The Life of Charlotte Bronte
Charlotte Bronte was born in 1816, the third child of Reverend Patrick
Bronte and Maria Branwell Bronte. The couple had a total of six
children before Maria Bronte died of cancer in 1821. The Reverend
Bronte subsequently treated his children Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte,
Patrick Branwell, Emily, and Anne in a severe manner. He also had the
five girls sent to school at Cowan Bridge. At the Clergy Daughter's
school conditions were poor. When fever broke out at the school, Maria
and Elizabeth succumbed to the disease. Consequently, Charlotte,
Emily, and Anne were withdrawn and brought home. The children's aunt,
Aunt Bess became their new instructor.
Though the four children were deeply affected by the death of their
two sisters they filled their spare time with endeavors to fulfill
their imaginations. This was perhaps necessary given the fact that the
environment that surrounded them was the dreary moor of Yorkshire,
England. For example, when their father gave Patrick Branwell a box of
toy soldiers, they used these miniatures as a source of inspiration to
begin their respective writing adventures. Thus, the Bronte children
began to write at an early age as a response to the fantasies of their
youth.
Charlotte Bronte was sent away to the Roe Head School in 1831. Her
father's health was in jeopardy, and he wanted his daughter to be
capable of being economically independent. Mrs. Wooler headed the Roe
Head school. There were seven to ten students at the school during the
two years that Charlotte spent at the school. The school was more like
a small family than a boarding school.
At first, Charlotte...
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...ll, Emily and Anne in 1848.
Famous editors and friends in London supported her, yet by 1851, she
herself was suffering health ailments. She did marry in 1854, and
wrote one more novel Villette. In 1855, however, she died of
tuberculosis and pregnancy complications.
Charlotte Bronte was only thirty-nine years old when she died. She had
published some poem sets and three novels. The settings of the novels,
such as Jane Eyre, contain elements that characterized her own life.
Such elements are the dreary moors of England. A sense of hopelessness
also characterizes her life and her work. Charlotte's personal life
was an unhappy one, and according to her biographer, Elizabeth
Gaskell, who was also her contemporary, Charlotte never had harbored
any hope for the future. This no doubt affected the tone and mood of
her work.