Emily Jane Bronte was the next-to-the-youngest in the Bronte family of six children, and besides Charlotte, she was the only Bronte sister who lived to reach 30 (their brother lived to be 31.) Emily attended Cowan Bridge School for a time with her older sisters Maria, Elizabeth, and Charlotte, but after the death of Maria and Elizabeth (around the ages of 10 and 11), the two surviving girls returned home to their brother Branwell and the youngest sister, Anne.
“Home” was in a parsonage on the moors, distant from the other villages. Emily particularly enjoyed this seclusion, however. She “shunned the company of those outside her family and suffered acutely from homesickness in her few short stays away from the parsonage.” (Norton Anthology) She was private about her poetry, even with her own sisters. When Charlotte first discovered Emily’s work, Emily was angry and at first refused to publish it. Eventually, however, she was persuaded, and created a compilation of poems with Charlotte and Anne under the names Ellis, Currer, and Acton Bell.
Several of Emily’s poems were based on the fantasy island of Gondal, created primarily by Anne and Emily (whereas the world of Angria was created by Charlotte and Branwell.) In the Norton Anthology, “The Prisoner. A Fragment” is an example of such a poem. A set of soldiers was given to Branwell, but divided among all of the children, and served as primary heroes/heroines in their saga. While at first glance the poem may not offer much of a look into the Gondal world, it’s actually possible that the narrator (a man visiting the prison in his father’s castle) was originally one of these toy soldiers. Incidentally, Emily’s soldier was named Gravey (due to his grave expression, according to a diary entry by Charlotte Bronte), so perhaps this narrator's name is, in fact, Gravey.
Emily’s only completed novel was published just before she died at the age of 30 of tuberculosis. Wuthering Heights was received mix reviews, being simultaneously applauded and depreciated for its ferocity and violence. A letter from a publisher seems to suggest that Emily had begun developing a second novel before her death, but the manuscript was never discovered. It’s possible that a member of the family destroyed it, or perhaps aware that she was dying, Emily destroyed it herself, knowing she would not finish it.
Works Cited
Emily Bronte Biography on Haworth Village
Emily Bronte on Notable Biographies
Emily Bronte on Wikipedia
Bronte, Emily Jane. The Prisoner. A Fragment. 1846. The Victorian Age. Ed.
Stephen Greenblatt. 8th ed. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, Inc., 2005.
1315-16. Print. Vol. E of The Norton Anthology. The Norton Anthology of
English Literature.
Stephen Greenblatt. 8th ed. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, Inc., 2005.
1315-16. Print. Vol. E of The Norton Anthology. The Norton Anthology of
English Literature.
