THE BRONTË SISTERS

• This is a presentation about The Brontë sisters, their birthplace, their work.

• Inspired by a visit to Haworth and a walk on the moors.

• The name of The Brontë sisters were:• Charlotte (1816-1855).• Emily (1818-1848).• Anne ( 1820-1849).• They wrote at the beginning of the 19th century, coinciding with the

development of the VICTORIAN NOVEL and the final moments of THE ROMANTIC PERIOD. Some of their more famous novels include “Wuthering Heights”, by Emily Brontë and “Jane Eyre”, by Charlotte Brontë.

• Published in 1847• Characteristics of the Gothic novel (mystery, horror, medieval setting,...)• Also conventional in a way: the orphan girl who becomes a heroine through

determination.• Important SUBJECTS exploited: the relation between men and women,

women’s equality, the treatment of children and women, religious faith and religious hypocrisy, the nature of true love, the realization of selfhood.

• It is considered a manifesto of feminism (...women are supposed to be very calm generally. But women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties,...they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation...and it is narrow-minded to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano,...”Jane Eyre”, chapter XII).

“JANE EYRE”, Charlotte Brontë

“WUTHERING HEIGHTS”, Emily Brontë

• Published in 1847, major work of English Literature.• Tale of LOVE, PASSION, DEATH and REVENGE.• Emily found her inspiration from the surrounding moorlands

and the architecture of the Yorkshire area, as well as her personal experience of illness and death.

• THEMES: nature, cruelty, social position, indestructibility of the spirit.

THE MOORS, Yorkshire• The following photos have been taken on the moors

going from Haworth (The Brontë’s birthplace) to “Top Withens”. This is supposed to be the setting for “Wuthering Heights” (at least Emily Brontë found her inspiration walking on this stunning scenery).

• ENJOY!!!

HAWORTH• This is the house

where The Brontë sisters grew up and wrote all of their novels.

• This is the church, next to the house, where their father worked as a clergyman. Their mother died at an early stage and their father played an essential role in encouraging their daughters to write, even though this wasn’t accepted by a very rigid moral Victorian society.In fact, they wrote under the pseudonyms Currer (Charlotte), Ellis (Emily) and Acton (Anne) Bell, to disguise their feminity and get their works printed.

GRAVEYARD• GRAVEYARD by The

Brontë’s house.• Characteristics of

Gothic novel and late Romanticism:

• Mystery• Horror• Death• Revenge• Don’t you think this is the right setting

to write about death, illness, passion, revenge, suffering?

MOORLAND

TOP WITHENS

• This setting has been associated with “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Brontë. This scenery might have been in her mind when she wrote of the moorland in the aforementioned novel.

HEATHCLIFF, passion and revenge.

• “...Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living!  You said I killed you--haunt me, then!  The murdered do haunt their murderers.  I believe--I know that ghosts have wandered on earth.  Be with me always--take any form--drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you!  Oh God! it is unutterable!  I cannot live without my life!  I cannot live without my soul!”.

• Here Heathcliff begs Catherine not to leave him with such anger, such passion that it’s almost as if he hates her for leaving him. In fact, it is only when he dies and sees his beloved again that his soul rests. It is only after death that their souls unite and wonder together in the moors

CATHERINE, romantic heroine.

• “My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods; time will change it, I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees.  My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath--a source of little visible delight, but necessary.  Nelly, I am Heathcliff!  He's always, always in my mind--not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being”.

• Here we can see the love she has felt for Heathcliff ever since the beginnig. Heathcliff and Catherine become one in these words. However, Catherine marries a different man, Edgar Linton, and although she thinks she is happy, this feeling is only superficial.Her love for Linton will change with time; her love for Heathcliff is” ...like a rock beneath...”, eternal, indestructible, wild, passionate.

CONCLUSION

• NOTHING ELSE TO ADD. Just put yourselves in the shoes of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë, living in such a privileged scenery, with nothing else to do but walk, think and write, and let your imagination run free.