0:00:02 > 0:00:07In 1846, three sisters - scribbling, arguing,
0:00:07 > 0:00:10marching round this table night after night -
0:00:10 > 0:00:16created three of the greatest novels in the English language.
0:00:16 > 0:00:20Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey
0:00:20 > 0:00:23were published within weeks of one another,
0:00:23 > 0:00:26immediately delighting and shocking the public.
0:00:26 > 0:00:30One woman said about Jane Eyre that if it wasn't written by a man,
0:00:30 > 0:00:33then it must've been written by a sexual delinquent.
0:00:33 > 0:00:37The novels are filled with unforgettable characters.
0:00:37 > 0:00:40Plain Jane, brooding Mr Rochester,
0:00:40 > 0:00:43steadfast Agnes
0:00:43 > 0:00:46and the tormented Heathcliff.
0:00:46 > 0:00:48It feels as if you're putting yourself at risk
0:00:48 > 0:00:51just by opening the covers of a book.
0:00:51 > 0:00:55The books seemed to come out of nowhere, as did their authors -
0:00:55 > 0:00:59Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte -
0:00:59 > 0:01:04three clergyman's daughters from the wilds of West Yorkshire.
0:01:06 > 0:01:11As three long-time Bronte fans, we want to find out how these
0:01:11 > 0:01:14sheltered young spinsters produced
0:01:14 > 0:01:18three immortal works so quickly.
0:01:18 > 0:01:24Can we discover the secrets of their creative genius by stepping into their lives,
0:01:24 > 0:01:26by being the Brontes?
0:01:26 > 0:01:28I feel very comfortable in this. I'm very happy with this.
0:01:28 > 0:01:30It's sparking something deep within me.
0:01:30 > 0:01:32What will we learn when we venture out into
0:01:32 > 0:01:35the windswept landscapes that inspired them?
0:01:35 > 0:01:39- You do not want to get lost on the moors.- That's the spirit, Oyeyemi.
0:01:39 > 0:01:41What does their sibling rivalry reveal?
0:01:41 > 0:01:43It's kind of like an act of betrayal.
0:01:43 > 0:01:45Charlotte must've been scared.
0:01:45 > 0:01:49What insights will we gain from sharing their household chores...
0:01:50 > 0:01:53..and learning about their professional misadventures?
0:01:53 > 0:01:56Anne Bronte's charges were being so unpleasant
0:01:56 > 0:01:58that she'd tied them to a table leg.
0:01:58 > 0:02:01We'll even witness a Bronte wedding...
0:02:01 > 0:02:03I will.
0:02:03 > 0:02:07..to find out how Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte
0:02:07 > 0:02:10tore open the tight-laced Victorian novel
0:02:10 > 0:02:14and won a place in the hearts of readers forever.
0:02:28 > 0:02:32In 1845, the three Bronte sisters
0:02:32 > 0:02:34were all living back home
0:02:34 > 0:02:37here in Haworth, in West Yorkshire.
0:02:38 > 0:02:43They were unemployed, unmarried and unhappy.
0:02:44 > 0:02:47Beneath the shy exterior of Charlotte, the oldest,
0:02:47 > 0:02:52lay a burning ambition, and she's long had a grip on my imagination.
0:02:54 > 0:02:57One day, when I was about 11 or 12, I took down a really
0:02:57 > 0:03:00heavy-looking volume from a high-up shelf with
0:03:00 > 0:03:02no pictures or anything in it
0:03:02 > 0:03:04and it was called Jane Eyre.
0:03:04 > 0:03:07I knew it was a story of a girl, and once I started reading,
0:03:07 > 0:03:10I was just in that world.
0:03:10 > 0:03:14Her childhood, the brutal treatment of that boarding school,
0:03:14 > 0:03:16it gave me nightmares.
0:03:16 > 0:03:20Then, I suppose, when I was older, it was the passionate love affair,
0:03:20 > 0:03:24of course, with Mr Rochester. Who is more romantic than Mr Rochester?
0:03:24 > 0:03:27And I suppose that's something that's always intrigued me,
0:03:27 > 0:03:32that the fact it was this intensely shy, frail woman, Charlotte Bronte,
0:03:32 > 0:03:36who managed to create such a passionate book.
0:03:36 > 0:03:38I wonder where that came from?
0:03:41 > 0:03:44The sisters wrote and grew up together,
0:03:44 > 0:03:48but had distinct personalities and styles.
0:03:48 > 0:03:52Emily Bronte drew on the supernatural and the Gothic
0:03:52 > 0:03:55for her dark family saga, Wuthering Heights.
0:03:57 > 0:04:02The book has been an inspiration for novelist Helen Oyeyemi
0:04:02 > 0:04:04ever since she had read it as a teenager.
0:04:04 > 0:04:09But Emily herself remains something of a mystery.
0:04:09 > 0:04:12Reading Wuthering Heights for the first time was one of the most
0:04:12 > 0:04:15intense experiences I've ever had while sitting still.
0:04:15 > 0:04:20You have no idea who or what on earth Emily Bronte might be,
0:04:20 > 0:04:24you just have the sense of a wild and singular imagination.
0:04:24 > 0:04:26This powerful mind.
0:04:26 > 0:04:30Her characters are so intense and go to such extremes,
0:04:30 > 0:04:33it seems as if there's nothing that they won't say or do.
0:04:37 > 0:04:39STEAM TRAIN WHISTLES
0:04:39 > 0:04:44Journalist Lucy Mangan is fascinated by the youngest Bronte sister,
0:04:44 > 0:04:49Anne, whose work was grounded in the social injustices of her day.
0:04:50 > 0:04:52I've always loved Anne because,
0:04:52 > 0:04:55well, mainly because she's the underdog of the three sisters.
0:04:55 > 0:04:57And, I mean, who doesn't love an underdog?
0:04:57 > 0:04:59She's the forgotten Bronte.
0:04:59 > 0:05:04She was quieter than Charlotte and, frankly, less weird than Emily.
0:05:04 > 0:05:06And I think there's a sense of...
0:05:06 > 0:05:09to the noisy and the weird - the spoils -
0:05:09 > 0:05:12and Anne hasn't quite had her due.
0:05:14 > 0:05:17What I love about Anne is that she writes about real people.
0:05:17 > 0:05:19There's none of your Gothic melodrama here.
0:05:19 > 0:05:22Her first book, Agnes Grey, is an absolutely unsparing look
0:05:22 > 0:05:25at the lot of an exploited governess.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28It's not exactly agitprop, but her approach
0:05:28 > 0:05:30is an almost campaigning one.
0:05:30 > 0:05:35So I'm off to Haworth for the first time ever
0:05:35 > 0:05:38and I'm really fascinated to try and get a sense of her
0:05:38 > 0:05:41and the rest of them in their natural habitat.
0:05:45 > 0:05:48Anne, Emily and Charlotte wrote their first novels together
0:05:48 > 0:05:52in the dining room of the home - the parsonage at Haworth,
0:05:52 > 0:05:56where their father Patrick was the local clergyman.
0:05:56 > 0:05:59Well, here we are.
0:05:59 > 0:06:01Amazing.
0:06:01 > 0:06:04I can't quite believe we're actually in here.
0:06:04 > 0:06:06There's something, isn't there,
0:06:06 > 0:06:09about a place where writers have been?
0:06:09 > 0:06:11You get this whole atmosphere.
0:06:11 > 0:06:13Look, Jane Eyre.
0:06:13 > 0:06:16Guys, as if I needed any more confirmation
0:06:16 > 0:06:18that Emily Bronte was here,
0:06:18 > 0:06:20here's some graffiti.
0:06:20 > 0:06:24- An E.- It would be Emily, wouldn't it?- It would.
0:06:24 > 0:06:27Wuthering Heights for you.
0:06:27 > 0:06:31I think this is Anne's writing slope.
0:06:31 > 0:06:35So, if I may just hold Agnes Grey over the place where it was written.
0:06:35 > 0:06:39- You're acting like it's a shrine. - It is a shrine. It is a shrine.
0:06:39 > 0:06:42You can just imagine them here,
0:06:42 > 0:06:45just spurring each other on to greatness or having massive rows.
0:06:45 > 0:06:49I'm a bit overwhelmed by how present they feel in this room.
0:06:49 > 0:06:52They do feel present, don't they?
0:06:52 > 0:06:56There is a spirit of the Brontes' past somehow around us.
0:06:56 > 0:07:00- Nonsense, Kearney. Nonsense. - There is.
0:07:00 > 0:07:02Seeing the table where the sisters wrote
0:07:02 > 0:07:08and their personal effects has given us a taste of the Bronte magic.
0:07:08 > 0:07:11But it was magic conjured in the midst of a tragedy
0:07:11 > 0:07:13unfolding at the parsonage.
0:07:15 > 0:07:18The sisters weren't just crammed in here with their father,
0:07:18 > 0:07:22there was also a fourth Bronte sibling - their brother, Branwell.
0:07:22 > 0:07:26In 1845, the one-time golden boy of the family
0:07:26 > 0:07:29was descending into alcoholism.
0:07:31 > 0:07:35Branwell used to write with the sisters, particularly Charlotte.
0:07:35 > 0:07:39He also painted the most famous picture of them,
0:07:39 > 0:07:43ominously painting himself out before the portrait was finished.
0:07:43 > 0:07:47Now, he was a shadow of his former self.
0:07:47 > 0:07:51I just think it must have been so painful for Charlotte to see
0:07:51 > 0:07:55the disintegration of the brother she had been so close to,
0:07:55 > 0:07:59and living with an addict like that brought real shame on the family.
0:07:59 > 0:08:03I mean, she didn't want to have visitors coming here to the parsonage
0:08:03 > 0:08:05and I suppose it all really came to a head -
0:08:05 > 0:08:11it was a breaking point, really - on the night of 31 July 1845,
0:08:11 > 0:08:14when she came back and she found him drunk right here.
0:08:16 > 0:08:19She wrote about it in a letter to a friend.
0:08:19 > 0:08:22She said, "He thought of nothing but stunning
0:08:22 > 0:08:25"or drowning his distress of mind.
0:08:25 > 0:08:28"no-one in the house could have rest."
0:08:28 > 0:08:30So, just imagine that -
0:08:30 > 0:08:35upstairs, her brother, raving through alcohol,
0:08:35 > 0:08:38and some people even think that this was the origin for the idea
0:08:38 > 0:08:42of the mad woman in the attic, that famous plotline from Jane Eyre.
0:08:42 > 0:08:46Upstairs, there was this madman - her own brother.
0:08:48 > 0:08:52Charlotte realised that Branwell would never be able to work
0:08:52 > 0:08:54and provide for the family.
0:08:54 > 0:08:57The sisters' prospects were bleak.
0:08:57 > 0:09:01But then Charlotte discovered several poems Emily had written,
0:09:01 > 0:09:04hidden in her desk.
0:09:04 > 0:09:09Emily was furious that her privacy had been invaded.
0:09:09 > 0:09:13But for the ambitious Charlotte, it was a eureka moment.
0:09:13 > 0:09:17Maybe the sisters could earn a living from writing.
0:09:18 > 0:09:21This was what brought Charlotte, Emily and Anne together,
0:09:21 > 0:09:26writing around the dining-room table at the end of 1845.
0:09:26 > 0:09:30And within weeks, they weren't just writing poems,
0:09:30 > 0:09:32they'd embarked on their first novels.
0:09:32 > 0:09:35It was kind of like an act of betrayal, wasn't it?
0:09:35 > 0:09:38That for Emily, you know, for Charlotte to go into this private world,
0:09:38 > 0:09:39she hated that, didn't she?
0:09:39 > 0:09:42I do not want to be the sister who discovers her private poetry
0:09:42 > 0:09:46and goes, "Hey! Just happened across this, I think we should publish."
0:09:46 > 0:09:49No way, Charlotte must've been scared.
0:09:49 > 0:09:51There must have been some sort of struggle going on.
0:09:51 > 0:09:54Anne, as ever, is playing the peacemaker, really.
0:09:54 > 0:09:56Because she sees what's kicking off over here and she goes,
0:09:56 > 0:09:59"I've got some poems too." And she doesn't mind publishing,
0:09:59 > 0:10:02so maybe that's what makes the possibility of publication
0:10:02 > 0:10:04a bit more palatable to Emily.
0:10:04 > 0:10:08Charlotte, I think, she from quite early on seemed to want to have
0:10:08 > 0:10:12- some kind of external... - Some kind of public recognition. - Public recognition.
0:10:12 > 0:10:15It was Charlotte who was both practical and wanting the recognition,
0:10:15 > 0:10:19but she somehow knew that Emily and Anne would fall in.
0:10:19 > 0:10:22She must have known that if she could get this project going
0:10:22 > 0:10:24that they would be behind her.
0:10:24 > 0:10:28So what do you think it was, the spur for the Brontes
0:10:28 > 0:10:31to decide to embark on novels?
0:10:31 > 0:10:33It's a perfect storm.
0:10:33 > 0:10:36Because they're all suddenly at home for one reason or another,
0:10:36 > 0:10:39they've all got this great, I think, confidence in their talent
0:10:39 > 0:10:42and now you've almost got nothing to lose.
0:10:42 > 0:10:44They were looking to earn a living, weren't they?
0:10:44 > 0:10:46I mean, they were... They needed money.
0:10:46 > 0:10:50It's all coming together in a very Bronte-like, unhappy way.
0:10:50 > 0:10:53It must have felt like a now-or-never situation
0:10:53 > 0:10:57and that must have aided the speed with which they got going.
0:11:00 > 0:11:04So where did these sisters find the confidence to produce,
0:11:04 > 0:11:06in short order,
0:11:06 > 0:11:10Emily's Wuthering Heights, Anne's Agnes Grey
0:11:10 > 0:11:13and Charlotte's Jane Eyre?
0:11:14 > 0:11:18Well, the Brontes had long been writing for their own pleasure.
0:11:18 > 0:11:22They were practised - if unpublished - authors.
0:11:24 > 0:11:27And the sisters had a genius for drawing inspiration
0:11:27 > 0:11:29from their own lives.
0:11:30 > 0:11:34So what secrets of the Brontes' writing can we learn from
0:11:34 > 0:11:36exploring their childhoods?
0:11:38 > 0:11:41One of the most shocking parts of Jane Eyre
0:11:41 > 0:11:43is the story of her schooldays.
0:11:43 > 0:11:47But how much does it owe to reality?
0:11:47 > 0:11:50I've come to Cowan Bridge in Lancashire, where Charlotte was
0:11:50 > 0:11:53sent away to boarding school at the age of eight.
0:11:53 > 0:11:58Beware, lest your God,
0:11:58 > 0:12:04THE MOST HIGH, rise up in judgment
0:12:04 > 0:12:07and condemns you.
0:12:07 > 0:12:10The school was founded by William Carus Wilson,
0:12:10 > 0:12:15a religious zealot who imposed a harsh regime on his pupils,
0:12:15 > 0:12:19including Charlotte, Emily and their elder sisters
0:12:19 > 0:12:21Maria and Elizabeth.
0:12:21 > 0:12:25This is one of Wilson's actual sermons and it's reminiscent
0:12:25 > 0:12:29of the kind of teaching to which Jane Eyre is subjected.
0:12:29 > 0:12:33For he examines us as to the integrity
0:12:33 > 0:12:36and strength of that hope.
0:12:36 > 0:12:38It must've been terrifying for them.
0:12:38 > 0:12:40Can you imagine hearing that as a small child?
0:12:40 > 0:12:45There is no hope, there is no hope of salvation...
0:12:46 > 0:12:51..but through the bloodshedding and the...
0:12:51 > 0:12:53I'm going to meet Marianne Thormahlen,
0:12:53 > 0:12:55who's studied the school's regime.
0:12:57 > 0:13:00Mr Wilson's religion was very much a hellfire religion
0:13:00 > 0:13:03and a death religion.
0:13:03 > 0:13:08He had this idea that it was better for a child to die young,
0:13:08 > 0:13:13before he or she had chance to commit a multitude of sins.
0:13:13 > 0:13:16- It really was a brutal place, wasn't it?- It really was.
0:13:16 > 0:13:22The physical conditions were terrible - cold and dark -
0:13:22 > 0:13:25and these children were permanently semi-starved.
0:13:27 > 0:13:31- Their father wanted the best for his girls...- Oh, absolutely.
0:13:31 > 0:13:34- ..but it ended in tragedy. - Yes, indeed.
0:13:34 > 0:13:38The two elder girls fell ill at school
0:13:38 > 0:13:41and were sent home to die, basically.
0:13:41 > 0:13:45Maria after a few months, Elizabeth after a few weeks.
0:13:49 > 0:13:53It seems clear that Charlotte later re-imagined her sister's deaths
0:13:53 > 0:13:56in the passage where Jane Eyre's school friend Helen
0:13:56 > 0:13:57dies in her arms.
0:13:57 > 0:14:00"That last bit of coughing has tired me a little.
0:14:00 > 0:14:03"I feel as if I could sleep.
0:14:03 > 0:14:07"But don't leave me, Jane. I like to have you near me.
0:14:07 > 0:14:10"I'll stay with you, dear Helen. No-one shall take me away."
0:14:10 > 0:14:13The only sister who didn't experience
0:14:13 > 0:14:15the horrors of Cowan Bridge
0:14:15 > 0:14:17was the youngest, Anne.
0:14:17 > 0:14:22But even at home, she couldn't escape the shadow of death.
0:14:22 > 0:14:25I mean, the thing about the parsonage, as everyone knows,
0:14:25 > 0:14:29is that obviously it looks out onto that extraordinary landscape of the moors.
0:14:29 > 0:14:33But the front of the house faces a bleaker prospect. It's Haworth -
0:14:33 > 0:14:37an industrialising mill town - and almost right outside the door
0:14:37 > 0:14:40is the local graveyard.
0:14:40 > 0:14:45At one point, six or seven people were being buried a day.
0:14:45 > 0:14:49Which is no surprise in a town where the child mortality rate was 40%.
0:14:49 > 0:14:5240% of children died before the age of six.
0:14:56 > 0:14:59In the industrial north, growth always came at a price.
0:14:59 > 0:15:04But the price Haworth paid seems to have been particularly high.
0:15:04 > 0:15:08- 1845, what's Haworth like? - It's a bustling little mill town.
0:15:08 > 0:15:11It's not completely modern. It's not like Manchester,
0:15:11 > 0:15:15one of the shock cities of the age. But it is industrialising,
0:15:15 > 0:15:18there are three mills in the town. So it's growing in population,
0:15:18 > 0:15:20it grows quite substantially over the period.
0:15:20 > 0:15:22But no great hopes, presumably, that the
0:15:22 > 0:15:25infrastructure is going to keep up with that kind of expansion?
0:15:25 > 0:15:26No, not at all. Exactly.
0:15:26 > 0:15:30There are privies, there is no running water.
0:15:30 > 0:15:35And the privies are just these open, public conveniences.
0:15:35 > 0:15:40Up to 24 families sharing one privy. Some of them are in public view.
0:15:40 > 0:15:43One is placed on an eminence at the top of the high street.
0:15:43 > 0:15:47So there might be dozens of people all using this earth privy,
0:15:47 > 0:15:49visible to everybody around them.
0:15:49 > 0:15:52And this is the world that the sisters would be walking
0:15:52 > 0:15:54past on a daily basis.
0:15:54 > 0:15:57What are the mortality rates like, then, in this filthy town?
0:15:57 > 0:16:01They're shocking. The average age of death is about 25 or 26.
0:16:01 > 0:16:04- Really?- So the Brontes live into their late 20s.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07And, in a way, they get beyond the average at that age.
0:16:07 > 0:16:10OK, I'm going to have to take a moment there to
0:16:10 > 0:16:15re-jig my notions of the Brontes as the lucky ones.
0:16:21 > 0:16:25But the Bronte children found somewhere to escape from this
0:16:25 > 0:16:27harsh reality.
0:16:27 > 0:16:31Between them, Charlotte, Branwell, Emily
0:16:31 > 0:16:34and Anne created their own fantasy world.
0:16:35 > 0:16:38SWORDS CLASH
0:16:38 > 0:16:44It was inspired by a set of toy soldiers that Branwell had been
0:16:44 > 0:16:46given by their father.
0:16:46 > 0:16:50The children played with the soldiers out on the moors,
0:16:50 > 0:16:52inventing stories about them
0:16:52 > 0:16:55and drawing detailed maps, like this one.
0:16:57 > 0:17:01"Soon, the piles of bleeding retches rose under our feet.
0:17:01 > 0:17:05"We trampled remorselessly upon friend and enemy."
0:17:05 > 0:17:09Inspired by the popular periodicals of the day,
0:17:09 > 0:17:14they wrote up some of their stories in an unusual format.
0:17:14 > 0:17:18So this is one of the tiny books.
0:17:18 > 0:17:21They wrote these little books.
0:17:21 > 0:17:25There were magazines made for the toy soldiers.
0:17:25 > 0:17:28So, basically, they were intended for them to read.
0:17:28 > 0:17:30Oh, so that's why they were so tiny in the first place.
0:17:30 > 0:17:34- Oh, yeah.- So, you can see here how small.- That's astonishing.
0:17:34 > 0:17:38You see, that gives me goose bumps, "1830, Charlotte Bronte."
0:17:38 > 0:17:41- Isn't that incredible? - Are they writing with quill pens?
0:17:41 > 0:17:43- Yes.- That's insane.
0:17:43 > 0:17:47Sorry, that's just physically impossible.
0:17:47 > 0:17:49It's amazing, isn't it?
0:17:49 > 0:17:53They're completely uninhibited in front of each other, aren't they?
0:17:53 > 0:17:56- When it comes to writing. - Yeah, completely.
0:17:56 > 0:17:59I mean, I think it really helped, the fact that they were siblings,
0:17:59 > 0:18:02because I think the sibling rivalry played the major part in it.
0:18:02 > 0:18:05That even though there was this close connection, there was
0:18:05 > 0:18:08a sense of powering on through this saga,
0:18:08 > 0:18:10because they wanted to get one over on one another.
0:18:10 > 0:18:13So you think they have a sort of perfect mixture of security
0:18:13 > 0:18:14- and spur?- Exactly.
0:18:14 > 0:18:18The children christened their imaginary realm Glass Town.
0:18:18 > 0:18:23The stories were influenced by the adult periodicals they all read.
0:18:23 > 0:18:25Some are surprisingly graphic.
0:18:25 > 0:18:28So you have, obviously, themes of war.
0:18:28 > 0:18:32Branwell's violent battle sagas, which are hideous to read
0:18:32 > 0:18:35in all ways, because it's like a stream of consciousness.
0:18:35 > 0:18:36"Listen, what a roar.
0:18:36 > 0:18:40"Hideously broken and rattling and deep and trembling."
0:18:40 > 0:18:43And also Charlotte as well,
0:18:43 > 0:18:45in terms of the way that the men are presented.
0:18:45 > 0:18:49They're very tyrannous, they're sexually alluring.
0:18:49 > 0:18:53"The full, dark, refulgent eye lightens most gloriously.
0:18:53 > 0:18:58"Suddenly, he lifts his head and stands erect and godlike."
0:18:58 > 0:19:01And do you think this character prefigures
0:19:01 > 0:19:05- some of the characters in her adult fiction?- Certainly.
0:19:05 > 0:19:10- Mr Rochester, for example?- Certainly in terms of command and presence.
0:19:10 > 0:19:15Almost, you know, brutish masculinity.
0:19:15 > 0:19:18It certainly forums in the juvenilia.
0:19:18 > 0:19:23Emily and Anne went on to create a separate world of their own,
0:19:23 > 0:19:25ruled by women, called Gondal.
0:19:27 > 0:19:32"I dream of moor and misty hill, where evening closes dark and chill.
0:19:32 > 0:19:35"For lone among the mountains cold,
0:19:35 > 0:19:38"lie those that I have loved of old."
0:19:38 > 0:19:40How important was Gondal to Emily?
0:19:40 > 0:19:43It was... I would say it was incredibly important.
0:19:43 > 0:19:49I don't think that she ever broke away from her world of Gondal.
0:19:49 > 0:19:53Even when she was writing Wuthering Heights.
0:19:53 > 0:19:55So much of Gondal fed into Wuthering Heights.
0:19:55 > 0:19:59All the themes - such as exile, death, imprisonment,
0:19:59 > 0:20:01separation from loved ones.
0:20:01 > 0:20:05All of these are staple themes of Wuthering Heights.
0:20:05 > 0:20:09Intrigued, Helen and I try writing own little books.
0:20:09 > 0:20:12- Have you ever written with one of these before?- No.
0:20:12 > 0:20:16Well, let alone trying to do it in this kind of tiny...
0:20:16 > 0:20:19Without blotting. That's what all the Victorian girls got into trouble
0:20:19 > 0:20:23- for, wasn't it?- Oh, yeah.- Ink blots. - Blotting your copy book.
0:20:23 > 0:20:27- Oh! Well, I started with a blot. - Yeah, me too.
0:20:27 > 0:20:30- Every letter is a blot.- Yeah.
0:20:30 > 0:20:34The scratching is really causing some tension for me.
0:20:35 > 0:20:38- I used to create small books, actually.- Did you?
0:20:38 > 0:20:41I had a doll's house. I loved the idea of doing it.
0:20:41 > 0:20:43It's really funny, it's just come back to me.
0:20:43 > 0:20:46Another blot.
0:20:47 > 0:20:51The Brontes' imaginary worlds were rooted in the reality
0:20:51 > 0:20:55of the moors that surrounded Haworth.
0:21:05 > 0:21:09And the sisters carried on their childhood passion for walking
0:21:09 > 0:21:12and exploring the moors through to adulthood.
0:21:14 > 0:21:18"There are great moors behind and on each hand of me.
0:21:18 > 0:21:23"There are waves of mountains far beyond that deep valley at my feet."
0:21:23 > 0:21:27"On one side of the road rose a high, rough bank, where hazels
0:21:27 > 0:21:32"and stunted oaks with their roots half exposed held uncertain tenure.
0:21:32 > 0:21:35"And strong winds had blown some nearly horizontal."
0:21:37 > 0:21:41We're going to retrace one of the sisters' favourite walks,
0:21:41 > 0:21:45to the waterfall near Ponden Kirk, using a map from the time.
0:21:47 > 0:21:49I do not want to get lost on the moors.
0:21:49 > 0:21:52That's the spirit, Emily.
0:21:52 > 0:21:54Oh, this map is not going to stay.
0:21:54 > 0:21:58Oh, that wind! They wouldn't have needed maps, would they?
0:21:58 > 0:22:02They'd have known this landscape so intimately.
0:22:02 > 0:22:05They walked it, tramped it, for hours and hours.
0:22:05 > 0:22:09No idea how they managed it in gale-forces, like this.
0:22:09 > 0:22:12Why do I feel we're not quite as hardy as the Bronte sisters?
0:22:12 > 0:22:15And we've got all the kit as well.
0:22:15 > 0:22:19They were out here in skirts and hobnailed boots at best.
0:22:19 > 0:22:23It would have been so liberating for them.
0:22:23 > 0:22:26If you think of the kind of constraints they were under.
0:22:26 > 0:22:28You know, the world of corsets and conventions.
0:22:28 > 0:22:30And it kind of makes you want to race around now and shout
0:22:30 > 0:22:32and scream, doesn't it?
0:22:32 > 0:22:36- Can you imagine if you'd come out of the parsonage?- Yeah.
0:22:36 > 0:22:39"I wish I were out of doors.
0:22:39 > 0:22:43"I wish I were a girl again, half savage and hardy and free.
0:22:43 > 0:22:45"I'm sure I should be myself,
0:22:45 > 0:22:49"were I once among the heather on those hills."
0:22:49 > 0:22:51Do you remember that wonderful scene in Jane Eyre?
0:22:51 > 0:22:55She's escaping from Rochester
0:22:55 > 0:22:59and she spends the night on the moors, at her wits' end.
0:22:59 > 0:23:03And I think, you know, even on a day like this, it's very bleak.
0:23:03 > 0:23:06The idea of spending the night was extraordinary,
0:23:06 > 0:23:09but, for her, the moor is a place of sanctuary.
0:23:09 > 0:23:13She talks about the moor being her mother,
0:23:13 > 0:23:17giving her a place of refuge and safety.
0:23:19 > 0:23:22Anne's got a poem about the wind on the moors as well.
0:23:22 > 0:23:25I think it's this thing where she lies on the pathless moor
0:23:25 > 0:23:26and she listens to the wind
0:23:26 > 0:23:29and she can start to understand its language.
0:23:29 > 0:23:33- I'm not going to lie down, but I sort of see what she means.- Yeah.
0:23:33 > 0:23:34The moors as refuge,
0:23:34 > 0:23:38the moors as a companion that speaks a language that only you understand.
0:23:38 > 0:23:42It's no wonder that the sisters loved being out here.
0:23:46 > 0:23:48Oh, there's a waterfall.
0:23:55 > 0:23:57- Wow. Lovely, isn't it? - Oh, yes.
0:23:57 > 0:24:01It feels so remote and so wild, doesn't it?
0:24:05 > 0:24:09So, for all their apparently sheltered lives,
0:24:09 > 0:24:13Charlotte, Emily and Anne already had a rich body of early experience
0:24:13 > 0:24:17to summon up when they embarked on their first novels.
0:24:25 > 0:24:28But during the winter of 1845,
0:24:28 > 0:24:32as the sisters huddled round the dining-room table,
0:24:32 > 0:24:36their writing could also draw on more recent events in their lives.
0:24:39 > 0:24:43With no money at home, all three had been obliged to leave
0:24:43 > 0:24:46to earn a living.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49How did those experiences influence their work?
0:24:50 > 0:24:56Anne, the youngest sister, spent the longest time in full employment.
0:24:56 > 0:25:00Even though her career options were somewhat limited.
0:25:00 > 0:25:04"Wanted, a governess, not under 25 years of age, who is competent
0:25:04 > 0:25:08"to teach French, music, dancing and the rudiments of Italian.
0:25:08 > 0:25:11"Ladies expecting a high salary need not apply."
0:25:11 > 0:25:14Best to get it out there, I think. It saves time wasters.
0:25:14 > 0:25:17If it was the 1840s and I was a middle-class,
0:25:17 > 0:25:20reasonably well-educated young women,
0:25:20 > 0:25:23this is all that is open to me. I can't be a doctor,
0:25:23 > 0:25:25I can't be a lawyer.
0:25:25 > 0:25:27I can't go to university, cos they're too expensive
0:25:27 > 0:25:30and they're only for men. I could become an actress,
0:25:30 > 0:25:34but that's practically synonymous with being a prostitute.
0:25:36 > 0:25:39So I've come to Audley End in Essex,
0:25:39 > 0:25:43where I'm told a 19th-century governess' room still exists.
0:25:43 > 0:25:47It's interesting that both Anne and Charlotte worked as governesses,
0:25:47 > 0:25:51like their heroines in Jane Eyre and Anne's first novel, Agnes Grey.
0:25:51 > 0:25:54Agnes is a high-minded daughter of a clergyman
0:25:54 > 0:25:58who becomes a governess so that she can make her own way in the world.
0:26:01 > 0:26:05She gets a brutal awakening when working for two families,
0:26:05 > 0:26:07the Bloomfields and the Murrays.
0:26:10 > 0:26:14If you're Anne and you're confronted with this pile,
0:26:14 > 0:26:19you can't help but look at something like this and think,
0:26:19 > 0:26:21that's a place for stories.
0:26:21 > 0:26:28But at the same time, as on a sort of human, 19-year-old girl level,
0:26:28 > 0:26:31that is an intimidating prospect. Poor Anne, I think.
0:26:31 > 0:26:33Poor, poor Anne.
0:26:38 > 0:26:43So this is the governess' bedroom.
0:26:43 > 0:26:45It's right next to the nursery.
0:26:45 > 0:26:50They're all just on the other side of that thin little wall there.
0:26:50 > 0:26:54She's got this fetching number.
0:26:54 > 0:26:57Oh, it's quite a weight.
0:26:57 > 0:27:01It's not designed for you to express your personality through.
0:27:01 > 0:27:04This sort of single concession to femininity here,
0:27:04 > 0:27:06with its little lace collar.
0:27:06 > 0:27:09But, basically, it's to make you into
0:27:09 > 0:27:13something between an official servant and invisible.
0:27:13 > 0:27:15Or at least anonymous.
0:27:15 > 0:27:19I think Anne was exquisitely attuned to the politics
0:27:19 > 0:27:21of wealth and class.
0:27:21 > 0:27:23As a governess, Agnes Grey basically goes from being
0:27:23 > 0:27:26a middle-class woman to a domestic servant.
0:27:26 > 0:27:28She has to project a particular kind of image
0:27:28 > 0:27:31to keep her employers happy.
0:27:31 > 0:27:35OK, so, it's 1840-something, my parents have just lost everything
0:27:35 > 0:27:37and they're booting me out to work.
0:27:37 > 0:27:39I suppose what I need to know is would the ability to quote
0:27:39 > 0:27:42Victoria Wood appropriately do me any good at all?
0:27:42 > 0:27:44- Because that is my only skill. - I suspect not.
0:27:44 > 0:27:47I suspect that's quite a niche market.
0:27:47 > 0:27:49Can you speak conversational French?
0:27:49 > 0:27:52- Non.- A little bit of German?
0:27:52 > 0:27:56- Nein.- Rudiments of Italian?
0:27:56 > 0:27:59There's not even... Ciao? I don't know. No.
0:27:59 > 0:28:01- Piano?- No.
0:28:01 > 0:28:02- Drawing?- No.
0:28:02 > 0:28:05Do you have a mild and pleasing disposition?
0:28:05 > 0:28:09- I could fake one long enough to get a job, I think.- Good.
0:28:09 > 0:28:11I think that's the thing that really matters.
0:28:11 > 0:28:13I mean, if you look at these ads,
0:28:13 > 0:28:15a lot of them, apart from all the rudimentary Latin
0:28:15 > 0:28:20and the advanced Italian, they always stress mild and pleasing.
0:28:20 > 0:28:22Mothers seem to have a real terror that they are going to let in
0:28:22 > 0:28:26a governess to the house who's going to be very strict with the children.
0:28:26 > 0:28:30I was going to ask you about this, because reading the first
0:28:30 > 0:28:32section of Agnes Grey, it will almost give you a stroke.
0:28:32 > 0:28:36It's so awful, because she's got no power.
0:28:36 > 0:28:39The parents basically forbid her to punish the children.
0:28:39 > 0:28:41Is this standard practice?
0:28:41 > 0:28:43Well, it certainly was what Anne Bronte found
0:28:43 > 0:28:46when she went to work for the Ingham family,
0:28:46 > 0:28:50who are widely supposed to be the models for the Bloomfields.
0:28:50 > 0:28:53She was told, "No, if they play up, come and see me."
0:28:53 > 0:28:57But she tried a couple of times, whereupon Mrs Bloomfield said,
0:28:57 > 0:29:00"I'm sorry, they are delightful. They are delightful."
0:29:00 > 0:29:05"While receiving my instructions, they would lounge upon the sofa, lie
0:29:05 > 0:29:08"on the rug, stretch, yawn, talk to each other
0:29:08 > 0:29:09"or look out of the window.
0:29:09 > 0:29:14"Whereas I could not so much as stir the fire or pick up
0:29:14 > 0:29:18"the handkerchief I had dropped without being rebuked for inattention.
0:29:18 > 0:29:22"Or told that, 'Mamma would not like me to be so careless.'"
0:29:22 > 0:29:25There's a fascinating moment, actually,
0:29:25 > 0:29:29in Anne Bronte's life where she really messed up.
0:29:29 > 0:29:32One day, her charges were being so unpleasant,
0:29:32 > 0:29:35so difficult, that she tied them to a table leg.
0:29:35 > 0:29:38And at that point, their mother came in.
0:29:38 > 0:29:39And let's just put it like this,
0:29:39 > 0:29:42her services weren't required for much longer after that.
0:29:42 > 0:29:44It's always that one moment, when you tie them to the chair,
0:29:44 > 0:29:47- that the mother comes in. - I know.- Always.
0:29:49 > 0:29:52What did you think when I said, "Let's try the dress on?"
0:29:54 > 0:29:56I thought, "No."
0:29:56 > 0:29:59But now, at the minute, I feel...
0:29:59 > 0:30:01I feel very comfortable in this.
0:30:01 > 0:30:06I'm very happy with this. It's sparking something deep within me.
0:30:06 > 0:30:10There's not much you can do in a plain black governess' uniform
0:30:10 > 0:30:12other than just go about your business.
0:30:12 > 0:30:17Your legitimate, very legitimate business. And, of course,
0:30:17 > 0:30:19it's just got that very un-modern feeling of
0:30:19 > 0:30:23holding you in and upright. You're not here to slouch about and
0:30:23 > 0:30:29be comfortable in this life, you're here to be upstanding.
0:30:29 > 0:30:32I think I look oddly well in it.
0:30:37 > 0:30:41Anne wrote a novel which gave a voice to the voiceless.
0:30:41 > 0:30:45Governesses were supposed to be seen and not heard.
0:30:45 > 0:30:49This book showed women that work outside the home was possible.
0:30:49 > 0:30:52At least it was until your brother Branwell got involved.
0:30:53 > 0:30:57Branwell joined Anne to be a tutor to the same family.
0:30:57 > 0:31:00But had an affair with their mother.
0:31:00 > 0:31:02So Anne felt she had to leave.
0:31:07 > 0:31:10She and Branwell both went back to Haworth,
0:31:10 > 0:31:13where Branwell proceeded to drown his sorrows in drink
0:31:13 > 0:31:16and decent, hard-working Anne was out of a job.
0:31:26 > 0:31:31One sister, however, was very happy to be at home - Emily.
0:31:31 > 0:31:34Her brief foray working as a schoolteacher had
0:31:34 > 0:31:37ended in illness, possibly a breakdown.
0:31:38 > 0:31:43Back in Haworth, Emily ran the household for her father.
0:31:43 > 0:31:48And as well as the normal chores of cooking and cleaning,
0:31:48 > 0:31:51she had a rather unusual responsibility.
0:31:53 > 0:31:58The pistol belonged to the sisters' father, the Reverend Patrick Bronte,
0:31:58 > 0:32:00who kept it handy
0:32:00 > 0:32:03just in case of any trouble from rioting mill workers.
0:32:04 > 0:32:07It was Emily's job to discharge,
0:32:07 > 0:32:10clean and reload the weapon.
0:32:10 > 0:32:13Emily was the only Bronte sibling that the father instructed
0:32:13 > 0:32:15in the firing of a pistol.
0:32:15 > 0:32:19And I can see how she would have really loved this.
0:32:21 > 0:32:24It must have provided a spark,
0:32:24 > 0:32:28a moment of real excitement in an otherwise relentless day
0:32:28 > 0:32:31of household tasks from morning till dusk.
0:32:31 > 0:32:33Which is not to say
0:32:33 > 0:32:37that the routines weren't useful to Emily's imagination as well.
0:32:37 > 0:32:40I'm here in the kitchen at Parsonage,
0:32:40 > 0:32:46where Emily would have made many, many loaves of bread.
0:32:46 > 0:32:49Probably treating the dough a lot more roughly
0:32:49 > 0:32:52than I am at the moment.
0:32:52 > 0:32:56And I'm thinking about the ritual that she would have gone through,
0:32:56 > 0:33:00of keeping the household running. The storylines
0:33:00 > 0:33:03and the characters and the dialogue between the characters
0:33:03 > 0:33:06would have been playing out in her head at exactly the same time,
0:33:06 > 0:33:10so this simultaneous magic, in a way.
0:33:10 > 0:33:15A lot of her drama takes place within the home.
0:33:15 > 0:33:17Someone can be making bread
0:33:17 > 0:33:22and somebody else can be plotting murder.
0:33:25 > 0:33:31In Wuthering Heights, Emily shows us that the domestic sphere
0:33:31 > 0:33:36can be as volatile and strange and, sometimes, frightening
0:33:36 > 0:33:39at least in its intensity, as it can be out on the moors.
0:33:39 > 0:33:41I'm going to spend the night at the Parsonage
0:33:41 > 0:33:45and try to access Emily's conception of home.
0:33:45 > 0:33:48I'm about to go to sleep here.
0:33:48 > 0:33:52And I'm trying to be calm.
0:33:55 > 0:33:58The wind has been so strong, it has literally
0:33:58 > 0:34:00been wuthering around the house.
0:34:00 > 0:34:03Walking past the front door, it felt as if somebody
0:34:03 > 0:34:07was trying to get in. I'm trying to not think in that way.
0:34:07 > 0:34:11Our first encounter with the heroine of Wuthering Heights
0:34:11 > 0:34:13is with Cathy's ghost.
0:34:13 > 0:34:16The child ghost scratching at the windows of a house,
0:34:16 > 0:34:18longing to be let in.
0:34:18 > 0:34:23There's something so shocking about the tangibility of that ghost.
0:34:23 > 0:34:26And that's something that's influenced the way that
0:34:26 > 0:34:27I tell stories myself.
0:34:27 > 0:34:31"The intense horror of nightmare came over me.
0:34:31 > 0:34:34"I tried to draw back my arm, but the hand clung to it.
0:34:34 > 0:34:41"A most melancholy voice sobbed, 'Let me in, let me in.'"
0:34:41 > 0:34:44CHURCH BELL CHIMES
0:34:49 > 0:34:51It's about 7am.
0:34:51 > 0:34:54I had a really strange night.
0:34:54 > 0:34:56I don't think I really slept.
0:34:58 > 0:35:00I felt like I was seeing things, but even now,
0:35:00 > 0:35:04if you asked me what I was seeing, I couldn't tell you.
0:35:05 > 0:35:09I know Emily in particular, as Charlotte writes, was very,
0:35:09 > 0:35:11very reluctant to leave this life.
0:35:11 > 0:35:14Which might have been part of the reason why I was nervous before.
0:35:14 > 0:35:17Because I thought she might want to stick around the house.
0:35:17 > 0:35:20Even in the next life.
0:35:20 > 0:35:23And you know her characters in Wuthering Heights reject heaven.
0:35:23 > 0:35:25They would rather stay here.
0:35:33 > 0:35:38One of the most rebellious figures in Wuthering Heights is Heathcliff.
0:35:38 > 0:35:42He's full of violence and anger.
0:35:42 > 0:35:46But then there's this great bond and a great love between him and Cathy
0:35:46 > 0:35:49that really he's helpless before.
0:35:50 > 0:35:53Top Withens is said to be one of the inspirations for
0:35:53 > 0:35:58Wuthering Heights and the house where Heathcliff lives in the story.
0:35:58 > 0:36:01So there's something really atmospheric and suitably Gothic
0:36:01 > 0:36:05about meeting a fellow Heathcliff fan in this ruined farmhouse.
0:36:05 > 0:36:08I read Wuthering Heights when I must have been 16 or 17.
0:36:08 > 0:36:11I was besotted with Heathcliff.
0:36:11 > 0:36:14And I've never really got over it.
0:36:16 > 0:36:18Is Heathcliff a villain or something more interesting?
0:36:18 > 0:36:23In the narrative descriptions of Heathcliff, there's something to
0:36:23 > 0:36:27suggest that he may not even be human, but he's a fiend, a devil.
0:36:27 > 0:36:33He operates on a different level to many of the characters in the novel.
0:36:33 > 0:36:40It's his nature, in the way that it's the nature of the moors to
0:36:40 > 0:36:44destroy you if you're lost out here after dark.
0:36:44 > 0:36:46Yeah, absolutely.
0:36:46 > 0:36:49Once you read between the lines, I think we can see Frankenstein.
0:36:49 > 0:36:53If we look at what happens to Frankenstein's creature,
0:36:53 > 0:36:56He's neglected by his creator and eventually,
0:36:56 > 0:36:59he takes his revenge on mankind.
0:36:59 > 0:37:01Heathcliff does something very similar.
0:37:01 > 0:37:04He's neglected and abused. And, ultimately,
0:37:04 > 0:37:06he exacts his revenge.
0:37:06 > 0:37:08"I have no pity. I have no pity."
0:37:08 > 0:37:10"The more the worms writhe,
0:37:10 > 0:37:14"the more I yearn to crush out their entrails.
0:37:14 > 0:37:16"It is a moral teething
0:37:16 > 0:37:21"and I grind with greater energy in proportion to the increase of pain."
0:37:21 > 0:37:24I think what Emily Bronte does wonderfully is,
0:37:24 > 0:37:30in the midst of all this, he remains the novel's romantic lead.
0:37:30 > 0:37:33It's so contradictory, but it works so well.
0:37:33 > 0:37:37And he's just driven by this passion for Catherine
0:37:37 > 0:37:40and this desire for revenge.
0:37:40 > 0:37:43Cathy seems to be the only other character in the novel who
0:37:43 > 0:37:47understands Heathcliff.
0:37:47 > 0:37:52There is the declaration she makes when she says, "I am Heathcliff."
0:37:52 > 0:37:55And they are one character broken into two separate bodies
0:37:55 > 0:37:59and they spend the story trying to come back together.
0:37:59 > 0:38:02One of the most wonderful things of the book,
0:38:02 > 0:38:05and culminates in the bodies decomposing together,
0:38:05 > 0:38:08because he's removed the sides of the coffins.
0:38:08 > 0:38:10So she literally becomes Heathcliff.
0:38:16 > 0:38:18By importing exotic Gothic elements
0:38:18 > 0:38:24into an everyday Yorkshire setting, Emily broke new ground,
0:38:24 > 0:38:28transforming the familiar into somewhere timeless and strange.
0:38:28 > 0:38:33However, Charlotte, like Anne, drew on her experiences
0:38:33 > 0:38:35of the real world.
0:38:35 > 0:38:39Which had taken her even further afield than England.
0:38:41 > 0:38:46Charlotte was desperate to escape the confines of home.
0:38:46 > 0:38:49She argued that she needed to learn French
0:38:49 > 0:38:51in order to set up her own school.
0:38:51 > 0:38:55So she came here, to Brussels, in 1842.
0:38:55 > 0:38:58Really, it was the pretext for an adventure.
0:38:58 > 0:39:04She didn't realise that this journey would change her life.
0:39:04 > 0:39:07When I normally come to Brussels it's for an EU summit.
0:39:07 > 0:39:09Not exactly the most exotic of occasions.
0:39:09 > 0:39:13But for Charlotte, this city was hugely romantic -
0:39:13 > 0:39:16a world away from the Parsonage in Haworth.
0:39:16 > 0:39:19She came to live at the Pensionnat Heger.
0:39:19 > 0:39:22She lived in the same house as her professor,
0:39:22 > 0:39:25who she described at first as an insane tom cat.
0:39:25 > 0:39:27A delirious hyena.
0:39:29 > 0:39:32To begin with, Charlotte and Constantin Heger clashed,
0:39:32 > 0:39:36sparring with one another in lessons.
0:39:36 > 0:39:39He knew she had talent and encouraged her writing.
0:39:39 > 0:39:44Charlotte had never received this kind of attention from such
0:39:44 > 0:39:46a cultured and educated man before.
0:39:46 > 0:39:50Her reaction was perhaps predictable, but catastrophic.
0:39:50 > 0:39:55She found herself falling in love with her married professor.
0:39:57 > 0:40:00Her intense feelings scared Charlotte so much
0:40:00 > 0:40:03that she was driven to come to this cathedral.
0:40:13 > 0:40:17"I actually did confess a real confession."
0:40:17 > 0:40:20That's what Charlotte wrote to Emily.
0:40:20 > 0:40:23She had to press the priest to hear her.
0:40:23 > 0:40:25After all, she wasn't a Catholic herself.
0:40:25 > 0:40:29What was it that she was so desperate for him to hear?
0:40:29 > 0:40:33Well, she was unhappily in love with a married man
0:40:33 > 0:40:36and had nobody really to talk to.
0:40:36 > 0:40:39So perhaps this was the only way that she could unburden herself
0:40:39 > 0:40:42of those guilty feelings.
0:40:44 > 0:40:48I'm curious to find out more about Monsieur Heger
0:40:48 > 0:40:51and why Charlotte became so infatuated with him.
0:40:52 > 0:40:55I'm going to meet Francois Fierens...
0:40:55 > 0:40:59- Bonjour.- Hello.- Ravie de vous recontrer.- Oui, moi aussi.
0:40:59 > 0:41:03..Monsieur Heger's great-great-great-grandson.
0:41:03 > 0:41:07There is a famous family portrait here.
0:41:07 > 0:41:11You can see he's got quite passionate eyes.
0:41:11 > 0:41:15- I have other portraits of him here. - Oh, this is him in later life?
0:41:15 > 0:41:18- Yes.- Oh, yes. I can see there.
0:41:18 > 0:41:21- Even later.- Oh, I like that.
0:41:21 > 0:41:24- You can see a sense of humour there. - Yes, exactly, exactly.
0:41:24 > 0:41:28Yes, he's glinting at the camera in quite a mischievous way.
0:41:28 > 0:41:32Clever smiling. He had a lot of humour.
0:41:32 > 0:41:37So do you think that he had quite a profound effect
0:41:37 > 0:41:41on the way she went on to write her novels?
0:41:41 > 0:41:47Charlotte believed in the genius of the artist.
0:41:47 > 0:41:50And Constantin Heger was more focused on the work to do.
0:41:50 > 0:41:51- The technique.- Yes, yes.
0:41:51 > 0:41:54He was very strict about her technique.
0:41:54 > 0:41:58- And told her to discard what wasn't necessary.- Yes.
0:41:58 > 0:42:00I can show you here the homework of Charlotte.
0:42:00 > 0:42:02SHE GASPS
0:42:02 > 0:42:05So this is actually written by Charlotte Bronte?
0:42:05 > 0:42:09- Yes, yes. - How wonderful.
0:42:09 > 0:42:11You can see this was
0:42:11 > 0:42:15corrected by Constantin Heger.
0:42:15 > 0:42:18Is he correcting just the French
0:42:18 > 0:42:21or actually the writing style as well?
0:42:21 > 0:42:24The writing style, the expression.
0:42:24 > 0:42:28The pupils were expected to participate themselves,
0:42:28 > 0:42:31actively, in their own education.
0:42:31 > 0:42:34It was not just to receive information,
0:42:34 > 0:42:39by developing their own and personal views.
0:42:39 > 0:42:44- He provoked something very passionate, didn't he?- Yes.
0:42:44 > 0:42:48So what do you think really went on between the pair of them?
0:42:48 > 0:42:53Constantin Heger was very happy in his family life.
0:42:53 > 0:42:57Charlotte was rather isolated, not very connected
0:42:57 > 0:43:03with the other teachers of the school, and rather alone.
0:43:03 > 0:43:08So Charlotte went back home to live in England
0:43:08 > 0:43:11and then all these letters started, didn't they?
0:43:11 > 0:43:16These outpourings of very passionate letters.
0:43:16 > 0:43:20"Day and night, I find neither rest nor peace.
0:43:20 > 0:43:26"If I sleep, I have tormented dreams in which I see you.
0:43:26 > 0:43:31"Always severe, always grave and angry with me."
0:43:31 > 0:43:35What do you think happened when they arrived in Brussels?
0:43:35 > 0:43:37What would that have meant to Monsieur Heger?
0:43:37 > 0:43:39I don't know. Frankly, I don't know.
0:43:39 > 0:43:43He answered the first letters once or maybe twice.
0:43:43 > 0:43:48And thereafter, his reaction was not to answer after,
0:43:48 > 0:43:54because the letters became so exaggerated, passionate.
0:43:54 > 0:43:59He probably considered that the best thing to do was not to answer.
0:44:00 > 0:44:05"Your last letter has sustained me, has nourished me, for six months.
0:44:05 > 0:44:07"Now I need another and you will give it to me."
0:44:09 > 0:44:13Charlotte was so obsessed by her one-sided love affair
0:44:13 > 0:44:19with Monsieur Heger that it became the focus of her first novel,
0:44:19 > 0:44:23which wasn't Jane Eyre - it was called The Professor.
0:44:25 > 0:44:28Charlotte wrote it in the male first-person,
0:44:28 > 0:44:32the voice of the Professor himself, who eventually falls in love
0:44:32 > 0:44:35with the shy, plain, but good-hearted pupil.
0:44:37 > 0:44:38Sound familiar?
0:44:38 > 0:44:41It was, of course, a consoling fantasy for Charlotte
0:44:41 > 0:44:44in the face of all her unanswered letters.
0:44:52 > 0:44:56By spring 1846, the sisters were putting the finishing touches
0:44:56 > 0:44:58to their novels.
0:45:02 > 0:45:05The flurry of nightly activity around the dining-room table
0:45:05 > 0:45:09produced three books in less than six months.
0:45:09 > 0:45:11Agnes Grey...
0:45:11 > 0:45:13Wuthering Heights...
0:45:13 > 0:45:16and The Professor.
0:45:16 > 0:45:19Charlotte was already sounding out potential publishers.
0:45:21 > 0:45:24In deference to Emily's wish for privacy,
0:45:24 > 0:45:26the sisters adopted pseudonyms.
0:45:28 > 0:45:33The Brontes became Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell,
0:45:33 > 0:45:35concealing their identities
0:45:35 > 0:45:39and even their gender from the publishers.
0:45:39 > 0:45:43After several rejections, the Brontes had a breakthrough.
0:45:43 > 0:45:45Or, at least Emily and Anne did.
0:45:45 > 0:45:49In 1847, Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey
0:45:49 > 0:45:53were accepted for publication together in one volume.
0:45:53 > 0:45:57But Charlotte's The Professor was rejected everywhere.
0:45:59 > 0:46:03Well, here they are, and it must have been such a moment
0:46:03 > 0:46:05when they arrived.
0:46:05 > 0:46:08Here, actually, isn't it? Here at the Parsonage.
0:46:08 > 0:46:09And here's Wuthering Heights.
0:46:11 > 0:46:15Could you just check that Agnes Grey is in the back of that?
0:46:15 > 0:46:17I'll have a look in my own good time.
0:46:17 > 0:46:19So, poor Charlotte, she sent off the books for publication.
0:46:19 > 0:46:22Yeah, she should still be waiting.
0:46:22 > 0:46:23Exactly, she had to wait.
0:46:23 > 0:46:25Can you imagine?
0:46:25 > 0:46:29Emily's book and Anne's book were accepted by the publishers,
0:46:29 > 0:46:32but hers was rejected and she'd been the one who'd pushed
0:46:32 > 0:46:36the publishing idea, she'd been the one so certain that her writing
0:46:36 > 0:46:42would be loved by the world and then to have the two YOUNGER sisters...
0:46:42 > 0:46:45I also feel so sorry for her because all the first novels
0:46:45 > 0:46:48are sort of cri de coeur, aren't they?
0:46:48 > 0:46:50You know, Wuthering Heights is just something Emily
0:46:50 > 0:46:53- had to get out of her. It's her thing.- Yeah.
0:46:53 > 0:46:54You've got Agnes Grey,
0:46:54 > 0:46:57which is therapy for Anne getting rid of all these children
0:46:57 > 0:46:59she had to look after,
0:46:59 > 0:47:03and The Professor, of course, is Charlotte's poor, beaten,
0:47:03 > 0:47:06broken heart over Monsieur Heger.
0:47:06 > 0:47:09And it gets rejected, whereas the others get...
0:47:09 > 0:47:13I actually... I actually think the problem with The Professor
0:47:13 > 0:47:15was the wish fulfilment, though.
0:47:15 > 0:47:17- Cos you have it written as if... - Too much.
0:47:17 > 0:47:20She writes it as if she was
0:47:20 > 0:47:22her professor who had fallen in love with her
0:47:22 > 0:47:24and everything works out fine.
0:47:24 > 0:47:27It seems like something she had to take time on
0:47:27 > 0:47:31and transform those same feelings and transport them
0:47:31 > 0:47:33into Jane Eyre, in a sense.
0:47:33 > 0:47:35She just needed more time.
0:47:35 > 0:47:37Although, I don't think The Professor is quite as bad
0:47:37 > 0:47:40as everybody makes it out to be.
0:47:40 > 0:47:41I really don't.
0:47:41 > 0:47:44- Really? - Yeah, yeah.- Make your case.
0:47:44 > 0:47:45OK, all right, I'll make my case.
0:47:45 > 0:47:47I think one of the things that people underestimate
0:47:47 > 0:47:51with Charlotte Bronte is her quite...sort of waspish humour,
0:47:51 > 0:47:55and she's so bitchy about the pupils in the school.
0:47:55 > 0:47:58I mean, that's very... kind of heartfelt.
0:47:58 > 0:48:01I tell you what, I do admire Charlotte for...
0:48:02 > 0:48:06..after The Professor's been rejected, still ploughing on,
0:48:06 > 0:48:08and the mere fact of continuing once
0:48:08 > 0:48:11you've had your first book rejected.
0:48:11 > 0:48:14I mean, when I get even a piece rejected or marked heavily,
0:48:14 > 0:48:15I'm just destroyed for a week.
0:48:15 > 0:48:18You know, I don't think she was the kind of person
0:48:18 > 0:48:20who was deterred by things.
0:48:20 > 0:48:23She had such determination of spirit.
0:48:25 > 0:48:29Charlotte had already been working on a second novel.
0:48:29 > 0:48:33As if realising that she was capable of much more than The Professor,
0:48:33 > 0:48:36she'd gone back to the drawing board,
0:48:36 > 0:48:41creating this time a female protagonist, Jane Eyre,
0:48:41 > 0:48:46with a richly detailed biography that had drawn Charlotte's own life,
0:48:46 > 0:48:48including her schooldays...
0:48:48 > 0:48:52All are equally guilty before the most high!
0:48:53 > 0:48:56..her experience as a governess
0:48:56 > 0:48:59and, inevitably,
0:48:59 > 0:49:03her love for an older man with an inconvenient wife.
0:49:04 > 0:49:08And crucially, Charlotte declared that her heroine
0:49:08 > 0:49:11would be "as plain and as small as myself."
0:49:13 > 0:49:16Charlotte was just four foot, 11 inches tall.
0:49:18 > 0:49:21I've been given the rare chance to examine an extraordinary
0:49:21 > 0:49:23and very personal object.
0:49:23 > 0:49:27Will it shed more light on Charlotte's self-image?
0:49:27 > 0:49:29We've got a real treasure here.
0:49:29 > 0:49:31It's Charlotte Bronte's corset.
0:49:33 > 0:49:36And not one that I think Charlotte would have been very pleased
0:49:36 > 0:49:37for us to have on display.
0:49:37 > 0:49:40I think, rightly, there's the feeling that it's a very
0:49:40 > 0:49:43intimate garment that shouldn't just be, you know, thrown about.
0:49:43 > 0:49:45What do you think it tells us about Charlotte?
0:49:45 > 0:49:48Well, I think in terms of the physicality of the piece,
0:49:48 > 0:49:51it shows us that she was very, very small
0:49:51 > 0:49:54because I think you can see how tiny she was.
0:49:54 > 0:49:57And we think around a UK size two,
0:49:57 > 0:50:00which, if you think about it, is very, very small.
0:50:00 > 0:50:03- I mean, that's like a child. - It is like a child.
0:50:03 > 0:50:04And certainly when it was tightly laced,
0:50:04 > 0:50:07which we know Charlotte did tightly lace,
0:50:07 > 0:50:10it would have had about an 18.5 inch waist.
0:50:10 > 0:50:12If we just lift it up...
0:50:12 > 0:50:17Why would somebody who was so slight be corseting themselves anyway?
0:50:17 > 0:50:20Perhaps she felt the need to keep herself in,
0:50:20 > 0:50:22to have a sense of control.
0:50:22 > 0:50:25And it's quite a punitive piece, in some senses.
0:50:25 > 0:50:29You look at this and you can just see you've got a big, iron busk up the front.
0:50:29 > 0:50:33It's quite a harsh corset. There's no give. If you'd had wood or ivory,
0:50:33 > 0:50:35as your body warmed up, it would have given you a
0:50:35 > 0:50:39little bit more movement, but iron is unyielding.
0:50:39 > 0:50:42It is one of the very striking things about Jane Eyre, isn't it?
0:50:42 > 0:50:46This small, slight, plain individual,
0:50:46 > 0:50:50but with such a force of personality, such an inner strength.
0:50:50 > 0:50:53I think that's so true and I think the corset speaks to me
0:50:53 > 0:50:55of that actually in Charlotte as well
0:50:55 > 0:50:58because one of the reasons, perhaps, Charlotte felt the need to be
0:50:58 > 0:51:01so tightly laced is because there was this inner fire within her,
0:51:01 > 0:51:03that she was perhaps afraid would come out.
0:51:06 > 0:51:09Charlotte now had a heroine whom she could write about
0:51:09 > 0:51:12with supreme insight and empathy.
0:51:12 > 0:51:17But she needed a compelling male figure to match Jane,
0:51:17 > 0:51:19a romantic interest who wasn't simply
0:51:19 > 0:51:22a fictionalised Monsieur Heger.
0:51:22 > 0:51:27Once again, Charlotte turned to her life for inspiration.
0:51:27 > 0:51:31But this time, she drew on the most immediate crisis
0:51:31 > 0:51:33that the sisters faced.
0:51:33 > 0:51:38Their father, Patrick Bronte, was now practically blind.
0:51:38 > 0:51:41Surgery on his cataracts was extremely risky,
0:51:41 > 0:51:43but Patrick was desperate.
0:51:44 > 0:51:48In July 1846, he and Charlotte travelled to Manchester.
0:51:52 > 0:51:56There, the cataracts were literally cut out of Patrick's eyes...
0:51:56 > 0:51:58without anaesthetic.
0:52:01 > 0:52:05Meanwhile, Charlotte sat by his bedside, writing away.
0:52:08 > 0:52:11So during this fraught time when she was so worried about her father,
0:52:11 > 0:52:15and actually was suffering from raging toothache herself -
0:52:15 > 0:52:18which kept her up at night - what did Charlotte do?
0:52:18 > 0:52:21She writes the character of Mr Rochester,
0:52:21 > 0:52:26blinded in the fire and then regaining his sight.
0:52:26 > 0:52:28It's almost as if it was a form of wish fulfilment.
0:52:30 > 0:52:33Charlotte added a whole new dimension to
0:52:33 > 0:52:36Rochester's character and to the novel.
0:52:41 > 0:52:45Patrick's operation was a success, and just six weeks later,
0:52:45 > 0:52:47he was back home at the Parsonage,
0:52:47 > 0:52:49where Charlotte finished Jane Eyre.
0:52:51 > 0:52:56She sent off the novel to a small London publishing house.
0:52:56 > 0:52:57They snapped it up.
0:52:59 > 0:53:01Jane Eyre by Currer Bell -
0:53:01 > 0:53:06Charlotte's pseudonym - came off the press on 19th October 1847.
0:53:08 > 0:53:12By Christmas, it, Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey
0:53:12 > 0:53:16were all on sale at bookshops like this in London
0:53:16 > 0:53:19and throughout the country.
0:53:19 > 0:53:23We've come here to learn more about the huge and immediate impact
0:53:23 > 0:53:28made by the Brontes, or rather, Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell.
0:53:28 > 0:53:30It must have been so strange for them,
0:53:30 > 0:53:33having written it all in their enclosed little world
0:53:33 > 0:53:37in the Parsonage and then suddenly having strangers
0:53:37 > 0:53:40perusing their work and making judgements.
0:53:40 > 0:53:44A review of Agnes Grey said, "Oh, Acton Bell must have bribed
0:53:44 > 0:53:47"a governess with either money or love
0:53:47 > 0:53:50"to have got such detail of her prison from her."
0:53:50 > 0:53:52Or, or...
0:53:52 > 0:53:55Just stay with me here. Think horses, not zebras.
0:53:55 > 0:53:57It could have been a woman, but no, no.
0:53:57 > 0:54:00There was one I liked, which was actually by a woman reviewer,
0:54:00 > 0:54:02and she said about Jane Eyre that,
0:54:02 > 0:54:05"If it wasn't written by a man then it must have been written
0:54:05 > 0:54:07"by a sexual delinquent."
0:54:07 > 0:54:10But I mean, I suppose for the time, there were shocking elements in it.
0:54:10 > 0:54:15I mean, Rochester wants to make Jane Eyre his mistress
0:54:15 > 0:54:17and set her up in what sounds a rather nice house
0:54:17 > 0:54:19- in the south of France.- Martha!
0:54:19 > 0:54:21I'm not sure I'd have run away, but anyway.
0:54:21 > 0:54:24I think this review sort of sums up what it was
0:54:24 > 0:54:26that people found so distasteful.
0:54:26 > 0:54:30It says, "They, the Bells, do not turn away from dwelling upon
0:54:30 > 0:54:33"those physical acts of cruelty which true taste rejects."
0:54:33 > 0:54:36It's as if they're saying, "Leave those skeletons in the closet.
0:54:36 > 0:54:38"Don't bring them into nice people's homes."
0:54:38 > 0:54:41That's the thing - up till now, the novel's been
0:54:41 > 0:54:44a very middle class, kind of genteel pastime and form,
0:54:44 > 0:54:47and all of a sudden, the Brontes come along and say,
0:54:47 > 0:54:50"Actually, you could do this with it as well."
0:54:50 > 0:54:53I mean, that's a genie out of the bottle, isn't it?
0:54:55 > 0:54:59By modern standards, we could end the Bronte sisters' story here
0:54:59 > 0:55:01and it would be a happy ending.
0:55:01 > 0:55:06But at a time when women's economic situations were precarious
0:55:06 > 0:55:09and death always seemed just around the corner,
0:55:09 > 0:55:13a happy ending for the Brontes meant two things -
0:55:13 > 0:55:15marriage and survival.
0:55:17 > 0:55:20We've returned to Haworth for a one-off event -
0:55:20 > 0:55:24a re-enacment of the only Bronte sibling wedding,
0:55:24 > 0:55:26a bittersweet occasion for the family.
0:55:28 > 0:55:31Less than a year after his sister's great success,
0:55:31 > 0:55:37Branwell had collapsed and died in an alcohol-induced fit.
0:55:37 > 0:55:40He'd drawn this prophetic image not long before.
0:55:42 > 0:55:45Then at his funeral, just weeks later,
0:55:45 > 0:55:47Emily developed tuberculosis.
0:55:47 > 0:55:50She died three months after Branwell.
0:55:51 > 0:55:55Anne's death, also from tuberculosis,
0:55:55 > 0:55:56came the following year.
0:55:59 > 0:56:01In barely eight months, Charlotte had lost
0:56:01 > 0:56:03all of her surviving siblings.
0:56:12 > 0:56:15She sought comfort with someone who'd always been there
0:56:15 > 0:56:20in the background, someone who'd long been quietly devoted to her -
0:56:20 > 0:56:23her father's curate, Arthur Bell Nicholls.
0:56:25 > 0:56:29But their wedding would take place without any of Charlotte's family
0:56:29 > 0:56:30being present.
0:56:36 > 0:56:39The match had initially been opposed by her father, Patrick,
0:56:39 > 0:56:43who worried that Arthur was after Charlotte's money.
0:56:43 > 0:56:45On the eve of the wedding, the Reverend Bronte
0:56:45 > 0:56:49decided he wasn't up to giving Charlotte away.
0:56:49 > 0:56:51So the wedding went ahead without him.
0:56:53 > 0:56:59Dearly beloved, we are gathered together here in the sight of God
0:56:59 > 0:57:03to join together this man and this woman
0:57:03 > 0:57:05in holy matrimony.
0:57:05 > 0:57:08I suppose what I've learnt from the time that we've spent up here
0:57:08 > 0:57:12in Haworth Parsonage and looking at their lives is that
0:57:12 > 0:57:17even though, physically, she's so frail and so tiny
0:57:17 > 0:57:20and so insecure about her own appearance,
0:57:20 > 0:57:25inside there was an extraordinary, powerful,
0:57:25 > 0:57:27strong personality
0:57:27 > 0:57:29that dominated her sisters
0:57:29 > 0:57:32and pushed towards publications of the books
0:57:32 > 0:57:34and towards one of the greatest books written
0:57:34 > 0:57:36in the English language.
0:57:36 > 0:57:39To have and to hold from this day forward...
0:57:40 > 0:57:42..for better, for worse...
0:57:42 > 0:57:45for richer, for poorer...
0:57:45 > 0:57:47in sickness and in health...
0:57:47 > 0:57:50to love and to cherish...
0:57:50 > 0:57:52I think coming here, I sort of expected to find
0:57:52 > 0:57:55a boundary or gateway between their hometown
0:57:55 > 0:57:59and the worlds that each of the three sisters stepped off into.
0:57:59 > 0:58:02Actually, they've become more mysterious to me
0:58:02 > 0:58:05in a lot of ways, because you can only follow them
0:58:05 > 0:58:06up to a certain point.
0:58:06 > 0:58:08I will.
0:58:08 > 0:58:10The amazing thing about all three of them is that they've got
0:58:10 > 0:58:13these quite frail bodies that, obviously,
0:58:13 > 0:58:15give up on them too early.
0:58:15 > 0:58:18But they're housing these indomitable wills
0:58:18 > 0:58:20and extraordinary talents.
0:58:20 > 0:58:22It's such a dichotomy.
0:58:22 > 0:58:25It breeds the myth.
0:58:25 > 0:58:28BELLS RING
0:58:28 > 0:58:32CHEERING