Emily Brontë

When Wuthering Heights was published in 1847, its author, 'Ellis Bell,' had only one more year to live. Readers were taken aback when they discovered that Ellis Bell was in fact Emily Brontë, the quiet, studious daughter of a clergyman, as well as the powerful, imaginative author of an entirely new kind of novel.

Fig. 1 - Emily Brontë was both a fiction writer and poet. However, she had to publish as Ellis Bell.

Emily Brontë's timeline and facts

• July 1818: Emily Bronte was born in Thornton, a village near Bradford in West Yorkshire, England. She was the fifth of six children of Patrick Brontë and Maria Branwell Brontë.
• 1820: The Brontë family moved to Haworth, a village in West Yorkshire, where Patrick Brontë was appointed as the rector of the parish.
• 1821: Emily's mother, Maria Branwell Brontë, died of cancer.
• 1824: Emily and her elder sister Charlotte were sent to the Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge in Lancashire, where they experienced harsh living conditions that may have contributed to their later health problems. Their two older sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, who were also at the school, fell ill and died.
• 1831-1832: Emily and Anne Brontë attended Roe Head School, where Charlotte was a teacher. Emily didn't enjoy the experience and returned home after a few months.
• 1835-1838: Emily worked as a governess in various households, including the ones of the Sidgwick and Robinson families.
• 1846: Emily, Charlotte, and Anne published a collection of poetry under the pseudonyms of Ellis, Currer, and Acton Bell. Emily's poems included 'Remembrance' and 'No Coward Soul Is Mine.'
• 1847: Emily published her only novel, Wuthering Heights, under the pseudonym of Ellis Bell. The novel received mixed reviews and was initially considered controversial for its depiction of violence and passion.
• December, 1848: Emily Bronte died of tuberculosis at the age of 30, at home in Haworth. Her sister Anne had died of the same disease a few months earlier. Her sister Charlotte would die in 1855.

Emily Brontë's biography

Emily Jane Brontë (1818-1848) was born in Thornton, Yorkshire and is universally recognised for her poetry and her novel Wuthering Heights.

The works of the Bronte sisters showed a new perception of the interior emotional life of women, and led the way for other novelists to explore the female mind and individuality. Their writings indicated a distinct shift away from the victimhood of earlier classical heroines. They also moved away from the pensive restraint of Jane Austen, illustrating instead the emotional depth of extreme passions such as love, jealousy, and hatred.

Emily Brontë: education

Emily Jane Brontë was one of six children born to middling, well-off clergyman Patrick Brontë and Maria Branwell. In 1820, Patrick Brontë moved with his family to Haworth, an overcrowded industrial town on the edge of the moors.

After Brontë’s mother died (1821), the children were brought up by their aunt Elizabeth. They were mostly homeschooled by their father and aunt, Elizabeth. The Brontë household was a lively one, filled with intellectual activity. When not outside exploring the countryside, the children engaged in play-acting, writing stories, and creating imaginary countries.

The Brontë children grew up surrounded by the dramatic scenery of the Yorkshire moors (and its uncertain climate). At home, there were books and a piano, which Emily in particular excelled at. When they were weary of study, they had the outside world - with its brooding skies and eccentric personalities - to explore.

Growing up in these inspiring surroundings, the Bronte children let their imagination loose and created a whole fantasy kingdom of their own, which they dubbed ‘Angria’. Some of the characters inhabiting this imaginary kingdom (later called 'Gondal') may have been prototypes for several of the main characters in their later novels.

In 1824, the four oldest sisters (Elizabeth, Maria, Charlotte, and Emily) were sent to Cowan Bridge School. After typhoid fever broke out in 1825, Patrick Brontë immediately fetched his daughters, but it was too late for Elizabeth and Maria, who both died a few weeks later.

The remaining four Brontë children continued to be homeschooled until Emily Brontë accompanied Charlotte to Roe Head School in 1835. Emily Brontë grew intensely homesick and returned home after only three months.

Emily Brontë: Brussels and Pensionnat Heger

Brontë's next attempt to be formally educated was on a study trip to Brussels as part of a plan to open a school at the family home. Emily and Charlotte Brontë attended the Hegers’ Pensionnat in Brussels. Brontë was initially very critical of Monsieur Heger’s teaching, but in time mutual respect developed. Read Heger’s assessment of Emily Brontë:

Emily Brontë: later life and death

Brontë returned to Haworth when her aunt died in 1843 and remained there for the rest of her life, studying German and music, and writing poetry.

Her sister Charlotte found Emily Brontë's poems in 1845 and, after a huge row over invasion of privacy, encouraged a reluctant Brontë to publish them. In the same year, Emily Brontë began writing Wuthering Heights. The novel was published in 1847 to mixed reception, although most reviewers agree on its powerful voice and imagination.

Emily Brontë died of consumption (now called tuberculosis) in 1848, a few months after her brother Branwell.

Brontë's sister Charlotte edited a second edition of the novel in 1850, modifying Joseph’s Yorkshire dialect. Wuthering Heights became increasingly popular, and has since come to be regarded as one of the great novels of all time. The novel has seen multiple screen adaptations, and remains a source of inspiration to artists, writers, musicians, and filmmakers around the world.

There are no letters or journals left to tell us about Emily Brontë. We can only guess at her mindset by reading her novel and poetry and from the words written by her sister, Charlotte:

Emily Brontë: background

Emily Brontë was born during the Georgian period, a year after Jane Austen died, and barely three years after the Battle of Waterloo. Wellington and Nelson were national heroes, and popular King George III (the Mad King) lived in seclusion at Windsor Castle, while his less popular son Prince George acted as Regent.

This was also the age of the Romantics: Lord Byron was travelling and writing poetry in Italy (to escape London debtors), a young William Turner was making a name for himself at art exhibitions, and Mary Shelley’s gothic novel Frankenstein was published.

Emily Brontë: Wuthering Heights summary

Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights tells of the intense and often tumultuous relationship between Heathcliff, a mysterious orphan boy, and Catherine Earnshaw, the daughter of the wealthy owner of Wuthering Heights. Despite their deep love for each other, their differences in social status and Heathcliff's own personal demons lead to a destructive and tragic outcome.

The novel is an exemplary gothic novel because

• The setting is the rugged and isolated moors of Yorkshire, England
• The novel features a sprawling, mysterious mansion, Wuthering Heights. The house has a dark, eerie atmosphere typical of gothic fiction
• The novel includes supernatural elements, such as ghostly apparitions and dreams that foreshadow tragic events
• The novel explores themes of madness, obsession, and revenge, which are common in Gothic literature
• The novel features intense emotional and psychological struggles, including the tumultuous love affair between the main characters

The main theme of Wuthering Heights is revenge, coupled with a portrayal of humans as the embodiment of natural elements. They are part of the cosmos, and as such, are neither good nor bad, but simply act as their natures dictate.

Wuthering Heights: plot

Yorkshire, 1801. After an uncomfortable stay at Wuthering Heights, Lockwood persuades his housekeeper Nelly Dean to tell him the story of Wuthering Heights and its sullen residents.

Wuthering Heights is an old manor house originally owned by the Earnshaw family. Thrushcross Grange was previously the property of the Lintons. Late one night, Mr Earnshaw returns home with a little foundling, whom he names Heathcliff and proceeds to treat as one of the family.

Earnshaw’s son Hindley never accepts Heathcliff, and a profound enmity grows between them. Hindley’s sister Catherine, on the other hand, develops a deep and fatal bond with the boy. It is their relationship that forms the basis of the novel.

Fig. 2 - The intense relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff is set against the backdrop of the wild Yorkshire moors.

Catherine falls under the spell of the Linton family, Heathcliff runs away, and Catherine marries Edgar Linton. She is expecting their first child when Heathcliff returns, a wealthy man who speaks and dresses like a gentleman.

Bent on revenge, Heathcliff elopes with Edgar’s sister Isabella. Edgar disowns his sister. Catherine’s mental and physical health deteriorates. She dies soon after giving birth to her daughter, Cathy, and Heathcliff in despair calls upon the ghost of Catherine to haunt him for the rest of his life.

Isabella runs away and gives birth to Heathcliff’s son, whom she names Linton. Hindley’s death later in the year leaves Heathcliff as the owner of Wuthering Heights.

After Isobella dies, Heathcliff takes Linton to live with him. Edgar’s daughter Cathy develops a fondness for Linton and Heathcliff conspires for them to marry. After Edgar dies, Cathy remains at Wuthering Heights to nurse Linton, who is dying of consumption. Thrushcross Grange passes to Heathcliff through his marriage to Isabella. Soon after, Heathcliff seeks a tenant for the place. Enter Lockwood.

Nelly Dean’s story ends at this point, and the narrative is picked up again by Lockwood who, disillusioned with life on the moors, moves away. Several months later, he visits Wuthering Heights while travelling the area and meets Nelly Dean again. She tells him how Heathcliff began seeing visions of Catherine, and he has died. Locals have seen Heathcliff and Catherine’s ghosts walking the moors together. The book ends with Lockwood visiting Heathcliff’s fresh grave in the churchyard, where he meditates:

Brontë closes her novel in a graveyard, another popular element of the gothic novel. The ghost of Catherine, the mystery of Heathcliff, the themes of thwarted love, revenge and death: all of these place the novel firmly in the Gothic canon. Wuthering Heights was more than a gothic novel for it broke away from the expectations of the age, tackling cosmic themes and seeking the essential truth of life.