87-624: Bertha Antoinetta Rochester (née Mason ) is a character in Charlotte Brontë 's 1847 novel Jane Eyre . She is described as the violently insane first wife of Edward Rochester , who moved her to Thornfield Hall and locked her in a room on the third floor. Bertha Mason is the only daughter of a very wealthy family living in Spanish Town , Jamaica . The reader learns of her past not from her perspective but only through descriptions of her by Edward Rochester , her unhappy husband. She
174-430: A postcolonial response to Jane Eyre . Rhys uses multiple voices (Antoinette's, her husband's, and Grace Poole's) to tell the story, and intertwines her novel's plot with that of Jane Eyre . In addition, Rhys makes a postcolonial argument when she ties Antoinette's husband's eventual rejection of Antoinette to her Creole heritage (a rejection shown to be critical to Antoinette's descent into madness). The novel
261-497: A boarding school twenty miles away in Mirfield , Roe Head (now part of Hollybank Special School ), where she met her lifelong friends and correspondents Ellen Nussey and Mary Taylor . In 1833 she wrote a novella, The Green Dwarf , using the name Wellesley. Around about 1833, her stories shifted from tales of the supernatural to more realistic stories. She returned to Roe Head as a teacher from 1835 to 1838. Unhappy and lonely as
348-507: A condition can be borne, and the internal conflict brought about by social repression of individual desire. Its main character, Lucy Snowe, travels abroad to teach in a boarding school in the fictional town of Villette, where she encounters a culture and religion different from her own and falls in love with a man (Paul Emanuel) whom she cannot marry. Her experiences result in a breakdown but eventually, she achieves independence and fulfilment through running her own school. A substantial amount of
435-407: A cottage and a competency of our own, I do think we might live and love on till Death without being dependent on any third person for happiness... how sorely my heart longs for you I need not say... Less than ever can I taste or know pleasure till this work is wound up. And yet I often sit up in bed at night, thinking of and wishing for you. Some scholars believe it is possible that Charlotte Brontë
522-547: A dramatic house fire. The book's style was innovative, combining Romanticism, naturalism with gothic melodrama , and broke new ground in being written from an intensely evoked first-person female perspective. Brontë believed art was most convincing when based on personal experience; in Jane Eyre she transformed the experience into a novel with universal appeal. Jane Eyre had immediate commercial success and initially received favourable reviews. G. H. Lewes wrote that it
609-411: A knife bought in secret. She later forgets this encounter. Expressing her thoughts in stream of consciousness , Antoinette dreams of flames engulfing the house and her freedom from the life she has there, and believes it is her destiny to fulfill the vision. Waking from her dream she escapes her room, and sets out candle in hand. Since the late 20th century, critics have considered Wide Sargasso Sea as
696-474: A larger and somewhat one-sided correspondence in which Héger frequently appears not to have replied, reveal that she had been in love with a married man, although they are complex and have been interpreted in numerous ways, including as an example of literary self-dramatisation and an expression of gratitude from a former pupil. In 1980 a commemorative plaque was unveiled at the Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels , on
783-591: A novelist and has remained controversial among the sisters' biographers ever since. In view of the success of her novels, particularly Jane Eyre , Brontë was persuaded by her publisher to make occasional visits to London, where she revealed her true identity and began to move in more exalted social circles, becoming friends with Elizabeth Gaskell and Harriet Martineau whose sister Rachel had taught Gaskell's daughters. Brontë sent an early copy of Shirley to Martineau whose home at Ambleside she visited. The two friends shared an interest in racial relations and
870-440: A private escape where she could act out her desires and multiple identities". Charlotte's "predilection for romantic settings, passionate relationships, and high society is at odds with Branwell's obsession with battles and politics and her young sisters' homely North Country realism, none the less at this stage there is still a sense of the writings as a family enterprise". However, from 1831 onwards, Emily and Anne 'seceded' from
957-611: A publisher, although she was heartened by an encouraging response from Smith, Elder & Co. of Cornhill, who expressed an interest in any longer works Currer Bell might wish to send. Brontë responded by finishing and sending a second manuscript in August 1847. Six weeks later, Jane Eyre was published. It tells the story of a plain governess, Jane , who, after difficulties in her early life, falls in love with her employer, Mr Rochester . They marry, but only after Rochester's insane first wife, of whom Jane initially has no knowledge, dies in
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#17327919524811044-599: A recreation." This advice she respected but did not heed. In 1839 Brontë took up the first of many positions as governess to families in Yorkshire , a career she pursued until 1841. In particular, from May to July 1839 she was employed by the Sidgwick family at their summer residence, Stone Gappe , in Lothersdale, where one of her charges was John Benson Sidgwick (1835–1927), an unruly child who on one occasion threw
1131-754: A revival of interest in Rhys and her work and was her most commercially successful novel. In 2022, it was included on the " Big Jubilee Read " list of 70 books by Commonwealth authors, selected to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II . The novel, initially set in Jamaica , opens a short while after the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 abolished slavery in the British Empire on 1 August 1834. The protagonist Antoinette relates
1218-400: A rock at her head. Antoinette then says she sees Tia "as if I saw myself. Like in a looking glass". Erwin argues that "even as she claims to be seeing "herself," she is simultaneously seeing "the other", that which only defines the self by its separation from it, in this case literally by means of a cut. History here, in the person of a former slave's daughter, is figured as refusing Antoinette",
1305-651: A son, Branwell , to be taken care of by her sister, Elizabeth Branwell . In August 1824, Patrick sent Charlotte, Emily, Maria, and Elizabeth to the Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge in Lancashire. Charlotte maintained that the school's poor conditions permanently affected her health and physical development, and hastened the deaths of Maria (born 1814) and Elizabeth (born 1815), who both died of tuberculosis in May (Maria) and June (Elizabeth) 1825. After
1392-586: A teacher at Roe Head, Brontë took out her sorrows in poetry, writing a series of melancholic poems. In "We wove a Web in Childhood" written in December 1835, Brontë drew a sharp contrast between her miserable life as a teacher and the vivid imaginary worlds she and her siblings had created. In another poem "Morning was its freshness still" written at the same time, Brontë wrote "Tis bitter sometimes to recall/Illusions once deemed fair". Many of her poems concerned
1479-436: A tiny, delicate, serious, little lady, with fair straight hair and steady eyes. She may be a little over thirty; she is dressed in a little barège dress with a pattern of faint green moss. She enters in mittens, in silence, in seriousness; our hearts are beating with wild excitement. This then is the authoress, the unknown power whose books have set all London talking, reading, speculating; some people even say our father wrote
1566-533: Is also considered a feminist work, as it deals with unequal power between men and women, particularly in marriage. Antoinette and her family were planters who owned slaves until the passage of the Slavery Abolition Act , which resulted in the family losing their wealth. They are pejoratively called " white nigger " or "white cockroach" by the island's Black inhabitants because of their poverty and are openly despised, harassed, and assaulted. The villagers, inadvertently or not, kill Antoinette's brother, setting fire to
1653-529: Is described as being of Creole heritage on her mother's side. According to Rochester, Bertha was famous for her beauty: she was the pride of the town and sought after by many suitors. Upon leaving college, Rochester was persuaded by his father to visit the Mason family and court Bertha. As he tells it, he first meets her at a ball she attended with her father and brother Richard, where he was entranced by her loveliness. Despite never being alone with her (although this
1740-519: Is hoping to exploit his new wife's situation. Angry at the returning prosperity of the planter class , emancipated slaves living in Coulibri burn down Annette's house, killing Antoinette's mentally disabled younger brother, Pierre. As Annette had been struggling with her mental health up until this point, the grief of losing her son weakens her sanity. Mr. Mason sends her to live with a couple who torment her until she dies. When Antoinette visits her after
1827-713: Is largely confined to "the attic" of Thornfield Hall , the mansion she calls the "Great House". The story traces her relationship with Grace Poole, the servant who is tasked with guarding her, as well as her disintegrating life with Mr. Rochester, as he hides her from the world. He promises to come to her more but never does. Antoinette is thought mad by those who interact with her and has little understanding of how much time she has been confined. She dreams of freedom, when she remembers, and writes to her stepbrother Richard in Jamaica who, however, says he cannot "interfere legally" with her husband. Desperate and enraged, she attacks him with
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#17327919524811914-434: Is refuted by one of Emily Brontë's diary papers, in which she describes preparing meat and potatoes for dinner at the parsonage. It has been argued that Gaskell's approach transferred the focus of attention away from the 'difficult' novels, not just Brontë's, but all the sisters', and began a process of sanctification of their private lives. Brontë held lifelong correspondence with her former schoolmate Ellen Nussey . 350 of
2001-545: Is unclear which form of mental illness she has. Her insane, violent behaviour becomes frightening to behold. Her laughter is described as "demonic", she crawls on all fours, snarling, and behaving in a bestial manner. Rochester returns with her to England and has her imprisoned in a third-floor room off the gallery of his house for ten years with Grace Poole, a hired nurse who keeps her under control. Rochester travels abroad to forget his horrible marriage. However, Grace drinks sometimes, and Bertha manages to escape, causing havoc in
2088-517: Is unfaithful and emotionally abusive. He begins to call her Bertha rather than her real name and flaunts an affair in front of her to cause her pain. Antoinette's increased sense of paranoia and the bitter disappointment of her failing marriage unbalance her already precarious mental and emotional state. She flees to the house of Christophine. Antoinette pleads with Christophine for an obeah potion to attempt to reignite her husband's love, which Christophine reluctantly gives her. Antoinette returns home but
2175-530: The Glass Town Confederacy to create a 'spin-off' called Gondal , which included many of their poems. After 1831, Charlotte and Branwell concentrated on an evolution 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
2262-399: The abolitionist movement ; recurrent themes in their writings. Brontë was also acquainted with William Makepeace Thackeray and G. H. Lewes. She never left Haworth for more than a few weeks at a time, as she did not want to leave her ageing father. Thackeray's daughter, writer Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie , recalled a visit to her father by Brontë: ...two gentlemen come in, leading
2349-558: The upper classes —and, of course, they both marry Mr Rochester. However, Antoinette is more rebellious than Jane and less mentally stable. She displays a deep vein of morbidity verging on a death-wish and, in contrast with Jane's overt Christianity , holds a cynical viewpoint of both God and religion in general. Charlotte Bront%C3%AB Charlotte Nicholls ( née Brontë ; 21 April 1816 – 31 March 1855), commonly known as Charlotte Brontë ( / ˈ ʃ ɑːr l ə t ˈ b r ɒ n t i / , commonly /- t eɪ / ),
2436-478: The Bible at Charlotte, an incident that may have been the inspiration for a part of the opening chapter of Jane Eyre in which John Reed throws a book at the young Jane. Brontë did not enjoy her work as a governess, noting her employers treated her almost as a slave, constantly humiliating her. She was of slight build and was less than five feet tall. In 1842 Charlotte and Emily travelled to Brussels to enrol at
2523-512: The Establishment, with all her faults – the profane Athanasian Creed excluded – I am sincerely attached." In a letter to Ellen Nussey she wrote: If I could always live with you, and daily read the bible with you, if your lips and mine could at the same time, drink the same draught from the same pure fountain of Mercy – I hope, I trust, I might one day become better, far better, than my evil wandering thoughts, my corrupt heart, cold to
2610-533: The Mason family and that the past three generations succumbed to it. He assumed Bertha's mother to be dead and was never told otherwise, but she was locked away in an asylum . Bertha also had an intellectually disabled younger brother. Rochester's father knew of this but did not bother to tell his son, caring only about the vast fortune the marriage would bring him, and the Mason family clearly wanted Bertha off their hands as quickly as possible. Rochester asserts that Bertha's mental health deteriorated quickly, though it
2697-445: The accusations of "coarseness" that had been levelled at her writing. The biography is frank in places, but omits details of Brontë's love for Héger , a married man, as being too much of an affront to contemporary morals and a likely source of distress to Brontë's father, widower, and friends. Mrs. Gaskell also provided doubtful and inaccurate information about Patrick Brontë, claiming that he did not allow his children to eat meat. This
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2784-407: The attic . Bertha serves as Jane's "double", juxtaposing the feminist character to a character constrained by domesticity. In Wide Sargasso Sea , "Bertha Mason" is portrayed as being a false name for Antoinette Cosway. The book purports to tell Antoinette's side of the story, as well as Rochester's, and to account for how she ended up alone and raving in the attic of Thornfield Hall . According to
2871-411: The background to Mr. Rochester's marriage from the point of view of his wife Antoinette Cosway , a Creole heiress. Antoinette Cosway is Rhys's version of Brontë's " madwoman in the attic ". Antoinette's story is told from the time of her youth in Jamaica , to her unhappy marriage to an English gentleman, Mr. Rochester, who renames her Bertha, declares her mad, takes her to England, and isolates her from
2958-687: The boarding school run by Constantin Héger (1809–1896) and his wife Claire Zoé Parent Héger (1804–1887). During her time in Brussels, Brontë, who favoured the Protestant ideal of an individual in direct contact with God, objected to the stern Catholicism of Madame Héger, which she considered a tyrannical religion that enforced conformity and submission to the Pope. In return for board and tuition Charlotte taught English and Emily taught music. Their time at
3045-403: The book, Antoinette's insanity and drunkenness are the result of Rochester's misguided belief that madness is in her blood and that she was part of the scheme to have him married blindly. Antoinette's family were impoverished by the abolition of slavery in Jamaica. After her widowed, mentally frail, Martinique mother remarries the wealthy Englishman, Mr. Mason, vengeful former slaves burn down
3132-408: The books – the wonderful books. ...The moment is so breathless that dinner comes as a relief to the solemnity of the occasion, and we all smile as my father stoops to offer his arm; for, genius though she may be, Miss Brontë can barely reach his elbow. My own personal impressions are that she is somewhat grave and stern, specially to forward little girls who wish to chatter. ...Everyone waited for
3219-409: The brilliant conversation which never began at all. Miss Brontë retired to the sofa in the study, and murmured a low word now and then to our kind governess... the conversation grew dimmer and more dim, the ladies sat round still expectant, my father was too much perturbed by the gloom and the silence to be able to cope with it at all... after Miss Brontë had left, I was surprised to see my father opening
3306-575: The church without him. Because her father did not attend it was Miss Wooler (Charlotte's former teacher at Roe Head School, and life-long friend), as "friend", who "gave away" Charlotte (Gaskell: Vol II, Chap XIII). The married couple took their honeymoon in Banagher , County Offaly, Ireland. By all accounts, her marriage was a success and Brontë found herself very happy in a way that was new to her. Brontë became pregnant soon after her wedding, but her health declined rapidly and, according to Gaskell, she
3393-399: The critical reaction to Brontë's work, as accusations were made that the writing was "coarse", a judgement more readily made once it was suspected that Currer Bell was a woman. However, sales of Jane Eyre continued to be strong and may even have increased as a result of the novel developing a reputation as an "improper" book. A talented amateur artist, Brontë personally did the drawings for
3480-560: The daughter of a slave owner. In the novel, Rhys also explores the legacy of slavery and the slave trade , focusing on how abolition dramatically affected the status of Antoinette's family as planters in colonial Jamaica. Scholar Trevor Hope has noted that the "triumphant conflagration of Thornfield Hall in Wide Sargasso Sea may at one level mark a vengeful attack upon the earlier textual structure". The destruction of Thornfield Hall occurs in both novels; however, Rhys epitomises
3567-414: The day as a potent and sophisticated piece of writing although it was criticised for "coarseness" and for not being suitably "feminine" in its portrayal of Lucy's desires. Before the publication of Villette , Brontë received an expected proposal of marriage from Irishman Arthur Bell Nicholls , her father's curate , who had long been in love with her. She initially refused him and her father objected to
Bertha Mason - Misplaced Pages Continue
3654-547: The deaths of his older daughters, Patrick removed Charlotte and Emily from the school. Charlotte used the school as the basis for Lowood School in Jane Eyre , which is similarly affected by tuberculosis that is exacerbated by the poor conditions. At home in Haworth Parsonage , Brontë acted as "the motherly friend and guardian of her younger sisters". Brontë wrote her first known poem at the age of 13 in 1829, and
3741-539: The family estate, angry that their oppressors' fortunes are restored. The fire kills Pierre, Antoinette's younger brother, and drives her mother's mental state over the brink. Mr. Mason exiles his wife, and forgets about her. Mason then arranges for Antoinette to marry Rochester, and the marriage is doomed from the start. The characters of Jane Eyre and Antoinette are portrayed as being very similar; independent, vivacious, imaginative young women with troubled childhoods, educated in religious establishments and looked down on by
3828-444: The fire as a liberating experience for Antoinette. Hope has suggested that the novel "[takes] residence inside the textual domicile of empire in order to bring about its disintegration or even, indeed, its conflagration". Rhys's editor Diana Athill discusses the events surrounding the publication of the book in her memoir. The book came out of a friendship between Rhys and Selma Vaz Dias who encouraged her to start writing again. At
3915-430: The fire, Annette refuses to see or speak to her. Antoinette visits her mother once more when she is older but is alarmed at the abuse she witnesses by the servants to her mother and goes away without speaking to her. Part Two alternates between the points of view of Antoinette and her husband during their honeymoon excursion to her mother's summer estate Granbois, Dominica . Likely catalysts for Antoinette's downfall are
4002-422: The front door with his hat on. He put his fingers to his lips, walked out into the darkness, and shut the door quietly behind him... long afterwards... Mrs Procter asked me if I knew what had happened. ...It was one of the dullest evenings [Mrs Procter] had ever spent in her life... the ladies who had all come expecting so much delightful conversation, and the gloom and the constraint, and how finally, overwhelmed by
4089-429: The history of their relationship, Rochester claims, I thought I loved her. ... Her relatives encouraged me; competitors piqued me; she allured me: a marriage was achieved almost before I knew where I was. Oh, I have no respect for myself when I think of that act! ... I never loved, I never esteemed, I did not even know her. Rochester explains that he was not warned that violent insanity and intellectual disability ran in
4176-427: The home and seem poised to murder the rest of the family if not for the apparition of an ill omen - their dying green parrot. Meanwhile, Rochester looks down on Antoinette because of her status as a Creole . Scholar Lee Erwin describes this paradox through the scene in which Antoinette's childhood home Coulibri is burned down and she runs to Tia, a black girl her own age, to "be like her". Tia attacks Antoinette, throwing
4263-605: The house: starting a fire in Mr Rochester's bed and biting and stabbing her visiting brother. Rochester's marriage to Bertha eventually stands in the way of his marrying Jane Eyre , who is unaware of Bertha's existence and whom he truly loves. (He later admits to Jane that he once thought he loved Bertha). As Bertha is insane he cannot divorce her, due to her actions being uncontrollable and thus not legitimate grounds for divorce. Years of violence, insanity, and confinement in an attic destroy Bertha's looks: when she sees Bertha in
4350-459: The imaginary country Angria have also been published since her death. In 2018, The New York Times published a belated obituary for her. The daughter of an Irish Anglican clergyman, Brontë was herself an Anglican. In a letter to her publisher, she claims to "love the Church of England. Her Ministers indeed, I do not regard as infallible personages, I have seen too much of them for that – but to
4437-496: The imaginary world of Angria, often concerning Byronic heroes , and in December 1836 she wrote to the Poet Laureate Robert Southey asking him for encouragement of her career as a poet. Southey replied, famously, that "Literature cannot be the business of a woman's life, and it ought not to be. The more she is engaged in her proper duties, the less leisure will she have for it even as an accomplishment and
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#17327919524814524-463: The influence of Walter Scott , and Brontë's modifications to her earlier gothic style have led Christine Alexander to comment that, in the work, "it is clear that Brontë was becoming tired of the gothic mode per se ". "At the end of 1839, Brontë said goodbye to her fantasy world in a manuscript called Farewell to Angria. More and more, she was finding that she preferred to escape to her imagined worlds over remaining in reality – and she feared that she
4611-432: The love potion acts like a poison on her husband. Subsequently he hardens his heart against reconciling with his wife and decides to take her away from Granbois out of spite. Part Three is the shortest part of the novel; it is from the perspective of Antoinette, renamed by her husband as Bertha. Mr. Rochester's father and brother have died, so he has returned to England with Antoinette to claim his sizeable inheritance. She
4698-448: The middle of the night, Jane describes Bertha as looking "savage", even going so far as to compare her with a " vampire ". Bertha destroys Jane's wedding veil (an action that hints that Bertha is at least sane enough to be aware that her husband is planning to enter a bigamous marriage). Despite not loving her, Rochester attempts to save Bertha from a fire she starts in the house when she again escapes. Bertha dies after throwing herself off
4785-403: The mutual suspicions that develop between the couple, and the machinations of Daniel, who claims he is Antoinette's illegitimate half-brother; he impugns Antoinette's reputation and mental state and demands money to keep quiet. Antoinette's old nurse Christophine openly distrusts Mr. Rochester. His apparent belief in the stories about Antoinette's family and past aggravate the situation; her husband
4872-482: The novel's dialogue is in the French language. Villette marked Brontë's return to writing from a first-person perspective (that of Lucy Snowe), the technique she had used in Jane Eyre . Another similarity to Jane Eyre lies in the use of aspects of her own life as inspiration for fictional events, in particular her reworking of the time she spent at the pensionnat in Brussels. Villette was acknowledged by critics of
4959-404: The project was abandoned. In May 1846, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne self-financed the publication of a joint collection of poems under their assumed names Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. The pseudonyms veiled the sisters' sex while preserving their initials; thus Charlotte was Currer Bell. "Bell" was the middle name of Haworth's curate, Arthur Bell Nicholls whom Charlotte later married, and "Currer"
5046-674: 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 the siblings created were episodic and elaborate, and they exist in incomplete manuscripts, some of which have been published as juvenilia . They provided them with an obsessive interest during childhood and early adolescence, which prepared them for literary vocations in adulthood. Between 1831 and 1832, Brontë continued her education at
5133-491: The rest of the world in his mansion. Wide Sargasso Sea explores the power of relationships between men and women and discusses the themes of race, Caribbean history, and assimilation as Antoinette is caught in a white, patriarchal society in which she fully belongs neither to Europe nor to Jamaica. Rhys lived in obscurity after her previous work, Good Morning, Midnight , was published in 1939. She had published other novels between these works, but Wide Sargasso Sea caused
5220-496: The role of women in society, was published in October 1849. Unlike Jane Eyre , which is written in the first person, Shirley is written in the third person and lacks the emotional immediacy of her first novel, and reviewers found it less shocking. Brontë, as her late sister's heir, suppressed the republication of Anne's second novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall , an action which had a deleterious effect on Anne's popularity as
5307-406: The roof, leaving her husband free to marry Jane. Though her race is never mentioned, it is sometimes conjectured that she was of mixed race. Rochester suggests that Bertha's father wanted her to marry him, because he was of "good race", implying that she was not pure white, while he was. There are also references to her "dark" hair, and "discoloured" and "black" face. A number of Victorian writers at
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#17327919524815394-543: The school was cut short when their aunt Elizabeth Branwell, who had joined the family in Haworth to look after the children after their mother's death, died of internal obstruction in October 1842. Charlotte returned alone to Brussels in January 1843 to take up a teaching post at the school. Her second stay was not happy: she was homesick and deeply attached to Constantin Héger. She returned to Haworth in January 1844 and used
5481-830: The second edition of Jane Eyre and in the summer of 1834 two of her paintings were shown at an exhibition by the Royal Northern Society for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts in Leeds. In 1848 Brontë began work on the manuscript of her second novel, Shirley . It was only partially completed when the Brontë family suffered the deaths of three of its members within eight months. In September 1848 Branwell died of chronic bronchitis and marasmus , exacerbated by heavy drinking, although Brontë believed that his death
5568-533: The site of the Madam Heger's school, in honour of Charlotte and Emily. Kazuo Ishiguro , when asked to name his favourite novelist, answered "Charlotte Brontë's recently edged out Dostoevsky ...I owe my career, and a lot else besides, to Jane Eyre and Villette. " The Green Dwarf, A Tale of the Perfect Tense was written in 1833 under the pseudonym Lord Charles Albert Florian Wellesley. It shows
5655-408: The situation, my father had quietly left the room, left the house, and gone off to his club. Brontë's friendship with Elizabeth Gaskell, while not particularly close, was significant in that Gaskell wrote the first biography of Brontë after her death in 1855. Brontë's third novel, the last published in her lifetime, was Villette , which appeared in 1853. Its main themes include isolation, how such
5742-688: The some 500 letters sent by Brontë to Nussey survive, whereas all of Nussey's letters to Brontë were burned at Nicholls's request. The surviving letters provide most of the information known on Charlotte Brontë's life and are the backbone of her autobiographies. Brontë's letters to Nussey seem to have romantic undertones: What shall I do without you? How long are we likely to be separated? Why are we to be denied each other's society- I long to be with you. Why are we to be divided? Surely, Ellen, it must be because we are in danger of loving each other too well- Ellen, I wish I could live with you always. I begin to cling to you more fondly than ever I did. If we had but
5829-427: The spirit, and warm to the flesh will now permit me to be. Elizabeth Gaskell 's biography The Life of Charlotte Brontë was published in 1857. It was an important step for a leading female novelist to write a biography of another, and Gaskell's approach was unusual in that, rather than analysing her subject's achievements, she concentrated on private details of Brontë's life, emphasising those aspects that countered
5916-480: The story of her life from childhood to her arranged marriage to an English gentleman, Mr. Rochester. The novel is in three parts: Part One takes place in Coulibri, a sugar plantation in Jamaica , and is narrated by Antoinette as a child. Formerly wealthy, since the abolition of slavery, the estate has become derelict and her family has been plunged into poverty. Antoinette's widowed Martinique mother, Annette, must remarry to wealthy English gentleman Mr. Mason, who
6003-584: The time spent in Brussels as the inspiration for some of the events in The Professor and Villette . After returning to Haworth, Charlotte and her sisters made headway with opening their own boarding school in the family home. It was advertised as "The Misses Brontë's Establishment for the Board and Education of a limited number of Young Ladies" and inquiries were made to prospective pupils and sources of funding. But none were attracted and in October 1844,
6090-511: The time suggested that madness could result from a racially "impure" lineage, compounded by growing up in a tropical West Indian climate. The 1966 parallel novel Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys serves as a prequel to Brontë's novel. It is the story of Bertha (there called Antoinette Cosway ) from the time of her youth in the Caribbean to her unhappy marriage and relocation to England. Rhys's novel re-imagines Brontë's devilish madwoman in
6177-473: The time, Rhys was living in a shack made of corrugated iron and tar paper in a slum neighbourhood of Cheriton Fitzpaine . The book was virtually completed in November 1964 when Rhys, who was 74 years old and complained of the cold and rain in her shack, suffered a heart attack. Athill cared for Rhys in the hospital for two years, keeping a promise not to publish the book until Rhys was well enough to compile
6264-515: The union at least partly because of Nicholls's poor financial status. Elizabeth Gaskell , who believed that marriage provided "clear and defined duties" that were beneficial for a woman, encouraged Brontë to consider the positive aspects of such a union and tried to use her contacts to engineer an improvement in Nicholls's finances. According to James Pope-Hennessy in The Flight of Youth, it
6351-465: The year after to teach her sisters, Emily and Anne , at home, then returned to Roe Head in 1835 as a teacher. In 1839, she undertook the role of governess for the Sidgwick family, but left after a few months. The three sisters attempted to open a school in Haworth but failed to attract pupils. Instead, they turned to writing; they each first published in 1846 under the pseudonyms of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. Although her first novel, The Professor ,
6438-409: Was "an utterance from the depths of a struggling, suffering, much-enduring spirit", and declared that it consisted of " suspiria de profundis !" (sighs from the depths). Speculation about the identity and gender of the mysterious Currer Bell heightened with the publication of Wuthering Heights by Ellis Bell (Emily) and Agnes Grey by Acton Bell (Anne). Accompanying the speculation was a change in
6525-496: Was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood and whose novels became classics of English literature . She is best known for her novel Jane Eyre , which she published under the male pseudonym Currer Bell . Jane Eyre went on to become a success in publication, and is widely held in high regard in the gothic fiction genre of literature. Brontë enrolled in school at Roe Head, Mirfield , in January 1831, aged 14 years. She left
6612-431: Was attacked by "sensations of perpetual nausea and ever-recurring faintness". She died, with her unborn child, on 31 March 1855, three weeks before her 39th birthday. Her death certificate gives the cause of death as phthisis , but biographers including Claire Harman and others suggest that she died from dehydration and malnourishment due to vomiting caused by severe morning sickness or hyperemesis gravidarum . Brontë
6699-796: Was born on 21 April 1816 in Market Street, Thornton (in a house now known as the Brontë Birthplace ), west of Bradford in the West Riding of Yorkshire , the third of the six children of Maria (née Branwell) and Patrick Brontë (formerly surnamed Brunty), an Irish Anglican clergyman. In 1820 her family moved a few miles to the village of Haworth , on the edge of the moors, where her father had been appointed perpetual curate of St Michael and All Angels Church . Maria died of cancer on 15 September 1821, leaving five daughters, Maria , Elizabeth , Charlotte, Emily and Anne , and
6786-573: Was buried in the family vault in the Church of St Michael and All Angels at Haworth. The Professor , the first novel Brontë had written, was published posthumously in 1857. The fragment of a new novel she had been writing in her last years has been twice completed by recent authors, the more famous version being Emma Brown : A Novel from the Unfinished Manuscript by Charlotte Brontë by Clare Boylan in 2003. Most of her writings about
6873-407: Was due to tuberculosis . Branwell may have had a laudanum addiction. Emily became seriously ill shortly after his funeral and died of pulmonary tuberculosis in December 1848. Anne died of the same disease in May 1849. Brontë was unable to write at this time. After Anne's death Brontë resumed writing as a way of dealing with her grief, and Shirley , which deals with themes of industrial unrest and
6960-420: Was going mad. So she said goodbye to her characters, scenes and subjects. [...] She wrote of the pain she felt at wrenching herself from her 'friends' and venturing into lands unknown". Wide Sargasso Sea Wide Sargasso Sea is a 1966 novel by Dominican-British author Jean Rhys . The novel serves as a postcolonial and feminist prequel to Charlotte Brontë 's novel Jane Eyre (1847), describing
7047-514: Was in a romantic or sexual relationship with Ellen Nussey. On 29 July 1913 The Times of London printed four letters Brontë had written to Constantin Héger after leaving Brussels in 1844. Written in French except for one postscript in English, the letters broke the prevailing image of Brontë as an angelic martyr to Christian and female duties that had been constructed by many biographers, beginning with Gaskell. The letters, which formed part of
7134-405: Was not unusual, as at the time it was considered inappropriate for a young, unmarried woman to be left unchaperoned with a man), and supposedly having had scarcely any interaction or conversation with her, he married her for her wealth and beauty, and with fierce encouragement from his own father and the Mason family. Rochester and Bertha began their lives as husband and wife in Jamaica. In recounting
7221-569: Was not what is called "feminine" – we had a vague impression that authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice; we had noticed how critics sometimes use for their chastisement the weapon of personality, and for their reward, a flattery, which is not true praise. Although only two copies of the collection of poems were sold, the sisters continued writing for publication and began their first novels, continuing to use their noms de plume when sending manuscripts to potential publishers. Brontë's first manuscript, 'The Professor', did not secure
7308-588: Was rejected by publishers, her second novel, Jane Eyre , was published in 1847. The sisters admitted to their Bell pseudonyms in 1848, and by the following year were celebrated in London literary circles. Brontë was the last to die of all her siblings. She became pregnant shortly after her wedding in June 1854 but died on 31 March 1855, almost certainly from hyperemesis gravidarum , a complication of pregnancy which causes excessive nausea and vomiting. Charlotte Brontë
7395-401: Was the generosity of Richard Monckton Milnes that made the marriage possible. Brontë, meanwhile, was increasingly attracted to Nicholls and by January 1854, she had accepted his proposal. They gained the approval of her father by April and married on 29 June. Her father Patrick had intended to give Charlotte away, but at the last minute decided he could not, and Charlotte had to make her way to
7482-521: Was the surname of Frances Mary Richardson Currer who had funded their school (and maybe their father). Of the decision to use noms de plume , Charlotte wrote: Averse to personal publicity, we veiled our own names under those of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell; the ambiguous choice being dictated by a sort of conscientious scruple at assuming Christian names positively masculine, while we did not like to declare ourselves women, because – without at that time suspecting that our mode of writing and thinking
7569-494: Was to go on to write more than 200 poems in the course of her life. Many of her poems were "published" in their homemade magazine Branwell's Blackwood's Magazine , and concerned the fictional world of Glass Town . She and her surviving siblings – Branwell, Emily and Anne – created this shared world, and began chronicling the lives and struggles of the inhabitants of their imaginary kingdom in 1827. Charlotte, in private letters, called Glass Town "her 'world below',
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