Bronte Sisters
Golubkovich Anna, 310217 group
There were three Brontёs – novelists:
Charlotte (1816-1855), Emily (1818-
1848) and Anne (1820-1849). Their
father was an Irish protestant, a
clergyman in Yorkshire. Their mother
died when the girls were little. The
children were entirely devoted to reading,
writing, drawing, wandering over the
open moors and playing a game of story-
telling about their imaginary heroes. The
sisters received their education at a
charity school and worked as
governesses. Private teaching was the
only profession open to educated women,
and the Brontёs needed to earn their
living.
Each of the Bronte sisters was very talented
in her own right. It is perhaps not very
surprising that each of them grew up to
be very creative.
Emily Bronte
Emily and her siblings
became very close, especially
she and her sister Anne.
Emily returned to school at the age of seventeen;
however, after three months, she returned home.
Charlotte, Emily, and Anne
published a collection titled
Poems by Currer, Ellis,
and Acton Bell.
Wuthering Heights,
Emily’s only
published novel, was
not well received at
first.
This book is regarded
as one of the most
remarkable novels in
English literature.
• It is a novel of passion, an early psychological
novel. The central characters, Cathy and Heathcliff
live out their passion in the windy, rough
countryside of Yorkshire, and the landscape is as
wild as their relationship. The novel is very
original in the way it is written, moving backward
and forward in time, and in and out of the minds of
the characters. Again it presents a new view of
women and their emotions.
• The book is strange. On the one hand the plot is
full of mystery. On the other hand the novel is very
concrete: the time of the action, the landscape,
geography and climate are realistic. The author of
the book makes no difference between the
supernatural and natural. Both work together to
serve her artistic purpose. The mystery and the
supernatural are used as romantic elements in her
original study of violent characters.
• Emily Brontё’s characters and actions may seem unbelievable but they
convince us. They are unique, and their violent emotions are connected
with the Yorkshire moors where the action takes place. The moors are
varying to suit the changing moods of the story, and they are beautifully
described in all seasons.
• Emily Brontё very skilfully shows the reader her heroes’ psychology and
moral conflicts, their desires, passions, temperaments and human
weaknesses.
Charlotte Bronte
Charlotte and her brother,
Branwell, created the world
of Angria, while Emily and
Anne created Gondal.
Charlotte’s most famous work,
Jane Eyre (1847), was
originally published under her
pseudonym, Currer Bell.
• She was personally
acquainted with Dickens and
Thackeray, and the latter
greatly influenced her
literary method.
• In 1849 Charlotte Brontё
published Shirley. The novel
dealt with the life of workers
at the time of the Luddites’
movement.
• The author’s sympathies are
with the working people.
The last novel by Charlotte
Brontё, Vilette, which came
out in 1853, is a realistic
description of her
experiences at a boarding
school in Brussels.
In her novels Charlotte Brontё
combined scenes from her own life
with the far richer and more romantic
experiences which she imagined. She
aimed to make her novels a realistic
picture of society but she also added
to her realism elements of
romanticism. The main subject of her
books is the soul of a woman, a
governess or a teacher. Her heroines
are generous, intelligent, modest and
gentle. Charlotte Brontё attacks the
greed and lack of culture of the ruling
class and sympathizes with the
common people. She is convinced
that society can be reformed by
means of education.
Charlotte was the only
one of her sisters to
marry.
Anne Bronte
Anne Bronte was a
British novelist and
poet
There are approximately one hundred tiny
volumes of the Angria chronicles, but none of
the Gondal creations have survived.
Male pseudonym of Anne Bronte
was Acton Bell.
• The youngest Brontё sister, Anne,
wrote The Tenant of Wildfell
Hall (1848) also with an unusual
central female character and
involving complex relationships and
problems.
• All three Brontё sisters introduced
these kinds of problems into the novel
with unusual courage and directness,
and together they changed the way
the novel could present women
characters: after the Brontёs, female
characters were more realistic, less
idealized and their struggles became
the subject of a great many novels
later in the 19th century.
Thank you for attention.
