The Bronte Sisters

you you you you you you the parsonage at howarth stands at the highest point of the village where the dark terraced houses cling to the steep cobbled streets just as they did when the Bronte family lived here over a century and a half ago when the Reverend Patrick Bronte brought his wife and six small children to Howarth in 1820 many of the villagers still worked in their own homes combing the wool for the spinning and weaving mills which were becoming so much a part of the landscape life expectancy was poor the average age of death was 25 due to unhealthy working conditions and how it's diabolical sanitation there were no sewers and the position of the graveyard at the top of the hill with flat gravestones lying horizontally on the top of the bodies resulted in a contaminated water supply for the entire village despite the findings of the Babbage report of 1850 it took years for improvements to be made far too late for the short-lived Bronte sisters they would have watched the graveyard filling up with friends and acquaintances unable to escape the imposing headstones by then upright dominating their every view for the modern-day visitor Howarth parsonage is now a museum recreating the way of life experienced by Charlotte Emily and Anne when they were writing an occupation which brought them solace escapism and entertainment their story is tinged with all the best elements of Victorian melodrama appallingly tragic but timelessly inspiring where real writing talent overcame seemingly insurmountable odds to be given a voice as the published word the Bronte saga began in Island M Dale County down with the birth of a baby boy in a traditional two roomed Irish cabin on st. Patrick's Day 1777 the eldest of 10 with a Protestant father and a Catholic mother he was named after the saint and blessed with good fortune rising to scholarly heights entering st. John's College Cambridge to study for a career in the church this was an exceptional achievement for an Irishman of such humble origins it was at Cambridge that the name of Bronte first appears when the young man previously known as Patrick Grundy chose a more distinguished surname this was perhaps due to Patrick great admiration for Lord Nelson who had assumed the title of the Duke of Bronte Patrick Bronte was ambitious and made the most of his opportunities becoming curate in several parishes as he furthered his career he also had literary aspirations and published several volumes of poetry in 1809 Patrick was appointed assistant curate at All Saints Church Wellington in Shropshire here he became friendly with John Fennell who was married to a lady of Cornish origin when the couple took on Woodhouse Grove a Wesleyan School near Bradford mrs. fennels recently orphaned niece Maria age 29 came from Penzance to help her aunt with domestic duties maria Branwell met Patrick Bronte then aged 35 in July 1812 on one of his visits to examine the pupils in theology by the August Maria had agreed to marry Patrick with the ceremony taking place on the 29th of December there's little information about Maria but the few letters that exist from her courtship with Patrick suggests that she was lively and intelligent with a playful sense of humor addressing her fiance as my dear saucy Pat as a clergyman Patrick was an evangelical and was drawn to accuracy a Dewsbury in the West Riding of Yorkshire which had become the hub of a Wesleyan revival in an area experiencing immense hardship the young curate was kept busy with sick visiting and funerals between October 18 10 and February 18 11 there were at least 50 funerals a month rising to 70 in the November when on two occasions there were eight burials in one day Patrick stayed at Dewsbury only 15 months before moving to Hart's head about five miles away here he came into close contact with the Luddites who were protesting violently against new machinery being introduced to the local mills Patrick told many stories of the battles between the mill owners and workers to his children and for charlotte brontë his tales were a source of inspiration for her novel surely while they were at heart said the first two Bronte children were born Maria in 1814 and Elizabeth in February 1815 the young family then moved to Thornton near Bradford in the may of 1815 providing an increased salary which proved very useful as four more children were born in the next five years Charlotte on the 21st of April 1816 Bramwell on the 26th of June 1817 Emily on July the 30th 1818 and finally an on the 17th of January 1820 these were happy years with the Bronte family enjoying an active social life with friends living close by when Patrick Bronte was offered promotion with more money and a bigger house just five miles across the Moors at Howarth it was a very good opportunity and no one could have predicted the troubles that lay ahead the good house built between 1778 and 1779 had flagstone floors in all of the downstairs rooms and Patrick Bronte's obsessive fear of fire meant that he would not allow curtains at any of the windows or carpets on the floor winter must have been cold but when Emily later wrote about her home warmth was not a commodity that was lacking there is a spot mid barren hills where winter howls and driving rain but if the dreary Tempest chills there is a light that warms again the house is old the trees are bare and moonless bends the misty dome but what on earth is half so dear so longed for as the heart of home Mariya Bronte suffered poor health at Howarth and all six children contracted scarlet fever in 1821 by the may it was evident that mrs. Bronte was very sick in fact she was dying slowly and painfully from cancer it was too much for Patrick to cope with alone while tending to his parish work so Elizabeth Bramwell Maria's sister came from Cornwall to care for the ailing and isolated family despite the comforting presence of her sister it's hard to imagine the anguish faced by mrs. Bronte her eldest child was only seven and baby Anne was not even two knowing that she was leaving six small children to make their own way in the world without a mother distressed her greatly and her tragically poignant dying words were oh god my poor children Oh God my poor children it was on September the 15th 1821 that mrs. Bronte lost her battle for life the first of the family to be buried at how earth aunt Elizabeth a fine example of Wesleyan method ISM did not fail in her Duty remaining to look after Patrick Bronte's household after the warm sunshine of Como she took a dim view of the cold parsonage in Yorkshire which would be her home for the rest of her life as the family adjusted to their sad loss Patrick tried in vain to find a new mother for his children and a companion for himself after two proposals to suitable ladies and two adamant refusal 'he's the young father became very withdrawn and distant even choosing to eat every meal alone to his little children he became an austere strict and unapproachable father Victorian in the extreme whatever his behavior however he unquestionably loved the children and his actions were in his view taken only for their own good in July 1824 the two eldest children Maria and Elizabeth were sent away to the clergy daughter school at Cowen bridge Charlotte joined them in August and Emily aged only six in the November although Charlotte was only eight years old she never forgot this school and its fearsome evangelical headmaster the Reverend Karras Wilson and in later years immortalized him as mr. Brocklehurst the headmaster of Lowood school and tormentor of the heroine in Jane Eyre readers are subjected to a harrowing catalog of child cruelty without doubt based upon Charlotte's experiences at Cowen Bridge mrs. Gaskell Charlotte's friend and biographer commented that miss Bronte more than once said to me that she should not have written what she did a blow would in Jane Eyre if she thought the place would have been so immediately identified with Karen bridge although there was not a word in her account of the institution but what was true at the time when she knew it in Jane Eyre the shortcomings of Lowood are exposed when the school is hit by a typhus epidemic with many of the poorly fed and cared for pupils dying this again was based on Charlotte's own childhood memories 11 year old Maria Bronte became very ill in February 1825 and was sent home to earth she died on the 6th of May and was buried with her mother in health search the second sister Elizabeth also became ill and returned home on the 31st of May Patrick Bronte quickly withdrew Charlotte and Emily and although they were ill they both recovered Elizabeth sadly joined her mother and sister in the Bronte family vault dying on the 15th of July 1825 the four surviving Bronte children became very close seeking solace in each other's company out on the wild moors above the parsonage aunt Elizabeth talked the girls with Patrick undertaking his son's education even at this early stage the family expected great things of bran well as the only son who it was anticipated would provide for his sister's June the fifth 1826 was an eventful day in both the Bronte family and the world of literature Patrick Bronte brought some toy soldiers home for Branwell an event immortalized by Charlotte Papa brought Branwell sand wooden soldiers at Leeds when Papa came home it was night and we were in bed so next morning bran well came to our door with a box of soldiers Emily and I jumped out of bed and I snatched up one and exclaimed this is the Duke of Wellington it shall be mine when I said this Emily likewise took one and said it should be hers when Anne came down and took one also mine was the prettiest of the whole and perfect in every part Emily's was a grave looking fellow so we called him gravy Anne's was a queer little thing very much like herself he was called waiting boy Branwell chose Bonaparte these soldiers inspired the children to create imaginary worlds peopled by heroic characters copies of Blackwood's magazine were very popular with the Bronte children they were passed on to the parsonage and the children started to write their stories down much as if they were creating a magazine also works concerning the natural world such as Goldsmith's grammar of general geography provided the landscapes for their imaginings taking them beyond the Yorkshire Moors and the only world they knew Charlotte and Branwell wrote about the world of Angry with Emily and Dan showing an independent spirit splitting away to write about their legends of gondol a world that would continue in their letters to each other and diaries for many years it was never the content however that made these stories famous it was their size all of the tales are recorded in tiny little books which still remain a source of fascination today the world over it's interesting to note that Bramwell was equally as involved as the girls in these early works of literature the Bronte children showed considerable intellect and discretion with their stories the Reverend Bronte despite his interest in matters military would have disapproved of his children's handiwork knowing that their father was extremely short-sighted the children realized that he would be unable to read the tiny books thus leaving them free to write what they wished avoiding any censorship it's understandable that after the tragic deaths of his two eldest children as a result of being sent away to school Patrick Bronte was reluctant to let his surviving offspring venture from home in a world where industrial change was making an issue of education with newfound wealth being used to buy into schools for social progression the Bronte children would have to move beyond the confines of how if passage if they wanted to progress in the new age in the January of 1831 little before her 15th birthday Charlotte left howarth for miss Wulla school at row head near Hart's head I first saw her coming out of a covered cart in very old fashioned clothes and looking very cold and miserable she was coming to school at miss woola's when she appeared in the schoolroom her dress was changed but just as old she looked like a little old woman so short-sighted that she always appeared to be seeking something and moving a head from side to side to catch a sight of it she was very shy and nervous and spoke with an Irish accent the transition to school life was difficult for Charlotte and this description from her fellow pupil and future friend Mary Taylor proves to be very informative it took Charlotte some time to settle but eventually she blossomed in the educational environment and despite her lack of social grace a friendship with Mary Taylor and another pupil Ellen knew she would last her whole life long Charlotte also realized that education could provide an income for young ladies of her situation by either teaching in schools or becoming a governess Charlotte's success as a pupil saw her welcomed back as a teacher in 1835 it was a good opportunity for Emily to join her sister at Miss woola's as a pupil even from a young age Emily was a complex character who often gave the impression of rudeness and clumsiness she did not fare well at school and was desperately homesick longing for how earth and her liberty out on the moors seemingly determined to reject her new circumstances Emily's health failed and Charlotte who understood her sister better than anyone felt that she needed to take action every morning she woke the vision of home and the Moors rushed on her and darkened and saddened the day that lay before her nobody knew what ailed her but me I felt in my heart she would dive she did not go home and with this conviction obtained her recall after Emily's departure and took her place at miss woola's and although equally as shy as Emily she was better able to cope with her homesickness and was also more attractive than her sisters as this description from Ellen Lucy explains an dear gentle Anne was quite different in appearance from the others she was her aunt's favorite her hair was very pretty in light brown and fell on her neck in grease fell curls she had lovely violet blue eyes fine penciled eyebrows and clear almost transparent complexion the two years spent at Miss woola's were to be Anne's only formal education however by this time it had become obvious that the early artistic promise shown by Bramwell had been suffocated perhaps by his family's high expectations or more probably due to his own rather weak nature having been sent to London aiming for the Royal Academy no less with sufficient finance to study painting he returns to Howarth in disgrace the money squandered on drink and drugs Branwell was not a handsome young man and like Charlotte was rather short so as this self-portrait shows his appearance would have been rather peculiar particularly when under the influence of alcohol and laudanum Emily went to teach and Miss Patchett's school nor hill near Halifax but a time there was short lived about six months Charlotte was suffering from depression teaching at Miss woola's having hallucinatory dreams about her angry and characters she left in the December of 1838 in 1839 and became a governess to the Ingham family and Charlotte took up the same office for the Sidgwick family at Skipton being a governess was a difficult occupation neither servant nor family equal and managed to stay of six months charlotte only two Branwell also tried his hand at education becoming a tutor to the Postlethwaite family in 1840 unlike the girls who left their unsatisfactory posts of their own accord Branwell was dismissed after six months both Anne and Charlotte tried again with different families and to the Robinsons at Thorpe Green hall and Charlotte to the whites at Rawdon for Charlotte it was another disaster and she left the post in December 1841 enough was enough Charlotte described the work of a governess as slavery hard labour from 6:00 in the morning until near 11:00 at night Charlotte therefore put together a plan to start her own school which would serve two purposes one it would provide an income while allowing the three sisters to work together and two they could remain at their beloved home art Branwell offered to lend the girl some money to get things started preliminary inquiries were not promising and although miss Wulla offered charlotte her school charlotte decided that aunt's money could be put to better use at this time Charlotte was receiving letters from Mary Taylor and her sister who were travelling in Belgium Charlotte convinced art Bramwell that it would be a good investment to send herself and Emily to Belgium so that they would be better qualified to teach foreign languages the pension day Demoiselles kept by madame Hager in Brussels was chosen and Patrick Bronte escorted his daughter's there in 1842 the choice of Emily to accompany Charlotte is in some respects puzzling Emily couldn't cope with the school that was just a few miles from Howarth so Belgium must have been an extremely daunting prospect Anne had fared much better at school and would have been a more logical choice but after some initial conflict had settled well with the Robinsons also it is perhaps worth mentioning the Reverend Bronte's new curate the handsome and flirtatious William Whiteman who was showing interest in Anne she was very much in love with him and this description of their behavior by Ellen Lucy gives a rare example of romance for one of the sisters he sits opposite to Anne in church sighing softly and looking out of the corner of his eyes to win her attention and Anne is so quiet her look so downcast they are a picture Emily whatever her reluctance to travel would have been motivated by the promise that if Charlotte's plan worked she would never need to leave her beloved howarth again the nine months she spent in Belgium were predictably awful for Emily socially she found it hard to mix with the other girls who often teased her for her strange old-fashioned dress and manners she appears to have coped by dedicating herself to her studies impressing her teachers who felt she possessed an intellect something even higher than Charlotte's the experience doesn't seem to have affected Emily's life and she certainly didn't use the episode as a source of inspiration Charlotte by contrast was deeply affected by life in Brussels Monsieur Constantine Hager was very different from the men Charlotte had come into contact with in her sheltered Yorkshire life he was highly intelligent educated fiery heartily masculine and at 33 only seven years older than Charlotte the teacher-pupil relationship proved intoxicating for Charlotte who fell hopelessly in love with her professor her first novel was to be the professor based on many of her experiences as was her later Villette and even shirley sees her create a hero in Robert Sherrod Moore who is half Belgian Madame Hagar was needless to say not pleased by Charlotte's attention to her husband and she must have been greatly relieved when the Bronte sisters were called back to England in November 1842 after aunt bramwell's death on October the 29th once home Emily settled down to keep house for the now ailing Reverend Bronte with Charlotte planning to return to the Hagar's as a teacher Anne had suffered the loss of William Whiteman to cholera in September 1842 but was still with the Robinson family bran wells fortunes had gone from bad to worse on the railways after a brief spell as assistant clerk in charge he was promoted to clerk in charge at London and foot station but he was soon dismissed for constant and culpable carelessness money was missing and even though he was never actually accused of dishonesty the implication was hardly appropriate for a Vickers son when Charlotte left for Brussels in January 1843 Branwell went with Anne to Thorpe green as tutor to the Robinson boys the move exacerbated gran Welles ultimate destruction and also proved pretty disastrous for Anne who had built up such a position of trust with the family bran well fell in love with Lydia Robinson the wife of his employer fifteen years older than Bramwell it's probable that she was flattered by his attentions and even encouraged him because he truly believed that she loved him poor Anne caught in the crossfire left Thorp green of our own accord just a month before the Reverend Robinson dismissed bran well-fought proceedings bad beyond expression in July of 1845 Branwell went into an immediate self-pitying decline turning to alcohol and opium for comfort causing his family great embarrassment when the Reverend Robinson died a year later Branwell expected to marry the grieving widow who may have enjoyed a flirtation with the penniless tutor but an immediate marriage to a baronet had much greater appeal and he became as Emilie described him a hopeless being Charlotte was equally lovelorn back in Brussels also suffering from the Agony's of unrequited passion she became more and more jealous of Madame Hagar hating the wife of her heart's desire Charlotte said that she seemed the rosy sugarplum that I know her to be coloured chalk Charlotte was desperately lonely and isolated and the fact that she put aside her anti-catholic prejudices to make confession to a Catholic priest at this time confirms the extent of her unhappiness she returned to our earth in January 1844 but her infatuation with Constantine Hager continued and she wrote letters which were quite hysterical outpourings of her feelings at first he tried to limit her to one letter every six months but even this still annoyed Madame Hager and correspondence east Charlotte wrote this poem which illustrates her resignation to the circumstances but not without a degree of hell's fury from a woman scorned he saw my heart's whoa discovered my souls anguish how in fever in first in a trophy at pined knew he could heal yet looked and let it nourish to its moans spirit death to its pangs spirit blind so it was that by the autumn of 1845 all three Bronte sisters were back together at how earth but the parsonage was a wretched place Anne's poem domestic peace laments their unhappy situation due to bran wells continuing decline unfortunately in a parish the size of Howarth the drunken escapades of the Vickers son did not go unnoticed he was under constant threat of arrest for debt he wrote to friends asking them to bring him gin notably John Brown his drinking companion at the Black Bull he tried everything he could to get money from the family for drink and repaid them by throwing drunken fits which terrified the other inhabitants of Howarth the sense of shame for the family was immense and the future looked very bleak gran well was completely incapable of earning any living and every effort the girls had made had failed Patrick Bronte had developed cataracts and the sisters were aware that if he could not continue to fulfill his duties they would be both penniless and homeless then just as all hope seemed lost Charlotte came across a manuscript of Emily's poems the quality was unmistakable and Charlotte suggested publication Patrick Bronte's poems had been published so why shouldn't those of his daughters be Emily was furious feeling that her privacy had been invaded and it took a considerable amount of time and effort to calm her and diplomatically gave Charlotte some of her own poems and as Charlotte also had completed work it was decided that a volume of verse from all three sisters should be published with the contribution of 10 guineas from each of them courtesy of a small legacy left by aren't Bramwell messes a lot and Jones published the work in May of 1846 personal publicity was the last thing needed at the beleaguered parsonage also the sisters felt it important to conceal their sex so they chose the male pseudonyms of Qura Ellis and Acton Belle it's been suggested that the arrival of Arthur Belle Nichols as the Reverend Bronte's new curate provided the surname perhaps on this occasion coincidence played its part because Arthur Belle Nichols was very unpopular in howarth at this time and Charlotte's reception of him was to say the least chilly the writing careers of the Bronte sisters had begun sadly Charlotte's brilliant idea to generate the family's fortune was a complete failure only three reviews appeared and although quite favorable only two copies of the poems were sold undaunted and motivated by the stimulus of the writing project all three girls produced a novel Charlotte wrote the professor a tale of love in a Belgian school and composed Agnes gray a tale of life as a governess and Emily came up with the staggeringly powerful watering Heights the novels were offered to various publishers but for 18 months they were refused at length the publisher newbee took watering Heights and Agnes gray but not the professor Charlotte persevered with her story trying different publishers but her father's ill health took her to Manchester for his eye operation to remove his cataracts the very day of the operation saw the return of the professor yet again rejected this time Charlotte turned her thoughts to a new novel and Jane Eyre was started as she nursed her father as he recovered the professor was desperate to Messrs Smith elder and although they didn't take the novel they explained their decision in a letter which was sufficiently positive to encourage Charlotte to send them Jane Eyre the novel went first to William Smith Williams who found it hard to put the manuscript down and he was so enthusiastic about it that the young George Smith the director of the firm read it for himself agreeing wholeheartedly with Smith Williams Jane Eyre was published on October the 16th 1847 and achieved immediate success with critics and the public it tells the story of an orphan one Jane Eyre who is unfairly treated by the aunt who looks after her and sends her to the appalling Lowood school and the zealous mr. Brocklehurst the young heroines independent spirit does not as first appears get quashed but flourishes so that through education she learns self-sufficiency plain in appearance small and ordinary she goes as a governess to form field hall often thought to be based on the ridings at Burstall the home of Charlotte's friend Ellen you see Jane's employer is one of the best-loved most romantic heroes in literature the dark and mysterious mr. Rochester the novel was criticized initially for committing the highest moral offence the novel writer can that of making an unworthy character interesting in the eyes of the reader Rochester falls in love with Jane who he sees as his salvation against a background of strange and frightening events on their wedding day it is dramatically revealed that Rochester is already married to the insane Bertha Mason who is locked away at Thornfield there's great understanding in Charlotte's writing for Rochester's predicament but despite James love for her Byronic hero she runs away after being found by the rivers family she has the chance of marrying to become the wife of a missionary Jane refuses and becomes a teacher before hearing Rochester's voice calling her in her mind she discovers that Rochester has been left blind after trying to rescue his wife from the fire she started Bertha dies and Rochester retires from society until found by Jane who can then marry him morally and respectively the power of the novel is in the writing and the suspense in this extract illustrates this this was a demonic laugh low suppressed and deep uttered as it seemed at the very keyhole of my chamber door the head of my bed was near the door and I taught at first the goblin laughter stood at my bedside or rather crouched by my pillow but I rose look round and could see nothing while as I gazed the unnatural sound was reiterated and I knew it came from behind the panel's my first impulse was to rise and fasten the boat my next again was to cry out who is there Wuthering Heights and Agnes gray were published in December 1847 a small edition not well printed and both met with financial failure Wuthering Heights actually shocked all who came across it it was described as a strange in artistic story full of brutal cruelty and semi savage love history would reverse this initial judgment and of all the novels to be found anywhere in literature the two main protagonists Cathy and Heathcliff evolved as one of the best-known couples of all time their story is told by mr. Lockwood who rents Thrushcross Grange from the black-hearted Heathcliff at the isolated Wuthering Heights weathering is in fact as mr. Lockwood explains a significant provincial adjective descriptive of atmospheric toold which one look tot Wiggins reputedly the inspiration for weathering Heights confirms whilst visiting his neighbor Lockwood gets trapped by the weather and in the night is visited by a ghost the writing is magnificent and the reader immediately anticipate something dreadful the intense horror of the nightmare came over me I tried to draw back my arm but the hands clung to it and a most melancholy voice sobbed set me in let me in terror made me cruel finding it useless to attempt shaking the creature off I pulled its wrist on the broken pane and rubbed it to and fro till the blood ran down and soaked the bedclothes when Lockwood screams out heathcliff behaves in a most peculiar manner and the reader can't wait for the story to unfold through the capable narrative of Nelly Dean Lockwood's housekeeper he got on to the bed and wrenched open the lattice bursting as he pulled at it into an uncontrollable passion of tears come in come in he sobbed Cathy do come oh do once more oh my heart's darling hear me this time Catherine at last Heathcliff is an orphan a foundling taken in by the Earnshaw family at Wuthering Heights where Nelly Dean is a servant he grows up with the children Catherine and Hindley but when his benefactor mr. Earnshaw dies the already wild Heathcliff is treated very badly when Catherine denies her love for him and marries the respectable Edgar Linton Heathcliff goes away and plots his revenge despite her choice catherine can't bear it when heathcliff out of spite alone elopes with Edgar's sister Isabella taking on a kind of madness which leads to her death Heathcliff's behavior becomes demonic perhaps drawing on elements of bran Wells drunken rages or perhaps expressing a darker side of Emily herself it will forever remain a mystery as to how a daughter of a country parson in Victorian England with little experience of life beyond the Yorkshire Moors could have created one of the most passionate and dramatic love stories ever written Anne's novel Agnes gray received little notice described as a somewhat coarse imitation of one of Miss Austen's charming novels the story of Agnes is full of loneliness and devotion to duty and there are many autobiographical elements the influence of aren't bran wells Methodism is also evident with Anne having been the one most affected by Elizabeth bran wells faith Jane Eyre was so successful that a second edition was printed with a dedication to Thackeray but this was spoiled by Charlotte's disappointment at her sister's failure Patrick Bronte found Jane Eyre much better than likely which after his initial alarm was a favorable response the strange pseudonyms caused some confusion as there was speculation that Carrabelle had written all the novels newly was publishing the tenant of Wildfell Hall by an and he tried to cash in on the success of Jane Eyre by selling the new work to an American publisher as the writing of carrabelle Smith elder were most alarmed and complained to Carrabelle anxious to avoid any confusion charlatans and packed a bag and set off for London to reveal their true identities Emily was not at all happy about this prospect and continued to use the name of Ellis Bell even though the world knew who she was the shock of meeting the author of Jane Eyre who was thought to be a man in the person of the tiny but formidable Charlotte was a revelation for George Smith this was the beginning of a special friendship with George and his mother entertaining the ladies from Yorkshire in fine fashion with the encouragement of Smith elder who bought up all the remaindered copies of the bells poems Charlotte began to write surely success had come the Bronte's way at last and it looked as if life at the parsonage was set to improve anne's novel the tenant of Wildfell Hall told the story of Arthur Huntingdon a dissolute drunkard who destroys himself and almost all those around him the subject matter was as disapproved of as weathering Heights partly due to Arthur's behavior and partly due to his wife Helens refusal to admit him to her bedroom a judgement that shocked the Victorian male ego Charlotte even felt it necessary to defend Anne's gentle character saying that the choices subject was an entire mistake nothing less Congress with the writers nature could be conceived a similar tragedy to Huntington's was being played out at how Earth in front of the sisters own eyes Bramwell died on September the 24th 1848 aged 31 after one of his drunken fits Patrick Bronte was devastated at the loss of his only son but all must have felt his passing to be a blessed release Charlotte said I do not weep from a sense of bereavement there is no prop withdrawn no consolation torn away no dear companion lost but for the wreck of talent the ruin of promise the untimely dreary extinction of what might have been a burning and shining light a sand epitaph for a co-producer of their memory and stories at bran Wells funeral Emily caught a cold which quickly turned to pneumonia followed by tuberculosis strong willed to the last no coward soul as she described herself she was determined to control her illness forcing herself to continue in her domestic duties eventually she gasped if your send for the doctor I will see him now but it was too late she died on the parsonage sofa the same day December the 19th 1848 Emily was 30 sadly Anne had also contracted the dreaded consumption which considering her closeness to Emily sharing a tiny bedroom was not surprising unlike Emily and allowed herself to be treated but longed for the sea air at Scarborough where she had visited with the Robinson family in May 18-49 Charlotte and Ellen Lucy took her there and Anne enjoyed the popular growing seaside resort even riding in a donkey cart on the sands the same evening she watched a beautiful sunset but died quietly the next day May the 28th 1849 for Charlotte the tragic death of her last remaining sibling was a terrible blow more so because she could not take an home to Howarth so she is the only Bronte not to be buried in the family vault at the little Church on the top of the hill and is buried in Scarborough under a gravestone that records her age incorrectly at 28 she was 29 sad and alone Charlotte returned to how earth and her father turning to her work for consolation surely her Luddite novel was completed in August 18-49 and was published by Smith elder in the October he'd received good reviews Charlotte being accepted on her visits to London as part of the literary scene meeting such influential characters as Harriet Martineau and George Lewis lifelong partner of George Elliot life back at the parsonage however became desolate and often Charlotte despite her success was terribly sad and tearful again she turned to writing but found it a difficult task and it took a year to complete Villette the name of the town where her story was set based on Brussels the heroine Lucy Snow shows autobiographical reference to her own position at the Hagar's all those years before Charlotte still evidently carried some bitterness and her portrayal of madame beck owes a great deal to madame Hager perhaps she had never forgiven her for standing in the way of her love for Constantine Hager Smith elder were disappointed with the novel Payne just 500 pounds for it Patrick Bronte now rather proud his literary daughter had hoped for 750 his pride in her also made him furious when his curate Arthur Belle Nichols asked for Charlotte's hand in marriage Patrick threw himself into such a frenzy that Charlotte had to promise to refuse Arthur mr. nickles moved away and later tried again this time successfully and in April 1854 Charlotte wrote this letter to Ellen you see in fact dear Ellen I am engaged mr. nickles in the course of a few months will return to the curacy at how earth I stipulated that I would not leave papa the couple were married on June the 29th 1854 at howarth Church with the bride given away by her good friend miss Wulla this unusual course of events was due to Patrick Bronte feeling unable to go to the wedding after a honeymoon in Ireland meeting Arthur's surprisingly prosperous family the couple set up home in the passage which held so many memories for the bride would at last peace and happiness come to the remaining inhabitants Charlotte was pregnant by 1855 and it looked as if children would again enjoy playing out on the moors above the house happiness was short-lived Charlotte's pregnancy was problematic and she was constantly sick it's possible that she too had weakened lungs like Emily and Anne and combined with the nausea this proved too much for her Charlotte died on the 30th of March 1855 at the age of 38 with the cause of death recorded as thisis this was a tragic blow for the faithful Arthur Nicholls who had waited so patiently to marry his Charlotte he stayed with Patrick the last surviving member of the Bronte family who had outlived all of his six children many inaccurate articles were written about Charlotte which upset the family greatly Arthur had always warned Charlotte to be careful about what she put in her letters Patrick Bronte therefore asked Charlotte's good friend the sadly under read mrs. Gaskell to write an authentic biography which was published in March of 1857 the professor Charlotte's first novel was published in the June Patric Bronte died at the age of 84 On June the 7th 1861 after which time Arthur Belle Nichols returns to Island dying in 1906 on December the 2nd aged 88 Howarth parsonage still stands to remind those who come here of the years it was occupied by the Bronte family the graveyard is now softened by the trees that the Reverend Bronte successor planted to ease the effect of the imposing headstones nevertheless the sheer impact so many graves is still shocking and this combined with the wild moors above the village begins to explain the basis of the supernatural qualities of the Bronte sisters work all the visitors representing so many different nationalities wandering the quaint steep streets of how earth Emily's closing lines from Wuthering Heights could easily be reassuring however for those who stand amongst the tall graves of the churchyard there is no such comfort in this place it will always be possible to believe that the tormented souls of characters like Heathcliff and Cathy still walk the earth and it's certainly not difficult to imagine the ghosts of Charlotte Emily and Anne watching the effect of the great Bronte legacy on their beloved power--the I lingered round them under that benign sky watched the moths fluttering among the heath and hair bells listen to the soft wind breathing through the grass and wondered how anyone could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth you

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Published: Fri May 27 2016