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CharlotteBronteandJaneEyre.pptxCharlotte Bronte and Jane Eyre
Early Life
Charlotte Bronte was third of six children born to Patrick Bronte, an Irish curate, and Maria Branwell.
The eldest daughter was Maria (1814), then came Elizabeth (1815), Charlotte (April 21, 1816), Patrick Branwell (1817), Emily Jane (1818), and Anne (1820).
In 1820, Patrick received a job working as the vicar of the parsonage at Haworth. Haworth was a tiny town surrounded by moors, and the parsonage was located right next to the graveyard.
A year after the family moved to Haworth, Maria (the children’s mother) died, and so Maria’s sister Elizabeth Branwell (known to the family as “Aunt Branwell”) moved into the parsonage to help raise the children.
A photograph of Haworth showing the cemetery; undated.
The Haworth parsonage as it stands today
The Governess by Richard Redgrave, 1844.
Branwell Bronte
A self-portrait of Branwell
I don’t know about you, but I can’t read a word of this.
Anne, Emily, and Charlotte. Branwell is supposed to be in the center, but he has been edited out.
This was painted by Branwell, about 1834.
George Richman’s drawing of Charlotte
Patrick Bronte
Death of the Author (?)
Roland Barthes was the first to say that we must divorce the author from the text in what he called the “death of the author.”
However, Jane Eyre is referred to as an “autobiography.” Ostensibly, this means that it is Jane’s biography, but a lot of Jane’s life has undeniable crossovers with the author’s, including:
Cowan Bridge school and the death of her sister from tuberculosis -> Helen Burns’ death at Lowood
Charlotte’s teaching experience at Roe Head -> Jane Eyre’s teaching experience at Lowood
Charlotte’s physical appearance -> Jane Eyre’s physical appearance
Charlotte’s brother Patrick Branwell lighting his bed on fire accidentally -> the fire in Rochester’s bed
Do you think it’s possible to forget the author when we read a text? Or does the author’s life experience inevitably shape the way we read a text, and would our understanding of Jane Eyre be poorer for not knowing about the author?
Extra Reading
If you like Jane Eyre, or just want to know more about Charlotte Bronte, you might like the following:
Glass Town: The Imaginary World of the Brontë's. A graphic novel by Isabel Greenberg
To Walk Invisible. A film about the adult lives of the Bronte siblings produced by BBC and broadcast in the States by PBS.
If you’re interested in learning more about Haworth, you can do a virtual tour here
