The Life and Works of Emily Bronte

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Emily Bronte Emily Bronte was born in Thornton on July 30, 1818 and later moved with her family to Haworth, an isolated village on the Moors. Her mother, Maria Branwell Bronte died when Emily Bronte was only three years old, this left Emily and her five siblings, Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte, Anne, and Branwell to the care of their father Patrick Bronte. The Bronte siblings lived with their father, a Reverend named Patrick Bronte, in a manse very high above the community at Haworth in Yorkshire, England ("Bronte Sisters”). The manse was amongst the largest houses in Haworth, though in comparison with the homes of other clergymen in different areas of Great Britain, it would have been thought of as relatively tiny (www.bronte.org.uk). Patrick Bronte chose the Anglican Church over other jobs because it was the only career that presented him a way out of his poor Irish background. The Bronte girls were sent to Cowan, a boarding school, in 1824. The very next year while at Cowan, Elizabeth and Maria came home because they were sick with tuberculosis. In 1835 Charlotte Bronte chose the profession of teaching for work. For a short time in 1837 Bronte moved to Halifax in order to become a teacher at Law Hill School. She returned home to Haworth when her health began to fail. “Emily’s health, like her sisters, had been weakened by unsanitary conditions at home, the source of water being contaminated by runoff from the church’s graveyard” (Antonio Losano 5). After this terrible experience Bronte stayed home with her Father for five years and in her time she wrote poems and short stories to take up time in her day. In 1842, Bronte went to school in Brussels with Charlotte Bronte where they studied music and foreign language. Bronte also w... ... middle of paper ... ...ut Bronte’s poetry and in her novel as well. In December of 1848 Emily Bronte died of tuberculosis because she caught a cold in September at her brother’s funeral. (“Bronte Sisters”) Emily Bronte proved ultimately be a great poet and literary figure in nineteenth century England. At first reviewers did not know what to make of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. Only after Emily Bronte’s death did the novel begin to be recognized as a work of classic literature. Emily Dickenson thought so highly of Emily Bronte’s poetry that she selected “No Cowards Soul” to be read at her funeral. Interest in Emily Bronte’s works and life remains strong and interesting to this day. The parsonage where the Bronte family lived in Haworth is now a museum. A group named the Bronte society controls the museum and works to honor and conserve the work of Emily Bronte and her sisters.

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