Emily Brontë (1818 - 1848) - A 200th Birthday Tribute

" Stronger than a man, simpler than a child, her nature stood alone."

(Charlotte Brontë on her sister Emily)

This year sees the third successive bicentenary birthday in the famous Victorian literary family, the Brontës - that of Emily Jane Brontë. As a big Brontëphile, to mark this special birthday I have created my personal tribute to Emily, just as I did for her brother Branwell last year, and her sister Charlotte the year before. 

Emily was the fifth of the six children born to Maria and Patrick Brontë. She is the author of "Wuthering Heights", one of the most famous and loved romantic novels in the history of literature, as well as the author of some of the finest poetry ever written. She also had a great talent for drawing and painting and was a gifted piano player.
Of the four Brontë siblings who lived to adulthood Emily is the one we know the least about. She grew up to be a quiet and private person who didn't seek friendship or companionship outside her immediate family; didn't write letters like her sister Charlotte did, and even though she loved and  cared for her family she could be reserved and aloof even with them.
Emily's life, like her siblings' life too, was fraught with close family deaths, sadness and difficulties in adapting to the conventional lifestyle of the time. Her world was her home, nature and the nearby moors from which she could not bear to be apart for any extended period of  time. The last few years of her tragically brief life she spent at home as housekeeper to her father. That way she was able to remain close to what she had a strong affinity and bond with - her imaginary world and the moors she loved to roam and draw inspiration from.

I like to think I don't have a favourite Brontë sister, but in all honesty, I must say that I feel most drawn to Emily. This is probably because of the three sisters I feel I have the most in common with Emily: like Emily, I love animals, nature and the moors above Haworth, and like Emily did for her writing, I derive most of the inspiration for my photography from these sources. Secondly, just like Emily did, I enjoy cooking and performing domestic chores and find it perfectly complements my photo creating activities.
Also, Emily had some qualities I admire and strive towards myself, and others that fascinate me greatly. Here are just a few: Emily was independent and self sufficient, did not judge others or made any effort to be liked or noticed; she was mentally and physically a strong woman and an incredible stoic; she felt no need to talk much, but she had an extraordinary talent to express herself in written words; she remained devoted to the imaginary world she created in her childhood almost to the end of her life.

I thought long and hard about what photos I want to include in this tribute - my photos about Emily, inspired by Emily. They come from three different sources: Brontë Parsonage Museum, Emily's home; Ponden Hall, which has a library Emily used, and is a possible model for the Thrushcross Grange house or even the Wuthering Heights house in her novel; and my personal still life work.

Brontë Parsonage Museum

Dining room table at which Emily and her sisters wrote most of their masterpiece novels. In the evenings they used to walk around this table reading and talking about their writing plans.

Emily's artist's box and geometry set

Children's Study where the Brontë siblings wrote in their tiny books and acted out their plays. At some stage this was Emily's bedroom.

Children's Study. One of the items in the basket is a wooden soldier, one of the set of soldiers Patrick brought from London as a present for Branwell. It is around these soldiers that the children first came to create their imaginary worlds and to write stories which would later lead to their world-famous works of art.

A sampler which Emily completed when she was 10 

Dress worn by the actress Chloe Pirrie who played Emily in the 2016 TV drama about the life of the Brontës,  "To Walk Invisible". It is a "thunder and lightning" patterned dress Emily was said to have chosen, and represents Emily's colour pallette. 

Cabinet piano in Mr Brontë's room which he bought for his children. Emily played it more than the others and was very good at it. She had a passion for music which was reflected in her poetry.

Kitchen. After Aunt Branwell's death Emily acted as housekeeper and spent a lot of time helping in the kitchen and baking bread. According to some locals her bread was the best in the village. 

Costume worn by actress Chloe Pirrie who played Emily in the 2016 TV drama about the life of the  Brontës, "To Walk Invisible"

Emily's funeral card which contains an error: she died aged thirty, not twenty nine. She contracted tuberculosis and bore her illness with tremendous equanimity, mental strength and courage right to the very end.

Ponden Hall - Earnshaw Room

Emily visited Heaton family at Ponden Hall and was, therefore, almost certainly familiar with this room which has a window that was likely to have been a model for the window at which Cathy Earnshaw's ghost appears begging to be let in in the "Wuthering Heights"novel. In the book, first published in 1847, Emily describes a wooden box bed entered by a sliding panel, encasing the window, so the present Ponden Hall owners, Julie and Steve, had a replica box bed built around the window. A brilliant idea, the marvellous thing being that this room is now part of Ponden Hall B&B which means you can stay in it and sleep in Cathy's bed yourself! I blogged about my unforgettable stay in this room here 

Inside the box bed, Earnshaw Room, Ponden Hall

Very close to the box bed in the Earnshaw Room there is another significant window. Emily's first visual artwork was a drawing of the outside of a mullioned window, which she made when she was ten years old. The window she drew is believed to be the window in this photo.

My Own Tribute Still Life Creation

Props used: some old books I have at home; Emily's replica christening mug, bought from the Brontë Parsonage Museum shop; writing quill, also bought from the Parsonage shop; a sprig of heather - a symbol closely associated with Emily; and a Wuthering Heights "Writer's Block" wooden cube, a beautiful literary ornament I bought from my friend's online shop

So here it finally is - my tribute to Emily Brontë, an extraordinary Victorian author and artist; a tribute to my muse. It comes a bit late seeing as Emily's 200th birthday was on 30 July, but, after all, it still falls within her bicentenary year. There are three more months left in the year, and I am very much looking forward to continuing to celebrate this remarkable but mysterious, and extremely inspiring woman.
I close this post with one of my favourite Emily poems.

The Blue Bell Is The sweetest Flower

The blue bell is the sweetest flower

That waves in summer air;

Its blossoms have the mightest power

To soothe my spirit's care.

There is a spell in purple heath

Too wildly, sadly drear;

The violet has a fragrant breath

But fragrance will not cheer.

The trees are bare, the sun is cold

And seldom, seldom seen -

The heavens have lost their zone of gold,

The earth is robe of green,

And ice upon the glancing stream

Has cast its sombre shade,

And distant hills and valleys seem

In frozen mist arrayed -

The blue bell cannot charm me now,

The heath has lost its bloom,

The violets in the glen below

They yield no sweet perfume.

But though I mourn the heather-bell

'Tis better far away;

I know how fast my tears would swell

To see it smile today.

And that wood flower that hides so shy

Beneath the mossy stone

Its balmy scent and dewy eye - 

'Tis not for them I moan.

It is the slight and stately stem,

The blossom silvery blue,

The buds hid like a sapphire gem

In sheaths of emerald blue,

'Tis these that breathe upon my heart

A calm and softening spell

That if it makes a tear-drop start

Has power to soothe as well.

For these I weep, so long divided

Through winter's dreary day,

In longing weep - but most when guided

On withered banks to stray;

If chilly then the light should fall

Adown the dreary sky

And gild the dank and darkened wall

With transient brilliancy,

How do I yearn, how do I pine

For the time of flowers to come,

And turn me from that fading shine -

To mourn the fields of home - 

~ Emily Jane Brontë ~