"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 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 30 years old, a year after her novel was published.
Biography[]
Parental Background[]
Patrick Brunty was born on March 17th, 1777, inside a small, two-room cabin at Emdale, County Down, Ireland, the eldest of Hugh and Elinor Alice's ten children. Hugh was an orphan who was from Southern Ireland and worked as an agricultural labourer. There had been rumours that he was descended from an ancient family and enjoyed telling stories and legends of Irish folklore and mythology.
Soon after Patrick's birth, the family moved to a two-storey cottage in Lisnacreevey, where he was educated. Since his parents were poor and illiterate, they only owned four books: Robert Burns's poems, two copies of the Bible, and Paul Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress. At the age of 12, Patrick was apprenticed with the local blacksmith and then with a line-weaver. During his childhood, Patrick was an avid reader and spent his money on books. He spent hours reading and memorizing verses. John Milton's Paradise Lost was his personal favourite.
While he read aloud his verses, the local minister, Reverend Andrew Hardship, overheard him and was so moved that he allowed him access to his library. At the age of 16, Patrick was hired as a schoolteacher at Glascar's village school, but his job was difficult as he had a low salary while the rest of his siblings worked as labourers. One of his brothers, William, took part in the Battle of Ballynahinch during the Irish Rebellion of 1798. After leaving his teaching job, he met Thomas Tighe, a vicar in Drumballyroney who offered to tutor his children and even encouraged him to participate in the church's movement. Patrick learned Latin and Greek from his tutoring and then decided to pursue a career as a clergyman.
In 1802, when he was 25 years old, Patrick left Ireland and attended St. John's College in Cambridge to study theology. During this time, he changed his surname to Brontë. Why he had changed his name is not known, but it's believed he wanted to keep his humble background a secret. Brontë means "thunder" in Greek.
He graduated in 1806 with a Bachelor of Arts degree and briefly returned to Drumballyroney, where he preached his first sermon at Tighe's church. He also made sure any records of his birth were kept hidden, and then he left his native Ireland for good. He moved to Essex and became curate of St. Mary Magdalene's Church in Wethersfield. He was briefly in a romantic relationship with his landlady's niece, Mary Burder, but their engagement was called off following a disagreement with her family. He ended his curacy in 1809 and moved to Wellington in Somerset, where he became Reverend John Eyton's assistant curate. In addition, he was curate at Huddersfield and Dewsbury in West Yorkshire from 1810 to 1811 and even published a collection of poems around that time.
Following his curacy with Eyton, Patrick moved to Hartshead and was appointed assistant curate of the Church of St. Peter. The Luddite violence broke out shortly afterwards, and on April 11th, 1812, the Rawfolds Mill was rioted and destroyed. While Patrick was against the violence and was often targeted because of his clergyman job, it's possible he showed sympathy for the rioters and buried their bodies in unmarked graves. In July 1812, he visited the Woodhouse Grove School near Guiseley to observe the students studying classics. It was there that he met 29-year-old Maria Branwell, the niece of the school's headmaster, John Fennell.
Maria Branwell was born on April 15th, 1783, in Penzance, Cornwall, England, the eighth child of Thomas Branwell, a successful merchant, and Anne Carne's 12 children. Five of her siblings died in childhood, and her family became respected for making several investments in the local bank and brewery. They were also involved with the town council, and since they were devout Methodists, they helped build the first Methodist chapel in Penzance. Between 1808 and 1811, her parents and two siblings died, and her immediate family was broken up. Now that she was on her own, she searched for employment to support herself, and she left Cornwall to be an assistant to her aunt and uncle's school in 1812, where she and her aunt, Jane Fennell, did some housekeeping.
After their first meeting at Woodhouse Grove, Patrick and Maria soon developed a courtship and then were secretly engaged. They were married on December 29th, 1812, at St. Oswald's Church in Guiseley. Two additional weddings also occurred on the same day: Maria's sister Charlotte married her cousin Joseph, and her cousin, Jane Fennell, married Patrick's close friend, William Morgan.
The newlyweds rented a house in Hartshead, where their two oldest children were born: Maria on April 23rd, 1814, and Elizabeth on February 8th, 1815. Patrick didn't have enough money to build a new parsonage, and he struggled to find a new parish until his friend Thomas Atkinson offered him a post as curate at his parish in Thornton, Yorkshire. The Brontës moved to a small house on Market Street in Thornton, where he became curate at St. James's Church in 1815, a mile from his home. They made some close friends in town, and Maria's sister, Elizabeth Branwell, often stayed in touch and visited them.
Early Life[]
Emily Jane Brontë was born on July 30th, 1818, in Thornton, Yorkshire, England. She was Patrick and Maria's fifth child; her siblings were Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte, Branwell, and Anne. She was christened at St. James's Church, where Patrick was curate. Around the time of her birth, the family had two young servants, Nancy and Sarah Garr, who had been serving the family shortly after Charlotte's birth and were assigned to help care for the children. At the same time, Patrick was busy with his parish business at St. James's Church, and Maria needed some support.
Emily Brontë's birthplace at Thornton, Yorkshire
In 1820, the Brontës' home at Market Street was getting full following Anne's birth, and Patrick hoped to be curate at a new church and parish with a larger population. In February, the parishioners of Haworth had chosen to accept him as their new curate of St. Michaels and All Angels Church. After Patrick accepted the post, the family moved to Haworth, which was 60 miles away from Thornton.
In the mid-19th century, Haworth was a poor, industrial mill town that suffered from overcrowding, diseases, and poor sanitation from the town's contaminated water. Conditions in Haworth were so harsh that the mortality rate was very high. The average life expectancy was about 20 years, with 40% dying before age six. In addition, many of the town's residents were poor and worked in nearby factories and mills. Haworth was also surrounded by the Yorkshire moors, greatly influencing the Brontë sisters' works, especially with Emily.
The Brontë family took up residence at the parsonage, next door to St. Michaels and All Angels Church. The parsonage was built in 1778 and provided more living space for the children. It also contained a garden and a stone archway that led into the churchyard. Patrick would become the church minister for the next 40 years. However, within a year after moving into the parsonage, Maria became gravely ill, and all the children suffered from smallpox. Patrick struggled to look after his sick family and maintain his parish business. When things got bad, Elizabeth Branwell, Brontë's maternal aunt, arrived from Penzance to help Patrick with the children.
Brontë and her siblings recovered from their illnesses, but Maria's health deteriorated for the next few months. Her illness was excruciating, and no other medicines could treat her. On September 15th, 1821, Maria died at 38 years old, with her husband and children at her bedside. It is widely believed she suffered from uterine cancer, which may be the result of her constant pregnancies and only worsened after she gave birth to Anne in 1820. Her funeral was held at St. Michaels and All Angels Church, and she was buried in what would later become the family's burial vault. Following Mrs. Brontë’s death, Elizabeth Branwell planned to stay in Haworth temporarily, but when Patrick couldn’t remarry, she stayed permanently to help care for the children and the household.
With their father spending his time alone or working on his parish duties, Brontë and her siblings would play together and entertain one another with their own stories. But soon after she could read and write, Patrick decided that his daughters should be properly educated so they could pursue successful careers as governesses or schoolteachers as adults. In 1824, a new school opened in Lancashire, 40 miles away from Haworth. It was called The Clergys’ Daughters of Cowan Bridge, and its headmaster, William Carus Wilson, was a wealthy, evangelical clergyman who opened the school to educate girls from poor clergy families. Patrick enrolled his daughters at the school, except Anne. Maria and Elizabeth arrived first that summer, followed by Charlotte soon afterward and Emily in November.
Brontë's school, Cowan Bridge in Lancashire, where she attended along with her sisters, Charlotte, Maria and Elizabeth
Brontë was still suffering from trauma following the aftermath of her mother’s death, and the school’s harsh living conditions, disgusting food, and freezing temperatures made her time at the school even harder for her. On Sundays, the students walked two miles to a church, and it was worse when it snowed. A typhoid epidemic later broke out at the school, and her older sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, fell dangerously ill from tuberculosis. Maria was sent home immediately in February 1825 but died on May 6th, at age 12. Elizabeth also contracted typhoid in May and was sent home. She later died on June 15th, at age 10, and both girls were interred in the Brontë family vault with their mother. After losing two of his children and fearing for the lives of his daughters, Patrick immediately ordered the school to withdraw them and send them home. Charlotte and Brontë were at Cowan Bridge for one month before leaving the school for good.
When they returned to Haworth, the Garr sisters have left and were replaced by Tabitha "Tabby" Aykroyd, who would serve the family for the next 30 years. Not wanting to send the children to school again, Patrick and Elizabeth tutored them at home. Elizabeth taught Brontë and the girls needlework, reading and French, while Patrick taught Branwell literature, Latin, and Greek. Additionally, the children had access to their father's library and read any books they found there, from Arabian Nights, and Aesop's Fables, to the Bible and Shakespeare's plays.
Isolated in the parsonage throughout their childhood, the Brontë children formed a close bond. Brontë was a quiet, shy child but she was close to her siblings, including her only brother, Branwell, and enjoyed reading. The siblings had creative, intelligent imaginations and entertained each other with their fantasy worlds, with Charlotte's fantasy world called Angria. She wrote her own fictional stories and characters, but very few of them survived. Branwell received a set of toy soldiers for his 9th birthday, and the children had fun with the toy soldiers, even making tiny books for them to read.
Roe Head in Mirfield, where Brontë attended temporarily as a student
In 1831, when Brontë was 12 years old, Charlotte attended Roe Head, a girls' school in Mirfield. With Charlotte absent, Brontë spent more time with Anne, and they create more stories for her new fantasy world called Gondal in plays and poems. The sisters also enjoyed exploring the moors, and during one of their expeditions, they discovered a 17th-century farmhouse about 2 miles away from the parsonage called Ponden Hall, which fascinated Brontë. It was home to the Heaton family and may have inspired the Linton family home, Thrushcross Grange, in Wuthering Heights.
After Charlotte arrived home as a model student a year later, the sisters did their lessons with Patrick or walked in the moors. Patrick also recently opened a Sunday school with a grant of £80 from the National School Society. Charlotte and her siblings taught at the school several times, but Brontë was the only family member who didn't teach there. The family was also skilled at drawing, and Branwell planned to enroll at the Royal Academy to study art. An art teacher, John Bradley, taught the children art, and Branwell later painted a famous portrait of his sisters. He also included himself but wasn't satisfied, so he removed it.
Shortly before her 17th birthday, Brontë went to Roe Head as a student. Charlotte returned to the school as a teacher and offered to pay for her sister's education. However, Brontë couldn't fit in with the school's discipline and structure. She also became terribly homesick, so she went home after just three months, and Anne took her place.
Adult Life/Brussels[]
In 1836, Brontë was back at the parsonage with Branwell, who had failed to enroll at the Royal Academy. With Charlotte and Anne still at school, Brontë and Branwell wrote poetry about their fantasy worlds, in which they often described Gondal and its inhabitants. In 1838, she wanted to find work and earn a living like her sisters. She accepted a post as a schoolteacher at Law Hill in Halifax, run by Miss Elizabeth Patchett. Brontë taught the youngest students and often accompanied them when they went out for daily walks. However, Brontë struggled with her teaching hours, as she taught from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. She also became homesick again and resigned from her position after six months in April 1839. It was the only time she had a paying job.
Around the same time, Charlotte and Anne were away from home, working as governesses. Brontë lived a decent, quiet life at home and enjoyed playing the piano, writing poetry and painting. A few years earlier, Tabby suffered from a leg injury after she slipped on ice and was no longer able to do her tasks around the house full-time, so Brontë took her place and was often in the kitchen baking bread. Patrick had also appointed a 26-year-old Durham graduate, William Weightman, as his second curate. He became a close family friend and was beloved in the community for nursing the sick. There had been rumours that Brontë may have been in love with him.
In late 1841, Charlotte and her sisters devised a plan to open their school for girls. Since Patrick was 65 years old and his eyesight started failing, they knew that they would lose the parsonage and become homeless if he became blind. They decided living as independent women and working hard to support themselves was the best solution. The sisters decided to add the French language to their school's curriculum, and their Aunt Branwell sent them some money, which was enough for them to study abroad on the continent. Some local clergymen suggested attending a school in Lille, France. However, Charlotte's friend from Roe Head, Mary Taylor and her sister Martha attended a highly successful girls' school in Brussels, Belgium, called Château de Koekelberg. But the school was too expensive for the sisters, so they were recommended a cheaper school in Brussels: the Pensionnat Héger. Brontë was then encouraged to accompany Charlotte to Brussels so they could attend the school together, and she was determined to improve her language skills if she wanted their school to be successful.
In February 1842, Brontë and Charlotte, accompanied by Patrick, Mary Taylor and her brother, Joe, left Haworth and travelled to London by railway train. The two sisters then went on a steamship that took them across the English Channel, into the port city of Ostend, and then a coach to Brussels. The Pensionnat Héger was located in the Rue d'Isabella, close to the central park and Rue Royale. It was owned by a Catholic Frenchwoman and mother, Madame Zoë Héger, whose husband, Constantin Héger, was the school's headmaster. Shortly after arriving at the school, Patrick returned to England, but the sisters felt uncomfortable and shy in a school filled with French-speaking Belgian girls. Monsieur Héger taught the sisters separately and started teaching them French literature. However, Brontë struggled with her studies and even quarrelled with Héger. But despite her frustration, she progressed with her studies and wrote some essays, or "devoirs," that provided an insight into her creative writing in poetry. That summer, Monsieur Héger and his family departed for a vacation at the seaside. Since the journey back to Yorkshire was too expensive, the Brontës decided to spend their holidays in Belgium. In Monsieur Héger's absence, they explored the city and admired the school's beautiful garden. Brontë mostly kept to herself at Pensionnat Héger, but she may have befriended her 16-year-old classmate, Louise de Bassompierre.
The sisters had planned to stay at the school for six months but endured some tragic hardships along the way. Mary Taylor's sister, Martha, fell dangerously ill with cholera and died before Charlotte could arrive at Koekelberg to be by her friend's side. Around this time, the sisters learned from back home that Branwell had lost his job as a portrait painter at Bradford and had become a heavy drinker, spending most of his time at the local Haworth pub, The Black Bull. Additionally, William Weightman, whom the Brontës have befriended and was beloved in the Haworth parish and community, died of cholera at just 26 years old. Then, in late October, they received news that their Aunt Branwell was gravely ill. They immediately made plans to return home, but before they could leave, their father sent them a letter announcing that their aunt had died. The sisters returned to Haworth 5 days after their aunt's funeral. They later received a small fortune from their aunt's will, with Brontë receiving enough money to return to Brussels. However, she chose to stay home and not return to Brussels, so Charlotte went by herself and became a teacher at Pensionnat for about a year. Branwell was supposed to have his share of the fortune, but his reckless spending and debts left him out of the will.
Charlotte and Anne arrived home at the beginning of 1844. At home, their father's failing eyesight worsened, along with Tabby being too old and injured to do any housework. Also, Branwell's drinking and drug addiction was causing him to become unpredictable and violent. In August, they began planning to open their school, "The Misses Brontë’s Establishment for the Board and Education of a Limited Number of Young Ladies." The average sum was £35, and subjects included writing, arithmetic, history, geography and needlework. Other subjects, such as languages in English, French and Latin, music and drawing, would cost an extra guinea. But the sisters struggled to print out advertisements and call any local families, and by October, no students arrived, so they gave up. There were a few reasons why the Brontë sisters' plan to run a school had failed: Patrick wasn't comfortable having young female strangers inside his home, Branwell's violent outbursts and episodes would be considered dangerous for the young girls, and Haworth was such a remote village in the middle of the moors with a low population, that it was difficult to find any families who live nearby.
Brontë's home, the Brontë parsonage, in Haworth, Yorkshire
Writing "Wuthering Heights"[]
The original cover of Wuthering Heights
In 1847, Brontë wrote her only novel, Wuthering Heights. It is not known exactly when she started work on it or how long it took, but it's believed she spent many long, exhausting hours writing her Gothic masterpiece. Wuthering Heights tells the tale of two intense lovers and how betrayal and revenge 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 was heartbroken by all the harsh criticism her book received, but she would never live long enough to see her novel become more famous and influential.
Final Days and Death[]
The plaque marking Emily Brontë's final resting place, the Brontë family crypt, at St. Michael and All Angels' Church in Haworth
In September 1848, Branwell died of consumption. She caught a severe cold shortly after her brother's funeral, and her health worsened. Her cough became more violent, and she grew very thin. Despite her agile condition, Brontë refused medical treatment and continued doing the house chores and going through her day.
As she became weaker, Brontë, who could now barely speak, finally consulted a doctor, but it had been too late. She died of consumption on December 19th, 1848, at 30 years old. On December 22nd, she was laid to rest inside the Brontë Family Crypt at St. Michael and All Angels' Church in Haworth, Yorkshire.
Legacy[]
After Brontë's death, Charlotte edited the manuscript of Wuthering Heights. Many years later, the novel would be well-received by both critics and readers. 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 fictional 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 have died of a broken heart than consumption. But despite being secretive during her short life, many scholars and readers often consider her the most mysterious but greatest of the Brontë sisters.
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 is 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. A biopic drama film, Emily, was released in 2022 and is mainly about her short life and fame.
Rosemary McHale portrayed Brontë in The Brontës of Haworth", Chloe Pirrie (Talia Barnett as her younger self) in To Walk Invisible, and Emma Mackey in Emily.
Trivia[]
A portrait of Emily Brontë (top left) with her sisters Charlotte (right) and Anne (bottom left) c. 1834
- Brontë was the tallest of her siblings, standing at about 5 feet, 6 inches. When she died, she was so thin that her coffin only measured 16 inches. The carpenter who made her coffin admitted that he had never made a thin and narrow one for an adult before.
- 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 by famous composers such as Beethoven and Mozart.
- Besides poetry, she was talented at art and even sketched 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 even rescued and cared for injured animals she found in the moors. She had a close, loving bond with her dog Keeper, and even sketched a portrait of him.
- She was good at shooting. She learned how to use a pistol with her father and successfully discharged the weapon once in a while.