Sadly, Charlotte Bronte lived a life full of tragedy and loss. Charlotte was born to anglican clergyman Reverend Patrick Bronte and his wife Maria. The Bronte's had six children; Maria (1814), Elizabeth (1815), Charlotte (1816), Patrick Branwell (1817), Emily (1818), and Anne (1820). Their mother, Maria Bronte, died of cancer 1821. After Maria's death her sister, Miss Elizabeth Branwell, came to care for the family. The family moved to Haworth Parsonage the previous year; the parsonage would be their permanent home. The four eldest Bronte girls were sent to a school for poor clergymen's daughters. Charlottes two elder sisters, in 1824, died at the ages of eleven and ten, upon returning home from school due to illness. Charlotte and Emily returned to Haworth and remained at home for the next five years.
The children, all at home together for many years, formed very close relationships with one another. Charlotte, along with her siblings, played and wrote stories. With great imagination the Bronte children wrote small books about far off places they created in their minds. Their love for literature and writing continued throughout their lives. Charlotte left again for school in 1831, and became a teacher. She taught both Emily and Anne. After being educated, due to their father's lack of income, the Bronte sisters had to earn their own livings. At that time the only respectable option for girls without fortunes was to become governess', and so all three Bronte sisters did. Charlotte and her two sisters had hopes of leaving their lives as governess' by opening a school at Haworth Parsonage, it was not successful.
The Bronte family was a family of writers. Charlotte's father, mother and brother all had various published works. Charlotte, Emily and Anne now turned to the writing they had loved for so long. With a portion of the small inheritance left to them by their Aunt Elizabeth Branwell, they financed the publication of their poetry. It was a time of social oppression for women and because of these rules of society they chose to be published under the pseudonyms Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell, names they used throughout their careers. Speculation about the true gender and identity of these authors arose; their own editors thought that they may actually all be the same writer. Unfortunately, Poems only sold two copies. The sisters then began to write novels. Charlotte's Jane Eyre was published in 1847,and earned immediate recognition. Emily's Wurthering Heights and Anne's Agnes Grey were published that same year.
The painful tragedy of untimely death once again struck the Bronte family. Branwell, an alcoholic and opium user, died in September of 1848. Emily sick with tuberculosis passed away in December of that year. Charlottes last living sibling, Anne, died of tuberculosis in May 1849. Charlotte wrote of this devastation, "A year ago - had a prophet warned me how I should stand in June 1849 - how stripped and bereaved? - I should have thought - this can never be endured?"
Her identity was made public after the 1849 publication of Shirley. Finally she received respect as an author and took credit for her work. Her father, Reverend Patrick Bronte, objected to his famous daughter's suitor, a poor Irish curate. Charlottes father eventually changed his mind and she was wed to Arthur Bell Nicholls in 1854. Charlotte Bronte Nicholls who had long suffered from nervousness and depression, found happiness with Arthur. In 1855 Charlotte died three weeks before her thirty-ninth birthday, while in the early stages of pregnancy. Coming from a family of great talent and immense tragedy, Charlotte Bronte left behind a legacy of works that reflect her life and the era in which she lived. Generations after her premature death, Charlotte's books continue to be read and loved.
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