Charlotte Brontë

"The human heart has hidden treasures. In secret kept, in silence sealed; The thoughts, the hopes, the dreams, the pleasures, Whose charms were broken if revealed."

Charlotte Brontë (April 21st, 1816 - March 31st, 1855) was an English novelist and poet, best known as the author of Jane Eyre and the eldest of the Brontë Sisters. Publishing her novel under the name "Currer Bell", Brontë herself is also famous for being the most ambitious and strong-willed of the sisters, as her narrative in her stories revolutionized against Victorian society and feminism at the time.

She is also the author of other works, such as Villette (1853). She outlived both of her sisters, dying of consumption at the age of 38.

Early Life
Charlotte Brontë was born on April 21st, 1816 in Thornton, Yorkshire, England to Irish Anglican clergyman Patrick Brontë and his wife Maria Branwell Brontë. She was their 3rd child and 3rd daughter, and 3 more siblings were born after her: brother Branwell in 1817, followed by sisters Emily (1818) and Anne (1820). At age 4, Brontë and her family moved to the Haworth parsonage after her father was assigned to be a rector at the local church. In 1821, Brontë lost her mother to cancer, and her religious aunt Elizabeth Blackwell moved in to look after her and her siblings.

In 1824, when she was 8 years old, Brontë and her sisters Maria, Elizabeth and Emily were enrolled at the Clergy Daughter's School at Cowan Bridge in Lancashire. Following the deaths of her two older sisters from consumption and being sent back home by her father, Brontë largely condemned the school later in life for its filthy conditions, harsh discipline, and unsanitary food. Her difficult life at the school would become the setting of the infamous Lowood Institution in her future novel Jane Eyre. The school's headmaster would also become the inspiration of the greedy Mr. Brocklehurst in the novel. Back at home, Brontë was educated by her father and aunt, and lived a strict, religious childhood. But she and her siblings had all the fun and freedom they could have. They enjoyed playing out in the moors and reading various different books they could find in their father's library, from Shakespeare's plays to John Bunyan's The Pilgrim Progress. Brontë and her siblings were also known to have wild, vivid imaginations. She wrote tales and stories about her fictional world Angria she and her brother Branwell had made up.

Teaching Years/Brussels
At age 15, Brontë got a job as a teacher at Miss Wooler's School in Roe Head, Mirfield. She was first shy and nervous of applying for the job, but decided anyway since she was already feeling bored of the quietness of Haworth and wanted to be part in an active society. During the few years she spent at Roe Head, Brontë made some close friends, including Ellen Nussey, who would become an important correspondent of Charlotte's life. Afterwards, she temporarily went home but later returned as a governess. She taught at various different families in Yorkshire over the next couple of years, but she found her job to be very difficult and straining. She left her position in 1838.

Brontë began developing plans of setting up her own school and in 1842, she travelled to Brussels, Belgium with her sisters to study languages at Pensionnat Heger. She loved staying at the school since it offered her freedom and adventure that she had always wanted, and even had a romantic obsession with the school's headmaster Monsieur Heger. After 2 years, Brontë was forced to return to Haworth following the death of her aunt. She attempted to open her school, but never worked out as she had failed to attract students.

Jane Eyre/Other Works
Following the failure of running her own school and publishing a collection of poems written by her and her sisters that wasn't well received, Brontë decided to do writing and becoming an author. She was originally a poet, since she discovered Emily's poems and tried it herself that was published in the failed poem collection. Instead of poetry, Brontë turned to write a real novel. Her first novel, The Professor, was rejected by publishers, but Brontë never gave up to accomplish her goal. In mid 1847 she began work on what would become her masterpiece: ''Jane Eyre. ''She wrote the novel while she was in Manchester during her father's eye surgery and in London. Jane Eyre was published on October 16th, 1847 by Smith, Elder, and Co., Cornhill under the pen name Currer Bell. It became an immediate success and Brontë founded herself gaining fame as a female novelist, even though nobody knew who she was at the time. She had also earned 500 pounds, which was more than her governess salary. Jane Eyre would be hailed a classic among the Brontë sisters' works, right next to Emily's Wuthering Heights, which was also published the same year.

In 1849, Brontë wrote and published her second novel, ''Shirley. ''By this time, she had finally revealed her true identity to the public and became a beloved celebrity. She published her final novel, Villette in 1853.

Marriage, Final Days, and Death
In 1848, Brontë's fame as an author was quickly overshadowed by tragedy. Her brother Branwell died of tuberculosis in September 1848, and then her sister Emily by consumption in December. In 1849, Brontë lost her sister Anne of the same illness. She founded herself alone and depressed without her favourite siblings, and the only family she had left was her ailing father. Brontë had always dreamed of finding true love, but it almost always doesn't come to light. She had rejected a marriage proposal from her friend Ellen Nussey's brother George in 1839 and turned down another later on. In 1852 she was given a proposal by Reverend Arthur Bell Nicholls, who had been a curate and assistant of Patrick Brontë since 1845. Brontë originally refused, especially since her father greatly disapproved the idea of his longtime curate marrying his only surviving daughter. But the deaths of all her siblings and her loneliness forced her to give in, and even her father relented afterwards.

Brontë and Nicholls were married on June 29th, 1854 at St. Michael's and All Angels Church in Haworth. The couple honeymooned in Ireland for about a month before settling down at the parsonage. The marriage was equally happy but Brontë was forced to give up writing to care for her father and follow the duties of being a minister's wife. There have been rumours that she may have never truly loved Nicholls. In early 1855, Brontë was pregnant with her first child but started experiencing severe morning sickness, such as nausea and vomiting. She became weak, pale and unable to eat; even the sight of food made her more sick. By early March, Brontë was thin and delirious. She contracted consumption and the illness caused her health to fail rapidly. She died on March 31st, 1855 at 38 years old. She was nearly 3 weeks away from her 39th birthday, and was still in the early stages of pregnancy. Her unborn child died with her.

Brontë was interred in the family crypt at the St. Michael's and All Angels Church, the same church where she married her husband the year before and where her father had been a longtime rector. Her death certificate was listed as "phthisis" (also known as consumption, or tuberculosis), as the cause of death, although it's strongly believed that Brontë may have died of hyperemesis gravidarum (a morning sickness illness), which have occurred due to all the excessive vomiting and nausea she received during pregnancy that took a serious toll on her health.

Legacy
The death of Charlotte Brontë marked the beginning of the end of the Brontë family line, with the last member Patrick Brontë passing away in 1861. Brontë's rejected novel The Professor was published posthumosly in 1857. That same year, her friend Elizabeth Gaskell, who was also a novelist, published an autobiography of Brontë's life titled ''The Life of Charlotte Brontë. ''

Brontë was portrayed in at least two adaptations based on her and her sisters' lives. A TV mini-series "The Brontës of Haworth" premiered in 1973 and followed the lives of the Brontë sisters at the Haworth parsonage. A BBC TV movie "To Walk Invisible", is about the sisters' ordinary lives and their rise to power as female novelists.

Brontë was portrayed by Vickery Turner in "The Brontës of Haworth" and Finn Atkins (Rosie Boore as her younger self) in "To Walk Invisible".

Trivia

 * Several places Brontë had been to in her life became the inspirations in her novel Jane Eyre. One famous example is at a 17th-century stately manor Norton Conyers near Ripon, North Yorks, England. Brontë visited the house in 1839 and heard the tale of a mad woman locked away in the attic upstairs known as the "Mad Mary's Room" for about 60 years, either if she was epileptic or pregnant out of wedlock. The supposed mad woman would inspire Mr. Rochester's insane wife Bertha Mason who was hidden away in the attic as a secret Rochester tried to keep away from Jane.The_Brontë_Sisters_by_Patrick_Branwell_Brontë.jpg
 * Brontë was good at drawing and sketching and she originally wanted to be an artist instead of a writer. She was even convinced by the publishers to sketch illustrations for the second edition of Jane Eyre but refused the offer.
 * Brontë suffered from near-sightedness and had to wear glasses most of the time. She was unable to read piano note sheets, but was able to see well in the dark, since her students noted that she can read to them without light.
 * Brontë spoke with an Irish accent, since this was passed on by her father who was born and raised in Ireland.


 * Brontë was shorter than her sisters; her height was only about less than 5 feet tall.
 * Because her mother died when she was still a young girl, Brontë had very little memories of her mother. One of them she recalled was seeing her playing with her younger brother Branwell.


 * Brontë was known to be a very religious woman throughout her life. She was also very strong and independent who always stood up for what she believed in and showed some faith in some of her writings. She wasn't perfect in her faith, but she did express her love of God in her works.