Charlotte Brontë

Charlotte Brontë was born on 21 April 1816, the third of six children born to Maria Branwell, the daughter of an affluent grocer and tea merchant from Cornwall, and Patrick Brontë (born Brunty) an Anglican curate. Patrick Brontë was one of ten children born to a poor Irish family, and, having shown both ambition and an aptitude for learning, had been educated in Latin and Greek by a local clergyman before earning a place at St John's College, Cambridge. Maria Branwell was from a more prosperous background, and her letters to Patrick remain the primary source of information about her. The couple were married at St Oswald's Church in Guiseley in December 1812. In 1815 Patrick took a new position in the Yorkshire village of Thornton, near Bradford, where Charlotte and her siblings were born. Haworth In 1820, Maria and Patrick moved with their six young children, Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and Anne, to the village of Haworth, on the edge of the Yorkshire moors, where Patrick had been offered the position of perpetual curate of St Michael and All Angels Church. His salary was modest, but the post came with the use of a parsonage overlooking the churchyard and the moors. Patrick, as an Irish immigrant, struggled to be accepted in Haworth, and his children, who at first shared his Irish accent, also shared his lifelong sense of being an outsider. Living conditions in Haworth were poor, with high levels of early mortality and a water supply contaminated by runoff from the graveyard, as reported in 1850 in a damning health report by Benjamin Babbage. Historians have speculated that these factors may have contributed to the deaths of Charlotte and her siblings. Death of Maria Branwell Soon after arriving in Haworth, Maria Branwell fell ill with what may have been cancer. Charlotte's school report mentions that the eight-year old Charlotte "writes indifferently" and "knows nothing of grammar, geography, history, or accomplishments", although she is "altogether clever of her age". Conditions at the school were harsh, with insanitary conditions, poor food and frequent outbreaks of disease, and in 1825, after an outbreak of typhus, Charlotte's two elder sisters both fell ill and subsequently died at home. Charlotte later maintained that conditions at the school had permanently affected her own health and physical development (she was of slight build and was less than tall, with very poor eyesight). After the deaths of Maria and Elizabeth, Patrick removed Charlotte and Emily from the school and arranged for them to be taught at home. Charlotte was greatly affected by the deaths of her older sisters, and later used Cowan Bridge as the model for Lowood School in Jane Eyre, which is similarly subject to outbreaks of tuberculosis and typhus exacerbated by the poor conditions. The headmaster of Cowan Bridge School, the Reverend William Carus Wilson, was represented by Charlotte in her portrait of Mr Brocklehurst, the headmaster of Lowood, a depiction that later prompted Carus Wilson to threaten to sue for libel. Juvenilia At home in Haworth Parsonage, the nine-year-old Charlotte now took over the care of her younger siblings under the supervision of their aunt Elizabeth Branwell. Patrick Brontë, though a difficult character in many ways, encouraged all his children to read widely, to take an interest in politics and current affairs and to enjoy music, art and poetry. He introduced them to the work of Lord Byron, and allowed them to read the newspapers and periodicals to which he subscribed. Charlotte and Branwell were the primary creators of this shared world and its juvenilia, but their younger siblings also contributed. Charlotte began writing poetry when she was thirteen in 1829. Many of these poems first appeared in a homemade magazine entitled ''Branwell's Blackwood's Magazine, which was linked to the Glass Town Confederacy. Charlotte, in private letters, called Glass Town'' her 'world below', a fantasy in which she could explore different lives and identities. Over the course of the project Charlotte showed her love for romantic settings, love affairs, and high society, while Branwell's contribution reflected his interest in battles and politics. From 1831 onwards, Emily and Anne withdrew from the Glass Town project to create a fictional land of their own called Gondal, while Charlotte and Branwell concentrated on an expanded version of the Glass Town Confederacy called Angria. 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 created by the siblings exist as partial manuscripts, some of which have been published. The siblings continued to create narratives around their imaginary lands throughout their childhood and adolescence, an interest that continued even into adulthood. In 1833 Charlotte wrote several novellas, including The Green Dwarf, under the name Wellesley, one of her Angrian heroes. From about 1833, her stories seemed to show less of an interest in the supernatural and a shift to more realistic subject matters. Roe Head In 1831, when she was fifteen, Charlotte was sent twenty miles away to Roe Head, a boarding school in Mirfield (now part of Hollybank Special School). There she became friends with two girls of her own age, Ellen Nussey and Mary Taylor. Mary was bright and outgoing, Ellen quieter and more reserved, but both girls became close to Charlotte, and continued to visit and correspond with her throughout her life. Both Mary and Ellen recalled Charlotte's old-fashioned clothing and Irish accent, while Ellen noted Charlotte's lack of appetite and reluctance to eat meat. Both mentioned that Charlotte's eyesight was very poor, which meant that she was unable to join in ball games or learn to play from sheet music, although her friends mentioned her love of drawing and poetry. == Farewell to Angria ==

In 1832 Charlotte left Roe Head in order to teach her sisters at home in Haworth. In 1835, she returned to Roe Head as a teacher, remaining until 1838. Lonely and unhappy in her teaching post, Charlotte found an escape in writing poetry. Many of her poems were set in the imaginary world of Angria, often featuring Byronic heroes. Later, one of her ex-pupils was to describe Miss Brontë writing at her desk, in tiny letters, with her eyes shut; and Charlotte's writing from this period expresses her disgust for her "oafish" pupils and her desire to escape into fantasy. Southey wrote in response: 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. Charlotte entered into a short correspondence with Southey, thanking him for his advice, but making clear her intention to pursue her writing. I have no personal repugnance to the idea of a union with you—but I feel convinced that mine is not the sort of disposition calculated to form the happiness of a man like you ... You do not know me, I am not this serious, grave, cool-headed individual you suppose—You would think me romantic and eccentric—you would say I was satirical and severe. However, I scorn deceit and I will never for the sake of attaining the distinction of matrimony and escaping the stigma of an old maid take a worthy man whom I am conscious I cannot render happy. At the end of 1839, Charlotte wrote Farewell to Angria, a manuscript in which she explored her growing dependency on her fantasy world. Fearing for her sanity, and with the sense that she was losing her grip on reality, she finally made the decision to set Angria aside for good. In this document, she speaks of the pain of leaving her 'friends' and venturing into 'lands unknown'. Between 1839 and 1841, Charlotte sought employment as a governess to several local families. In 1839 she joined the Sidgwick family at Stone Gappe as governess to their son, John Benson Sidgwick. Charlotte was unhappy in her work, believing that her employers treated her as a servant, and were constantly humiliating her. According to Charlotte, John was an unruly child, who once threw a stone at her, an incident that may have inspired the section of Jane Eyre in which John Reed throws a book at Jane. The Sidgwicks confirmed this story, but stated that Charlotte was difficult to deal with, often took offence when none was intended, and 'often went to bed all day' leaving the heavily pregnant Mrs Sidgwick to look after the children. Charlotte left Stone Gappe to work as a governess to the White family, but although the Whites were 'well satisfied' by her work with their children, Charlotte found her menial position in the household difficult to cope with, and complains in letters to Ellen Nussey of her employers' 'vulgarity'. == Brussels ==

In 1842 Charlotte travelled with Emily to Brussels to the Pensionnat Heger, a boarding school run by Constantin Heger (1809–1896) and his wife, Claire. Both siblings were student teachers, with Charlotte teaching English and Emily eventually teaching music in return for board and lodging. In this way they hoped eventually to acquire the language skills they needed to open a school of their own. Charlotte initially liked and respected Madame Heger, and although she felt somewhat isolated from the other pupils at the Pensionnat, she developed a close relationship with her tutor, Constantin Heger, who became an important influence on her writing. She writes: There is one individual of whom I have not yet spoken M Heger the husband of Madame - he is a professor of Rhetoric a man of power as to mind but very choleric & irritable in temperament - a little, black, ugly being with a face that varies in expression, sometimes he borrows the lineaments of an insane Tomcat - sometimes those of a delirious Hyena - occasionally - but very seldom he discards these perilous attractions and assumes an air not above a hundred degrees removed from what you would call mild & gentleman-like ... In October 1842 the sisters were called back to Haworth by the sudden death of their aunt Elizabeth Branwell. Charlotte's grief at the loss of her aunt was compounded by the deaths from cholera of two young friends of the family; William Weightman, who had been Patrick Brontë's curate, and Martha, the sister of Charlotte's friend Mary Taylor. In January 1843, Charlotte returned to Brussels alone to take up a teaching post at the school. It was the first time she had travelled alone, and she found the experience alarming, later describing it in her novel Villette. However, in spite of her eagerness to return, Charlotte became increasingly homesick and lonely. Her initial liking for Madame Heger had changed to outright dislike, and her attachment to Constantin Heger had developed into an unrequited passion and an obsessive need for his approval, all of which made it impossible for her to remain. Charlotte returned to Haworth in January 1844, and later used her time in Brussels as the inspiration for some of the events in The Professor and Villette. Heger later attempted to destroy the letters sent to him by Charlotte, in which she expresses her deep feelings and her expectation to hear from him, but his wife retrieved and preserved them, although his own letters to Charlotte are missing. After Charlotte's return to Haworth, the sisters attempted to open their own boarding school at the Parsonage. 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 Charlotte had little enthusiasm for the project, and the remote location made it difficult to attract pupils. In October 1844 the project was abandoned. ==First publication==

In May 1846, at Charlotte's insistence, the three sisters paid for the publication of a collection of their poems under the pseudonyms Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. The sisters took names that corresponded with their initials: thus Charlotte was Currer Bell, Emily was Ellis, and Anne was Acton. Of this decision to conceal their identities, Charlotte wrote: Only two copies of the collection of poems were sold, but Charlotte, though disappointed, sent copies of the book to a number of prominent writers, including William Wordsworth, Alfred Tennyson, and Thomas De Quincey. Although Emily and Anne continued to write poems, Charlotte did not, but prepared to submit a novel under her nom de plume. ==Jane Eyre==

In 1846 Charlotte submitted her first novel, The Professor, to London publisher Henry Colburn, along with Emily's Wuthering Heights and Anne's Agnes Grey. In her accompanying letter she describes these as: "Three tales, each occupying a volume and capable of being published together or separately, as thought most advisable," and draws Colburn's attention to the fact that the authors have already been published elsewhere. The Professor was not published, though the other two novels were accepted for publication on somewhat unfavourable terms. Charlotte submitted a second manuscript, Jane Eyre, to a different publisher, Smith, Elder & Co. in August 1847, and it was published soon afterwards. The novel follows the life of a plain young woman, Jane, depicting her troubled childhood, her unhappy schooldays and her arrival in a new post as a governess to a young girl in a secluded mansion in Yorkshire. Jane falls in love with her employer, Mr Rochester, who is secretly hiding the fact that his first wife, a dangerous madwoman, is being kept in the attic. The book's style combined Romanticism, naturalism and gothic melodrama, but broke new ground with its first-person female perspective. Charlotte believed art was most convincing when based on personal experience; in Jane Eyre she transformed her experience into novel form. Jane Eyre had immediate commercial success and initially received favourable reviews. G. H. Lewes wrote 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). The subsequent publication of Wuthering Heights by Ellis Bell and Agnes Grey by Acton Bell, which had been delayed by the publisher, now caused further speculation about the identity of Currer Bell, including a change in the attitude of critics to Charlotte's work, as well as accusations that the writing was "coarse". This criticism was linked to the media's growing suspicion that Currer Bell was a woman. However, sales of Jane Eyre continued to grow. Charlotte executed the drawings for the second edition of Jane Eyre herself, and 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. ==Shirley==

In 1848, Charlotte began her third novel, Shirley, but that year saw the deaths of all three of her remaining siblings within eight months of each other. In September, Branwell died of multiple conditions exacerbated by his heavy drinking. Emily died three months later of tuberculosis, and in May 1849, Anne died of the same illness. After the deaths of Emily and Anne, a family servant, Martha Brown, recalled how the sisters had used to walk round the dining-room table in the Parsonage, discussing their writings, and spoke of her sadness "to hear Miss Brontë walking, walking on alone". and Shirley, which deals with themes of industrial unrest and the role of women in society, was published in October 1849. The novel's reception was not as enthusiastic as that of Jane Eyre; a reviewer in The Times described it as: at once the most high-flown and the stalest of fictions. Charlotte, as her late sisters' executor, edited and wrote an explanatory introduction to Wuthering Heights in order to make it less shocking to the public. She also suppressed the republication of Anne's second novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which had been published, to great success, the previous year. This decision had a lasting negative effect on Anne's popularity as a novelist and has remained controversial among the sisters' biographers ever since. ==In society==

Although Emily and Anne were both opposed to their real identities being known, Charlotte discreetly revealed herself to her publisher and friends as the author of Jane Eyre. This led Charlotte to make occasional visits to London, where she began to move in more exalted social circles, becoming friends with Elizabeth Gaskell and Harriet Martineau whose sister Rachel had taught Gaskell's daughters. Charlotte sent an early copy of Shirley to Martineau whose home at Ambleside she visited. The two friends shared an interest in racial relations and the abolitionist movement; recurrent themes in their writings. Charlotte was also acquainted with William Makepeace Thackeray and G. H. Lewes. In spite of this, she never left Haworth for more than a few weeks at a time, and surprised the London literary world by her lack of social brilliance. Thackeray's daughter, writer Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie, recalled a visit to her father by Charlotte: ==Villette==

The last of Charlotte's novels to be published in her lifetime was Villette, 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. Villette marked Charlotte's return to writing from a first-person perspective, a technique she had used in Jane Eyre. Another similarity to Jane Eyre lies in the use of her personal experience as inspiration for fictional events, in particular the time she spent at the pensionnat in Brussels. Villette was acknowledged by critics of the day as a potent and sophisticated piece of writing, although it was criticised for its "coarseness" and for not being suitably "feminine" in its portrayal of Lucy's desires. ==Marriage==

Shortly before the publication of Villette, Charlotte received a proposal of marriage from the Reverend Arthur Bell Nicholls, an Irishman from County Antrim in her father's native Ulster, who had been educated in County Offaly. Nicholls had been her father's curate, and had long been in love with Charlotte. 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 Charlotte to consider the positive aspects of such a union and tried to use her contacts to engineer an improvement in Nicholls's finances. Charlotte, 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. Patrick Brontë 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) who gave her away. The married couple took their honeymoon in Banagher, County Offaly, Ireland. By all accounts, her marriage was a success and Charlotte found herself very happy in a way that was new to her. ==Death==

Charlotte became pregnant soon after her wedding, but her health declined rapidly and, according to Gaskell, she was subject to "sensations of perpetual nausea and ever-recurring faintness". She died, along with her unborn child, on 31 March 1855, three weeks before her 39th birthday. Her death certificate gives the cause of death as phthisis, but biographer Claire Harman, among others, suggests that she died from complications caused by severe morning sickness or hyperemesis gravidarum. She was buried in the family vault in the Church of St Michael and All Angels at Haworth. The Professor, Charlotte's first novel, 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 being Emma Brown: A Novel from the Unfinished Manuscript by Charlotte Brontë by Clare Boylan in 2003. Most of her writings about the imaginary country of Angria have also been published since her death. ==Personality and character==

Charlotte's character is largely known through private letters to her family, friends and publisher, as well as from Elizabeth Gaskell's biography The Life of Charlotte Brontë, which was begun during her lifetime. Gaskell described her first meeting with Charlotte in a letter, writing: She is underdeveloped, thin and more than half a head shorter than I ... [with] a reddish face, large mouth and many teeth gone; altogether plain. Later, Gaskell portrays her in a less unflattering way, but emphasizes her physical frailty. In a letter to her publisher, Charlotte complains of Gaskell's tendency to depict her as weak and helpless, writing: "She seems determined that I shall be a sort of invalid. Why may I not be well like other people? In spite of this, she attended a service in a Catholic church during her final year in Brussels, and took confession from the priest. She writes about this in a letter to Emily, asking her not to tell their father of the incident, and it appears later as an episode in Villette. Letters Charlotte was the most prolific letter-writer of the Brontë siblings, and her correspondence forms the backbone of her biographies. Charlotte frequently used letter-writing as a means of experimenting with different identities and styles, as with Currer Bell, and although she is often intimate, even uninhibited in her letter-writing, she also uses this technique as a means of hiding aspects of her true personality. The biographer Lucasta Miller describes her as a 'self-mythologiser', perpetuating both 'the positive myth of female self-creation embodied by her autobiographical heroines' and that of the 'quiet and trembling creature, reared in total seclusion, a martyr to duty and a model of Victorian femininity,' neither of which are entirely representative. After their marriage, Nicholls not only asked Charlotte to burn Ellen's letters after reading them, but censored some of Charlotte's letters to her friend before allowing them to be sent. The surviving letters, preserved by Ellen in defiance of Nicholls' wishes, provide most of the information available on Charlotte Brontë's daily life, feelings and relationships. Their tone is intimate, confiding and have even been interpreted by some to have romantic undertones. Charlotte writes on one occasion: Heger letters On 29 July 1913 The Times of London printed four letters from Charlotte to Constantin Heger, written after her departure from Brussels in 1844. Written in French except for one postscript in English, the letters challenged the prevailing image of Charlotte as an angelic martyr to Christian and female duties that had been constructed by many biographers, beginning with Gaskell. These letters, which formed part of a larger and somewhat one-sided correspondence to which Heger frequently appears not to have replied, seem to reveal her love for a married man, although the letters have also been interpreted in other ways, including as an example of literary self-dramatisation and an expression of gratitude from a former pupil. In January 1845, she writes: ...all I know – is that I cannot – that I will not resign myself to the total loss of my master's friendship – I would rather undergo the greatest bodily pains that have my heart constantly lacerated by searing regrets. If my master withdraws his friendship from me entirely I shall be absolutely without hope – if he gives me a little friendship – a very little – I shall be content – happy, I would have a motive for living – for working. Monsieur, the poor do not need a great deal to live on – they ask only the crumbs of bread which fall from the rich men's table – but if they are refused these crumbs – they die of hunger – No more do I need a great deal of affection from those I love – I would not know what to do with a whole and complete friendship – I am not accustomed to it – but you showed a little interest in me in days gone by when I was your pupil in Brussels – and I cling to the preservation of this little interest – I cling to it as I would cling on to life. Letters to George Smith Charlotte later also engaged in frequent correspondence with her editor, George Smith. The often flirtatious tone of these letters has been remarked upon by historians as a possible sign that Charlotte was in love with him, and her letter to him on hearing of his impending marriage to another has been interpreted as a sign of her despair: ==Legacy==

A number of authors have cited Charlotte Brontë as an influence, including Kazuo Ishiguro, who, when asked to name his favourite novelist, answered "Charlotte Brontë's recently edged out Dostoevsky...I owe my career, and a lot else besides, to Jane Eyre and Villette." Daphne du Maurier's novel Rebecca is strongly influenced by Jane Eyre; Jean Rhys wrote the story of the first Mrs Rochester in Wide Sargasso Sea. Other novels inspired by Charlotte Brontë's work include: Jane Steele, by Lyndsay Faye; The Brontë Cabinet: Three Lives in Nine Objects, by Deborah Lutz; The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde; The Madwoman Upstairs by Catherine Lowell; and Reader, I Married Him, a collection of short stories edited by Tracy Chevalier. The town of Bronte, Texas, is named for Charlotte Brontë (though the town's name is pronounced "brahnt"). In 1980 a commemorative plaque was unveiled at the Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, on the site of Madame Heger's school, in honour of Charlotte and Emily. ==Media portrayals==

• In the 1946 Curtis Bernhardt film Devotion, a fictionalized biography of the Brontë sisters, Olivia de Havilland plays Charlotte. • In the 1973 Yorkshire Television series The Brontës of Haworth, written by Christopher Fry, Charlotte is played by Vickery Turner. • In the 1979 André Téchiné film The Brontë Sisters, Charlotte is played by Marie-France Pisier. • In the 2016 BBC One television film To Walk Invisible, Charlotte is played by Finn Atkins. • In the 2022 Frances O'Connor film Emily, about Emily Brontë, Alexandra Dowling plays Charlotte. ==Works==

Juvenilia • ''The Young Men's Magazine'', Volumes 1–3 (August 1830) • A Book of Ryhmes (1829) • The Spell • The Secret • ''Lily Hart • Albion and Marina • The Green Dwarf • Tales of Angria (written 1838–1839 – a collection of childhood and young adult writings including five short novels) • ''Mina Laury--> Novels • Jane Eyre, published in 1847 • Shirley, published in 1849 • Villette, published in 1853 • The Professor, published posthumously in 1857 • Emma, unfinished; Brontë wrote only 20 pages of the manuscript, published posthumously in 1860. In recent decades, at least two continuations of this fragment have appeared: • Emma, by "Charlotte Brontë and Another Lady", published 1980; although this has been attributed to Elizabeth Goudge, the actual author was Constance Savery. • Emma Brown, by Clare Boylan, published 2003 Poetry • ==Notes==