Chaucer. Shakespeare. Milton. The Brontë sisters. All are authors who have helped usher in new periods in English Literature. For Chaucer it was Middle English, for Shakespeare the Elizabethan Period, for Milton the Commonwealth Period, and for the Brontë Sisters it was Romanticism and the gothic novel (Gottlieb). Although gothic novels had been written prior to the publication of any works by the Brontë sisters, they changed the gothic style and caused it to become more mainstream. For this reason Charlotte, Emily, and to a lesser extent, Anne Brontë are known as the mothers of the modern gothic novel. While a variety of factors shaped the writing style of the Brontë sisters, perhaps the most important influence was that of their upbringing and the time period in which they lived.
There were six children in the Brontë family, five girls: Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne, as well as one boy named Patrick Branwell. Not long after the youngest child, Anne, was born the children’s mother passed away, leaving them to be raised on the moors of Yorkshire by their father, Reverend Patrick Brontë (Parton). Fortunately, the children’s mother’s unmarried sister, Elizabeth Branwell, soon moved in with the Brontës in order to help take care of them and the house (Sellars). Thanks to the kindness of their aunt, the Brontë children had not only a caring father, but a surrogate mother as well.
As a poor minister, Patrick Brontë’s main focus for his children was education. He knew that his five daughters would not be presented with many opportunities if they were not properly educated. For this reason he sent his four oldest daughters off to a boarding school not far from their home. Not long into their stay at boarding school M...
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Works Cited
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Davies, Stevie. Introduction. By Anne Brontë. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. London, England:Penguin, 1996. vii-xxix. Print.
Eddy, Steve. The Brontës: A Beginner's Guide. London, England: Hodder & Stoughton, 2003. 1-79. Print.
Gottlieb, Stephen. "Periods of English Literature." 12 Jan 2000. Web. 3 Feb 2010.
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Sellars, Jane. Charlotte Brontë. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, Inc. , 1997. 9-112. Print.
Sherry , Norman. Charlotte and Emily Brontë. New York, NY: Arco Publishing Company, 1970. 9-138. Print.
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.
Yaeger, Patricia S. "Honey-Mad Women: Charlotte Bronte's Bilingual Heroines." An Annual of Victorian Literary and Cultural History. 14. 1986. p. 11-35.
Bronte, Charlotte. The Letters of Charlotte Bronte: 1829-1847. Ed. Margaret Smith. 2 vols. New York: Oxford UP, 1995-2000.
Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. 3rd ed. New York: The Modern Library. Bronte, Charlotte. "
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.
Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre chronicles the growth of her titular character from girlhood to maturity, focusing on her journey from dependence on negative authority figures to both monetary and psychological independence, from confusion to a clear understanding of self, and from inequality to equality with those to whom she was formerly subject. Originally dependent on her Aunt Reed, Mr. Brocklehurst, and Mr. Rochester, she gains independence through her inheritance and teaching positions. Over the course of the novel, she awakens towards self-understanding, resulting in contentment and eventual happiness. She also achieves equality with the important masculine figures in her life, such as St. John Rivers and Mr. Rochester, gaining self-fulfillment as an independent, fully developed equal.
Lodge, Scott. "Fire and Eyre: Charlotte Bronte's War of Earthly Elements." The Brontes: A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. Ian Gregor. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1970. 110-36.
Laban, Lawrence F. “Emily Brontë.” Critical Survey of Long Fiction, Second Revised Edition. Salem Press. MagillOnAuthors. 2002. 12 Nov. 2002
Immediately from the start Bronte’s character Jane is different. She is an orphan, mis-treated and despised by her family. She has no clear social position, is described as “less than a servant” and treated like one. A protagonist who one would assume had no characteristics worth aspiring too. Jane is displayed perfectly in her hiding behind the curtain. She is placed by a window, which beyond is icy and cold, contrasting immensely from the inside of the fire and warmth. A clear statement of the icy coldness of the family she has been put to live with, and her fiery and passionate nature which we discover th...
Reef, Catherine. The Bronte Sisters: The Brief Lives of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne. New York:
Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1998. Reidhead, Julia, ed., pp. 113-117. Norton Anthology of English Literature, vol. 7, 2nd ed.
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.
Jane plays the typical role of a Victorian woman through much of her life, but through subtle shifts in power Bronte challenges these Victorian norms by way of Jane’s education, an unlikely rise in social status from teacher to governess and her relationship with a seemingly unattainable man. Jane’s education at Lowood provides a foundation for her rise through the ranks of society and alters the predetermined course of action for Victorian women. Consequently, Jane is raised in a class higher than her own with the Reeds’, and although they are family, they make sure Jane understands her social position is not on the same level. Ironically, Jane is afforded the ability to go to a private school at Lowood and receive an upper class education. “Gendered performances become acts that are increasingly tied to material wealth, and the text suggests that only the middle and upper classes can afford the costly performance of gender” (Godfrey, 856).... ...
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.