Maria Brontë
Encyclopedia
Maria Brontë was the eldest daughter of Patrick Brontë
and Maria Branwell
, a part of the Brontë family, and the older sister of Charlotte
, Emily
and Anne
. She was born in Hartshead
, Yorkshire
.
Maria was said to have been a precocious child. According to her father, when he asked 10-year-old Maria "what...the best mode of spending time [was]", she answered, "By laying it out in preparation for a happy eternity." He later said that he could speak with Maria on any popular topic of the day as fluently as with an adult, and regretfully recalled her "powerfully intellectual mind". A printer from Thornton also remembered Maria correcting the proofs of one of Mr. Brontë's long poems. According to Charlotte, she was rather serious and silent than otherwise, and Mrs. Gaskell described her as "delicate, unusually clever and thoughtful for her age, gentle, and untidy".
On 1 July 1824, Maria, 10, and Elizabeth, joined the Cowan Bridge School
with Charlotte and Emily following soon after in September. The food provided by the school was generally poorly cooked and unhealthy, and the cook was reported to be "careless, dirty, and wasteful". Both Maria and Elizabeth had just recovered from measles and whooping cough, and despite hunger, they often did not eat. The school register read:
Miss Andrews, a teacher there, admitted that Maria had a "fine imagination and extra-ordinary talents".
swept through the school, causing the departure of almost a sixth of the students, between February and June 1825. By the winter of 1824, Maria's health was already deteriorating due to consumption
. On 14 February 1825, Maria was withdrawn from the school. She lived at Haworth for three months before dying at the age of 11.
Patrick attributed Maria's death to a divine
aspect: "She exhibited during her illness many symptoms of a heart under Divine influence. Died of decline".
, Maria inspired the pious character Helen Burns in Jane Eyre
, and a teacher on whom Miss Scatcherd was modeled subjected Charlotte's "gentle patient dying sister [Maria]" to "worrying and cruelty".
Patrick Brontë
The Reverend Patrick Brontë was an Irish Anglican curate and writer, who spent most of his adult life in England and was the father of the writers Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë, and of Branwell Brontë, his only son....
and Maria Branwell
Maria Branwell
Maria Branwell was the mother of English writers Emily Brontë, Anne Brontë and Charlotte Brontë, and their brother, the poet and painter Branwell Brontë.-Early life:...
, a part of the Brontë family, and the older sister of Charlotte
Charlotte Brontë
Charlotte Brontë was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood, whose novels are English literature standards...
, Emily
Emily Brontë
Emily Jane Brontë 30 July 1818 – 19 December 1848) was an English novelist and poet, best remembered for her only novel, Wuthering Heights, now considered a classic of English literature. Emily was the third eldest of the four surviving Brontë siblings, between the youngest Anne and her brother...
and Anne
Anne Brontë
Anne Brontë was a British novelist and poet, the youngest member of the Brontë literary family.The daughter of a poor Irish clergyman in the Church of England, Anne Brontë lived most of her life with her family at the parish of Haworth on the Yorkshire moors. For a couple of years she went to a...
. She was born in Hartshead
Hartshead
Hartshead is a village in Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England, west of Dewsbury and near Hartshead Moor.The village has pre-Norman Conquest origins; the Walton Cross dated from the 8th century....
, Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
.
Early life and education
When Maria was six years old, she was characterised as "grave, thoughtful, and quiet, to a degree far beyond her years". Soon after their mother's death in 1821, Maria and her sisters grew up largely with one another, staying away from society. Maria read the newspaper and revealed her findings to her sisters.Maria was said to have been a precocious child. According to her father, when he asked 10-year-old Maria "what...the best mode of spending time [was]", she answered, "By laying it out in preparation for a happy eternity." He later said that he could speak with Maria on any popular topic of the day as fluently as with an adult, and regretfully recalled her "powerfully intellectual mind". A printer from Thornton also remembered Maria correcting the proofs of one of Mr. Brontë's long poems. According to Charlotte, she was rather serious and silent than otherwise, and Mrs. Gaskell described her as "delicate, unusually clever and thoughtful for her age, gentle, and untidy".
On 1 July 1824, Maria, 10, and Elizabeth, joined the Cowan Bridge School
Cowan Bridge School
Cowan Bridge School refers to the Clergy Daughters' School, a school mainly for the daughters of middle class clergy founded in the 1820s. It was first located in the village of Cowan Bridge in the English county of Lancashire, where it was attended by the Brontë sisters. Two of the sisters,...
with Charlotte and Emily following soon after in September. The food provided by the school was generally poorly cooked and unhealthy, and the cook was reported to be "careless, dirty, and wasteful". Both Maria and Elizabeth had just recovered from measles and whooping cough, and despite hunger, they often did not eat. The school register read:
Maria Brontë, aged 10 ... reads tolerably. Writes pretty well. Ciphers a little. Works badly. Very little of geography or history. Has made some progress in reading French, but knows nothing of the language grammatically.
Miss Andrews, a teacher there, admitted that Maria had a "fine imagination and extra-ordinary talents".
Death
In spring 1825, a typhoid epidemicEpidemic
In epidemiology, an epidemic , occurs when new cases of a certain disease, in a given human population, and during a given period, substantially exceed what is expected based on recent experience...
swept through the school, causing the departure of almost a sixth of the students, between February and June 1825. By the winter of 1824, Maria's health was already deteriorating due to consumption
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
. On 14 February 1825, Maria was withdrawn from the school. She lived at Haworth for three months before dying at the age of 11.
Patrick attributed Maria's death to a divine
Divinity
Divinity and divine are broadly applied but loosely defined terms, used variously within different faiths and belief systems — and even by different individuals within a given faith — to refer to some transcendent or transcendental power or deity, or its attributes or manifestations in...
aspect: "She exhibited during her illness many symptoms of a heart under Divine influence. Died of decline".
Influence
According to Elizabeth GaskellElizabeth Gaskell
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, née Stevenson , often referred to simply as Mrs Gaskell, was a British novelist and short story writer during the Victorian era...
, Maria inspired the pious character Helen Burns in Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre is a novel by English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published in London, England, in 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. with the title Jane Eyre. An Autobiography under the pen name "Currer Bell." The first American edition was released the following year by Harper & Brothers of New York...
, and a teacher on whom Miss Scatcherd was modeled subjected Charlotte's "gentle patient dying sister [Maria]" to "worrying and cruelty".