The Brontë Family, with special reference to Patrick Branwell Brontë. Vol. 2 of 2Leyland, Francis A.
History
The Brontë Family, with special reference to Patrick Branwell Brontë. Vol. 2 of 2
Leyland, Francis A.
Authors, English -- 19th century -- Biography; Brontë family; Brontë, Patrick Branwell, 1817-1848
It may be observed that Catherine Earnshaw, in an earlier part of the
book, uses a like antithesis to that quoted by Mr. Reid. 'Whatever our
souls are made of,' says she, speaking of Heathcliff and herself, 'his
and mine are the same; and Linton's is as different as a moonbeam from
lightning, or frost from fire.' Though it is not strictly accurate
that in _all_ Branwell's letters at this period there are similar
ravings, or that such were always on his lips, there are, at all
events, other coincidences of thought and expression to be found in
his letters and poems with certain features and passages in 'Wuthering
Heights,' which are not less striking. A few instances will illustrate
much in that work which it is not easy to believe could have been
transcribed by the writer from the utterances of another. Even so
early as his letter to John Brown, we have seen with what force
Branwell could express himself when he chose. He speaks in that letter
of one who 'will be used as the tongs of hell,' and of another 'out
of whose eyes Satan looks as from windows.' Let us turn to where
Heathcliff's eyes are described, in Chapter vii. of the novel, as
'that couple of black fiends, so deeply buried, who never open their
windows boldly, but lurk glinting under them, like devil's spies;'
and, in Chapter xvii., where Isabella Heathcliff says of them: 'The
clouded windows of hell flashed a moment towards me; the fiend which
usually looked out, however, was so dimmed and drowned that I did not
fear to hazard another sound of derision.'
We have noticed how Branwell plays upon the word _castaway_ at the
close of his letter on his novel. Charlotte has said they all had a
leaning to Cowper's poem, 'The Castaway,' and appropriated it in one
way or another; she told Mrs. Gaskell that Branwell had done so. The
word is used twice in 'Wuthering Heights.' Heathcliff is described as
having been a 'little Lascar, or an American or Spanish castaway,' and
the younger Catherine addresses pious Joseph, oddly enough, and by a
coincidence singular enough, remembering Branwell's allusion in his
letter, in these words: 'No, reprobate! you are a castaway--be off, or
I'll hurt you seriously! I'll have you all modelled in wax and clay.'
Mention may also be made here, with reference to the occurrence of the
names 'Linton' and 'Hareton' in 'Wuthering Heights,' that, somewhat
before the time of the writing of his novel, Branwell was accustomed
frequently to visit a place of the former designation, and that he
had, as we have seen, when he was in Broughton-in-Furness, a friend of
the name of Ayrton.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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