The Bronte Sisters & Jane Eyre

The Bronte Sisters & Jane Eyre

The Bronte sisters unfortunately have a very sad story behind them. They were the children of a sickly mother who was stricken with cancer and died while they were very young. And unfortunately the father was of no help growing up as he was very abusive to them. They were also sisters to a brother named Branwell, and as they grew older he drew curses upon them for no reason as they showed him undying love. The sisters faced many hardships and problems and at times felt they had nothing to live for, but the sisters persevered and overcame adversity and went on to write great works of literature.

All of the sisters have very interesting stories to say the least; some having to do with violence, suffering, and even rebelling against crime and punishment. The one who you might say had the most success and is definitely the most recognized out of all the sisters is Charlotte. Charlotte was the third child to be born out of the six in 1816. Charlotte started off her career by working at a local school in Mirfield and from there she slowly started to get into literature. Her most noteworthy piece of literature is the novel, "Jane Eyre" which she wrote in 1847. She continued to have more success in her writing as she published two more novels: Shirley in 1849 and Villette in 1853. Shortly after her previous written novel, Charlotte married a gentleman by the name of Arthur Bell Nichols. The marriage only lasted about a year because Charlotte died of tuberculosis on March 31st, 1855. After Charlotte's death a previous rejected book called, "The Professor" is published posthumously.

The scholarly article about Jane Eyre written by Arnold Markley basically gives a background about the novel as well as giving an in-depth analysis of the book. Markley begins his article by giving a background about the author Charlotte Bronte and all of the trials she faced. Then Markley gets into the description of Jane Eyre and how she had such remarkable strength and individuality for the time the novel was written in. Jane Eyre's character served as a role model for women during the Victorian period and continued throughout the twentieth century. Eyre encouraged women to make their own choices in living their lives, to develop respect for themselves, and to become individuals. Although Jane Eyre was having such an impact among feminine society, other people were not appreciating the bitter attacks Bronte took at certain religions. "The character of Mr. Brocklehurst, for example, a deeply religious but highly hypocritical figure, was based on a well-known clergyman alive at the time, and many readers recognized the characterization right away" (Markley). The strong willed character of Jane mostly came directly from Bronte who voiced a lot of her opinions about women suffering in the nineteenth century. Bronte based a fair amount of the material