Charlotte Brontë Biography Charlotte Brontë Biography Bookmark this page Manage My Reading List At age twenty, Charlotte Brontë sent a sample of her poetry to England's Poet Laureate, Robert Southey. His comments urged her to abandon all literary pursuits: "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." His response indicates the political difficulties women faced as they tried to enter the literary arena in Victorian England; domestic responsibilities were expected to require all their energy, leaving no time for creative pursuits. Despite a lack of support from the outside world, Charlotte Brontë found sufficient internal motivation and enthusiasm from her sisters to become a successful writer and balance her familial and creative needs. Born at Thornton, Yorkshire on April 21, 1816, Charlotte was the third child of Patrick Brontë and Maria Branwell. In 1820, her father received a curate post in Haworth, a remote town on the Yorkshire moors, where Charlotte spent most of her life. In 1821, Mrs.

Brontë died from what was thought to be cancer. Charlotte and her four sisters, Maria, Elizabeth, Emily and Anne, and their brother, Branwell, were raised primarily by their unpleasant, maiden aunt, Elizabeth Branwell, who provided them with little supervision. Not only were the children free to roam the moors, but their father allowed them to read whatever interested them: Shakespeare, The Arabian Nights, Pilgrim's Progress, and the poems of Byron were some of their favorites. When a school for the daughters of poor clergymen opened at Cowan Bridge in 1824, Mr. Brontë decided to send his oldest four daughters there to receive a formal education. Most biographers argue that Charlotte's description of Lowood School in Jane Eyre accurately reflects the dismal conditions at this school. Charlotte's two oldest sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, died in 1824 of tuberculosis they contracted due to the poor management of the school. Following this tragedy, Patrick Brontë withdrew Charlotte and Emily from Cowan Bridge.

Grieving over their sisters' deaths and searching for a way to alleviate their loneliness, the remaining four siblings began writing a series of stories, The Glass-Town, stimulated by a set of toy soldiers their father had given them. In these early writings, the children collaboratively created a complete imaginary world, a fictional West African empire they called Angria. Charlotte explained their interest in writing this way: "We were wholly dependent on ourselves and each other, on books and study, for the enjoyments and occupations of life. The highest stimulus, as well as the liveliest pleasure we had know from childhood upwards, lay in attempts at literary composition." Through her early twenties, Charlotte routinely revised and expanded pieces of the Angria story, developing several key characters and settings. While this writing helped Charlotte improve her literary style, the Angria adventures are fantastical, melodramatic, and repetitive, contrasting with Charlotte's more realistic adult fiction. After her father had a dangerous lung disorder, he decided once again that his daughters should receive an education so they would be assured of an income if he died. In 1831, Charlotte entered the Misses Wooler's school at Roe Head.

Shy and solitary, Charlotte was not happy at school, but she still managed to win several academic awards and to make two lifelong friends: Mary Taylor and Ellen Nussey. Although she was offered a teaching job at Roe Head, Charlotte declined the position, choosing to return to Haworth instead. Perhaps bored with the solitary life at Haworth and looking for an active occupation in the world, Charlotte returned to Roe Head in 1835 as a governess. For her, governessing was akin to "slavery," because she felt temperamentally unsuited for it, and finally, following a near mental breakdown in 1838, she was forced to resign her position. Unfortunately, governessing was the only real employment opportunity middle-class women had in Victorian England. Because the family needed the money, Charlotte suffered through two more unhappy governess positions, feeling like an unappreciated servant in wealthy families' homes; she didn't enjoy living in other people's houses because it caused "estrangement from one's real character." In an attempt to create a job that would allow her to maintain her independence, Charlotte formed the idea of starting her own school at Haworth.

To increase her teaching qualifications before beginning this venture, she enrolled as a student, at the age of twenty-six, at the Pensionnat Heger in Brussels so she could increase her fluency in French and learn German. Charlotte loved the freedom and adventure of living in a new culture, and formed an intense, though one-sided, passion for the married headmaster at the school: Monsieur Heger. After two years in Brussels, suffering perhaps from her love for Heger, Charlotte returned to England. The plan to open her own school was a failure, as she was unable to attract a single student. Instead, Charlotte began putting all of her energy into her writing. After discovering Emily's poems, Charlotte decided that she, Anne, and Emily should try to publish a collection of poems at their own expense. In 1846, they accomplished this goal, using the masculine pseudonyms of Currer, Acton, and Ellis Bell because of the double standards against women authors. Although their book, Poems, was not a financial success, the women continued their literary endeavors. Excited to be writing full-time, they each began a novel.

Anne's Agnes Grey and Emily's Wuthering Heights both found publishers, but Charlotte's somewhat autobiographical account of her experiences in Brussels, The Professor, was rejected by several publishers. Again refusing to become discouraged, Charlotte began writing Jane Eyre in 1846, while on a trip to Manchester with her father where he was undergoing cataract surgery. While he convalesced, Charlotte wrote. The firm of Smith, Elder, and Company agreed to publish the resulting novel, and the first edition of Jane Eyre was released on October 16, 1847. The novel was an instant success, launching Charlotte into literary fame. It also netted her an impressive 500 pounds, twenty-five times her salary as a governess. But the pleasures of literary success were soon overshadowed by family tragedy. In 1848, after Anne and Charlotte had revealed the true identity of the "Bells" to their publishers, their brother Branwell died. Never living up to his family's high expectations for him, Branwell died an opium-addicted, debauched, alcoholic failure. Emily and Anne died soon after.

Although Charlotte completed her second novel, Shirley in 1849, her sadness at the loss of her remaining siblings left her emotionally shattered. She became a respected member of the literary community only when her sisters, her most enthusiastic supporters, were no longer able to share her victory. Visiting London following the publication of this book, Charlotte became acquainted with several important writers, including William Thackeray and Elizabeth Gaskell, who was to write Charlotte's biography following her death. In 1852, the Reverend Arthur B. Nicholls, Mr. Brontë's curate at Haworth beginning in 1845, proposed marriage to Charlotte. Earlier in her life, Charlotte had rejected several marriage proposals because she was hoping to discover true love, but loneliness following the death of her last three siblings may have led her to accept Nicholls' proposal. Saying she had "esteem" but not love for Nicholls, Charlotte's relationship with her husband was certainly not the overwhelming passion of Jane and Rochester. Her father's jealous opposition to the marriage led Charlotte initially to reject Nicholls, who left Haworth in 1853, the year Villette was published.

By 1854, Reverend Brontë's opposition to the union had abated somewhat, and the ceremony was performed on June 29, 1854. After the marriage, Charlotte had little time for writing, as she was forced to perform the duties expected of a minister's wife and take care of her aging father. In 1854 Charlotte, in the early stages of pregnancy, caught pneumonia while on a long, rain-drenched walk on the moors. She died on March 31, 1855, a month before her thirty-ninth birthday. The Professor, written in 1846 and 1847, was posthumously published in 1857, along with Mrs. Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Brontë. Charlotte Brontë (Author of Jane Eyre) edit data Charlotte Brontë was a British novelist, the eldest out of the three famous Brontë sisters whose novels have become standards of English literature. See also Emily Brontë and Anne Brontë .

Charlotte Brontë was born in Thornton, Yorkshire, England, the third of six children, to Patrick Brontë (formerly "Patrick Brunty"), an Irish Anglican clergyman, and his wife, Maria Branwell. In April 1820 the family moved a few miles to Haworth, a remote town on the Yorkshire moors, where Patrick had been appointed Perpetual Curate. This is where the Brontë children would spend most of their lives. Maria Branwell Brontë died from what was thought to be cancer on 15 September 1821, leaving five daughters and a son to the care of her spinster sister Elizabet Charlotte Brontë was a British novelist, the eldest out of the three famous Brontë sisters whose novels have become standards of English literature. See also Emily Brontë and Anne Brontë . Charlotte Brontë was born in Thornton, Yorkshire, England, the third of six children, to Patrick Brontë (formerly "Patrick Brunty"), an Irish Anglican clergyman, and his wife, Maria Branwell.

In April 1820 the family moved a few miles to Haworth, a remote town on the Yorkshire moors, where Patrick had been appointed Perpetual Curate. This is where the Brontë children would spend most of their lives. Maria Branwell Brontë died from what was thought to be cancer on 15 September 1821, leaving five daughters and a son to the care of her spinster sister Elizabeth Branwell, who moved to Yorkshire to help the family. In August 1824 Charlotte, along with her sisters Emily, Maria, and Elizabeth, was sent to the Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge in Lancashire, a new school for the daughters of poor clergyman (which she would describe as Lowood School in Jane Eyre). The school was a horrific experience for the girls and conditions were appalling. They were regularly deprived of food, beaten by teachers and humiliated for the slightest error. The school was unheated and the pupils slept two to a bed for warmth. Seven pupils died in a typhus epidemic that swept the school and all four of the Brontë girls became very ill - Maria and Elizabeth dying of tuberculosis in 1825.

Her experiences at the school deeply affected Brontë - her health never recovered and she immortalised the cruel and brutal treatment in her novel, Jane Eyre. Following the tragedy, their father withdrew his daughters from the school. At home in Haworth Parsonage, Charlotte and the other surviving children — Branwell, Emily, and Anne — continued their ad-hoc education. In 1826 her father returned home with a box of toy soldiers for Branwell. They would prove the catalyst for the sisters' extraordinary creative development as they immediately set to creating lives and characters for the soldiers, inventing a world for them which the siblings called 'Angria'. The siblings became addicted to writing, creating stories, poetry and plays. Brontë later said that the reason for this burst of creativity was that: 'We were wholly dependent on ourselves and each other, on books and study, for the enjoyments and occupations of life.

The highest stimulus, as well as the liveliest pleasure we had known from childhood upwards, lay in attempts at literary composition.' After her father began to suffer from a lung disorder, Charlotte was again sent to school to complete her education at Roe Head school in Mirfield from 1831 to 1832, where she met her lifelong friends and correspondents, Ellen Nussey and Mary Taylor. During this period (1833), she wrote her novella The Green Dwarf under the name of Wellesley. The school was extremely small with only ten pupils meaning the top floor was completely unused and believed to be supposedly haunted by the ghost of a young lady dressed in silk. This story fascinated Brontë and inspired the figure of Mrs Rochester in Jane Eyre. Brontë left the school after a few years, however she swiftly returned in 1835 to take up a position as a teacher, and used her wages to pay for Emily and Anne to be taught at the school.

However, teaching did not appeal to Brontë and in 1838 she left Roe Head to become a governess to the Sidgewick family - this was partly from a sense of adventure and a desire to see the world, and partly from financial necessity. Charlotte 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, aged 38. . ...more Charlotte Brontë, 19th Century Novelist 19th Century Novelist ​Known for: author of Jane Eyre, other novels; one of three Brontë sisters Occupation: writer, poet, novelist Dates: April 21, 1816 - March 31, 1855 Also known as: Charlotte Nicholls; pen name Currer Bell Background, Family: Mother: Maria Branwell (April 15, 1783 – September 15, 1821); born in Cornwall. Mother: Anne Crane, whose father was a silversmith.

Father: Thomas Branwell, prosperous merchant in Penzance. Maria became a teacher when her parents died. Father: Patrick Brontë (March 17, 1777 – June 7, 1861); born in Ireland; ordained August 10, 1806; poor Anglican clergyman. Studied at St. John’s College, Cambridge, where he changed the spelling of his last name from Brunty. Published poet. Parents: Eleanor McCrory and Hugh Brunty. (Surname originally mac Aedh Ó Proinntigh) Maria Branwell and Patrick Brontë married December 29, 1812.

Siblings: Maria Brontë April 23, 1814 – May 6, 1825 Elizabeth Brontë 1815 – June 15, 1825 Patrick Branwell Brontë June 26, 1817 – September 24, 1848 – usually called Branwell to distinguish him from his father, also Patrick Emily Jane Brontë July 30, 1818 – December 19, 1848 Anne Brontë January 17, 1820 – May 28, 1849 continue reading below our video Test Your General Science Knowledge Aunt who helped raise the siblings: Elizabeth Branwell (December 2, 1776 – October 29, 1842), Maria Branwell’s sister Education: Clergy Daughters' School, Cowan Bridge Roe Head School, Desbury Moor Pensionnat Heger, Brussels Husband: Arthur Bells Nicholls (married June 29, 1854; Anglican clergyman) Children: none; Charlotte died during her first pregnancy Charlotte Brontë Biography: Charlotte was the third

 of six siblings born in six years to the Rev.

Patrick Brontë and his wife, Maria Branwell Brontë. Charlotte was born at the parsonage in Thornton, Yorkshire, where her father was serving. All six children were born before the family moved in April 1820 to where the children would live most of their lives, at the 5-room parsonage at Haworth on the moors of Yorkshire. Her father had been appointed as perpetual curate there, meaning an appointment for life: he and his family could live in the parsonage as long as he continued his work there. The father encouraged the children to spend time in nature on the moors. Maria died the year after the youngest, Anne, was born, possibly of uterine cancer or of chronic pelvic sepsis. Maria’s older sister, Elizabeth, moved from Cornwall to help care for the children and for the parsonage. She had an income of her own. The Clergymen’s Daughter’s School In September of 1824, the four older sisters, including Charlotte, were sent to the Clergy Daughters’ School at Cowan Bridge, a school for the daughters of impoverished clergy. The daughter of writer Hannah Moore was also in attendance.

The harsh conditions of the school were later reflected in Charlotte Brontë's novel, Jane Eyre. A typhoid fever outbreak at the school led to several deaths. The next February, Maria was sent home very ill, and she died in May, probably of pulmonary tuberculosis . Then Elizabeth was sent home late in May, also ill. Patrick Brontë brought his other daughters home as well, and Elizabeth died on June 15. Maria, the eldest daughter, had served as a mother figure for her younger siblings; Charlotte decided she needed to fulfill a similar role as the eldest surviving daughter. Imaginary Lands When her brother Patrick was given some wooden soldiers as a gift in 1826, the siblings began to make up stories about the world that the soldiers lived in. They wrote the stories in tiny script, in books small enough for the soldiers, and also provided newspapers and poetry for the world they apparently first called Glasstown. Charlotte’s first known story was written in March of 1829; she and Branwell wrote most of the initial stories. In January of 1831, Charlotte was sent to school at Roe Head, about fifteen miles from home.

There she made friends of Ellen Nussey and Mary Taylor, who were to be part of her life later as well. Charlotte excelled in school, including at French. In eighteen months, Charlotte returned home, and resumed the Glasstown saga. Meanwhile Charlotte's younger sisters, Emily and Anne , had created their own land, Gondal, and Branwell had created a rebellion. Charlotte negotiated a truce and cooperation among the siblings. She began the Angrian stories. Charlotte also created paintings and drawings – 180 of them survive. Branwell, her younger brother, got familial support for developing his painting skills towards a possible career; such support was not available to the sisters. Teaching In July of 1835 Charlotte had an opportunity to become a teacher at Roe Head school. They offered her a tuition-free admission for one sister as payment for her services. She took Emily, two years younger than Charlotte, with her, but Emily soon became ill, an illness attributed to homesickness. Emily returned to Haworth and the youngest sister, Anne, took her place. In 1836, Charlotte sent some of the poems she had written to England’s poet laureate.

He discouraged her pursuit of a career, suggesting that because she was a woman, she pursue her “real duties” as a wife and mother. Charlotte, nevertheless, continued writing poems and novellas. The school moved in 1838, and Charlotte left that position in December, returning home and later calling herself “shattered.” She had continued to return to the imaginary world of Angria on holidays from school, and continued writing in that world after she moved back to the family home. Shattered In May of 1839 Charlotte briefly became a governess. She hated the role, especially the sense she had of having “no existence” as a family servant. She left in mid-June. A new curate, William Weightman, arrived in August of 1839 to assist the Rev. Brontë. A new and young clergyman, he seems to have attracted flirting from both Charlotte and Anne, and perhaps more attraction from Anne. Charlotte received two different proposals in 1839. One was from Henry Nussey the brother of her friend, Ellen, with whom she’d continued to correspond. The other was from an Irish minister. Charlotte turned them both down.

Charlotte took another governess position in March of 1841; this one lasted until December. She returned home thinking she’d start a school. Her aunt Elizabeth Branwell promised financial support. Brussels In February of 1842 Charlotte and Emily went to London and then Brussels. They attended a school in Brussels for six months, then Charlotte and Emily were both asked to stay on, serving as teachers to pay for their tuition. Charlotte taught English and Emily taught music. In September, they learned that the young Rev. Weightman had died. But they had to return home in October for a funeral, when their aunt Elizabeth Branwell died. The four Brontë siblings received shares of their aunt’s estate, and Emily worked as a housekeeper for her father, serving in the role their aunt had taken. Anne returned to a governess position, and Branwell followed Anne to serve with the same family as a tutor. Charlotte returned to Brussels to teach. She felt isolated there, and perhaps fell in love with the master of the school, though her affections and interest were not returned. She returned home at the end of a year, though she continued to write letters to the schoolmaster from England.

Charlotte moved back to Haworth, and Anne, returning from her governess position, did the same. Their father needed more help in his work, as his vision was failing. Branwell had also returned, in disgrace, and declined in health as he increasingly turned to alcohol and opium. Writing for Publication In 1845, a quite significant event that started small happened: Charlotte found Emily’s poetry notebooks. She got excited at their quality, and Charlotte, Emily and Anne discovered each others’ poems. The three selected poems from their collections for publication, choosing to do so under male pseudonyms. The false names would share their initials: Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. They assumed that male writers would find easier publication. The poems were published as Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell in May of 1846 with the help of the inheritance from their aunt. They did not tell their father or brother of their project. The book only initially sold two copies, but got positive reviews, which encouraged Charlotte. The sisters began preparing novels for publication. Charlotte wrote the Professor, perhaps imagining a better relationship with her friend, the Brussels schoolmaster.

Emily wrote Wuthering Heights , adapted from the Gondal stories. Anne wrote Agnes Grey, rooted in her experiences as a governess. The next year, July 1847, the stories by Emily and Anne, but not Charlotte’s, were accepted for publication, still under the Bell pseudonyms. They were not actually published immediately, however. Jane Eyre Charlotte wrote Jane Eyre and offered that to the publisher, ostensibly an autobiography edited by Currer Bell. The book became a quick hit. Some surmised from the writing that Currer Bell was a woman, and there was much speculation about who the author might be. Some critics condemned the relationship between Jane and Rochester as “improper.” The book, with some revisions, entered a second edition in January 1848, and a third in April of that same year. Clarification of Authorship After Jane Eyre had proven a success, Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey also were published. A publisher began advertising the three as a package, suggesting that the three “brothers” were really a single author. By that time Anne had also written and published The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

Charlotte and Emily went to London to claim authorship by the sisters, and their identities were made public. Tragedy Charlotte had begun a new novel, when her brother Branwell, died in April of 1848, probably of tuberculosis . Some have speculated that the conditions at the parsonage were not so healthy, including a poor water supply and chilly, foggy weather. Emily caught what seemed to be a cold at his funeral, and became ill. She declined quickly, refusing medical care until relenting in her last hours. She died in December. Then Anne began to show symptoms, though she, after Emily’s experience, did seek medical help. Charlotte and her friend Ellen Nussey took Anne to Scarborough for a better environment, but Anne died there in May of 1849, less than a month after arriving. Branwell and Emily were buried in the parsonage graveyard, and Anne in Scarborough. Returning to Living Charlotte, now the last of the siblings to survive, and still living with her father, completed her new novel, Shirley: A Tale, in August, and it was published in October 1849.

In November Charlotte went to London, where she met such figures as William Makepeace Thackeray and Harriet Martineau . She traveled, staying with various friends. In 1850 she met Elizabeth Glaskell. She began corresponding with many of her new acquaintances and friends. She also refused another offer of marriage. She republished Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey in December 1850, with a biographical note clarifying who her sisters, the authors, really were. The characterization of her sisters as the impractical but caring Emily and the self-denying, reclusive, not so original Anne, tended to persist once those impressions became public. Charlotte heavily edited her sisters’ work, even while claiming to be advocating truthfulness about them. She suppressed the publication of Anne’s Tenant of Wildfell Hall, with its portrayal of alcoholism and a woman’s independence. Charlotte wrote Villette, publishing it in January of 1853, and split with Harriet Martineau over it, as Martineau disapproved of it. New Relationship Arthur Bell Nicholls was the Rev. Brontë’s curate, of Irish background like Charlotte’s father was. He surprised Charlotte with a proposal of marriage.

Charlotte’s father disapproved of the proposal, and Nicholls left his post. Charlotte turned down his proposal initially, then began secretly corresponding with Nicholls. They became engaged and he returned to Haworth. They were married on June 29, 1854, and honeymooned in Ireland. Charlotte continued her writing, beginning a new novel Emma. She also took care of her father at Haworth. She became pregnant the year after her marriage, then found herself extremely ill. She died on March 31, 1855. Her condition was at the time diagnosed as tuberculosis, but some have, much later, speculated that the description of symptom more likely fits the condition hyperemesis gravidarum , essentially an extreme morning sickness with dangerously excessive vomiting. Legacy In 1857, Elizabeth Gaskell published The Life of Charlotte Brontë, establishing the reputation of Charlotte Brontë as having suffered from a tragic life. In 1860, Thackeray published the unfinished Emma. Her husband helped revise The Professor for publication with the encouragement of Gaskell. By the end of the 19th century, Charlotte Brontë’s work was largely out of fashion.

Interest revived in the late 20th century. Jane Eyre has been her most popular work, and has been adapted for stage, film and television and even for ballet and opera. Two stories, "The Secret" and "Lily Hart," were not published until 1978. Books by Charlotte Brontë Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell Jane Eyre: An Autobiography The Twelve Adventurers and Other Stories Legends of Angria: Compiled from the Early Writings of Charlotte Brontë Emma (unfinished) Charlotte Bronte: A Brief Biography [ Victorian Web Home —> Authors —> Charlotte Brontë —> Works ] harlotte Brontë was born in 1816, the third daughter of the Rev. Patrick Brontë and his wife Maria. Her brother Patrick Branwell was born in 1817, and her sisters Emily and Anne in 1818 and 1820. In 1820, too, the Brontë family moved to Haworth, Mrs. Brontë dying the following year.

In 1824 the four eldest Brontë daughters were enrolled as pupils at the Clergy Daughter's School at Cowan Bridge. The following year Maria and Elizabeth, the two eldest daughters, became ill, left the school and died: Charlotte and Emily, understandably, were brought home. In 1826 Mr. Brontë brought home a box of wooden soldiers for Branwell to play with. Charlotte, Emily, Branwell, and Ann, playing with the soldiers, conceived of and began to write in great detail about an imaginary world which they called Angria. In 1831 Charlotte became a pupil at the school at Roe Head, but she left school the following year to teach her sisters at home. She returned returns to Roe Head School in 1835 as a governess: for a time her sister Emily attended the same school as a pupil, but became homesick and returned to Haworth. Ann took her place from 1836 to 1837. In 1838, Charlotte left Roe Head School. In 1839 she accepted a position as governess in the Sidgewick family, but left after three months and returned to Haworth.

In 1841 she became governess in the White family, but left, once again, after nine months. Upon her return to Haworth the three sisters, led by Charlotte, decided to open their own school after the necessary preparations had been completed. In 1842 Charlotte and Emily went to Brussels to complete their studies. After a trip home to Haworth, Charlotte returned alone to Brussels, where she remained until 1844. Upon her return home the sisters embarked upon their project for founding a school, which proved to be an abject failure: their advertisements did not elicit a single response from the public. The following year Charlotte discovered Emily's poems, and decided to publish a selection of the poems of all three sisters: 1846 brought the publication of their Poems, written under the pseudonyms of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. Charlotte also completed The Professor, which was rejected for publication. The following year, however, Charlotte's Jane Eyre, Emily's Wuthering Heights, and Ann's Agnes Grey were all published, still under the Bell pseudonyms.

In 1848 Charlotte and Ann visited their publishers in London, and revealed the true identities of the "Bells." In the same year Branwell Brontë, by now an alcoholic and a drug addict, died, and Emily died shortly thereafter. Ann died the following year. In 1849 Charlotte, visiting London, began to move in literary circles, making the acquaintance, for example, of Thackeray. In 1850 Charlotte edited her sister's various works, and met Mrs. Gaskell. In 1851she visited the Great Exhibition in London, and attended a series of lectures given by Thackeray. The Rev. A. B. Nicholls, curate of Haworth since 1845, proposed marriage to Charlotte in 1852. The Rev. Mr. Brontë objected violently, and Charlotte, who, though she may have pitied him, was in any case not in love with him, refused him. Nicholls left Haworth in the following year, the same in which Charlotte's Villette was published. By 1854, however, Mr.

Brontë's opposition to the proposed marriage had weakened, and Charlotte and Nicholls became engaged. Nicholls returned as curate at Haworth, and they were married, though it seems clear that Charlotte, though she admired him, still did not love him. In 1854 Charlotte, expecting a child, caught pneumonia. It was an illness which could have been cured, but she seems to have seized upon it (consciously or unconsciously) as an opportunity of ending her life, and after a lengthy and painful illness, she died, probably of dehydration. 1857 saw the postumous publication of The Professor, which had been written in 1845-46, and in that same year Mrs. Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Brontë was published. SparkNotes: Jane Eyre: Chapters 17–21 Chapters 17–21 Chapters 17–21, page 2 page 1 of 2 Summary: Chapter 17 Rochester has been gone for a week, and Jane is dismayed to learn that he may choose to depart for continental Europe without returning to Thornfield—according to Mrs. Fairfax, he could be gone for more than a year.

A week later, however, Mrs. Fairfax receives word that Rochester will arrive in three days with a large group of guests. While she waits, Jane continues to be amazed by the apparently normal relations the strange, self–isolated Grace Poole enjoys with the rest of the staff. Jane also overhears a conversation in which a few of the servants discuss Grace’s high pay, and Jane is certain that she doesn’t know the entire truth about Grace Poole’s role at Thornfield. Rochester arrives at last, accompanied by a party of elegant and aristocratic guests. Jane is forced to join the group but spends the evening watching them from a window seat. Blanche Ingram and her mother are among the party’s members, and they treat Jane with disdain and cruelty. Jane tries to leave the party, but Rochester stops her. He grudgingly allows her to go when he sees the tears brimming in her eyes. He informs her that she must come into the drawing room every evening during his guests’ stay at Thornfield. As they part, Rochester nearly lets slip more than he intends. “Good-night, my—” he says, before biting his lip. Summary: Chapter 18 The guests stay at Thornfield for several days.

Rochester and Blanche compete as a team at charades. From watching their interaction, Jane believes that they will be married soon though they do not seem to love one another. Blanche would be marrying Rochester for his wealth, and he for her beauty and her social position. One day, a strange man named Mr. Mason arrives at Thornfield. Jane dislikes him at once because of his vacant eyes and his slowness, but she learns from him that Rochester once lived in the West Indies, as he himself has done. One evening, a gypsy woman comes to Thornfield to tell the guests’ fortunes. Blanche Ingram goes first, and when she returns from her talk with the gypsy woman she looks keenly disappointed. Summary: Chapter 19 Jane goes in to the library to have her fortune read, and after overcoming her skepticism, she finds herself entranced by the old woman’s speech. The gypsy woman seems to know a great deal about Jane and tells her that she is very close to happiness. She also says that she told Blanche Ingram that Rochester was not as wealthy as he seemed, thereby accounting for Blanche’s sullen mood.

As the woman reads Jane’s fortune, her voice slowly deepens, and Jane realizes that the gypsy is Rochester in disguise. Jane reproaches Rochester for tricking her and remembers thinking that Grace Poole might have been the gypsy. When Rochester learns that Mr. Mason has arrived, he looks troubled. Summary: Chapter 20 The same night, Jane is startled by a sudden cry for help. She hurries into the hallway, where Rochester assures everyone that a servant has merely had a nightmare. After everyone returns to bed, Rochester knocks on Jane’s door. He tells her that he can use her help and asks whether she is afraid of blood. He leads her to the third story of the house and shows her Mr. Mason, who has been stabbed in the arm. Rochester asks Jane to stanch the wound and then leaves, ordering Mason and Jane not to speak to one another. In the silence, Jane gazes at the image of the apostles and Christ’s crucifixion that is painted on the cabinet across from her. Rochester returns with a surgeon, and as the men tend to Mason’s wounds, Rochester sends Jane to find a potion downstairs.

He gives some of it to Mason, saying that it will give him heart for an hour. Once Mason is gone, Jane and Rochester stroll in the orchard, and Rochester tells Jane a hypothetical story about a young man who commits a “capital error” in a foreign country and proceeds to lead a life of dissipation in an effort to “obtain relief.” The young man then hopes to redeem himself and live morally with a wife, but convention prevents him from doing so. He asks whether the young man would be justified in “overleaping an obstacle of custom.” Jane’s reply is that such a man should look to God for his redemption, not to another person. Rochester—who obviously has been describing his own situation—asks Jane to reassure him that marrying Blanche would bring him salvation. He then hurries away before she has a chance to answer. Summary: Chapter 21 Jane has heard that it is a bad omen to dream of children, and now she has dreams on seven consecutive nights involving babies. She learns that her cousin John Reed has committed suicide, and that her aunt, Mrs. Reed, has suffered a stroke and is nearing death. Jane goes to Gateshead, where she is reunited with Bessie.

She also sees her cousins Eliza and Georgiana. Eliza is plain and plans to enter a convent, while Georgiana is as beautiful as ever. Ever since Eliza ruined Georgiana’s hopes of eloping with a young man, the two sisters have not gotten along. Jane tries to patch things up with Mrs. Reed, but the old woman is still full of hostility toward her late husband’s favorite. One day, Mrs. Reed gives Jane a letter from her father’s brother, John Eyre. He declares that he wishes to adopt Jane and bequeath her his fortune. The letter is three years old; out of malice, Mrs. Reed did not forward it to Jane when she received it. In spite of her aunt’s behavior, Jane tries once more to smooth relations with the dying woman. But Mrs. Reed refuses, and, at midnight, she dies. 1

Question: According to Charlotte Bront, who married Jane Eyre?
Answer: Mr Rochester