The Brontës, Charlotte Brontë and her Family by Rebecca Fraser
I did not imagine that when I picked this book up that it would lead me to reread
and Emily Brontë’s books, which I
had read so long ago. I also waded through Charlotte ’s Villette, luckily on my Kindle so
I could translate the endless conversations in French. I am planning on reading
Anne’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Agnes Grey, and Shirley by Charlotte . I have also skimmed the poetry by
Anne, Emily and Charlotte—who published as Acton, Ellis and Currer Bell. Charlotte
Their Methodist father’s church was situated in an isolated area of Yorkshire, among the uneducated and struggling poor. The five sisters and one brother were dependent on each other’s company. Their mother died when they were young, and their father oversaw their education, teaching Classical languages, current affairs, poetry, and philosophy.
Charlotte and her younger brother Branwell were deeply enmeshed in an imaginary world they created, as if today’s Gamemasters and alternate reality players never left the world of the game to resume normal life. Even when
went away to school, her thoughts were in that other world. Charlotte
Elizabeth and Maria contracted tuberculosis while away at school.
was alsobrought home. It was too late; the two older
girls died, leaving Charlotte, Emily, Anne and Branwell. Charlotte
Branwell was highly sensitive and passionate, and frustrated by his inability to find the recognition the whole family felt was due him. In his late teens he began drinking and taking opium. He found a position as a tutor, fell in love with the wife of his charges, and was dismissed. His was a life of, addiction, failure and early death.
Emily shunned society, preferring to stay at home and tend their father while Anne and Charlotte went to school in
to prepare to be governesses. The girls excelled in their studies, but after a
year were called home when their father needed cataract surgery. Only Brussels returned for
further education. Charlotte
Emily and Anne both died of Tuberculosis.
suffered great loneliness, and felt she was doomed to be alone. She was
vilified and lionized for Jane Eyre, and did form some friendships. But she was
limited by keeping her books a secret from her father, and hid behind her persona of Currer Bell. Charlotte
Arthur Bell, who had been her father’s curate, reappeared announcing he could not get over his love for
After great inner questioning, and with great fear, Charlotte accepted Arthur. He proved to be a
perfect companion. Charlotte ’s
health had never been good, and she died within a year of marriage. Surely, had Charlotte lived, her
writing, which she said rose out of her experiences, would have reflected a
different kind of woman than the lonely and alienated creatures of her
I could not help but to compare the Brontës to Jane Austen. Jane was born at the end of the Age of Reason, while the Brontes were products of the Romantic Era. Both were clergy children, growing up in a parsonage and endeavored to adhere to the standard of the Christian woman of her time. Both wrote in childhood. Jane, like Charlotte, turned down several proposals, but she never found her man. At least Charlotte did marry, and had some months of wedded happiness with a companion who put her needs first. Both women died in their thirties. Both women had close ties to siblings and father, and an absent or alienated mother. And both wrote only what they knew, and were diligent in their adherence to Truth.
Jane Austen is most loved for her bright and sparkling novels, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma. These books are alive with wit and irony, pithy insight, and unexpected turns of events leading to happy marriages.
and Persuasion are darker, their heroines victimized by situation, poverty, and powerlessness. Their heroines are more like Mansfield Park ’s characters Jane Eyre and Lucy
Snowe. And in the end, a happy marriage is the ultimate goal of the novels of both writers. Charlotte
Emily, on the other hand, dared to show what can happen if convention puts asunder two souls who nature intended to become one. Readers may not like Marianne married to ‘old’ Brandon, or Jane taking care of the crippled and blind
, but the characters at least have
found their proper mates. Catherine and Heathcliff, Linton and Isabella,
brought on their own unhappiness by not following their true natures to embrace
their proper partners. And consequently, every family member suffers and is
The cover of Fraser’s book said it was “enthralling”, and I have been enthralled by the blasted lives the Brontë family.