Governess & Orphan: hmmmm…… Charlotte Bronte

 Born in 1816, one of six children  Her father was a minister  Her mother died when Bronte was four  In 1824, she & three sisters went to boarding school, where Maria & Elizabeth died of disease  Charlotte, Emily, Branwell, and Ann were the remaining siblings Family Bio

 Charlotte, Emily, Ann, & Branwell made up a fictional world called Angria  Earliest writings are about this violent fantasy land  They’re creepy! “Angria”

 Charlotte worked as a schoolmistress & as a governess for seven years  Came home and tried to start a school with her sisters, but it was a huge failure  Then Charlotte found out that Ann had been writing poetry … Governessing

 In 1847 …  As Acton Bell, Ann published Agnes Grey  As Currer Bell, Charlotte published Jane Eyre  As Ellis Bell, Emily published Wuthering Heights  In 1848 …  They travelled to London and unmasked their true identities  Alcoholic & drug addicted Branwell died  Emily died  In 1849 …  Ann died The Bells (1847)

 In 1854, Charlotte married Rev. A.B. Nicholls (she made it very clear that she didn’t love him, but they got married anyway)  She became pregnant shortly thereafter  She contracted curable pneumonia  She basically starved herself to death, eventually dying of dehydration Domestic Life??

 Setting in a castle, old house, mansion, creating atmospheric elements of fear and dread  Atmosphere of mystery & suspense (i.e., fear enhanced by the unknown)  Plot is often built around the unknown/unknowable  Omens, portents, visions, dreams, usually deployed as foreshadowing  Supernatural or inexplicable events  High, overwrought emotion  Metonymy of gloom & horror (rain stands for tears)  Vocabulary of the gothic Elements of the Gothic Novel

 Women in distress  Lots of fainting, screaming, sobbing  Lonely, oppressed heroine  Recurring motif of abandonment  Women threatened by a powerful, impulsive, tyrannical male Women in the Gothic Novel