Breaking the Mould: The Bronte Sisters

It is a sobering thought that it was only 150 years ago that women were not allowed to enter a library, had to publish under men's names and had no part in public life.


The Brontes broke the mould against all odds; that is why so many are fascinated by them and why so many continue to go on pilgrimages to the parsonage in Yorkshire where the famous books were written, from all over the world.







I've been fascinated with the Brontes since reading Jane Eyre in the last year of school, and later all about the sisters who lived for most of their short lives in an isolated house on the moors, yet produced some of the most passionate and original literature ever written. None of their books have ever gone out of print. Jane Eyre is believed to be the second-most read book in the English language (after the Bible).


I feel an affinity with both Emily and Charlotte, both of whom reacted to their isolation and severe limitation of their life options at that time in very different ways: Emily withdrew from society, refused to wear the petticoats and corsets and spent her time roaming the moors, and Charlotte was hugely ambitious, longing for fame and recognition. Just as well, for it was she who persuaded Emily to send their work to publishers (under the male names of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell). For Emily though, writing was a deeply private act, an outlet that allowed her to live as she would want to - in her imagination - free to roam in communion with nature, free of social restraints and expectations.

There have been numerous cultural interpretations of the Brontes novels, poems and life including opera, dance, and music; even asteroids have been named after them. And now another off-shoot: Sally Wainwright is to write and direct a new one-off film for BBC1 about the Brontë sisters - To Walk Invisible: The Brontë Sisters, a drama that will focus on the three sisters' "increasingly difficult relationship with their brother Branwell, who in the last three years of his life – following a tragically misguided love affair – sank into alcoholism, drug addiction and appalling behaviour." The period of time was a tough one for the Brontë family, but coincided with the years the three women penned their now world-famous novels.

Many writers and artists, including myself have been fascinated by the mad woman in the attic in Jane Eyre. Why did Charlotte Bronte invent Bertha, Rochester's first wife, locked in an attic to torment her heroine? Perhaps Bertha is a part of Jane, and indeed their author, Charlotte Bronte - the part that had to be repressed in Victorian society where women were expected to be restrained, calm  and decorous at all times. Bertha represents the wild, instinctual nature of women that had to be locked away in order for a woman to be acceptable. Perhaps she represents all of us when we ignore and try to suppress our creative, curious, instinctual selves. She is the self screaming to be acknowledged.

 Paula Rego painted a whole series of work inspired by Jane Eyre.

A portrait of Bertha by Paula Rego

               

Lithograph from Paula Rego's illustrations of Jane Eyre

Paula Rego read the prequel Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys before reading Jane Eyre. She has transposed the context of  her Wide Sargasso Sea paintings onto her own background of growing up in Portugal, and she had added her own content as well. There is a play in the library about the author of Wide Sagasso Sea - Jean Rhys - called After Mrs Rochester by Polly Teale. It also features the mad woman that the book is about.

Which just shows how great art never grows old but continues to metamorphosize into new forms, feeding into and inspiring new creations, building layers, or perhaps revealing new truths.

All great artists break the mould in some way...The Brontes were true pioneers.
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