A. Mary F. (Agnes Mary Frances) Robinson · Public domain edition · 82 cards · 22 chapters
A. Mary F. Robinson’s study argues that Emily Brontë’s genius grew from inherited Celtic temperament, family circumstance, and the austere world of Haworth. The deck covers her parents’ backgrounds, the Clergy Daughters’ School, and the early influences that shaped the Brontë children.
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Chapter 1 · Question
What did Emily Brontë's parents contribute to the family's literary talent?
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Chapter 1 · Answer
The author argues neither parent showed any peculiar talent for literature: the mother's letters were merely neat, and the father's tracts and poems weak and characterless. Yet the whole family manifested brilliance found in neither parent, so the author concludes their genius came not directly from either parent but from the constitution of their natures.
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CHAPTER I.4 cards
What did Emily Brontë's parents contribute to the family's literary talent?
The author argues neither parent showed any peculiar talent for literature: the mother's letters were merely neat, and the father's tracts and poems weak and characterless. Yet the whole family manifested brilliance found in neither parent, so the author concludes their genius came not directly from either parent but from the constitution of their natures.
Chapter 1
What two inheritances did the Brontë children derive from their parents?
From their father they derived a strong will and a nervous, easily disturbed organisation; from their mother, the disease that killed Emily and Anne young and left Charlotte delicate. The author argues insanity and genius stand on either side of consumption, and that inherited tubercular disease may occasionally result in an altered mind, for better or worse.
Chapter 1
How did Patrick Brontë rise from his Irish peasant origins?
Son of a peasant proprietor in county Down, one of ten children, he left home at sixteen and ran a hedge-school at Drumgooland for five or six years while studying mathematics and some Greek and Latin. Encouraged by Rev. Mr. Tighe, he entered St. John's College, Cambridge around age twenty-five, stayed four years, dropped his Irish accent, took his B.A., and was ordained to a curacy in Essex.
Chapter 1
What Celtic strain did the Brontë children inherit, and why does it matter?
The author says the children got a Celtic strain on both sides: their mother Maria Branwell came from a good middle-class Cornish merchant family, and their father was son of an Irish peasant. The author argues this is significant because it means a predisposition to the superstition, imagination, and horror that is a strand in all their work.
Chapter 1
CHAPTER II.4 cards
How did Mr. Brontë typically interact with his children during their babyhood?
After his wife's death, Mr. Brontë grew more secluded, dining alone due to his delicate digestion and seeing the children seldom except at breakfast and tea. He would talk Tory politics with the elder children and entertain baby Emily with Irish tales of violence and horror. Despite this aloofness, the author notes he always had great influence over the children.
Chapter 2
How were the five Brontë girls housed during their mother's final illness?
When Mrs. Brontë needed a bedroom to herself, all five girls were moved into a tiny, draughty closet formerly used as their study, scarcely larger than a linen-closet. There was barely room to move between the beds. They had to stay very quiet, since any play would disturb the dying mother on one side and the irritable father on the other.
Chapter 2
What single rule of Mr. Brontë's for the children is preserved, and why did he make it?
The one preserved rule was that the children should eat no meat. The author explains Mr. Brontë had grown to heroic proportions on potatoes and saw no reason his children should fare differently; he thought children should be brought up simply and hardly. The nurse noted they had only potatoes for dinner but never seemed to wish for anything else.
Chapter 2
How did the arrival of Miss Branwell change the children's lives?
Miss Branwell, the mother's eldest sister from Cornwall, came to superintend their education. Their time was no longer free: they said lessons to their father, sewed with their aunt, and learned housewifely duties. The author argues the change was an estimable advantage but a bitter tonic, since her old-maidish discipline made the children yet more self-contained and silent.
Chapter 2
CHAPTER III.4 cards
What was the original purpose and cost of the Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan's Bridge?
The school was founded to place a good female education within reach of the poorest clergy, opening in spring 1824 after premises were purchased with a £70 donation. The whole expense of purchase and outfit came to £2,333 17s. 9d. Pupils paid £14 a year for clothing, lodging, boarding, and educating, plus entrance fees.
Chapter 3
What fees did each pupil pay at the Clergy Daughters' School?
Each pupil paid £14 a year, half in advance, for clothing, lodging, boarding, and educating; £1 entrance for books; and £3 entrance for pelisses, frocks, and bonnets worn alike. The first payment required was £11, with subsequent half-yearly payments of £7. French, music, or drawing cost £3 a year extra each.
Chapter 3
How does the chapter describe the physical conditions of the school building?
The school occupied a former cottage and disused bobbin-mill, long and low like a farmhouse, with stone-paved, low-ceiled, small-windowed rooms. It stood on a damp, cold, bleak plain near a stream, and the chapter states no board of managers would permit the poorest London street children to work in such ill-ventilated schoolrooms.
Chapter 3
What does the chapter say about Rev. Carus Wilson's character and role?
The author argues Wilson was a zealous, self-sacrificing enthusiast whose goodness was spoiled by an imperious love of authority and extravagant conceit. He was trustee, treasurer, and secretary, took nearly all power and supervision, loved managing, and appointed subordinates carelessly, including a slovenly housekeeper from his own kitchen.
Chapter 3
CHAPTER IV.3 cards
What did Mr. Brontë try to persuade his Haworth parishioners to do, and why did they resist?
He urged them to improve the village's sanitary conditions, especially by installing effective subsoil drainage, which he believed caused the frequent epidemics and fevers. The Yorkshire parishioners were reluctant to spend money underground and found it easier to blame Providence instead, so his efforts were in vain for many years.
Chapter 4
What was the origin of the Brontë children's 'Young Men' play?
It began with wooden soldiers Mr. Brontë bought Branwell in Leeds. He came to the girls' door with the box the next morning; Charlotte snatched one up and declared it the Duke of Wellington, Emily took one called 'Gravey,' Anne's was 'Waiting-boy,' and Branwell chose one he named Bonaparte.
Chapter 4
How did Emily's behavior on the moors differ from her behavior at home?
At home Emily was quiet, tongue-tied, and brooding, dutiful with housework and lessons. On the moors she became gay, frolicsome, and almost wild, setting the others laughing with quaint sallies, handling fledgling birds so softly they were unafraid, and telling stories to them. The author describes her as tall, slim, and angular with deep hazel eyes.
Chapter 4
CHAPTER V.4 cards
Why did Emily's family think she should go to school?
Charlotte suggested school as a cure for both Emily's narrow education and her narrow sympathies. The sisters believed Emily was unfit to earn her living as a governess because she was violent in her dislike of strangers and hated strange faces and places. They could not yet tell that this defect was incurable, a congenital infirmity of nature.
Chapter 5
How did Emily fare during her first stay at Roe Head school?
Emily went to Roe Head with Charlotte in July 1835 but stayed only about three months. Every morning the visions of home and the moors rushed on her, and her health quickly broke: her white face, attenuated form, and failing strength threatened rapid decline. Charlotte feared she would die and told Miss Wooler, who consented to send her home in October.
Chapter 5
What teaching post did Emily take in September after recovering?
Emily became a teacher in a large school near Halifax. Charlotte wrote that Emily's letter gave an appalling account of her duties: hard labour from six in the morning to eleven at night, with only one half-hour of exercise between, which Charlotte called slavery. Emily stood it all that term, returned to Haworth for a brief Christmas rest, then went back until her health broke down in spring.
Chapter 5
What change did Emily notice in Branwell after her return from school?
The author describes a dim, tarnishing change in Branwell, the family's hope for fame in art. His visits to the Black Bull had shaken his nerves, coarsened his nature, and made him flippant. Charlotte's letters stopped mentioning the Royal Academy, since he could not be trusted alone in London. The author notes the father did not seem to see his danger and Miss Branwell spoiled him.
Chapter 5
CHAPTER VI.4 cards
Why did Emily stay at home while her sisters worked away?
The Brontës were too poor for all the daughters to remain at home, and it was settled that Emily could not live away. So she worked hard at Haworth while Charlotte and Anne went out to earn their bread. She had no friend besides her sisters, with far-off Anne her only confidant; outside the family she cared to meet only Charlotte's friend Ellen.
Chapter 6
How did the sisters respond to plans to send injured Tabby away?
When old Tabby broke her leg, Miss Branwell urged sending her to her sister's house and hiring another servant to spare the girls' time and the family's money. Mr. Brontë was persuaded, but the girls refused, calling Tabby one of the family. They fasted through tea, breakfast, and dinner until the elders gave in.
Chapter 6
What was the Brontë sisters' cherished ambition, and what blocked it?
For years their dearest hope was to keep a ladies' school at Haworth. It required enlarging the house and acquiring accomplishments like French and music, which took time and money. They hoped Miss Branwell might lend her savings, but she chiefly meant them for Branwell and hesitated; too proud to accept grudging help, they gave up the dream for the present.
Chapter 6
What did the family believe about Branwell despite his faults?
Branwell returned unnerved, dissipated, a drunkard and opium-eater, yet was still welcomed. His gay talk awakened glad promises, and the household hoped all things from him, pardoning his mistakes. The author argues they wrongly thought his strong passions betokened a strong character rather than a powerless will, still looking to him for the family's fame.
Chapter 6
CHAPTER VII.4 cards
How did Emily Brontë respond to Monsieur Heger's teaching compared to Charlotte?
Charlotte accepted Heger's guidance, toiling to follow his trains of thought and adopting his recommended style with unflagging obedience. Emily contradicted his theories to his face and did her lessons well but as she chose. She was indomitable, fierce, and unappeasable, never yielding to his petulant egoism or benevolent tyranny, though Heger still gave her the larger share of his admiration.
Chapter 7
What did Monsieur Heger think of Emily Brontë's abilities and character?
Heger credited Emily with logical powers and a capacity for argument rare in a woman, calling her the genius in his eyes rather than Charlotte. He fancied she might become a great historian, and famously declared she should have been a man—a great navigator—whose powerful reason and imperious will would never be daunted by opposition. Yet he found her stubborn will deaf to reason.
Chapter 7
How did Emily Brontë feel about her time in Brussels?
The author argues Emily rebelled against Brussels from a bitter sense of exile, seeing it as an insult to her home's memory. She longed uselessly for Haworth, found Charlotte's eagerness to please Heger a contemptible weakness, seldom spoke, and took fierce satisfaction in her own ugly sleeves and Haworth-cut skirts. The author calls her very hard and narrow despite her genius.
Chapter 7
What subjects did Emily Brontë study in Brussels and with what results?
Emily worked hard because she wanted dear liberty and would not return to Haworth until she had learned a certain amount. She began German, a favourite later study whose style left an impression on Wuthering Heights. She worked hard at music and in half a year became a brilliant, proficient musician, said to play with accuracy, vividness and fire. French grammar and literature were constant studies.
Chapter 7
CHAPTER VIII.3 cards
How does the author explain Branwell's character and inheritance compared to his sisters?
The author argues Branwell inherited his father's violent temper, strong passions, and nervous weakness, but not the will and moral fibre that made his father remarkable. His mother's character and her disease, consumption, descended only to the daughters. The author suggests Branwell reproduced the traits of some former Prunty, being distinctly Irish despite never living in his grandfather's cabin.
Chapter 8
What did Branwell claim about the Church as a career, and what did the author think of his literary talent?
Branwell said he had no qualification for the Church 'save, perhaps hypocrisy.' The author doubts that following Montgomery's advice toward literature would have produced anything better than his father's 'Cottage in the Wood,' calling Branwell's verses fluent, often near twaddle, with touches of conventional hymn-book twang—weak, characterless effusions, since real genius is seldom so showy.
Chapter 8
What does Branwell's letter to Grundy reveal about his state after returning home?
Branwell writes that after extreme pain, illness, and mental depression worse than either, he has regained health and soundness of mind, and can now enjoy company without six glasses of whisky. He calls his recovery from 'almost insanity' retarded by solitude, and says he needs a motive for exertion, asking Grundy for answers and a word to show he is not forgotten.
Chapter 8
CHAPTER IX.4 cards
Why did Emily refuse to return to Brussels with Charlotte?
Emily volunteered to stay at Haworth to keep house for Mr. Brontë, and she was the most experienced housekeeper. The chapter says Emily refused the lure of further study and could not be induced, by offer of any advantages, to quit her native heath. Charlotte, by contrast, wished to return to Brussels.
Chapter 9
What did Monsieur Heger argue another year in Brussels would achieve?
In a letter to Mr. Brontë, Heger argued that one more year would completely provide for the daughters' future, since each was acquiring both instruction and the science to instruct. He noted Emily was learning piano from Brussels's best master and already had pupils, while Charlotte was giving French lessons and gaining the assurance needed by a teacher.
Chapter 9
How did Emily spend her days alone at Haworth with Branwell away?
Emily ran the household, rising first to do the roughest work before old Tabby came down. She did the ironing and most of the cookery, and her bread was famous in Haworth for lightness. She studied German from a book propped open while kneading dough, jotting thoughts on scraps of paper, and cared for her pets, the garden, and the moor creatures.
Chapter 9
Why did Charlotte delay starting the school after returning to Haworth in 1844?
Charlotte wrote that she wished to begin a school and had sufficient money and qualifications, but felt it too selfish to leave her father, who was losing his sight, while Branwell and Anne were absent. She resolved to deny herself and wait. She also admitted the parting from Monsieur Heger cost her much grief.
Chapter 9
CHAPTER X.4 cards
What tuition did Charlotte first consider charging for the planned school?
Charlotte wrote that as soon as she could get even one pupil she would print cards of terms and begin repairs, fixing board and English education at L25 per annum. Later the sisters raised the charge to L35, thinking the first offer had been so low as to discredit their attempt.
Chapter 10
Why did the Brontës' search for pupils fail?
Every mother approached either already had a daughter at school, had promised her child elsewhere, or thought Haworth too remote. The sisters argued the retired situation saved house-rent, but no pupil or promise came; after more than six months of searching they concluded they were beaten.
Chapter 10
What did the sisters decide about altering the house?
They postponed the repairs until they had a secure promise of at least three or four pupils, and their demands shrank as chances faded. In November Charlotte wrote that making alterations with so little likelihood of pupils would be folly, and warned Ellen a mother might be frightened off by Haworth's aspect.
Chapter 10
What did Charlotte say the failed effort taught them?
Charlotte told Ellen that although everyone wished them well, there were no pupils to be had. She said they had no present intention of breaking their hearts or feeling mortified at defeat, since the effort must be beneficial whatever the result, teaching them experience and additional knowledge of this world.
Chapter 10
CHAPTER XI.4 cards
What did the letter from Branwell's employer command him to do?
The letter, which arrived the very day Charlotte returned home, commanded Branwell never to see again the mother of the children under his care, never set foot in her home, and never write or speak to her. On receiving it, he raved and swore he could not live without her, and prayed the sick husband might die soon.
Chapter 11
How did Charlotte's feelings toward Branwell change after she understood the affair?
When Charlotte at last understood the guilty passion that had wrecked two homes, something in her heart stiffened and died: her passionate love for the brother once as dear to her as her own soul. She remained patient but grew cold, and her coldness deepened into contempt and silence as his outrages continued.
Chapter 11
How did Branwell spend his days at Haworth after being sent home?
He refused to leave or work, claiming illness from continual opium eating and daily drams. He spent what money he had on gin or opium to deaden recollection, drinking at the Black Bull across the churchyard, sometimes talking of the woman he loved by the hour, even to his dog. Charlotte called him a drain on every resource.
Chapter 11
What does the author suggest about Branwell's motive in advising patience at Harrogate?
The author notes that the lady reportedly proposed a flight together, ready to forfeit her grandeur, and Branwell advised patience and waiting. The author suggests that though she was dear, 'herself and estate' may have been estimably dearer, and that his pride was gratified by the irregular association with a lord.
Chapter 11
CHAPTER XII.4 cards
How did Charlotte discover Emily's poetry in autumn 1845?
Charlotte writes that in autumn 1845 she accidentally lighted on a manuscript volume of verse in Emily's handwriting. She was not surprised, knowing Emily could and did write verse, but something more than surprise seized her: a deep conviction that these were not common effusions, not like the poetry women generally write. She found them condensed, terse, vigorous and genuine, with a peculiar music, wild, melancholy and elevating.
Chapter 12
Why did Emily write poetry, according to the chapter?
The chapter states that no one in the house ever saw what Emily wrote in moments paused from pastry-making, brief sittings under the currants, and long lonely watches for her drunken brother. She did not write to be read, but only to relieve a burdened heart. The author argues her mind was never at rest, and this inner life of study and creation was doubly precious amid dreary existence.
Chapter 12
What does the author say about the formal qualities of Emily's early poems?
The author argues the poems have a surplus of imagination, instinctive music, irregular rightness of form, sweeping impressiveness and effects of landscape, with scant allusions to dogma or perfidious man. Many lyrics have the uncertainty of close typical of early work, and are often incoherent, with dream-pictures succeeding without logical connection. Yet the incoherence scarcely mars them, since they seek an impression of beauty, horror or ecstasy rather than an emotion or conviction.
Chapter 12
What does the author conclude about the poems' relation to Wuthering Heights?
The author argues one recognises a capacity for producing something finer and quite different from what is here produced, but not the author of Wuthering Heights. The poems show a remarkably receptive artistic temperament, a mind capable of complete and real illusions, haunted by imagination, always fantastic and often terrible; a temperament reserved, fearless and brooding, of great strength and ruggedness, extremely tenacious of impressions. The author says Taine and his Milieu must be called in to account for the novel.
Chapter 12
CHAPTER XIII.4 cards
What news in the letter made Branwell so happy, and what changed the next morning?
A letter announced the death of his former employer, and Branwell was delighted, believing the woman he loved and her wealth would now be his. The next morning, before he left Haworth, two riders arrived and summoned him to the Black Bull, where he received a message from the woman begging him not to come near her. He collapsed in a stupefied fit and was changed from that day.
Chapter 13
How does the chapter describe Emily's attitude toward Branwell compared with her sisters?
The chapter says Emily saw most of her abandoned brother, since Anne could only shudder at his sin and Charlotte was too indignant for pity. Emily was not revolted by his weakness; she accepted his natural vices with angerless sorrow, an extreme patience that expected no reform and asked no improvement, resembling the patience she held for the leveret and the wolf.
Chapter 13
Why did the three sisters begin writing novels, and how did they organize the work?
With their father helpless and Branwell worse than helpless, they could not leave home, yet expenses rose with no earnings and the future was uncertain. So they worked in secret at their novels. Each evening after sewing they held council, deciding chapter divisions, character names, and plot, then wrote fair copies for an hour or more in near silence.
Chapter 13
What happened to the sisters' completed novels when they were sent to publishers?
In a few months each sister had finished a novel: Charlotte's 'The Professor,' Anne's 'Agnes Grey,' and Emily's 'Wuthering Heights.' The novels were sent off and at first seemed even less likely of success than the school or the book of verses. Publisher after publisher rejected them; sending them separately instead of as a batch brought the same result, with rejections month after month.
Chapter 13
CHAPTER XIV.3 cards
According to Charlotte Brontë, how much practical knowledge did Emily have of the local peasantry?
Charlotte says Emily had scarcely more practical knowledge of the peasantry than a nun has of people passing her convent gates. Emily rarely crossed the threshold except for church or hill walks, never sought intercourse with them, yet knew their ways, language, and family histories from hearing them discussed, and her imagination seized on the tragic and terrible traits.
Chapter 14
How does the author explain Emily's treatment of Heathcliff's heredity and responsibility?
The author says Emily remembers Heathcliff's dubious parentage and Ishmaelitish childhood, so she submits patiently to his savage instincts: from thistles you gather no grapes. The author argues Emily held that an evil stock begets contamination, that will is as inherited as eyes and hair, and that a just God could not condemn to everlasting fire victims of tendencies not chosen by themselves.
Chapter 14
What does the author identify as the recurring theme most often struck in Emily's work?
The author says no note is struck so often in Emily's work as the belief that good for goodness' sake is desirable and evil for evil's sake detestable, and that for just and unjust alike there is rest in the grave. The author calls this a strange evangel from a clergyman's daughter, born of her revolt against Haworth Calvinism.
Chapter 14
CHAPTER XV. (part 1)4 cards
What does the narrator conclude about Emily's use of real places in Wuthering Heights?
The narrator argues that while Emily drew on real houses like Sowdens and on Branwell's story as starting points, her imagination and power of drawing conclusions are alone responsible for her creations. Unlike Charlotte's novels, where people and sites can be clearly identified, Emily's characters are unmodified by any attempt at portraiture, so the book is a fancy picture rather than painted after nature.
Chapter 15
How does the novel's narrative begin, and what does the narrator admit about it?
The story opens with Mr. Lockwood, a stranger to the North and an imaginary misanthropist, who takes a grange on the moor. He visits Wuthering Heights, is forced by a snowstorm to stay, and reads Catharine's scrawled diary before having nightmares. The narrator calls this management of the narrative singularly clumsy, an inexperienced beginning, though the style later becomes noble and accomplished.
Chapter 15
How does Heathcliff first arrive at Wuthering Heights?
Mr. Earnshaw walks to Liverpool and back, sixty miles each way, asking each child to choose a small present. He returns near eleven o'clock with a dirty, ragged, black-haired child found starving and houseless in the streets, whose owner no one knew. Mrs. Earnshaw wanted to fling it out; the fiddle was broken and the whip lost. The child was later named Heathcliff, after a son who had died in childhood.
Chapter 15
What position does Heathcliff hold in the Earnshaw household as a child?
Though Mr. Earnshaw adopts him and names him after a dead son, Heathcliff's position is not enviable. Cathy is very thick with him and the master believes his words, but Mrs. Earnshaw dislikes the interloper, and Hindley thrashes and strikes him. The sullen, patient child never complains, bearing his bruises in silence, which enrages old Earnshaw when he discovers it.
Chapter 15
CHAPTER XV. (part 2)4 cards
What event caused Cathy to stay five weeks at Thrushcross Grange?
Cathy and Heathcliff went to spy on the Lintons one Sunday evening and burst into laughter at seeing Edgar and Isabella quarrelling in tears. They made frightening noises, and the Lintons, thinking burglars were about, let loose the dogs. A bulldog seized Cathy's bare ankle, and she was taken in and stayed five weeks until it healed, returning much improved in manners.
Chapter 16
How did Hindley's treatment of Heathcliff change after his wife's death?
After his wife died of consumption, Hindley grew desperate and gave himself over to wild companions, dissipation, and tyranny. His treatment of Heathcliff, the text says, was enough to make a fiend of a saint. Heathcliff bore it with sullen patience, turning his suffering into a lever for advantages, and recognized in Hindley's degradation the instrument of his own revenge.
Chapter 16
Why does Catharine say she cannot marry Heathcliff?
Catharine tells Nelly she has accepted Edgar but feels wrong in soul and heart. She says it would degrade her to marry Heathcliff now, so he must never know she loves him. She loves him not for his looks but because he is more herself than she is; their souls are the same, while Linton's differs as moonbeam from lightning. Heathcliff overhears the degradation remark and leaves.
Chapter 16
What does the author suggest about who could guide young Cathy?
The author asks who should guide and counsel Cathy: her besotted, drunken brother, or the servant who did not love her and was impatient with her changing moods. The author answers no, suggesting Heathcliff, brutalised and rude as he was, at least loved and understood her. The author argues this as commentary on Cathy's isolation rather than as fact.
Chapter 16
CHAPTER XV. (part 3)1 cards
What illness follows Catharine's vision of the face in the black press?
The scene begins a long and fearful brain-fever. Thanks to her husband's devoted and ceaseless care, Catharine recovers her life, but barely her reason, which hung in the balance—a touch might settle it on the side of health or of madness. Only at the start of this fever is Isabella's flight discovered.
Chapter 17
CHAPTER XV. (part 4)4 cards
What does the author call the most purely human interest of Wuthering Heights?
The author argues that the rough love-story of the younger Catharine and Hareton is the most purely human and the only tender interest of Wuthering Heights. She describes it as the necessary and lawful anti-climax to Heathcliff's triumph, the final reassertion of the pre-eminence of right, and notes that this beautiful episode is universally forgotten.
Chapter 18
How does Heathcliff's death occur, and what does the author say killed him?
Nelly Dean finds Heathcliff dead in his bed one rainy morning, his open eyes keen and fierce, his face washed with rain. The author says he died before any vengeance overtook him other than the slow retributive sufferings of his own breast, slain by too much hope and an unnatural joy. Hareton mourns him passionately, and his memory stays sacred to the youth he ruined.
Chapter 18
How does the author assess Heathcliff's victims, especially Hindley and Isabella?
The author argues Heathcliff's victims were not sinless. Hindley was already a gamester, drunkard and violent man who welcomed Heathcliff as Faustus welcomed the Devil to gratify evil desires. Isabella courted her doom without deception, and three months of misery was not intolerable requital. Edgar Linton remained patient and unvisited by the violence near his hearth.
Chapter 18
How was Wuthering Heights received in 1848, and who alone praised it?
The author states that in 1848 the peals of triumph for Jane Eyre found no echo for Ellis Bell's work, which was passed over and disregarded. Only Sydney Dobell, in one review in the Palladium, spoke nobly of its energy and genius, but by the time that augury of fame sounded, Emily had been two years in her tomb.
Chapter 18
CHAPTER XVI.4 cards
How does the chapter characterize Shirley Keeldar's relation to Emily Brontë?
The chapter calls Shirley a fancy portrait of Emily, imagined as beautiful, wealthy and triumphant rather than poor and thwarted. It says Shirley is the exterior Emily, polished and smoothed by a sister's anxious care, while the nobler, deeply suffering Emily appears only in stray words and friends' memories. The author argues Shirley's disguise is easily penetrated by those who love Emily.
Chapter 19
What real incidents of Emily's life does the chapter match to Shirley's traits?
The chapter links Shirley's courage to Emily cauterizing her own mad-dog bite with an Italian iron in the laundry, saying nothing to anyone. It matches Shirley's mastery of a fierce bulldog to Emily punishing and then fomenting her bulldog's bruises. Emily's kindness to servants and her taste for striking dress, like lilac thunder-and-lightning fabric, also echo Shirley.
Chapter 19
What does the chapter say about Emily managing railway investments?
It says Emily had Shirley's taste for business, and that Charlotte was disquieted when Emily insisted on investing Miss Branwell's legacies in York and Midland Railway shares. Charlotte let her manage, praising her as disinterested and energetic, though not always tractable or open to conviction, and accepting that perfection is not humanity's lot.
Chapter 19
How does the chapter contrast Shirley with Caroline Helstone and modern taste?
The chapter says the modern public prefers Caroline Helstone, finding Shirley too independent, and quotes Sydney Dobell's half-truth that imagining Shirley poor would make her repulsive. The author argues Emily was born out of date, comparing her to Athene and Brunhilda, and that readers prefer heroines whose charm is a fragrance of affection, like Juliet or Desdemona.
Chapter 19
CHAPTER XVII.4 cards
What did Branwell intend when he came to Mr. Grundy's inn, and what stopped him?
Branwell secretly carried a carving-knife, believing Grundy's message was a call from Satan, and came determined to rush in and stab the occupant. In his excited state he did not recognize Grundy at the door, but Grundy's voice and manner conquered him and, as Branwell put it, brought him home to himself. He then placed the knife on the table.
Chapter 20
How did Branwell die, according to the chapter?
On Sunday, September 24, 1848, Branwell awoke conscious and peaceful, then a sudden terrible change came over his face. He insisted on getting up, determined to die standing rather than succumb, and rose to his feet, dying erect after a twenty-minute struggle while his father, Anne, and Emily watched. The chapter compares him to an ancient Celtic hero.
Chapter 20
What did the family find in Branwell's pockets, and how did Charlotte later describe their grief?
They found his pockets filled with letters from the woman he had passionately loved. Charlotte wrote that all his vices were and are nothing now, and that they remembered only his woes. He was buried in the same vault opened twenty-three years earlier for Elizabeth and Maria.
Chapter 20
What happened to Emily Brontë after Branwell's funeral?
Emily took his death very much to heart, growing thin and pale and saying nothing. She attended church that Sunday and sat quiet and hollow-eyed, but afterward she never rallied: a cold and cough taken then gained fearful hold on her, and she never went out of doors again. Charlotte wrote on October 9 that Emily had a cold and cough.
Chapter 20
CHAPTER XVIII.4 cards
According to the author, what qualities does Emily Brontë lack as a novelist?
The author argues Emily is without experience, has a narrow and local range of character, lacks George Eliot's broad humanity, and lacks Jane Austen's gift of making readers love what they overlooked in life. She also does not share the human truth, passion, and humour that earned Charlotte her place between Cervantes and Victor Hugo.
Chapter 21
How does the author contrast Charlotte and Emily's vision of the world?
The author uses a metaphor of two foreigners passing through Staffordshire: the daytime traveller sees the blackness but also the patient struggle, the children, and the blue sky beyond the smoke; the night traveller sees only blackness shot with flames and half-naked toilers. So Charlotte is clear-seeing and compassionate, while Emily is a traveller through the shadows.
Chapter 21
What does the author say shaped Emily's genius and inspired Wuthering Heights?
The author argues that Branwell's follies and failures were shaping influences on Emily's life. His sins had so large a share in bending her genius that passing them by would ignore the shock that turned the fantasy of the Poems into the tragedy of Wuthering Heights. The crimes of her characters were reflected from her home's passion and sorrow, not invented.
Chapter 21
How does the author describe Emily's death and her life at home?
The author says she died suddenly and silently, before any worthy praise reached her, with her work misunderstood and neglected. Yet the author argues she was not unhappy: her moorland home was dear to her, homeliest duties pleasant, she loved her sisters devotedly, and had many little happinesses in her patient, cheerful, unselfish life.
Chapter 21
CHAPTER XVIII.4 cards
What did Charlotte fear most about Emily's illness by late October 1848?
Charlotte wrote that Emily's cold and cough were obstinate, with possible chest pain and shortness of breath, and that she looked thin and pale. She was especially uneasy about Emily's reserved nature: questioning her yielded no answer, and recommending remedies was even more useless because they were never adopted.
Chapter 22
Why did Emily refuse to rest or reduce her duties while ill?
The author argues Emily felt doubly necessary to the household: Charlotte was still weak, Anne was frail, and even her father was ailing. To give up her duties, or accept help, seemed to her a betrayal of the strength others relied on. She would not resign any duty until the last weeks of her life.
Chapter 22
What finally made Emily agree to see a doctor, and what happened?
On her last morning Emily could no longer speak above a husky whisper and said, 'If you will send for a doctor, I will see him now.' It was too late. Her shortness of breath and pain increased, and when her sisters begged to put her to bed around two o'clock she refused, tried to rise leaning on the sofa, and died. She was twenty-nine.
Chapter 22
How does the author use the burnt comb to interpret Emily's character?
Too weak to retrieve her comb from the cinders, Emily watched it burn and later told the servant she was too weak to stoop. The author calls the broken comb a sad confession of human weakness and a mournful counterpart to Emily's chainless soul, and says the relic makes her last poem seem more heroic, remembering the prisoning garments confining that free spirit.
Chapter 22
Source and licence
Text used: Project Gutenberg eBook #25789 (Public domain in the United States). Generated from the full text; cards paraphrase the source.
Version: Public domain edition. Retrieved 2026-10-26. Cards reviewed 2026-10-26.
These cards paraphrase the text for study. They are not a substitute for reading the book, and they do not reproduce long passages.
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