Article Snare

Online Free Article Directory!

Please Login or Sign up to post an article.

Home

Education

Growing Up as the Youngest Bronte Sister

By Sean Spurr

| October 4th 2011 | Views:

loading

Anne was born after her two more noted sisters, Emily and Charlotte, & therefore became the youngest member in the Bronte household upon being born on 17th January 1820. When she was born her father, Patrick Bronte, was the curate of Thornton village close to Bradford, where Anne was baptised on the 25th March.

The following month the entire home moved into the Haworth Parsonage which would become renowned as their lifelong house resulting from Patrick receiving a lifetime curacy there. The property had five bedrooms and currently is a place of pilgrimage for literature tourists around the globe.

Anne's youth was traumatic, her mum, Maria Branwell, died on the 15th September 1821 when Anne was barely a year old, after struggling from what quite a few now believe to be uterine cancer. While Patrick tried to remarry to provide a mother figure to the children, he was unsuccessful in his efforts. Instead Maria's sister and the children's aunt, Elizabeth Branwell, moved into Howard Parsonage with the family to look after the children and nurse Maria in her final weeks.

Elizabeth was not much liked by the children, being stern rather than loving, yet got on better with Anne than she did with Emily and Charlotte. This perhaps was due to Anne and Elizabeth sharing a room, and there is suggestion that Elizabeth might have played a key role in influencing Anne's religious beliefs.

In the summer months of 1824 all Anne's four sisters moved to Crofton Hall followed by the Clergy Daughter's School in Cowan Bridge, Lancashire. Anne was left without any sibling in Howarth, and would soon be more hurt by the death of her two eldest sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, from consumption in the Spring and early Summer of 1825.

The side effect of this was to cause Patrick to insist his daughters were home educated, and consequently create the lasting bonds amongst the remaining three sisters which led to their literary successes. Howarth Parsonage was quite distant from other areas, and the siblings become rather insular and largely only had each other for companionship.

Anne's education was varied, from classic Bible studies, to studying literature of the classics such as Homer and Virgil, as well as more contemporary authors including Bryon and Scott. She also learnt piano from the Keighley parish organist and art from John Bradley of the same town. While this training in the arts was taking place they were also educated in household management by their aunt.

Whilst this formal learning clearly constructed the abilities necessary for their later works, it was far more their imaginary world which developed the creative spark which was essential to start their writing. This formed the fictional African kingdom of Angria, which they depicted in watercolour paintings and maps. The world was very developed, mirroring the actual world, with kings, fugitives, schools and armies. The difference was that in the world of Angria it was the children who wrote novels, which were written in such tiny letters that a magnifying glass would be required by the inhabitants to read them.

Sean Spurr - About Author:
Oxford University graduate in History and Politics who runs an online content publishing business specialising in History and Literature.Sean Spurr is the publisher of the Anne Bronteweb site which contains her novels and works. He also owns sites about the other two sisters, Emily and Charlotte Bronte.