Homeless and Abandoned on the Moors: The Legacy of the Brontë Sisters
By Stephen Wilson, one of our reporters abroad
The Bronte sisters were not afraid to confront the nightmare of abuse and homelessness in some of the remotest parts of the world. Indeed, compared to novels such as “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Bronte and “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte, Jane Austen strikes you as tame. J. Bird in a recent article of the homeless journal 'The Big Issue' regards Jane Austen as 'escapism.' This can't be said of the works of the Bronte Sisters. On the contrary, they confront some of the worst forms of domestic abuse, bullying, and the sheer despair of unfulfilled relationships which often render people destitute. For instance, I struggled to finish “Agnes Grey” by Anne Bronte {“Agnes Grey,” by Anne Bronte, 2024, Moscow: Act} because it reminded me of some of the worst experiences I had while being a tutor! Far from being escapism it conjured up bad memories of experiences I would prefer to forget.
Nevertheless, those writers deserve attention because they had the courage to look into the eye of problems which other authors shunned. In a sense, the novel “Wuthering Heights” represents a bleak but daring novel whose prose is poignant , arresting and moving. It still has the potency to disturb and anger people today.
Whatever one says, there is no doubt that “Jane Eyre,” by Charlotte Bronte, directly captures the problem of destitution which follows deep despair. In the novel, we follow the tribulations of the heroine from her own voice. She is an orphan who is brutally bullied and punished by her siblings as well as foster parents and then is forced to undergo unpleasant experiences at a boarding school where she is harshly treated by teachers, starved, and wakes up to find her best friend is dead after one night. After school she takes up a job as a governess at a strange house of an eccentric but kind Mr. Rochester who is harbouring secrets of a terrible past. They fall in love—only for her to find that just as they are about to marry a person bursts into the church to stop Mr. Rochester from marrying Jane. It seems Mr. Rochester already has a secret and an insane wife who is kept locked up and secluded in the house.
Jane, shocked at this unexpected attempt at bigamy, decides maybe the best thing to do is leave Rochester. However, she feels immense remorse at hurting the feelings of Rochester and is unsure she is doing the right thing. Much of the drama is centered on the inner conflict going on in her own mind.
When she leaves Rochester, she endures 3 days of homelessness on the remote moors. She is forced to beg for assistance. She asks,
“What was I to do ? Where to go ? Oh, intolerable questions when I could do nothing and go nowhere ! - when a long way must yet be measured by my weary, trembling limbs, before I could reach human habitation- when cold charity must be entreated before I could get a lodging: reluctant sympathy importuned : almost certain repulse incurred : before my tale could be listened to or one of my wants relieved.” {page 390, “Jane Eyre,” by Charlotte Bronte, 2007, London: Vintage Classics}.
Many of the people don't even want to hear her story—nevermind help her. Some people even presume she is a thief who will rob them should they invite her into their homes or let her come close to them. She feels a deep sense of shame, guilt, and loss of self esteem believing she has no right to ask or expect help from others. For instance, she states, “I drew near houses; I left them, and came back again, and again I wandered away : always repelled by the consciousness of having no claim to ask- no right to expect interest in my isolated lot” {page 395, “Jane Eyre,” by Charlotte Bronte, 2007, London: Vintage Classic}.
In another passage she states, “An ordinary beggar is frequently an object of suspicion: a well dressed beggar inevitably so.” Her depiction of how it feels to be homeless is spot on. How many people have you met are deeply suspicious and at times hostile to the homeless? It is difficult to believe this novel was published in 1847! It seems timeless. Of course, the treatment of a wife who is kept locked up and secluded from the public will raise eyebrows in an age where we would rightly ask if his wife really beyond any medical treatment and much more humane help?!! But Charlotte Bronte is telling a story and not condoning or excusing the behaviour of Rochester. And those scenarios actually happened during this epoch and sadly, are still happening.
Some people are ashamed of relatives who are mentally ill. They keep it secret because they feel it is a source of shame. I think that is what makes this novel disturbing and touching to the reader. Reading it is like being burnt by a hot red poker. You can't forget such scenes.
“Wuthering Heights” also frightens any reader. The story begins when a kind farmer finds a homeless and abandoned child on the streets of Liverpool, takes pity on him and adopts him. Unfortunately, the boy is bullied by his foster brother and grows up to also become a violent and bitter bully who has no hesitation in resorting to physical force and striking women. Many people regard this Gothic Heathcliff as a ‘monster' who is incorrigible. Heathcliff and his foster sister fall in love with each other and go out and play on the moors. Unfortunately, his lover Catherine goes out and agrees to marry another rich man who she doesn't really love. She betrays her love for Heathcliff. Tragically, Catherine dies soon after giving birth but not before she meets her lover and utters farewell.
Both accuse each other of breaking each others’ hearts by marrying the wrong partners. Heathcliff tells Catherine “I have not broken your heart, you have broken it: and in breaking it you have broken mine. So much the worse, for me, that I am strong. Do I want to live? What kind of living will it be when you- oh, God! Would you like to live with your soul in the grave?'” {page 180, “Wuthering Heights,” by Emily Bronte, 2023, Moscow: Act, Moscow 2023}. Heathcliff even begs a dying Catherine to come back and haunt as a ghost!
It is worth pointing out that those two novels mirror the mindset of their times. Contrary to her sister's claim that Emily Bronte was naive and had little experience of human contact, it now appears that Emily Bronte was a well-educated author well-versed in the literature of Shelley, Byron and many authors and was an astute observer of the worst behaviour of people. Although she invented the character Heathcliff that such characters could exist is not incredible.
In a way, the novel is partly Gothic in the sense of how it focuses on ghosts, graveyards and the romantic emphasis on the role nature can play in healing or bringing comfort to traumatised people. While humanity is often inhospitable, inhumane and intolerable, mother nature consoles and cares for the destitute. What humanity lacks in solicitude, nature richly endows. In “Wuthering Heights,” Catherine and Heathcliff attain real joy by playing on the moors. In “Jane Eyre,” the main character states, “I have no relative but the universal mother nature; I will seek her breast and ask repose” {pages 389 to 390 of “Jane Eyre,” Vintage Classics.}
Secondly, in both novels some characters are endowed with the gift of the second sight. Heathcliff not only senses Catherine's presence as a ghost but encounters her. Heathcliff states, “You know I was wild after she died; and eternally, from dawn to dawn, praying her to return to me her spirit! I have a strong faith in ghosts: I have a conviction that they can, and do, exist, among us! The day she was buried, there came a fall of snow. In the evening I went to the graveyard. It blew bleak as Winter- all round was solitary.'{Page 322, “Wuthering Heights,” by Emily Bronte, 2023, Moscow: Act}. And Heathcliff goes on to swear he could feel her very presence. “In Jane Eyre,” Rochester can directly feel the plight of Jane Eyre while she is destitute. The belief in fairies, ghosts and strange events are never far away in those novels.
One important theme is how love might be able to break and transcend the rigid class barriers and obstacles which prevent lovers from embracing each other. In all the novels of the Brontes you come across rigid class barriers which stop love from happening. But the force and overwhelming power of passion transcends those barriers. The view is that there exists another world which is much richer, refined and deeper than the earth we inhabit. The moors, for all their bleakness—but also their beauty at times—drop hints of this.
The moors can still be enchanting. The sad thing in “Jane Eyre “is that in practice, rather than nature healing her it almost kills her because she has no protection against exposure to the harsh elements.
Whether you feel these novels are about destitution , teaching, bitter family rivalry, missed chances, terrible mistakes, or lost love, the works haunt you. The stunning prose, passion and dramatic dialogue still move you to this day!