born on April 21, 1816 in Thornton, Yorkshire/ England
died on March 31, 1855 in Haworth, Yorkshire/ England
British writer
170th anniversary of her death on March 31, 2025
Biography
The eldest of the famous sisters Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë wrote revolutionary novels about women who fiercely fought the restrictions imposed on them by the patriarchy. Many found this rebellious literature immoral, and even pornographic. In contrast to her heroines, Charlotte Brontë lived an extremely conventional and “womanly” life, devoting herself first to the care of her younger siblings and later attending selflessly to her brother and father. She never once neglected their needs or the household in favor of her writing.
Charlotte's father Patrick Brontë (1777-1861), who played a dominant role in her life, came from Northern Ireland and from the poorest of circumstances. The talented and ambitious boy attracted the attention of Methodist clergymen who encouraged him and later enabled him to study theology at Cambridge, where he also took on the more aristocratic spelling of his name (Brontë instead of Brunty).
From poor farm boy to esteemed pastor – an unusual rise. In 1813, at the age of 36, Patrick Brontë wedded the equally intelligent and educated 30-year-old Maria Branwell (1783-1821) from Penzance in Cornwall in what was a relatively late marriage for both. While Patrick and his nine siblings almost all lived to be over 80 years old, Maria was of a delicate constitution, just like her siblings and like the six children she gave birth to over the course of six years (!!). She died at the age of 38 when Charlotte, her third-eldest daughter, was only five.
Patrick would have liked to remarry, but no woman wanted to wed a headstrong man with so many young children.
The half-orphans grew up in the wild, windswept moors of Yorkshire in a remote parsonage in Haworth. They would spend their entire lives there, apart from a few brief excursions into the wider world. Overwhelmed by the task of educating his children, Father Brontë sent his four oldest girls, Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte and Emily, to a boarding school. The living conditions at the Clergy Daughter’s School at Cowan Bridge were murderous – despite the bitter cold, there was hardly any heating and what little there was to eat was of poor quality. Charlotte and Emily survived the ordeal, but Maria and Elizabeth died. Charlotte Brontë created a chilling memorial to the hellish school and its sadistic head in her most famous novel, Jane Eyre (1847).
Cut off from the world and neglected by a father who spent most of his time in his study and also ate his meals in solitude there, the four children began to create and develop their own fantasy worlds around 1825. They worked continuously for at least 16 years, describing the imaginary worlds of Angria (Charlotte and her brother Branwell) and Gondal (Emily and Anne) in tiny handwriting on about 2000 pages. Perhaps they used microscopic handwriting to keep their fantasies secret from their aunt Elizabeth Branwell, who ran the household with the help of the girls and who also taught them until her death in 1841. Branwell, the only son, was free of household duties and was taught by his father.
In 1831/32, Charlotte was again sent to a boarding school – this time to one run by Mrs. Wooler – where she formed lifelong friendships with her fellow students Ellen Nussey and Mary Taylor. It is Ellen Nussey we have to thank for almost everything we know about Charlotte and her family as she kept all of the 400 letters Charlotte wrote to her. After a short time, Charlotte had learned everything there was to learn. She returned to the school as a teacher in 1835, bringing Emily along with her as a student. Three very miserable years followed. She had no more free time to spend in her imaginary worlds and she hated teaching. She became depressed and was convinced that she was a bad and sinful person. Outwardly, she appeared to have adapted; inwardly, she was seething with resentment.
In 1836, Branwell went to London to study art. As this was expensive, Charlotte had to continue to earn money as a teacher. He did not achieve the success that everyone had expected, but fell instead into a life of debauchery among bad friends, drinking more and more alcohol and consuming opium.
For ten years, from 1835 to 1845, Charlotte tried to earn her living as a teacher, as did her sisters. But ultimately, they all failed. They could not bear the “hard work from 6 in the morning until almost 11 at night” that characterized the “slavery of being a governess” (C.B.). Nor were they comfortable with their ambiguous position in their employers’ households: although often at the very least equally as intelligent as the gentry that employed them, they were generally regarded as one of the household servants. All three also suffered from homesickness.
The sisters therefore developed a plan to found their own girls' school. As that required better skills in French and German, Charlotte and Emily went to Brussels at the beginning of 1842 to attend Mme. Heger's boarding school. The higher classes were taught by her husband, M. Heger. While Emily became homesick and soon returned to Haworth, Charlotte fell in love with the educated and charismatic M. Heger and stayed an additional year for his sake. However, Mme. Heger had been quick to realize what was going on and she successfully kept her husband away from Charlotte. After returning to Haworth, Charlotte wrote heart-wrenching letters full of adoration and longing to her beloved “Master” that all went unanswered. The endless months of waiting for a reply tore at her heart; in the end, something in her broke and she gave up. Unrequited love became the central theme of all her novels.
Their plans for their own school were scuppered (a blessing for world literature). Not only did their father, who was half blind, need help, but Branwell did as well – he had become addicted to drugs and alcohol. He died in 1848 at the age of 30, after having made his sisters' lives a living hell for years with his rampages and debts.
In the fall of 1845, Charlotte happened upon Emily's poems and was deeply impressed. The three sisters agreed to have a volume of poetry printed as Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell – the gender-neutral pseudonyms were intended to protect them from discovery in their private lives and from the prevailing prejudices against women writers. The poems were published in 1846; there were a few favorable reviews, but only two of the 1000 copies printed were sold. Nevertheless, the sisters persisted. They drew on their years of practice in creative writing and put together a second bundle, this time with three novels by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell: Charlotte's The Professor, Emily's Wuthering Heights and Anne's Agnes Grey. A publisher accepted Emily’s and Anne’s works, but he rejected Charlotte's Professor. Charlotte then submitted the novel to other publishers, receiving an invitation from the publisher Smith, Elder to send further samples of her writing.
In August 1847, Charlotte Brontë finished the famous novel where she deals with her experiences as a governess and portrays the title character as poor and unassuming, but full of pride and passion – Jane Eyre. Published by Smith, Elder just two months later, the novel was an immediate success. It is now considered one of the classics of English literature, just like Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, whose significance was only recognized by the public long after Emily's death.
Charlotte Bronte became a celebrity, proudly introduced to others in society by her publisher. She met the literary luminaries she had previously only read about, including Thackeray, Harriet Martineau, George Henry Lewes (the partner of the writer George Eliot) and Elizabeth Gaskell, who was to become her close friend and first biographer.
Her feeling of accomplishment and her happiness were short-lived: Charlotte lost all her siblings soon thereafter over a period of only eight months. Branwell died of general exhaustion in September 1848, followed by Emily in December and Anne in May 1849. Both sisters died of consumption.
Charlotte was devastated. Although then also bearing sole responsibility for her elderly father and the household, she wrote two more successful novels, Shirley (1849) and Villette (1853). In the end, her loneliness became so unbearable that in 1854 she married her father's curate, Arthur B. Nicholls, whom she had previously rejected many times over the years. At the beginning of 1855 she became pregnant and suffered from terrible complications (hyperemesis gravidarum). On March 30 she died either from these complications or of consumption (death certificate) or both. Like her mother, she was only 38 years old when she died.
(Text from 2015, translated with DeepL.com; edited by Ramona Fararo, 2025. Please consult the German version for additional information, pictures, sources, videos, and bibliography.)
Quotes
My life is fuller than before. I don't have as much time to think anymore. I have to be a bit more practical, because my dear Arthur is a very practical, punctual and systematic man. ... Of course, he finds all sorts of work for his wife [...]. I think it’s good for me that his inclinations are so completely towards the practical and useful things in life and so little towards the literary and contemplative. (Charlotte Brontë after her marriage, a few months before her death. Quoted in Maletzke, p. 474.)
I would not under any circumstances, or for any opprobrium, regard with shame what my friends had approved: none but a coward would let the detraction of an enemy outweigh the encouragement of a friend. (Quoted in Fraser, p. 283)
Women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do. (From Jane Eyre)
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