Having in _Wuthering Heights_ made so pointed a reference to the Fairy
Cave in the neighbourhood of Gimmerton, and having therein associated
with it the names of Airton (Hareton) and Linton, which Montagu
connected with Gimmerton or Malham, Charlotte Brontë had not openly
mentioned in that work the Fairy Janet referred to by Montagu, though
she hinted at "the mysteries of the Fairy Cave." But I find that her
"elfish" imagination induced her later, in _Jane Eyre_, to appropriate
for herself the rôle of the Fairy Janet, the Queen of the Malhamdale or
Gimmerden elves, who ruled in the neighbourhood of Gimmerton and of
Wuthering Heights, the home of Catherine Earnshaw. Thus we see Charlotte
Brontë primarily associated both Catherine Earnshaw, the heroine of
_Wuthering Heights_, and Jane Eyre, the heroine of _Jane Eyre_, with
Malham. And discovering the impetuosity of her imaginative nature and
its romantic turn, I doubt not she was impatient to begin the tale of
the "fairy-born and human-bred" heroine whose surname she took from the
River Aire or Ayre, which sprang, as Montagu carefully indicates, from
Malham, or Gimmerton, as Charlotte Brontë would say in her _Wuthering
Heights_. From this came the suggestion of the "Rivers" family, with
which I deal later, the names employed by Charlotte Brontë being
River(s), Burn(s), Aire or Eyre, Severn, Reed, and Keeldar.
Another of Montagu's personal contributions which greatly influenced
Charlotte Brontë was on the leaf before the mention of John Bell, Esq.,
and on the same leaf as the mention of Casterton Hall, headed "A Night's
Repose." This was the narration of a night's adventure, Montagu telling
how he went to a lonely hostelry and found an unwillingness in the
hostess to give him bed and shelter. He also discovered a mystery
surrounded the hostess and a peculiar, harsh-voiced country-bred
man-servant--who came to be the original of Joseph of _Wuthering
Heights_. At night the apparition of the hostess appears at Montagu's
bedside, white-faced and lighted candle in hand. It is plain the
peculiar man-servant appealed very strongly to Charlotte Brontë, and
thus in both her _Wuthering Heights_ and _Jane Eyre_ transcriptions of
the midnight incident this characteristic is marked and recognizable: in
Joseph; and in Grace Poole, by what I have termed Charlotte Brontë's
Method I., interchange of the sexes of characters. In _Wuthering
Heights_, by her same Method I., Montagu's inhospitable hostess became
the inhospitable host Heathcliffe; but in each of Charlotte Brontë's
versions--_Wuthering Heights_ or _Jane Eyre_--a central figure of the
incidents she based upon Montagu's story of "A Night's Repose" was the
uncouth, coarse-voiced country-bred servant.
We also shall see that Montagu's reference to lunacy being an exception
to his objection against the separation of husband and wife, and the use
he made of a verse in his Malham letter, likening the moon to
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account