Charlotte Bronte- A Biography

Charlotte Bronte was born in Thornton, Yorkshire in 1816, the daughter of a clergyman. At a young age Charlotte moved with her family to Haworth Parsonage, which would become her lifelong home. When Charlotte was five, her mother died and she and three of her sisters, Maria, Emily and Elizabeth, went to the Clergy Daughter’s School, which she used as a model for Lowood School in Jane Eyre. The poor conditions at school affected Charlotte’s health and caused the deaths of Maria and Elizabeth. After their deaths, Charlotte returned home and began writing stories with her siblings. These stories sparked an interest in literature for the Bronte children. Charlotte continued school at Roe Head, where she wrote The Green Dwarf. After Charlotte graduated, she was briefly a governess and teacher before going to Brussels with her sister, Emily. There they enrolled in a boarding school where Charlotte taught English. Charlotte and Emily returned to England when their aunt died and thereafter, Charlotte returned to Brussels without her sister. She was very unhappy at the boarding school and suffered from horrible homesickness. Charlotte returned home in 1844, but used her experience in Brussels as an inspiration for some parts of The Professor and Villette. Charlotte published her first two novels under the name of Currer Bell, but there was speculation about the identity of Currer Bell and whether Bell was a man or woman. These first novels were