Emily's Story
The story of the Bronte family became Charlotte's story. Charlotte's story, because she survived her sisters and brother. Charlotte's story because her juvenile writings were preserved where Emily's and Anne's were not, and because only Charlotte's correspondence was saved.
Charlotte's story because she managed her sisters' literary inheritance. Charlotte's story because after her sisters' deaths she burst the bounds of Haworth and became acquainted with London society and the literary elite of England. Charlotte's story because she was befriended by Mrs. Gaskell, soon to be her biographer.
So the people around Charlotte were first seen through Charlotte's eyes as interpreted by Mrs. Gaskell. The uncivilized villagers of Haworth. (As one who grew up in the Appalachian Mountains, I am well acquainted with the way outsiders can condescend and misinterpret.) The eccentric, remote father and odd aunt. Branwell the depraved drunkard. Weak and insignificant Anne. Emily, unmanageable, solitary and unfathomable. The fickle young curate who receives a few snide mentions, in Mrs. Gaskell's account, as "Mr. W." and whose death is not mentioned at all.
And Charlotte, the patient and dutiful daughter.
Modern scholarship, especially Juliet Barker's wonderful biography The Brontes, has tried to free the Bronte story from Charlotte's grasp and draw upon a variety of sources to enlarge our understanding. In Emily's Ghost I have attempted to do the same.
Both Branwell and Patrick Bronte deserve rehabilitation. We now understand alcoholism as an addiction, a disease, rather than a question of will power and moral character. Branwell deserves a second chance to be known, and the loss of his talent lamented, rather than dismissed based upon Charlotte's disappointment.
Charlotte's relationship with her father was often problematic as well. Patrick opposed the marriage to his curate Arthur Bell Nichols, in part because he feared a pregnancy would kill the diminutive Charlotte. (It did.) Charlotte resented her situation in Haworth and likely blamed her father. The portrait of Patrick drawn by Mrs. Gaskell must have met with Charlotte's approval. And yet what we know from other sources discounts much of it entirely. I have tried to portray the Patrick Bronte who raised three strong, independent, inquiring daughters and allowed them their freedom at a time when women were expected to be hothouse plants in a parlor.
But most important I have tried to free Emily from Charlotte's portrayal. We must remember that Charlotte was a Victorian Englishwoman, and Charlotte was Charlotte. Most of what we know of Emily comes from Charlotte. But now and then we get glimpses from elsewhere. For example, Charlotte's friend Mary Taylor wrote after trying to imagine Emily socializing with English families during her stay in Brussels, "Imagine Emily turning over prints or ‘Taking wine' with any stupid fop and preserving her temper and politeness." Mary Taylor also tells us that Emily "never took [Charlotte's] opinion but always had one to offer."
And even Charlotte's words can be closely parsed. She wrote to her publisher of Emily that it was best "not to advocate the side you wish her to favour; if you do she is sure to lean in the opposite direction ... " One might notice first that Charlotte assumes Emily's positions are taken in automatic opposition to her own, rather than being assumed after serious consideration and for good reason. Then one might consider that Charlotte was a politically conservative, conventionally Victorian young woman who avidly sought to be married and to escape Haworth to something like gentility.
One might then imagine Emily to be the opposite.