Charlotte Bronte Part III, Emily and Anne

Charlotte’s triumph in getting her first novel published and its being such a success should have been a happy Time for the family, but it didn’t last long.   Emily had quarrelled with her domineering older sister about the issue of publishing; she seemed to write mostly for herself and her sisters and didn’t at all desire to show her work to the public.  She didn’t seem to care about money.  But she was depressed at the lack of understanding from the critic, although her book sold.  Some critics did appreciate her talent, even if they deprecated the violence, the passionate emotions, and “impropriety” of the story of Wuthering Heights.   They felt that given time, Ellis Bell might mature into a great writer.

 But tragic days were in the offing for the Bronte family. Branwell had become a serious problem for them, since his dismissal form this job at the Robinsons.  He was drinking and using opium, and getting into debt.  Some biographers believe that Mrs Robinson remained in touch with him and sent him small sums of money but it’s not clear if this was the case.  When her husband died, he believed that she would send for him and they would be married... But whether there had ever been an affair or not, Mrs Robinson didn’t send for him, and he was devastated... and his health began to decline through 1847 and 1848.    His drinking exacerbated his weakness and a family proneness to TB… He set his bed on fire, and in the end Patrick Bronte had to take him into his own bedroom, to keep an eye on him during the night.

Charlotte is often criticised for being unkind to Branwell as he declined, but my sympathies are with her.  She had worked hard, in jobs she didn’t like, to earn a living, while he had failed at every job he got.  She had now struggled to her work published and to persuade her sisters to write for publication.  Branwell had had a few poems published in newspapers but he was not willing to work hard at preparing a novel or any work for publication.  He dismissed novels as easy to write, but his own attempt at novel, is a feeble effort…

 Now, in 1847/8 he was a serious liability.  They didn’t tell him about their success in getting the novels published, because it would upset him or he might give away their identities.   

His health got worse but the family seem to have been taken aback by the speed of his decline… He died aged 31 in September 1848.

The Brontes were grieved and shocked, although he had been such a trouble to them.  His father felt the loss of his only son, very painfully. 

Emily went to his funeral; she caught a bad cold, and soon began to show symptoms of TB.  Her decline was also very rapid.  She refused to let her sisters help her and would not see a doctor.  She insisted on doing her housework and normal tasks, although she was getting weaker.   By December, she was desperately ill.  Always slender, she became bone thin, and afflicted with a terrible tubercular cough. She still refused medical aid, and Charlotte particularly felt helpless at the way she rejected any help.  The two sisters had loved each other but had disagreed over things, particularly the issue of whether they should publish their works.  Emily had only agreed under protest to Wuthering Heights being published and had insisted on their using pseudonyms.  She feared the loss of her privacy and anonymity.   When Charlotte had had to go to London to see her publisher George Smith, to let him know that she was a woman, (due to rumours about the real identity of “the Bells”,) Emily had point blank refused to go or leave Haworth.  She had also been insistent on staying with her publisher Thomas Newby, who was a dubious character… when Charlotte wanted her to change to Smith.  She felt that George Smith had treated her very well with the publication of Jane Eyre, and been “a gentleman” – Emily preferred to stick with Newby even if it was to her disadvantage.

Now, in her final illness, it was very painful and hurtful to Charlotte that her younger sister still was at odds with her, refusing her sisterly love and offers of help.  She told her sisters she would have no “poisoning doctor” near her.  Charlotte wrote to a doctor, hoping for some advice, and the doctor replied and sent medicine but Emily would not take it.

She was in what Victorians described as “Galloping consumption”, and it’s unlikely that anything would have cured her or even slowed down the progress of the disease.   She soon reached a point where she could hardly breathe or speak, and finally said that she would see a doctor, if they brought one... but it was too late.  She died lying on the sitting room sofa…painfully and traumatically.

She was buried on 22^nd December, 1848 - 3 days after her death. 

Charlotte was very upset, but soon her last sister, Anne, became ill, displaying symptoms of TB, also.  She had probably caught it from Emily. Victorians didn’t realise that the illness could be transferred from person to person, and didn’t take hygiene precautions.  The Sisters shared a bedroom…

Anne was more tractable than her stubborn sister, with whom she had been very close. She knew that she would probably not recover but she was willing to see medical men and take their advice. 

Charlotte hoped that her sister might survive, and did her best to look after her.   Anne’s health got worse, and in the spring of 1849, she expressed a wish to go to Scarborough; she had visited there, with the Robinson family when she had been their governess.  She went there with her sister and Ellen Nussey and died there at the end of May.
Charlotte was now left alone with her elderly father, the last of his six children.  She had lost 3 siblings in 10 months.  Her success as a novelist had raised her hopes that she might write other works.  She believed that she would be able to make a living as a writer, rather than have to be a governess again. And that her sisters could do the same.  Now her sisters were gone, she was lonely and had no one to discuss her work with….