Emily Brontë

"He's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are, his and mine are the same."

Emily Jane Brontë (July 30th, 1818 - December 19th, 1848), was an English novelist and poet, best known as the author of Wuthering Heights and one of the famous Brontë sisters. She had generally written poems but Wuthering Heights was the only novel she wrote. Publishing her work under the masculine pen name "Ellis Bell", Brontë's work originally received negative feedback when it was first released.

Having been a private and sickly woman throughout her life, she died at just 30 years old a year after her novel was published.

Early Life
Emily Jane Brontë was born on July 30th, 1818 in Thornton, Yorkshire, England, the fifth child and fourth daughter of Patrick Brontë, an Irish-born clergyman, and his wife Maria. She had 4 older siblings, Maria (b. 1813), Elizabeth (b. 1815), Charlotte (b. 1816), and Branwell (b. 1817), and a younger sister named Anne (b. 1820). Shortly after her birth, the Brontë's moved to Haworth, Yorkshire and in April 1821, her mother Maria passed away of cancer. Her aunt, Elizabeth Branwell, moved in to serve as a caregiver and mother-figure to Brontë and her siblings.

At age 6, Brontë, alongside her sisters Maria, Elizabeth and Charlotte were sent to the Clergy's Daughters School of Cowan Bridge in Lancashire. This would leave a traumatizing effect on her due to the school's harsh conditions, strict discipline, and the recent aftermath of the death of her mother. In 1825, a tuberculosis outbreak occured at the school that claimed the lives of her older sisters Maria and Elizabeth. Brontë and her surviving sister Charlotte were immediately brought back home, and was tutored both by her father and aunt.

As a child, Brontë was very close to her siblings, including her only brother Branwell. The children often had creative and intelligent imaginations, and would often make up their own stories and fantasy worlds. She was quiet and shy, who loved to read but may had the most vivid and creative stories. Like her siblings, she wrote her own fictional stories and characters, but only a very small amount of them survived. She adored the moors outside her home. At age 17 in 1835, Brontë went to Miss Wooler's school in Roe Head alongside Charlotte. She went there as a student and Charlotte as a teacher. But Brontë became homesick and only stayed there for a few months before she returned to Haworth.

Adult Life
Living in a poor family, Brontë attempted to find work. In 1838, she became a teacher at Miss Patchett's School in Law Hill, Halifax, but left her position there after just 6 months due to her difficult working hours. In 1842, Brontë joined Charlotte as they traveled to Pension Héger in Brussels, Belgium, to study languages. Despite being homesick, Brontë seemed to have enjoyed her time at the academy. But in October of that year, her aunt Elizabeth Blackwell died, and the sisters were forced to return home. Brontë and her sisters had even attempted to open their own school, but it failed due to lack of students.

Brontë lived a quiet, simple life at Haworth. She enjoyed playing the piano, doing housework, and writing poetry. From 1846-47, Brontë wrote a series of poems, with some included an imaginary world called Gondal she had made up as a child and the poems describing the world and some of its inhabitants. Though Brontë was fiercly private of her writings and did not want them to be exposed, Charlotte discovered them and was fascinated so they were published along with their own poems in a collection of books under male pseudonyms, with Brontë using the name "Ellis Bell". The book only sold 2 copies and wasn't well received.

Writing "Wuthering Heights"
In 1847, Brontë wrote what would become her only novel, Wuthering Heights. It is not known exactly when she first started work on it or how long it took, but it's believed she spend many long, exhausting hours writing her Gothic masterpiece. Wuthering Heights tells the tale of two intense lovers, and how betrayal and revenge had led them down a dangerous path.

Wuthering Heights was published in December of that same year. Earlier in October, Charlotte's novel Jane Eyre was published and was met with critical acclaim. But when Wuthering Heights was released, it received mostly negative reviews from critics due to its dark and disturbing content, and even readers were shocked when they first read it. Brontë herself was heartbroken of all the harsh criticism her book received, but she would never live long enough to see her novel eventually become more famous and influential.

Final Days and Death
In September 1848, Branwell died of consumption. She caught a severe cold shortly after her brother's funeral, and her health worsens. Her cough becomes more violent and she grew very thin. Despite her agile condition, Brontë refused any medical treatment and continued doing the house chores and going through her day.

As she became more weak, Brontë, who could now barely speak, finally consulted for a doctor, but it had been too late. She died of consumption on December 19th, 1848 at the age of 30. On December 22nd, she was laid to rest inside the Brontë Family Crypt at the St. Michael and All Angels' Church in Haworth, Yorkshire.

Legacy
After Brontë's death, Charlotte edited the manuscript of Wuthering Heights and years afterwards, the novel would later be well-received by both critics and readers, and it has even officially been regarded as a masterpiece in English literature, with its two main characters Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw becoming one of the most iconic couples of all time.

Not a lot is known of Brontë's life personally. A reclusive and sensitive woman, Brontë never married or fell in love, though it is believed that the only man she ever loved was her brother Branwell, and his death made her grief-stricken until she died. It's even rumoured that she may had died of a broken heart than consumption. But despite being secretive during her short life, many scholars and readers often consider her to be the most mysterious but greatest of the Brontë trio.

At the time of her passing, she may have been working on a second novel but the original manuscript of it never survived. Her love and passion for her beloved home of the Yorkshire moors serves as an important key fact in Wuthering Heights, where the story takes place.

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 Rosemary McHale in "The Brontës of Haworth" and Chloe Pirrie (Talia Barnett as her younger self) in "To Walk Invisible."

Trivia

 * Brontë was the tallest of her siblings, standing at about 5 feet, 6 inches. When she died, she was so thin that her casket only measured 16 inches. The carpenter himself admitted that he had never made a casket so thin and narrow for an adult.


 * Brontë was an expert pianist, and playing the piano in the parsonage was a hobby she loved. She was also able to play several musical works from famous composers such as Beethoven and Mozart.
 * Besides poetry, she was talented at art, and even sketched some drawings that she copied from book illustrations. She also did some water-colouring and geometry drawing.
 * She loved animals. She took good care of the family's pets, and she had even rescued and cared for injured animals she found in the moors.
 * She was good at shooting. She learned how to use a pistol by her father and was able to successfully discharge the weapon once in a while.