Charlotte Brontë
Charlotte Nicholls, commonly known by her maiden name Charlotte Brontë, was an English novelist and poet, and was the elder sister of Emily, Anne and Branwell Brontë. She is best known for her novel Jane Eyre, which was first published under the pseudonym Currer Bell. Jane Eyre was a great success on publication, and has since become known as a classic of English literature.
Charlotte was the third of six siblings born to Maria Branwell, the daughter of a Cornish merchant, and Patrick Brontë, an Irish clergyman. Maria died when Charlotte was only five years old, and three years later, Charlotte was sent to the Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge in Lancashire, along with her three sisters, Maria, Elizabeth and Emily. Conditions at the school were appalling, with frequent outbreaks of disease. Charlotte's two elder sisters fell ill there and died shortly afterwards at home; Charlotte attributed her own lifelong ill-health to her time at Cowan Bridge, and later used it as the model for Lowood School in Jane Eyre.
In 1831, Charlotte became a pupil at Roe Head School in Mirfield, but left the following year in order to teach her sisters, Emily and Anne, at home. In 1835, Charlotte returned to Roe Head as a teacher. In 1839, she accepted a job as governess to a local family, but left after a few months.
In 1842, Charlotte joined the Heger Pensionnat, a girls' boarding school in Brussels, as a student, then later as a teacher, in the hope of acquiring the skills required to open a school of her own. However, she was obliged to leave after falling in love with the school's director, Constantin Heger, a married man, who inspired both the character of Rochester in Jane Eyre, and Charlotte's first novel, The Professor.
Charlotte, Emily and Anne then attempted to open a school in Haworth, but failed to attract pupils. In 1846 the sisters published a collection of poems under the pseudonyms Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. Although Charlotte's first novel, The Professor, was rejected by publishers, her second novel, Jane Eyre, was published in 1847, attracting both praise and controversy. The sisters' true identities were revealed in 1848, and by the following year Charlotte was known in London literary circles.
In 1854, Charlotte married Arthur Bell Nicholls, her father's curate. She became pregnant shortly after her wedding in June 1854, but died on 31 March 1855, possibly of tuberculosis, although there is evidence that she may have died from hyperemesis gravidarum, a complication of pregnancy.
Early years and education
Charlotte Brontë was born on 21 April 1816, the third of six children born to Maria Branwell, the daughter of an affluent grocer and tea merchant from Cornwall, and Patrick Brontë an Anglican curate. Patrick Brontë was one of ten children born to a poor Irish family, and, having shown both ambition and an aptitude for learning, had been educated in Latin and Greek by a local clergyman before earning a place at St John's College, Cambridge. Maria Branwell was from a more prosperous background, and her letters to Patrick remain the primary source of information about her. The couple were married at St Oswald's Church in Guiseley in December 1812. In 1815 Patrick took a new position in the Yorkshire village of Thornton, near Bradford, where Charlotte and her siblings were born.Haworth
In 1820, Maria and Patrick moved with their six young children, Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and Anne, to the village of Haworth, on the edge of the Yorkshire moors, where Patrick had been offered the position of perpetual curate of St Michael and All Angels Church. His salary was modest, but the post came with the use of a parsonage overlooking the churchyard and the moors. Patrick, as an Irish immigrant, struggled to be accepted in Haworth, and his children, who at first shared his Irish accent, also shared his lifelong sense of being an outsider. Living conditions in Haworth were poor, with high levels of early mortality and a water supply contaminated by runoff from the graveyard, as reported in 1850 in a damning health report by Benjamin Babbage. Historians have speculated that these factors may have contributed to the deaths of Charlotte and her siblings.Death of Maria Branwell
Soon after arriving in Haworth, Maria Branwell fell ill with what may have been cancer. She died on 15 September 1821, after a long and painful illness, leaving her six children in the care of her sister, Elizabeth Branwell. Charlotte was then only five years old, and the loss of her mother affected her throughout her life. In 1850, she wrote to a friend:It was strange now to peruse, for the first time, the records of a mind whence my own sprang... and at once sad and sweet to find that mind of a truly fine, pure and elevated order... There is a refinement, a modesty, a gentleness about them indescribable... I wish that she had lived, and that I had known her.
Cowan Bridge
In August 1824, Patrick sent Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte, and Emily to the Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge in Lancashire. The sisters were aged ten, nine, eight and five respectively, and had previously had no formal education. Charlotte's school report mentions that the eight-year old Charlotte "writes indifferently" and "knows nothing of grammar, geography, history, or accomplishments", although she is "altogether clever of her age".Conditions at the school were harsh, with insanitary conditions, poor food and frequent outbreaks of disease, and in 1825, after an outbreak of typhus, Charlotte's two elder sisters both fell ill and subsequently died at home. Charlotte later maintained that conditions at the school had permanently affected her own health and physical development. After the deaths of Maria and Elizabeth, Patrick removed Charlotte and Emily from the school and arranged for them to be taught at home. Charlotte was greatly affected by the deaths of her older sisters, and later used Cowan Bridge as the model for Lowood School in Jane Eyre, which is similarly subject to outbreaks of tuberculosis and typhus exacerbated by the poor conditions. The headmaster of Cowan Bridge School, the Reverend William Carus-Wilson, was represented by Charlotte in her portrait of Mr Brocklehurst, the headmaster of Lowood, a depiction that later prompted Carus-Wilson to threaten to sue for libel.
Juvenilia
At home in Haworth Parsonage, the nine-year-old Charlotte now took over the care of her younger siblings under the supervision of their aunt Elizabeth Branwell. Patrick Brontë, though a difficult character in many ways, encouraged all his children to read widely, to take an interest in politics and current affairs and to enjoy music, art and poetry. He introduced them to the work of Lord Byron, and allowed them to read the newspapers and periodicals to which he subscribed. Although girls were not allowed access to the village library, Branwell shared his books with his sisters. Favourites included John Milton's Paradise Lost, John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, and Isaac Watts' Doctrine of the Passions. Charlotte also enjoyed the copies of the Lady's Magazine that had belonged to her mother, writing: "I shall never see anything which will interest me so much again", although Patrick later burnt them because "they contained foolish love stories."The siblings, who had grown very close, often played together, creating imaginative 'plays' using their toys. One of the most influential of these 'plays' began in 1827, when Branwell received the gift of twelve wooden soldiers. These soldiers formed the basis of an ongoing fantasy role-playing game, featuring the 'Young Men', or 'The Twelves', which gradually came to dominate the lives of Charlotte and her siblings.
The ten-year-old Charlotte writes on June 5, 1826:
Papa bought Branwell some wooden soldiers at leeds when papa came home it was night and we were in Bed so next morning Branwell came to our Door with a Box of soldiers Emily and I jumped out of Bed, and I snathed up one and exclaimed this is the Duke of Wellington it shall be mine!! when I had said this Emily likewise took one up and said it should be hers when Anne came down she took one also. Mine was the prettiest of the whole, and the tallest, and the most perfect in every part Emily's was a grave-looking fellow, and we called him ‘Gravey’ Anne's was a queer little thing much like herself. he was called waiting boy Branwell chose Buonaparte.The world in which these plays were set began as a series of islands off the coast of a fictionalised West Africa. Each child controlled one island, all of which had a capital named Glass Town: this eventually became the Glass Town Confederacy. A number of stories, little books and magazines were created by Charlotte and Branwell over this time to tie in with the Young Men's adventures. Charlotte and Branwell were the primary creators of this shared world and its juvenilia, but their younger siblings also contributed. Charlotte began writing poetry when she was thirteen in 1829, writing more than two hundred poems throughout her life. Many of these poems first appeared in a homemade magazine entitled Branwell's Blackwood's Magazine, which was linked to the Glass Town Confederacy. Charlotte, in private letters, called Glass Town her 'world below', a fantasy in which she could explore different lives and identities. Over the course of the project Charlotte showed her love for romantic settings, love affairs, and high society, while Branwell's contribution reflected his interest in battles and politics. From 1831 onwards, Emily and Anne withdrew from the Glass Town project to create a fictional land of their own called Gondal, while Charlotte and Branwell concentrated on an expanded version of the Glass Town Confederacy called Angria. Christine Alexander, a Brontë juvenilia historian, wrote:
...both Charlotte and Branwell ensured the consistency of their imaginary world. When Branwell exuberantly kills off important characters in his manuscripts, Charlotte comes to the rescue and, in effect, resurrects them for the next stories ; and when Branwell becomes bored with his inventions, such as the Glass Town magazine he edits, Charlotte takes over his initiative and keeps the publication going for several more years.The sagas created by the siblings exist as partial manuscripts, some of which have been published. The siblings continued to create narratives around their imaginary lands throughout their childhood and adolescence, an interest that continued even into adulthood. In 1833 Charlotte wrote several novellas, including The Green Dwarf, under the name Wellesley, one of her Angrian heroes. From about 1833, her stories seemed to show less of an interest in the supernatural and a shift to more realistic subject matters.