Emily Jane Brönte was born on July the 30 th 1818 and Charlotte Brönte was born on April the 21 st 1826. Both of them were born in Thornton, Yorkshire, (England). Their parents were Patrick Brontë and Maria Branwell, and they had three sisters: Maria, Anne and Elizabeth, and one brother, Branwell. When their mother died, they were in a boarding school Clergy Daughters, in Cowan Bridge ( Lancashire ), but their sisters: Maria and Elizabeth fell ill with tuberculosis, and they died. So they went back to their house. When they were bored they made up stories t o escape from their unhappy childhood, because they had a difficult life. Anne, Emily, Charlotte, and their brother Branwell created imaginary worlds - perhaps inspired by Jonathan Swift 's Gulliver's Travels . On the one hand, Emily created her own Gondal saga with her sister, Anne. On the other hand Charlotte and Branwell recorded their stories about the kingdom of Angria in notebooks . Both of them wanted to become teachers. In 1842, they went to Brussels to study French, but they went back home because their uncle died and their brother was ill, because he drank alcohol, and took opium. In 1845 they published a book of poems with their sister Anne, its name was ‘ Poems of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell' . Despite this book wasn't sold, they continued writing. In 1847 the first book that Charlotte published was "Jane Eyre", where she remembered her boarding school. In the same year Emily published "Wuthering Heights". This novel didn't have a good review when it was published, but now it is very famous, and original. The critics think that it is an important novel in English literature. After that, they went to London to present it to their editors. When they went home, their brother was ill, and he died. Emily couldn't publish more books because she died of tuberculosis on December the 19 th 1848. Her sister Charlotte succeeded, because in 1853, she published ‘ Villete ' , where she told her experience in Brussels , in 1849, ‘ Shirley ,' and in 1857, ‘ The Professor' . She married Arthur Bell Nicholls, and when she was pregnant, she died of tuberculosis on March the 31 st 1855. There is a film based on their lives ‘Predilection' . Besides there are books, ‘ The Life of Charlotte Brönte' by Elizabeth Gaskell, and "The childhood of Brönte" by Fannie E. Ratchford. Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion. To attack the first is not to assail the last. To pluck the mask from the face of the Pharisee is not to lift an impious hand to the Crown of Thorns. (Charlotte Brönte) Look twice before you leap.(Charlotte Brönte) Whatever our souls are made up, his and mine are the same ( E. Brönte) Love is like the wild rose-briar; Friendship like the holly-tree. The holly is dark when the rose-briar blooms, but which will bloom most constantly? (Emily Brönte). Elena y Natalia Sánchez Arribas 4º D |
