Sunday, August 12, 2018

200th Birthday of Emily Bronte

           Almost two weeks ago, precisely on 30th of July, the British writer Emily Bronte would complete 200 years old, so this post is a tribute to her. She was a pionner in many ways and  her only novel is a story about injustice and hipocrisy . This post is a summary of four articles. The first was published at https://www.biography.com/people/emily 9227381  The second was published at  ttps://www.panmacmillan.com/blogs/classics/celebrating-emily-bronte%E2%80%99s-200th-birthday. The third was published at https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/whats-important-about-wuthering-heights-novel-466425. The fourth was published at  https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/analysis/the-enduring-appeal-of-emily-bronte-and-wuthering-heights-1-9269960
           
              Born in Thornton, Yorkshire, England, on July 30, 1818, Emily Jane Bronte lived a quiet life with her clergyman father; brother Branwell; and two sisters, Charlotte and Anne. The sisters enjoyed writing poetry and novels, which they published under pseudonyms. As "Ellis Bell," Emily wrote Wuthering Heights (1847), her only novel, which garnered wide critical and comercial acclaim. Emily Bronte died in Haworth in 1848, the same year that her brother passed away. Emily was the fifth child of Reverend Patrick Bronte and his wive, Mary. The family moved to Haworth in 1821. Only a few months later, Bronte's mother died of cancer. Her mother's sister, Elizabeth, came to live with the family to help care for the children. At the age of 6, Emily was sent to the Clergy Daughters' School with Charlotte and her two old sisters, Elizabeth and Mary. Both Elizabeth and Mary became seriously ill at school and returned home, where they died of tuberculosis in 1825. Bronte's father removed both Emily and Charlotte from the school as well. At home, she read extensively and began to make up stories with her siblings. She became a teacher at the Law Hill School in September 1837, but she left her position the following year. Emily and Charlotte travelled to Brussels in 1842 to study, but the death of their aunt Elizabeth forced them to return home. Publishing as Ellis Bell, Emily published  her defining work, Wuthering Heights, in December 1847. The complex novel explores two families, the Earnshaws and the Lintons, across two generations and their stately homes. At first, reviewers did not know what to make. It was only after Emily's death that the book developed its reputation as a literary masterwork. Interest in Bronte's work and life remains strong today. The parsonage where Bronte spent much of her life is now a museum. The Bronte Society operates the museum and works to preserve and honor the work of the Bronte sisters.
                   The 30th of July marks Emily Bronte 200th birthday. Emily, along with her sisters Charlotte and Anne, were pioneers of literature in the 1800s, having initially published their works under male pseudonyms to get their stories heard. The literary landscape has changed dramatically over the last few centuries but Wuthering Heights, Emily's only novel, remains a classic, tempestuous tale of doomed love in the moody Yorshire moors. Britain is pulling out all the stops to celebrate this literary birthday, from a tribute postbox in Yorshire to a handcraft violin made from the wood of a tree near the Bronte parsonage. Emily's legacy is being honoured by a myriad of influential women, Lily Cole, Carol Ann Duffy and Jackie Kay to name a few, who are turning their creative talents to Bronte inspired projects. The Brontes' stories are being told all over the country, so we thought we would give you three facts you may not have heard. 1) Emily Bronte was born in the same year that Mary Shelley published her only novel Frankenstein, under a male pseudonym. 2) It's believed that Emily was never in love and preferred the company of her sisters, if that was the case how did she come up with her love story? Historians think her story was based on Emily's brother Branwell and his chaotic relationship with Lydia Robinson. 3) Emily was only 30 years old when she died of tuberculosis.
                Wutheeing Heights is a victorian, which traditionally contains characters who lead a hard and difficult life in nearly every way. In a victorian novel, usually the protagonist spend the bulk of their stories enduring their difficult circumstances, usually created by some injustice and then rewarded for their efforts, ensuring a happy ending to the novel. Wuthering Heights is significant because is not a typical Victorian novel. One thing it does have in common with most other Victorian novel is that it deals with the distinct economic differences between the rich and the poor. That is the crux of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, for example. One of the ways this novel does not fit the norm, however, is that it is the only Victorian novel which places its characters outside the society in which they live. Of course the setting of this novel naturally isolates these characters, but they are additionally disconnected from a society. That is not say that society does not matter, as Catherine changes the course of both her life and Heathcliff's life based on her adherence to society standards. Another way Wuthering Heights is unique is that it does not deal with social issues and problems like all the other Victorian novels. Instead, she concentrates on the inner workings of her characters' hearts and minds. Perhaps the most significant aspect of this Victorian novel is that it provides the first indication of the next thing to be written. It is a Gothic Romantic novel, containing many of the elements of the modern novel. The setting is haunting, dark, and mysterious, and the presence of ghosts and other supernatural elements certainly characterize the novel more as Gothic than as Victorian.
                It is 200 years since Emily Bronte was born andWuthering Heights has lost none of its popularity. Her book remains one of the most enduringly popular novels of the past two centuries, though its author didn't live to bask in the acclaim. It was Emily's only novel but one that has left an indelible mark on English literature and which remains hugely popular. Best-selling author Kate Mosse is appearing in Haworth for a compilation of short stories, each inspired by the anti-hero of Wuthering Heights. Mosse has been a fan of the Bronte sisters, since she was a teenager. "She was part of this extraordinary family of writers living in Haworth and then there is the influence the book has had on other writers.'' She says Emily wrote a novel the like of which had not been seen before. It was baout nature that was indifferent and just sat there at the heart of the novel. People move through the landscape and it is significant that if you look at the titles of Anne and Charlotte's novels they are named after people, whereas with Emily is a place, and right from the beginning of this the key character is the place rather than the people.
         

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