The Brontë home and Parsonage

Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë grew up in a unique home. According to Tony Robinson, the star of the TV show “Walking Through History”, Patrick Brontë treated his daughters as “intellectual equals” to his son. At that time, this was not usual. A frequently quoted and debated line from Charlotte Brontë’s novel, Jane Eyre, illustrates how Patrick’s treatment of his daughters influenced their writing and contributed to the Romantic era ideals. At the end of the novel, the heroine declares, “Reader, I married him.” It honestly took me a while to figure out what all the hullabaloo was about with this sentence. At that time, this statement in Jane Eyre was shocking and forward. The more natural way to say that would have been to say, “Reader, he married me.” By using the reverse Emily is showing Jane as a strong, independent woman of action.

From their early years, the Brontë’s were also well-acquainted death. They lost their mother and their two oldest sisters when they were very young. At the time, death was common in Haworth, the town they grew up in. This and other experiences the Brontë’s endured created a bundle of emotions that the Brontë sisters let out on paper. They discovered this literary outlet as young children, in writing mini picture books for their toy soldiers. As they grew up, they continued to find solace in expressing themselves and their emotions via writing. Their novels and poetry are very aptly classified as Romantic, in their expressive and passionate nature. Sarah Hughes explained that “Charlotte and Anne were tackling subjects that women did not normally write about: the need to find your own place in the world; the tribulations of having to do soul-sapping, back-breaking, mind-numbing work simply to survive; the problems of being trapped in an abusive marriage” (Hughes, 2016, para. 13). As Caspar Friedrich expressed, they wrote their feelings and experiences into their novels.

In addition to the Brontë home, the surrounding environment was also influential in the upbringing and writings of the Brontë children. The moors around their hometown of Haworth were harsh and powerful, but also beautiful and majestic. These characteristics are very much reflected in the writings of the Brontë sisters. Their novels, such as Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights tell stories of passion, love, pain, and sorrow. As children, the Brontë’s spent much of their time exploring the moors, a perfect setting for the fantastical world they created for themselves as an escape from the grim and frightening reality of their world. As they grew older, these moors continued to influence the imagination of the Brontë sisters. Several of the key settings in both Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights were likely inspired by some structures and ruins near the Brontë home. For instance, Wycoller Hall (pictured below) is rumored to be the inspiration behind the Ferndean Manor where Jane and her lover are finally united in the end of Jane Eyre.

The Brontë Parsonage symbolizes everything the Brontë women wrote and experienced during this Romantic era. The Bronte society has taken the Brontë home and redone it how they believe it was at the time. They’ve also collected many of the Brontë’s writings and childhood items. Because of that the Brontë home has become a spot that can evoke the emotion of that era and the Brontë women’s lives. For those that don’t know the Brontë’s works it can inspire curiosity, but those who know their works it can help them feel the emotion of the era and the emotion and nature of the Brontë’s novels.

References

Hughes, S. (2016). Why those subversive Brontë sisters still hypnotise us. The Guardian. Retreivevd from https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/mar/27/bronte-sisters-enduring-love-affair