Few writers have put so much of themselves into their writing.Fewer still have braved the odds, death, sickness, loneliness and continued to write.
Even if one is not religious, one cannot but admire Charlotte Bronte's unshakeable faith in God. For, if anything sustained her in her many dark nights of the soul, it was her faith.
The sources of nourishment and support for lonely souls are many. To Charlotte I think what mattered most was the double nourishment of her sisters and writing. She was a driven young woman with hopes for herself and her sisters. Despite the diffidence expressed in her letters to her editors and to various publishing houses and her extreme self-consciousness, the mere fact that she thought herself publishable is proof of an unshakeable self-confidence and pride in her literary abilities and a certain amount of vanity.
Her writing to Southey suggest both the naivete and the daring of the secluded and a trust in her literary powers.
It is hard to imagine what Charlotte Bronte expected as an answer to her letter to Southey. She typically replies to his letter in which he discourages her to write with her characteristic urgency:"I cannot rest till I have answered your letter..."But it is clear and fortunate that she was self-confident enough as a writer in order to dismiss his reply for it was literature that she pursued as a vocation. One has to keep in mind that this happened in a century where it was uncommon for women to write.
Charlotte Bronte is a great witer for two reasons. The first is that her writing is divine. Compared to her Jane Austen seems to be writing equations. Example: "Have you no letter for me, Mr. Warner? Do you bring no message, no word of his welfare, no enquiry afrer mine? "My lady I have not so much as a syllable for you." Notice that she writes not word but syllable.The second reason Bronte is a great writer is that she wrote about something that touched her deeply--the subject of being an orphan and the subject of being in love. Anything else that Charlotte Bronte might have written about would have been merely good but not great.
In writing about a plain governess who was not attractive, she dared the conventions of the novel and created something quite unique and much more revolutionary than what what Flaubert did with his Emma Bovary--Turn an attractive but boring housewife into a heroine.
The difference between Flaubert and Charlotte Bronte is that Flaubert dreaded entering Emma Bovary's mind whereas Bronte enjoyed entering Jane Eyre's character to the hilt. That is why Emma is an uninspiring and forgettable character while Jane is alive and unforgettable. Emma Bovary is attractive but boring, Jane is plain but never boring.
Charlotte Bronte created one of the most vivid, most interesting heroines of any novel not least because she doesn't end up under the wheels of a train or commit suicide. Bronte is not interested in killing off her heroine as many male writers do.Her heroine is strong and resilient like herself.
Charlotte's reply to Southey's letter in which he
discourages her from writing
At the first perusal of you letter I felt only shame and regret that I had ever ventured to trouble you with my crude rhapsody;I felt a painful heat rise to my face when I thought of the quires of paper I had covered with what once gave me so much delight, but which now was only a source of confusion; but after I had thought a little, and read it again and again, the prospect seemed to clear. You do not forbid me to write; you do not say that what I write is utterly destitute of merit. You only warn me against the folly of neglecting real duties for the sake of imaginative pleasures; of writing for the love of fame; for the selfish excitement of emulation. You kindly allow me to write poetry for its own sake, provided I leave undone nothing which I ought to do, in order to pursue that single, absorbing,
exquisite gratification. I am afraid, sir, you think me very foolish. I know the
first letter I wrote to you was all senseless trash from beginning to end; but I
am not altogether the idle, dreaming being it would seem to denote.
My father is a clergyman of limited though competent income, and I am the eldest of his children. He expended quite as much in my education as he could afford in
justice to the rest. I thought it therefore my duty, when I left school, to
become a governess. In that capacity I find enough to occupy my thoughts all day
long, and my head and hands too, without having a moment's time for one dream of
the imagination. In the evenings, I confess, I do think, but I never trouble any
one else with my thoughts. I carefully avoid any appearance of preoccupation and
eccentricity, which might lead those I live amongst to suspect the nature of my
pursuits. Following my father's advice -- who from my childhood has counselled
me, just in the wise and friendly tone of your letter -- I have endeavoured not
only attentively to observe all the duties a woman ought to fulfil, but to feel
deeply interested in them. I don't always succeed, for sometimes when I'm
teaching or sewing I would rather be reading or writing; but I try to deny
myself; and my father's approbation amply rewarded me for the privation. Once
more allow me to thank you with sincere gratitude. I trust I shall never more
feel ambitious to see my name in print; if the wish should rise, I'll look at
Southey's letter, and suppress it. It is honour enough for me that I have
written to him, and received an answer. That letter is consecrated; no one shall
ever see it but papa and my brother and sisters. Again I thank you. This
incident, I suppose, will be renewed no more; if I live to be an old woman, I
shall remember it thirty years hence as a bright dream. The signature which you
suspected of being fictitious is my real name. Again, therefore, I must sign
myself
C. Bronte
P.S. -- Pray, sir, excuse me for writing to you a
second time; I could not help writing, partly to tell you how thankful I am for
your kindness, and partly to let you know that your advice shall not be wasted,
however sorrowfully and reluctantly it may at first be followed.
C.B
.
