Although the Brontë sisters lived in nineteenth-century patriarchal England, which limited the education of women, they subverted typical gender conventions by becoming published authors. The vivid gothic imagery in the work of Ms. Charlotte, Miss Emily, and Miss Anne Brontë reflects the intellectual autonomy their father instilled in them throughout their childhoods. More so, their subtle feminist elements paved the way for the advancements in female education, according to retrospectjournal.com.
Despite educational limitations for women in Regency and Victorian England, the Brontë sisters had access to schooling due to their affluence. While they were of an upper-class background, their father, after escaping the clutches of poverty, attended Cambridge University and became a supporter of more “equal” education, according to retrospectjournal.com. The Brontë sisters attended multiple boarding schools and were home-taught, always aspiring to broaden their intellectual horizons, according to bbc.co.uk.
The sisters became teachers and governesses in early adulthood, according to bbc.co.uk. In 1842, they received an opportunity to go to Brussels, Belgium and improve their French skills, according to retrospectjournal.com. By prioritizing education and maintaining jobs of their own, the Brontë sisters broke the standard of female financial dependency and became self-sufficient women, according to bbc.co.uk.
In May 1846, the three sisters collectively published a volume of poetry with their own funds. However, at the time, readers would not buy female-authored books, believing that they would only contain “flowery” topics. Therefore, societal conventions pressured them to write under male pen names, with Ms. Charlotte as Currer Bell, Miss Emily as Ellis Bell, and Miss Anne as Acton Bell, according to bbc.co.uk.
After publishing their poetry, each sister went on to publish her own novels. The work of the Brontë sisters far exceeded the expectations of typical novel themes by exploring sexual imagery, which society deemed a delicate and taboo topic, particularly for women. Sadly, only under a pseudonym were the sisters able to delve into topics that were not merely surface-level, according to retrospectjournal.com.
The novels Agnes Grey by Miss Anne Brontë and Jane Eyre by Ms. Charlotte Brontë became published works in 1847, with Jane Eyre as one of that year’s bestsellers, according to bbc.co.uk. In 1848, Miss Anne published her subversive text, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which unpacks the boundaries a woman faces trying to leave her abusive and alcoholic husband. In that same year, Miss Emily Brontë’s first novel, Wuthering Heights, came out, telling the story of the obsessive and haunting love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff. Critics deemed the text vulgar, strange, and disagreeable upon publication due to the “overly sexual” imagery. After the deaths of Miss Emily and Miss Anne Brontë in 1848 and 1849, respectively, Ms. Charlotte Brontë continued to write, publishing her novels Shirley and Villette. She went on to become a well-known writer, even visiting London a few times, according to bbc.co.uk.
The timelessness of the Brontë sister’s literary contributions is evident because works such as Wuthering Heights are still a part of educational curricula. Sacred Heart Greenwich alumna Ms. Tory Bensen ’10 reads Miss Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights annually. She observed how the Brontë sisters’ work was revolutionary during early Victorian England.
“I recall they were exceptionally educated and published under male aliases, mostly,” Ms. Bensen said. “Further, and much to the disdain of polite society at the time, they wrote about the vulgarities of the world—abuse, cruelty, affairs—without hesitation […] Those acts alone stood in direct defiance of the gender expectations at the time.”
Ms. Bensen discussed how Wuthering Heights’ unique circular structure, morally grey characters, and complex Victorian-era language draws her to the novel year after year. She remarked on how the Brontë’s work has impacted her own life.
“Over the past 15 years since I first read it, many forces shaped my love for Wuthering Heights, most importantly, the experience of reading it for the first time in Ms. Larson’s class,” Ms. Bensen said. “It was certainly no easy read. But, with focus and diligence, the dense passages, complex grammar, and nineteenth-century language yielded an incredibly rich world. It was the first book I read in an academic setting that felt like a page-turner instead of a slog and opened my eyes to a whole new segment of literature.”
Featured Image by Emily Shull ’25
