The+Brontes+and+Gender

Patrick Brontë, an Anglican clergyman, married Maria Branwell Brontë and together they had six children. Patrick moved his family to Haworth in 1820 (Alexander unpag.). Tuberculosis killed his wife in 1821, as well as his eldest daughters, Maria and Elizabeth, in 1825. The sisters’ Aunt Elizabeth Branwell joined the family at Haworth and she participated in the remaining children’s upbringing (unpag.). The Brontës’ life as writers started early in 1827 when Charlotte and Emily began to create their “secret bed plays” (Kalkwarf 1), which later sparked Charlotte and her brother Patrick Branwell’s world of Angria and Glasstown (Alexander unpag.) as well as Emily and Anne’s Gondal kingdom (Kalkwarf 1). Through these worlds, the children were able to challenge authorities of their everyday world and create a version of epic dialogue (2). The sisters used the pseudonyms Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell (Thormahlen 246) in order to avoid the condescension and prejudice critics held towards female writers of the period when they published their work. These masculine pseudonyms provided the veil the Brontë sisters needed in order to publish their works without special treatment and to challenge the conventions of both female poetry and literature (Thormahlen 253).

Charlotte Brontë, later to become Mrs. Arthur Bell Nichols in 1854, was born on April 21, 1816 in Thornton, Yorkshire (Alexander unpag.). In 1824, she and her sister Emily went to the Clergy Daughters’ School at Cowan Bridge for a year (unpag.). In 1831, Charlotte attended Miss Wooler’s school at Roe Head and then went to Brussels with Emily in 1842 in order to further their French and to learn German (unpag.). Upon discovering Emily’s poems in 1845, Charlotte worked with her two sisters and published a volume of //Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell// (unpag.). Charlotte undertook the pseudonym Currer Bell. “Currer” is assumed to be adopted from Frances Mary Richardson Currer, an “illustrious scholar of Eshton Hall” (Thormahlen 247) and “Bell” from Arthur Bell Nichols, her father’s new curate (246). All three sisters chose “Bell” as part of their pseudonym. Charlotte wrote over two hundred poems, the majority of her early work focusing on Glass Town and Angria. Her novels //The Professor, Jane Eyre, Shirley// and //Villette// explore traditional female identity through hidden female sensibility presented in lyricism and satirical realism (Alexander unpag.). Tuberculosis and complications in early pregnancy ended Charlotte’s life on March 31, 1855 in Haworth (unpag.).

Emily Jane Brontë was born on July 30, 1818 in Thornton, Yorkshire (Barker unpag.). Emily attended the Clergy Daughters’ School in Lancashire with her sister Charlotte and later attended Miss Wooler’s school at Roe Head (unpag.). However, Emily became very homesick and returned home three months later. In 1838, Emily taught at Miss Patchett’s school at Law Hill and left after only six months (unpag.). Emily attempted further schooling with Charlotte at Brussels in 1842 where Emily’s “passionate nature” (unpag.) was highly valued. Despite this, Emily’s recurring homesickness took over and, after hearing of the death of her Aunt Elizabeth Branwell, Emily returned once again to Haworth (unpag.). In 1846, Emily and her sisters published //Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell.// The origination of Emily’s choice of pseudonym “Ellis” is unknown, although perhaps adapted from author Sarah Ellis or from the first name of Emily’s Irish grandmother (Thormahlen 249-250). Emily contributed about two hundred poems written in the lyric and ballad form, the majority stemming from Gondal, exploring Romanticism (O’Neill 58-60). Emily’s only novel, //Wuthering Heights//, is based on England’s patriarchal society at the beginning of the 19th century (Cai-yun 65). Emily died on December 19, 1848 in Haworth from tuberculosis (Barker unpag.).

Anne Brontë was born on January 17, 1820 in Thornton, Yorkshire (Smith unpag.). She was the youngest of six children in her family (unpag.). From 1830 to 1845, Anne and Emily created the Gondal kingdom and used this to write verse and prose (unpag.). Anne served as a governess in the year 1839 to the Ingham family (Birmingham 1) as well as in 1841 until 1845 to the Robinson family (Smith unpag.). In 1846, twenty-one of Anne’s poems were included in //Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell// under the pseudonym of Acton Bell (unpag.). She may have chosen the name “Acton” because of her reading of Eliza Acton, a contemporary (Thormahlen 247-249). In total, Anne wrote fifty-nine poems with themes of love, religious faith, and feminist ideologies (Cox 30). She also wrote two novels: //Agnes Grey,// and //The Tenant of Wildfell Hall//. While //Agnes Grey// presents the life of a governess (Smith unpag.), //The Tenant of Wildfell Hall// acts a challenge to Victorian ideologies about “marriage, gender roles and propriety” (Cox 31). This novel resembles the nineteenth-century New Woman fiction (31) and serves as a protest from a women’s standpoint to the strict literary conventions of the Victorian era (38). Anne’s achievements were short-lived as tuberculosis took her life on May 28, 1949 in Scarborough, Yorkshire (Smith unpag.).

Each Brontë sister, under her pseudonym, served to challenge Victorian gender ideologies. Though their publication of //Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell// in 1846 sold only two copies, the Brontë sisters are widely renowned today. Charlotte Brontë made a distinguished mark as an English novelist, with //Jane Eyre// as a momentous text for feminists (Griesinger 29). It has been suggested that Emily Brontë was the most impressive of her sisters (Barker unpag.) because //Wuthering Heights// is viewed as one of the finest English novels ever to be written (umpag.). However, Anne Brontë, termed by Margaret Lane as “a Bronte without a genius” (Cox 38) is not to be overshadowed by her sisters. While Anne’s novels may not be artful displays, Cox claims that Anne’s challenging ideas of Victorian feminine identity place her as an “embryonic New Woman” (38).

AC/Engl386/Fall2012/UVic

Alexander, Christine. “//Brontë//, Charlotte (1816-1855).” //Oxford Dictionary of National// // Biography //. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. Web. Unpaginated. 23 Oct. 2012.
 * Works Cited **

Barker, Julie. “Brontë, Emily Jane (1818-1848).” //Oxford Dictionary of National Biography//. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. Web. Unpaginated. 23 Oct. 2012.

Birmingham, Meredith. “Biography of Family.” //Bronte Family//. __Brontefamily.org__, 4 May 2008. Web. 23 Oct. 2012.

Cai-Yun, Wu. “Wuthering Heights – the Song of Rebel.” //Studies in Literature and Language// 1.6 (2010): 62-68. Web. 23 Oct. 2012.

Cox, Jessica. “Gender, Conflict, Continuity: Anne Bronte’s //The Tenant of Wildfell Hall// (1848) and Sarah Grand’s //The Heavenly Twins// (1893).” //Bronte Studies// 35.1 (2010): 30-39. Web. 23 Oct. 2012.

Griesinger, Emily. “Charlotte Bronte’s Religion: Faith, Feminism and //Jane Eyre//.” //Christianity// // and Literature // 58.1 (2008): 29-32. Web. 23 Oct. 2012.

Kalkwarf, Tracy Lin. “Questioning Voices: Dissention and Dialogue in the Poetry of Emily and Anne Bronte.” University of North Texas, 2000. United States – Texas: ProQuest Dissertations and Theses A&I. Web. 23 Oct. 2012.

O’Neill, Michael. “‘Visions Rise, and Change’: Emily Bronte’s Poetry and Male Romantic Poetry.” //Bronte Studies// 36.1 (2011): 57-63. Web. 23 Oct. 2012.

Smith, Margaret. “//Brontë//, Anne (1820-1849).” //Oxford Dictionary of National Biography//. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. Web. Unpaginated. 23 Oct. 2012.

Thormahlen, Marianne. “The Bronte Pseudonyms.” //English Studies// 75.3 (1994): 246-255. Web. 23 Oct. 2012.