Emily Bronte Emily Bronte (1818-1848) and Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855), generally known as "Bronte sisters" were two leading authors of English literature during 19th century. Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre and Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights are two literary masterpieces and these two novels are perused till today by students and scholars in a lot of academic institutions worldwide. Charlotte Bronte's original desire was to become a poet and she sent some of her poems to Robert Southey, England's Poet Laureate during 19th century, for his evaluation. But Robert Southey did not appreciate her aim to become a poet. According to Southey, writing poetry 'was not the business of a woman'. Through this opinion of Robert Southey, we come to know how little liberty was accorded to women in England during 19th century as far as literature was concerned.
We can envision Charlotte Bronte and Emily Bronte from a feminist angle on the ground that both these sisters movingly illustrated the plight of women during their time through the female characters of their books. In Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte told the story of an orphan girl who grew up in her aunt's house. Her childhood in that house was not at all smooth and pleasant. Jane Eyre's aunt Mrs. Reed as well as her children all the time used to humiliate her and reminded her that she was an undesirable burden on their family. Even Jane was physically assaulted by her cousin John Reed a number of times. One day John Reed struck Jane so hard that Jane's head was bleeding. It was surprising that, Mrs. Reed, instead of scolding her son for this offence, rebuked Jane Eyre and locked her up inside a chamber called red room. Through Jane Eyre's painful experiences Charlotte Bronte actually depicted the shocking life stories of helpless, poor and orphan girls of all ages, not just of her own era. Later on Jane shifted to a boarding school and she thought she would no longer have to face any troublesome events as she had moved away from her aunt's family. But her presumption proved wrong as she came to be introduced to a clergyman named Mr. Brocklehurst who was the boarding school's director. Mr. Brocklehurst always behaved very rudely with the girls that lived and studied in that school. Even Jane Eyre was insulted by him a couple of times for very silly reasons. The school authority spent very little money on the food and other privileges for the girls. However, Jane Eyre found a very polite girl in that school named Helen Burns who soon became her friend. But Helen Burns died of typhoid within a few months leaving Jane alone in an adverse world. Jane Eyre's struggle against social hindrances continued throughout the novel but her tenacity finally paid off. At the end of the novel she found happiness and love by getting married to a widower named Mr. Edward Rochester.
In Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte portrayed a profound and tempestuous love story between Catherine and Heathcliff. Catherine belonged to an elegant, rich family while Heathcliff was an urchin. He was taken home from Liverpool by Mr. Earnshaw, Catherine's father.
Caption: Charlotte Bronte Catherine soon fell in love with Heathcliff and Heathcliff started liking her too. But Catherine's elder brother Hindley could not stand Heathcliff's intimacy with Catherine. He often talked to Heathcliff in a very unfriendly way and looked down upon him as an outsider. Even he turned Heathcliff into a slave. He forced Heathcliff to work like a ploughboy and a domestic serf. But all these hostile deeds by Hindley failed to keep Catherine and Heathcliff apart from each other. As Hindley's maltreatment towards Heathcliff kept on mounting, one night Heathcliff disappeared. This incident hurt Catherine. Hindley soon got Catherine married to Edgar, who belonged to an aristocratic family living at Thrushcross Grange. Hindley did not at all care about his sister's love for Heathcliff. Heathcliff reappeared in the story after three years. He looked much stronger and more handsome than before and there is a hint in the novel that he had made a good amount of money while he had been away. He came back to take revenge on Hindley. He did so by inducing Hindley to become extremely addicted to wine. Hindley borrowed a lot of money from Heathcliff to buy wine but could not pay the money back later on. Heathcliff took advantage of this situation and grabbed all the assets that earlier belonged to Hindley. After that, Heathcliff pretended to be in love with Isabella, Edgar's younger sister. Isabella grew a soft corner for Heathcliff too. Heathcliff married Isabella not out of love; rather he wanted to extract revenge on Edgar by tormenting his sister. Heathcliff was so furious with Edgar because Edgar had taken Catherine away from his life. That's why he treated Isabella in an abusive and violent way.
Catherine was not happy in her marital life with Edgar, even though they had a daughter. Catherine could never stop loving Heathcliff. When she was a young girl, her love for Heathcliff was not granted by her elder brother. She missed Heathcliff all the time, even after her marriage with Edgar. Her marital unhappiness and constant remembrance of Heathcliff made her so sick that soon she died. On the other hand, Isabella could no longer tolerate Heathcliff's torture and one day she escaped to London. After some years she also passed away. To judge from a feminist point of view, Catherine died with an immense pain in her heart which was caused by the fact that she was forcibly separated from the man she had loved since her childhood, while Isabella was exploited as a tool for revenge by Heathcliff's acute vengeance.
The author is a columnist for The Asian Age
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