Emily Brontë – Biographical Sketch
Away from the big cities and the literary society, the town of Haworth
in West Yorkshire held a powerhouse of novel writing: the home of
the Brontë family. Anne, Charlotte and Emily Brontë had time in their
short lives to produce masterpieces of fiction although these were not
immediately appreciated by Victorian critics.
Wuthering Heights, Emily’s only work, in particular has violence,
passion, the supernatural, heightened emotion and emotional
distance, an unusual mix for any novel but particularly at this time. It
is a prime example of Gothic Romanticism from a woman’s point of view during this period of time,
examining class, myth, and gender.
Emily Brontë was born at her father’s rectory at Thornton in the parish of Bradford in 1818. She was the
fifth child in a family whose eldest was only four years and three months old. Close as they were in ages,
it proved a happy thing for Emily when yet another sister, Anne, was born in 1820, for Anne became her
lifelong confidante and friend.
Of all the influences on Emily’s life, the landscape of the home at Haworth had the greatest effect in
quickening her mind and in shaping her character. Of human influences, there can be no doubt, her
father was the most lasting; a countryman born with a keen love of nature, he eagerly opened her eyes to
the natural world lying at her door. Echoes of the little moorland birds, of the invisible larks, of the linnets
chattering in the eaves of the houses, are a feature of that region; Emily grew up on the sound.
While material prosperity was never the prime consideration of their home, it is not true to say that the
children lacked the things that mattered to their happiness. They had love; they had security; they had
toys, marionettes, ninepins, bricks; they had successive boxes of soldiers which in time fired their
imagination to become adventurers, epic writers, chroniclers; above all, they had books, as they grew.
Reading came to them like an epidemic; as soon as one could read, they were all infected.
Mr. Bronte had been happy indeed in marrying a bold young woman with high ideals who regarded
poverty as a positive advantage in the pursuit of perfection. Her courage was, unfortunately, not
equaled by her health, and within eighteen months of the family settling at Haworth, she died of cancer,
at age 38. Mr. Bronte at the age of 44 was left without a wife, to his lasting misery and increasing oddity,
and the children were subjected to the authoritarian rule of a maiden aunt. She was their mother’s elder
sister, Miss Elizabeth Barnwell, who came north from Penzance to keep house for her brother-in-law and
bring up his children. Two of Emily’s sisters died of tuberculosis within the next few years.
From 1825 to 1831 the remaining Brontë’s – Papa, Charlotte, Branwell, Emily, Anne – and their aunt Miss
Branwell, lived together in Haworth Parsonage. These six years when they were all at home together
were an extremely important formative period in the young Brontë’s lives. They roamed in the moors.
They cherished pets. But the important point is that during these six years, they began to create, to
invent, and to write their inventions down in fictitious forms.
In 1837 Emily took a post as governess in a girls’ boarding school of forty pupils, known as Law Hill, on one
of the many Pennine hills surrounding the town of Halifan. The most interesting feature of her stay is that
Law Hill is not far from High Sunderland and Shibeden Hall, two fine old houses that served as the
inspiration for Wuthering Heights and Thrushcroft Grange. Charlotte held her job for three years. In the
may of 1830 Charlotte left the school. Her health and spirits had utterly failed her, and the doctor
consulted and advised her that if she valued her life, she must return home. She did so, and was slowly
restored to tranquility. She was twenty-two.
In 1845 the young Brontë’s were all at home together, living in domestic misery and regarding themselves
as failures. Then an event occurred which changed the course of their lives and added riches to English
literature: Emily had been copying her poems into two notebooks, when Charlotte accidentally lighted
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upon one notebook and read it contents. Honor must always be paid to Charlotte for her instant
conviction that these poems were quite out of the ordinary: terse, vigorous, and genuine, with a peculiar
music. The Bronte’s decided to bring out a volume of poems by all three sisters and got them published
under the male names of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell.
After they saw their poetry in print, the three sisters each began to write and finished a novel. Charlotte’s
novel was called Jane Eyre; Emily’s novel was called Wuthering Heights; and Anne’s novel was called
Agnes Grey. They were refused by publisher after publisher until Smith Elder and Company, accepted
Jane Eyre. Not long after that Wuthering Heights was published, followed by Anne’s Agnes Gray. Though
the reviews of Jane Eyre were not particularly good, readers liked it, and it became a best seller. Curiously
readers believed that all three novels were written by the same person – Curer Bell, the pen name for
Charlotte.
Introduction to Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights was published in 1847 under the pseudonym of Ellis Bell. Emily Bronte probably
began writing this novel towards the end of 1845, though it is possible that she may have conceived the
story earlier. The early reviews of this novel were mixed.
Wuthering Heights is the story of two families and an outsider. The two families are the Earnshaw family
living at a place called Wuthering Heights, and the Linton family residing at a place called Thrushcross
Grange, which is situated, in the Valley at a distance of about four miles from Wuthering Heights which is
situated on a hill. Moors and hills separate the two houses from each other. At a small distance from
Thrushcross Grange lies the village of Gimmerton with its church.
The story covers almost three generations. Mr. and Mrs. Earnshaw, living at Wuthering Heights, have two
children, Hindley and Catherine. Mr. and Mrs. Linton, living at Thrushcross Grange, have likewise two
children, Edgar and Isabella. Subsequently, after their respective marriages, Hindley Earnshaw begets a
son who is named Hareton while Cathy gives birth to a girl who is also named Catherine. Isabella, the
daughter of the Linton’s marries Heathcliff, an outsider who came to live with the Earnshaw’s when he
was a boy. Of this marriage is born a son who gets the name Linton. Towards the close of the novel,
Hareton and the younger Catherine are preparing to get married. It is in this way that the novel deals with
three generations.
The novel is dominated by the figure of Heathcliff. His personality and actions constitute the real
substance of the book. Heathcliff dominates the plot like a colossus, and he largely determines the
course of the story. Though not a traditional protagonist, Heathcliff is the central character of the novel.
Around him, the story revolves, and he imparts to the book its real interest. If we take away Heathcliff
from the novel, the story falls to pieces. The leading theme of Wuthering Heights may be stated as
Heathcliff’s love for Cathy and the revenge he takes upon various persons, the revenge being prompted
by the frustration of his love and by the social contempt heaped upon him by Hindley Earnshaw and Edgar
Linton.
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