leaving five daughters,Maria,Elizabeth, Charlotte,EmilyandAnne, and a son,Branwell, to be taken care of by her sister,Elizabeth Branwell.
In August 1824, Patrick sent Charlotte, Emily, Maria, and Elizabeth to theClergy Daughters' SchoolatCowan Bridgein Lancashire. Charlotte maintained that the school's poor conditions permanently affected her health and physical development, and hastened the deaths of Maria (born 1814) and Elizabeth (born 1815), who both died oftuberculosisin May (Maria) and June (Elizabeth) 1825. After the deaths of his older daughters, Patrick removed Charlotte and Emily from the school.Charlotte used the school as the basis for Lowood School inJane Eyre,which is similarly affected by tuberculosis that is exacerbated by the poor conditions.
At home inHaworth Parsonage, Brontë acted as "the motherly friend and guardian of her younger sisters".Brontë wrote her first known poem at the age of 13 in 1829, and was to go on to write more than 200 poems in the course of her life.Many of her poems were "published" in their homemade magazineBranwell's Blackwood's Magazine, and concerned the fictional world ofGlass Town.She and her surviving siblings – Branwell, Emily and Anne – created this shared  world, and began chronicling the lives and struggles of the inhabitants of their imaginary kingdom in 1827.Charlotte, in private letters, calledGlass Town"her 'world below', a private escape where she could act out her desires and multiple identities".Charlotte's "predilection for romantic settings, passionate relationships, and high society is at odds with Branwell's obsession with battles and politics and her young sisters' homely North Country realism, none the less at this stage there is still a sense of the writings as a family enterprise".
However, from 1831 onwards, Emily and Anne 'seceded' from theGlass Town Confederacyto create a 'spin-off' calledGondal, which included many of their poems.After 1831, Charlotte and Branwell concentrated on an evolution of theGlass Town ConfederacycalledAngria.Christine Alexander, a Brontë juvenilia historian,wrote "both Charlotte and Branwell ensured the consistency of their imaginary world. When Branwell exuberantly kills off important characters in his manuscripts, Charlotte comes to the rescue and, in effect, resurrects them for the next stories [...]; and when Branwell becomes bored with his inventions, such as the Glass Town magazine he edits, Charlotte takes over his initiative and keeps the publication going for several more years".The sagas the siblings created were episodic and elaborate, and they exist in incomplete manuscripts, some of which have been published asjuvenilia. They provided them with an obsessive interest during childhood and early adolescence, which prepared them for literary vocations in adulthood.
Between 1831 and 1832, Brontë continued her education at a boarding school twenty miles away inMirfield, Roe Head (now part ofHollybank Special School), where she met her lifelong friends and correspondentsEllen NusseyandMary Taylor.In 1833 she wrote a novella,The Green Dwarf, using the name Wellesley. Around about 1833, her stories shifted from tales of the supernatural to more realistic stories.She returned to Roe Head as a teacher from 1835 to 1838. Unhappy and lonely as a teacher at Roe Head, Brontë took out her sorrows in poetry, writing a series of melancholic poems.In "We wove a Web in Childhood" written in December 1835, Brontë drew a sharp contrast between her miserable life as a teacher and the vivid imaginary worlds she and her siblings had created.In another poem "Morning was its freshness still" written at the same time, Brontë wrote "Tis bitter sometimes to recall/Illusions once deemed fair".Many of her poems concerned the imaginary world of Angria, often concerningByronic heroes, and in December 1836 she wrote to the Poet LaureateRobert Southeyasking him for encouragement of her career as a poet. Southey replied,famously, that "Literature cannot be the business of a woman's life, and it ought not to be. The more she is engaged in her proper duties, the less leisure will she have for it even as an accomplishment and a recreation." This advice she respected but did not heed.
In 1839 Brontë took up the first of many positions asgovernessto families inYorkshire, a career she pursued until 1841. In particular, from May to July 1839 she was employed by the Sidgwick family at their summer residence,Stone Gappe, in Lothersdale, where one of her charges was John Benson Sidgwick (1835–1927), an unruly child who on one occasion threw the Bible at Charlotte, an incident that may have been the inspiration for a part of the opening chapter ofJane Eyrein which John Reed throws a book at the young Jane.Brontë did not enjoy her work as a governess, noting her employers treated her almost as a slave, constantly humiliating her.She was of slight build and was less than five feet tall.
In 1842 Charlotte and Emily travelled toBrusselsto enrol at the boarding school run byConstantin Héger(1809–1896) and his wife Claire Zoé Parent Héger (1804–1887). During her time in Brussels, Brontë, who favoured theProtestantideal of an individual in direct contact with God, objected to the sternCatholicismof Madame Héger, which she considered a tyrannical religion that enforced conformity and submission to the Pope.In return for board and tuition Charlotte taught English and Emily taught music. Their time at the school was cut short when their aunt Elizabeth Branwell, who had joined the family in Haworth to look after the children after their mother's death, died ofinternal obstructionin October 1842. Charlotte returned alone to Brussels in January 1843 to take up a teaching post at the school. Her second stay was not happy: she was homesick and deeply attached to Constantin Héger. She returned to Haworth in January 1844 and used the time spent in Brussels as the inspiration for some of the events inThe ProfessorandVillette.
After returning to Haworth, Charlotte and her sisters made headway with opening their own boarding school in the family home. It was advertised as "The Misses Brontë's Establishment for the Board and Education of a limited number of Young Ladies" and inquiries were made to prospective pupils and sources of funding. But none were attracted and in October 1844, the project was abandoned.
In May 1846, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne self-financed the publication of a joint collection of poems under their assumed names Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. The pseudonyms veiled the sisters' sex while preserving their initials; thus Charlotte was Currer Bell. "Bell" was the middle name of Haworth's curate,Arthur Bell Nichollswhom Charlotte later married, and "Currer" was the surname ofFrances Mary Richardson Currerwho had funded their school (and maybe their father).Of the decision to usenoms de plume, Charlotte wrote:
Although only two copies of the collection of poems were sold, the sisters continued writing for publication and began their first novels, continuing to use theirnoms de plumewhen sending manuscripts to potential publishers.
Brontë's first manuscript, 'The Professor', did not secure a publisher, although she was heartened by an encouraging response fromSmith, Elder & Co.of Cornhill, who expressed an interest in any longer works Currer Bell might wish to send.Brontë responded by finishing and sending a second manuscript in August 1847. Six weeks later,Jane Eyrewas published. It tells the story of a plain governess,Jane, who, after difficulties in her early life, falls in love with her employer,Mr Rochester. They marry, but only after Rochester's insane first wife, of whom Jane initially has no knowledge, dies in a dramatic house fire. The book's style was innovative, combining Romanticism,naturalismwithgothicmelodrama, and broke new ground in being written from an intensely evoked first-person female perspective.Brontë believed art was most convincing when based on personal experience; inJane Eyreshe transformed the experience into a novel with universal appeal.
Jane Eyrehad immediate commercial success and initially received favourable reviews.G. H. Leweswrote that it was "an utterance from the depths of a struggling, suffering, much-enduring spirit", and declared that it consisted of "suspiria de profundis!" (sighs from the depths).Speculation about the identity and gender of the mysterious Currer Bell heightened with the publication ofWuthering Heightsby Ellis Bell (Emily) andAgnes Greyby Acton Bell (Anne).Accompanying the speculation was a change in the critical reaction to Brontë's work, as accusations were made that the writing was "coarse",a judgement more readily made once it was suspected that Currer Bell was a woman.However, sales ofJane Eyrecontinued to be strong and may even have increased as a result of the novel developing a reputation as an "improper" book.A talented amateur artist, Brontë personally did the drawings for the second edition ofJane Eyreand in the summer of 1834 two of her paintings were shown at an exhibition by the Royal Northern Society for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts in Leeds.
In 1848 Brontë began work on the manuscript of her second novel,Shirley. It was only partially completed when the Brontë family suffered the deaths of three of its members within eight months. In September 1848 Branwell died ofchronic bronchitisandmarasmus, exacerbated by heavy drinking, although Brontë believed that his death was due totuberculosis. Branwell may have had alaudanumaddiction. Emily became seriously ill shortly after his funeral and died of pulmonary tuberculosis in December 1848. Anne died of the same disease in May 1849. Brontë was unable to write at this time.
After Anne's death Brontë resumed writing as a way of dealing with her grief,andShirley, which deals with themes of industrial unrest and the role of women in society, was published in October 1849. UnlikeJane Eyre, which is written in the first person,Shirleyis written in the third person and lacks the emotional immediacy of her first novel,and reviewers found it less shocking.  Brontë, as her late sister's heir,suppressedthe republication of Anne's second novel,The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, an action which had a deleterious effect on Anne's popularity as a novelist and has remained controversial among the sisters' biographers ever since.
In view of the success of her novels, particularlyJane Eyre, Brontë was persuaded by her publisher to make occasional visits to London, where she revealed her true identity and began to move in more exalted social circles, becoming friends withElizabeth GaskellandHarriet Martineauwhose sister Rachel had taught Gaskell's daughters.Brontë sent an early copy ofShirleyto Martineau whose home  atAmblesideshe   visited.  The two friends  shared an interest inracial relationsand theabolitionist movement; recurrent themes in their writings.Brontë was also  acquainted withWilliam Makepeace Thackerayand G. H. Lewes. She never left Haworth for more than a few weeks at a time, as she did not want to leave her ageing father.  Thackeray's daughter, writerAnne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie, recalled a visit to her father by Brontë:
Brontë's friendship with Elizabeth Gaskell, while not particularly close, was significant in that Gaskell wrote the first biography of Brontë after her death in 1855.
Brontë's third novel, the last published in her lifetime, wasVillette, which appeared in 1853. Its main themes include isolation, how such a condition can be borne,and the internal conflict brought about by social repression of individual desire.Its main character, Lucy Snowe, travels abroad to teach in a boarding school in the fictional town of Villette, where she encounters a culture and religion different from her own and falls in love with a man (Paul Emanuel) whom she cannot marry. Her experiences result in a breakdown but eventually, she achieves independence and fulfilment through running her own school. A substantial amount of the novel's dialogue is in the French language.Villettemarked Brontë's return to writing from a first-person perspective (that of Lucy Snowe), the technique she had used inJane Eyre. Another similarity toJane Eyrelies in the use of aspects of her own life as inspiration for fictional events,in particular her reworking of the time she spent at thepensionnatin Brussels.Villettewas acknowledged by critics of the day as a potent and sophisticated piece of writing although it was criticised for "coarseness" and for not being suitably "feminine" in its portrayal of Lucy's desires.
Before the publication ofVillette, Brontë received an expected proposal of marriage from IrishmanArthur Bell Nicholls, her father'scurate, who had long been in love with her.She initially refused him and her father objected to the union at least partly because of Nicholls's poor financial status.Elizabeth Gaskell, who believed that marriage provided "clear and defined duties" that were beneficial for a woman,encouraged Brontë to consider the positive aspects of such a union and tried to use her contacts to engineer an improvement in Nicholls's finances. According toJames Pope-HennessyinThe Flight of Youth,it was the generosity ofRichard Monckton Milnesthat made the marriage possible. Brontë, meanwhile, was increasingly attracted to Nicholls and by January 1854, she had accepted his proposal. They gained the approval of her father by April and married on 29 June.Her father Patrick had intended to give Charlotte away, but at the last minute decided he could not, and Charlotte had to make her way to the church without him.Because her father did not attend it was Miss Wooler (Charlotte's former teacher at Roe Head School, and life-long friend), as "friend", who "gave away" Charlotte (Gaskell: Vol II, Chap XIII).
The married couple took their honeymoon inBanagher, County Offaly, Ireland.By all accounts, her marriage was a success and Brontë found herself very happy in a way that was new to her.
Brontë became pregnant soon after her wedding, but her health declined rapidly and, according to Gaskell, she was attacked by "sensations of perpetual nausea and ever-recurring faintness".She died, with her unborn child, on 31 March 1855, three weeks before her 39th birthday. Her death certificate gives the cause of death asphthisis,but biographers includingClaire Harmanand others suggest that she died from dehydration and malnourishment due to vomiting caused by severemorning sicknessorhyperemesis gravidarum.Brontë was buried in the family vault in theChurch of St Michael and All Angelsat Haworth.
The Professor, the first novel Brontë had written, was published posthumously in 1857. The fragment of a new novel she had been writing in her last years has been twice completed by recent authors, the more famous version beingEmma Brown: A Novel from the Unfinished Manuscript by Charlotte BrontëbyClare Boylanin 2003. Most of her writings about the imaginary country Angria have also been published since her death. In 2018,The New York Timespublished a belated obituary for her.
The daughter of an IrishAnglicanclergyman, Brontë was herself an Anglican. In a letter to her publisher, she claims to "love the Church of England. Her Ministers indeed, I do not regard as infallible personages, I have seen too much of them for that – but to the Establishment, with all her faults – the profaneAthanasian Creedexcluded – I am sincerely attached."
In a letter toEllen Nusseyshe wrote:
Elizabeth Gaskell's biographyThe Life of Charlotte Brontëwas published in 1857. It was an important step for a leading female novelist to write a biography of another,and Gaskell's approach was unusual in that, rather than analysing her subject's achievements, she concentrated on private details of Brontë's life, emphasising those aspects that countered the accusations of "coarseness" that had been levelled at her writing.The biography is frank in places, but omits details of Brontë's love forHéger, a married man, as being too much of an affront to contemporary morals and a likely source of distress to Brontë's father, widower, and friends.Mrs. Gaskell also provided doubtful and inaccurate information about Patrick Brontë, claiming that he did not allow his children to eat meat. This is refuted by one of Emily Brontë's diary papers, in which she describes preparing meat and potatoes for dinner at the parsonage.It has been argued that Gaskell's approach transferred the focus of attention away from the 'difficult' novels, not just Brontë's, but all the sisters', and began a process of sanctification of their private lives.
Brontë held lifelong correspondence with her former schoolmateEllen Nussey. 350 of the some 500 letters sent by Brontë to Nussey survive, whereas all of Nussey's letters to Brontë were burned at Nicholls's request.The surviving letters provide most of the information known on Charlotte Brontë's life and are the backbone of her autobiographies.
Brontë's letters to Nussey seem to have romantic undertones:
Some scholars believe it is possible that Charlotte Brontë was in a romantic or sexual relationship with Ellen Nussey.
On 29 July 1913The Timesof London printed four letters Brontë had written toConstantin Hégerafter leaving Brussels in 1844.Written in French except for one postscript in English, the letters broke the prevailing image of Brontë as an angelic martyr to Christian and female duties that had been constructed by many biographers, beginning with Gaskell.The letters, which formed part of a larger and somewhat one-sided correspondence in which Héger frequently appears not to have replied, reveal that she had been in love with a married man, although they are complex and have been interpreted in numerous ways, including as an example of literary self-dramatisation and an expression of gratitude from a former pupil.
In 1980 a commemorative plaque was unveiled at theCentre for Fine Arts, Brussels, on the site of the Madam Heger's school, in honour of Charlotte and Emily.
Kazuo Ishiguro, when asked to name his favourite novelist, answered "Charlotte Brontë's recently edged outDostoevsky...I owe my career, and a lot else besides, toJane EyreandVillette."
The Green Dwarf, A Tale of the Perfect Tensewas written in 1833 under the pseudonym Lord Charles Albert Florian Wellesley.It shows the influence ofWalter Scott, and Brontë's modifications to her earlier gothic style have led Christine Alexander to comment that, in the work, "it is clear that Brontë was becoming tired of the gothic modeper se".
"At the end of 1839, Brontë said goodbye to her fantasy world in a manuscript called Farewell to Angria. More and more, she was finding that she preferred to escape to her imagined worlds over remaining in reality – and she feared that she was going mad. So she said goodbye to her characters, scenes and subjects. [...] She wrote of the pain she felt at wrenching herself from her 'friends' and venturing into lands unknown".