Emily Bronte

The biography of Emily Bronte is very concise. She remains enigmatic because so little is known about her, and what is known is contradictory. She only produced one novel and a little bit of poetry, which gives one very little upon which to build. Most of how Emily is seen is through the eyes of her sister, Charlotte, another well known author. From the information available, her life seemed to be of "dreary conformity." In some ways, Emily led an ordinary life of a nineteenth century female, attending boarding school for a bit of education and learning domestic skills at home. In other ways, her life was unusual and even eccentric, which contributed to the originality of her great novel.

Emily Jane Bronte was born on July 30, 1818 in Thorton, Yorkshire. She was the fifth child and fourth daughter of Reverend Patrick Bronte and Maria Branwell Bronte. When she was two years old, the family moved to Haworth which remained Emily's home until she passed away in December of 1848 at the age of thirty. Both of Emily's parents had the literacy leanings - her mother published one essay, and her father wrote four books and a little poetry. None of the literacy attempts were successful, but the urge for written expression was present. In 1821, Maria died of cancer, leaving Emily and her four siblings motherless. Her sister, Elizabeth, came to live as a housekeeper and was responsible for training the girls in the household arts.

The village of Haworth was very isolated and intensely Yorkshire. The people were blunt, practical, stubborn, sparing of speech, vigorous and very harsh. They were the products of the moors - the tracts of rocky land, where the north wind shrieks mercilessly, and the only softening influence is the sheep, the purple heather, and the ferny bracken. It was these moors that built the spirit of the Bronte's and filled their souls with love and liberty. This was especially true for Emily.. In 1824, the four eldest daughters were sent to Cowan Bridge School, a school for daughters of impoverished clergymen. The conditions here were wretched and an epidemic broke out, taking the lives of Maria and Elizabeth. Charlotte became very ill as well, and she and Emily returned home.

About this time, Branwell, the only boy in the family, received a box of twelve wooden soldiers, and the children began to write stories about them, called "Young Men" plays. In 1835, Charlotte went to teach at Roe Head school and took Emily along as a student. Emily, however, could not stand being away from her beloved moors, and became violently homesick. As a result, she returned home and her younger sister, Anne, took her place. While at home doing housework, Emily secretly worked on poetry. In 1845, Charlotte discovered some of her poems and confessed that she too had written some poetry. As it turned out, so had Anne and after much persuading, the poems were published in a small book entitled Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. Pseudonyms were used because the girls wanted their poetry to be taken seriously. Only two copies were sold, and the failure led all three to begin work novels: Emily on Wuthering Heights, Charlotte on Jane Eyre, and Anne on Agnes Grey.

All three novels were successful and published in 1847 and 1848. During this time, their brother, Branwell, had fallen prey to alcohol and drugs, and was dying. Emily, the one who had been closest to him, was the only one who withheld judgement and tried to help him. It was she that beat out the flames with her bare hands when he wrapped himself in a blanket and lite it on fire while drunk. Despite all of her efforts, Branwell died in September of 1848 at the age of thirty. Emily caught cold at his funeral and never left home again. She died on December 19, 1848 at age of thirty, and never knew of the great success of her one and only novel Wuthering Heights.