Discover the Brontës

Discover the Brontës

Living surrounded by moorland does surely have a strong impact on how we feel and how our lives turn out. This is true not only of Dartmoor of course, and certainly Haworth Moor in Yorkshire affected the Brontë family and influenced their lives and their writings in the mid-19th century.

The father, Patrick Brontë, was the first in the family to be published, including a collection of poems. Of the six Brontë children, two died in childhood and their mother also died young, leaving Patrick to bring up the remaining four children, three sisters and a brother. Their young lives were without much supervision or interaction with others, they walked on the moors, spent time writing, their close-knit lives providing their influences.

While the three sisters wrote their novels and poems, the son Branwell was a poet and also a painter. Branwell wanted fame for his painting, but the three sisters, initially and to a greater or lesser extent, wanted anonymity for their writings and originally published poems and novels under the ambiguous pseudonyms Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. Their true identities were drawn out when the novels became hugely successful, causing quite a stir.

A number of Branwell’s paintings survive, including the one shown here, now in the National Portrait Gallery, which was thought to have been lost until it was discovered folded up on top of a cupboard in 1914. In the centre of the group a male figure, previously concealed by a painted pillar, can now be discerned; it is almost certainly a self-portrait of Branwell. Perhaps his reasons for painting himself out of the picture can be discovered on knowing more of his turbulent life.

The play ‘Brontë’ by Polly Teale, on tour with Tavonians Theatre Company during November, tells the story of the Brontës, beginning in 1845 when Branwell returns home in some disgrace following a trip to London to show his paintings to the Royal Academy. The play moves back and forth in time, allowing us to see early influences for their passion for writing. As the play develops we see the people who influenced many of the remarkable characters in the sisters’ famous novels, including Charlotte Brontë’s ‘Jane Eyre’, Emily Brontë’s ‘Wuthering Heights’, and Anne Brontë’s ‘The Tenant of Wildfell Hall’.

Tavonians Theatre Company will be Okehampton’s Charter Hall on November 23rd following appearances at Mary Tavy, Meavy, Callington, Upton Cross and Tavistockd November. Information and tickets are available from www.tavonians.org.uk or 07342 014778.