THE BRONTE SISTERS

LIFE:

The famous Bronte sisters who wrote ( CHARLOTTE, EMILY, ANNE), are three of five daughters of an irish reverend educated at Cambridge (Patrick). Patrick was rector at Haworth, in Yorkshire, and asked his sister-in-law to look after them, but the girls were often left to themselves.

In 1824, 4 of the 5 girls went to school, but there the two eldest (Maria and Elizabeth) died for tuberculosis, so Charlotte and Emily came back home.

They continued studying unmethodically and started writing novels and poems with lots of imagination.

In 1846, Charlotte, Emily and Anne published a volume of poems, without success.

All the Bronte sisters, and their brother too, had a tragic destiny: Anne died at 29 years old, Emily at 30, Charlotte at 39.

MOST IMPORTANT WORKS TO REMEMBER:

CHARLOTTE "JANE EYRE" (1847): a romantic love story about a governess and her master

ANNE "THE TENANT OF WILDFELL HALL" (1848): a romantic tale of a beautiful woman who wrongly assumed to be a widow. The hero seems to be modelled on her brother.

EMILY "WUTHERING HEIGHTS" (1847) a morbid and mystic romantic passion in which the poet is a link between human nature and a trascendental world.

"Wuthering Heights" (1847)

Emily liked the wild moorlands, the stormy winds and the free air of the heath. She was a mystic and had extra-sensory experiences.

THE PLOT:

Mr Earnshow, master of wuthering heights, picked up a gipsy children, Heathcliff, and brought him in his house and let him live with his own children: Catherine and Hindley.

heathcliff falls in love with Catherine, who loves him, too. The situation changes when heathcliff hears Catherine saying that she would consider degrading for her a marriage with him. So Heathcliff escapes.

He returns 3 years later, wanting a revenge but still inlove with Catherine. But now she is married with EDGAR LINTON, master of Trushcross Grange and while giving birth to her first child, CATHY, she dies.

Heathcliff, in the meantime, has married ISABELLA, Edgar Linton's sister, who gave him a wicked son, called LINTON. Now Heathcliff is a rich man and has all the family in his hand because he had become the master of Wuthering Heights. To complete his revenge, he forces a marriage between Cathy and Linton, but the latter soon  dies. At the end also Heathcliff dies and he can finally rejoin to his beloved Catherine.

After Heathcliff's death, Cathy is free to marry her beloved, HARETON, Hindley's son.

THE STRUCTURE:

the structure is complex because it is not based on a chronological sequence of events. The book starts when  MR LOCKWOOD, the new tenant of Trushcross Grange, pays a visit to Heathcliff at wuthering Heights and he's obliged to sleep there because of a sudden storm.

At night Mr Lockwood is disturbed by the scratching of a branch on the window but, when he opens it to remove the branch, his hand is touched by mysterious cold fingers, while a voice begs to let in. So he cries out and then heathcliff comes and begs the ghost of Catherine to come in.

The day after Mr Lockwood comes back to Trushcross Grange and asks NELLY, the housekeeper, to tell him the story of Heathcliff. Nelly's narration is the bulk of the novel, in which all the events of the plot until the present time are narrated: Heathcliff is living with Cathy and Hareton (both of whom mistreated) because everyone else is dead.

The book restarts when, a year later, Mr Lockwood comes again at Wuthering Heights and finds that Heathcliff is dead and that hareton and Catherine want to marry.

FEATURES:

USE OF TIME: it moves backwards and forwards through memories

DIVISION IN 2 SECTIONS, in each of them is narrated a generation. The two parts are linked by the presence of Heathcliff, who is in both sections: 1. The first section is centred around Heathcliff and Catherine. The story is romantic and imaginative; 2. The second one is centred around Hareton and Cathy: the approach to love is now more mature and more natural.

INDIRECT NARRATIVE TECHNIQUE: there are two story tellers: the first is Mr Lockwood, who tells the story at the beginning and at the end, the other is Nelly, the housekeeper, who tells the main part of the story.

ROMANTICISM the romantic elements are: the LOVE THEME, the role of NATURE, the character of HEATHCLIFF (defined as a Byronic hero: dark-haired, wild and demoniac)

REALISM, it consists in the SOCIAL ASPECT( conflict between 2 cultures and 2 social classes), the description of the SETTING and the complexity of the CHARACTERS' PERSONALITY.

GOTHICISM the gothic elements are: the NIGHTMARISH DREAMS, the country folks belief in GHOSTS, the supersticions, the prophecies, the presence of something SUPERNATURAL and the relationship between the human and the alien sphere.

ANALYSIS OF PASSION: it is strong and uncontrollable as a force of nature, it continues after the death (Heathcliff and Catherine). It is DESTRUCTIVE and CREATIVE at the same time: it is an impulse which binds the two lover to each other: they become one.