As one of the most recognized British authors in history, Charlotte Bronte is widely known for her romantic novels displaying the struggle between a person’s morality and their desire to achieve possession of love without the consequences of losing themselves in the process. In her novels, The Professor, Jane Eyre, and Villette, Charlotte Bronte connects love and struggle through theme, characterization, and point of view.
Born on April 21, 1816, Charlotte Bronte was the third born child of Patrick Bronte and Maria Branwell’s six children Thorton in Yorkshire, England. After being moved to Haworth by her father, who was an Anglican preacher, in 1820, Charlotte became a student at a school of religion with her elder sisters for a short and unpleasant time (Charlotte Bronte Biography). Afterwards she moved back home and began to live in solitude with her three remaining siblings, father, and aunt that had come to live with them after the early passing of her mother and older sisters(Cody, Charlotte Bronte: A Brief Biography).
As a child, Charlotte and her siblings remained closed off from the rest of the world and their education was distributed mainly by their father even though she went to two other schools after the first, however, little communication took place between them and the children resorted to the creation of their own fantasy worlds where they were the controllers (Cody). Charlotte partnered up with her brother, Branwell to create a world called Angria that was run by the Duke of Zamorna, under whom women suffered due to their attraction toward him and the resentment his evil(Cody).
Though she loved her fantasy, she at the same time lived in reality and she began to work as a teacher at fifteen but soon after ...
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...York. Henderson Publishing. 1995. Print. 22 Mar. 2011.
Bronte, Charlotte. The Professor. Avenel, New Jersey. Gramercy Books. 1975. Print. 22 Mar. 2011.
Bronte, Charlotte. Villette. Avenel, New Jersey. Gramercy Books. 1975. Print. 22 Mar. 2011
Cody, David. “Charlotte Bronte: A Brief Biography.” Victorianweb.org. 1987. Hartwick College. Web. 22 Mar. 2011.
N.p. "The Professor, Charlotte Brontë - Introduction." Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Edna M. Hedblad. Vol. 105. Gale Cengage, 2002. eNotes.com. 2006. 23 Mar. 2011.
N.p. "Charlotte Brontë Biography." 123HelpMe.com. n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2011.
Smith, Elizabeth Hayes. Kissel, Adam ed. Villette Background. GradeSaver.com. 27 October 2007. Web. 24 Mar. 2011.
Wayne, Teddy. Vincent, Caitlin ed. Jane Eyre Themes. GradeSaver. 31 Jan. 2009 Web. 24 Mar. 2011.
Maria Brandwell Bronte gave birth to Charlotte, her third child out of six within the span of seven years, on April 12, 1816 in Bradford, Yorkshire. Charlotte began her schooling at the Clergy Daughter’s School on August 10, 1824, but due to harsh conditions at the school she returned after only one year. Upon returning home she was schooled by her aunt, and then attended Roe Head in 1831. Charlotte struggled finding an occupation that she enjoyed. She became a teacher at Roe Head, but she hated the way it was run and left shortly thereafter. She also tried to be a governess twice, but due to her shy nature and the fact that she missed her sisters so dearly, she returned home. Charlotte’s thirst for knowledge took her to Brussels with her sister Emily, where she learned French, German, and management skills.
Gardner, Judy. "Literature." Library Journal 15 May 1982: 997. EBSCOhost. Web. 21 Jan. 2014. .
"Charlotte Bronte as a 'Freak Genius'", David Cecil in Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyreand Villette (A Casebook Series) ed. Miriam Allot.
Bronte, Charlotte. The Letters of Charlotte Bronte: 1829-1847. Ed. Margaret Smith. 2 vols. New York: Oxford UP, 1995-2000.
Charlotte Bronte's Letters". New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1971. Diedrick, James. Newman on the Gentleman. http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/hypertext/landow/victorian/vn/victor10.html.
Jane Eyre, written by Charlotte Brontë, was published in 1847 by Smith, Elder & Company, in London. This year is exactly ten years into Queen Victoria’s sixty-four year reign of the British Empire. The Victorian Era was renowned for its patriarchal Society and definition by class. These two things provide vital background to the novel, as Jane suffers from both. Jane Eyre relates in some ways to Brontë’s own life, as its original title suggest, “Jane Eyre: An Autobiography”. Charlotte Brontë would have suffered from too, as a relatively poor woman. She would have been treated lowly within the community. In fact, the book itself was published under a pseudonym of Currer Bell, the initials taken from Brontë’s own name, due to the fact that a book published by a woman was seen as inferior, as they were deemed intellectually substandard to men. Emily Brontë, Charlotte’s sister, was also forced to publish her most famous novel, Wuthering Heights, under the nom de plume of Ellis Bell, again taking the initials of her name to form her own alias. The novel is a political touchstone to illustrate the period in which it was written, and also acts as a critique of the Victorian patriarchal society.
Woolf, Virginia. "The Continuing Appeal of Jane Eyre." Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. New York: W.W. Norton, 1987. 455--457. Print.
Laban, Lawrence F. “Emily Brontë.” Critical Survey of Long Fiction, Second Revised Edition. Salem Press. MagillOnAuthors. 2002. 12 Nov. 2002
Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Ed. Richard J Dunn 3rd ed. 1847. New York: W. W.
A. “Reading Little Women.” Temple University Press (1984): 151-65. Rpt in Novels for Students. Ed. Elizabeth Thomason.
Charlotte Bronte assumed the role of intermediary between her late sister and the perplexed and hostile readers of Wuthering Heights (Sale and Dunn, WH p. 267). Charlotte attempted to provide Emily’s readers with a more complete perspective of her sister and her works. She selectively included biographical information and critical commentary into the revised 1850 edition of Wuthering Heights, which gave the reader a fuller appreciation of the works of Emily Bronte. Charlotte championed the efforts of her younger sister and believed that Emily’s inexperience and unpracticed hand were her only shortcomings. Charlotte explains much of Emily’s character to the readers through the disclosure of biographical information.
Born to Patrick and Maria Bronte, Emily Bronte, the fifth girl out of six children, would lead a short life of isolation and unhappiness. Her father was an “industrious Irish clergyman” who had been born in Ireland on March 17, 1777. He was a teacher and graduated from Cambridge with a Bachelor of Arts degree before being “ordained to curacies” (Laban). Her mother, Maria Bronte, was a Cornish merchant’s daughter. Emily Bronte was born at Thornton in a parish in July of 1818.
middle of paper ... ... Works Cited Bront, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Ed. Richard Nemesvari.
Griesinger, Emily. "Charlotte Brontë's Religion: Faith, Feminism, And "Jane Eyre.." Christianity & Literature 58.1 (2008): 29-59.Literary Reference Center. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.
O’Dea, Gregory. “Narrator and Reader in Charlotte Brontë’s Villette.” South Atlantic Review 53.1 (1988): 41-57.