The Infernal World of Branwell Bronte

.........covers the life of Branwell Bronte and the many demons that plagued his life in The Infernal World of Branwell Bronte, written in 1960. As the second eldest of the Bronte siblings, she suggests from the start of her book that trouble began for Branwell at the early deaths of his sisters, Elizabeth and Maria. Each week he sat in church to hear his father, Rev. Patrick Bronte, moralize on sin, and the consequence of hell and brimstone. As a young boy, the effect of this and total fear for his own immortal soul may have been the beginning of his troubles. Later in life, he would not believe in prayer, for prayer to him would never be answered.

As Charlotte, Emily and Anne were allowed to go off to school at an early age, a curious situation is mentioned. Patrick Bronte vehemently refused Branwell to attend school among other children. Branwell was reportedly high strung and Ms. Du Maurier suggests that there were possible signs of epilepsy, which at that time, would be viewed as insanity. Rev. Bronte was adamant about Branwell not attending school and would teach the boy himself at home.

Branwell is described as a small in stature, bushy red hair that was piled high on his head, giving him the appearance of added height, small eyes, and a large Roman-like nose, which balanced small spectacles. He is represented as a brilliant, fun and humorous young man.

Branwell was an inspiration to his sisters in their early days of writing and their work of Glass Town. He made a positive display that he would himself aspire to be a painter for his profession. He did many portraits, many of which are now gone. Two paintings which exist of John and William Brown, a sexton and his brother of the church, still hang in the Bronte Museum. William’s portrait was left unfinished as Branwell had left it. It hung in Branwell’s room long after Branwell was gone and was later moved to Patrick Bronte’s room. At some point in time, someone restored William’s painting and completed it in full....the “magic” now being gone from Branwell's work.

Branwell's famous painting of his three sisters with himself wiped away in the center, can only make one wonder if he attempted to do his own image and finish it at a later time, or truly was in low self esteem, thus wiping himself off the canvas. “The viewer senses he is an intruder” states Ms. Du Maurier as one stares at the canvas of the three sisters locked into a moment in time, and sees the ghostly image of someone who stood behind them.

Branwell seemed to be constantly trying to prove himself, not only to himself, but his father and his sisters. As the only son in the family, there must have been undue pressure on him from an overbearing protective father to succeed. He started drinking and spending more time at the Black Bull Inn. No one knows when he first started using laudanum. Laudanum contained 10% opium. It was easy to buy for a few pence. It was known to soothe the nerves, ward off consumption, and for Branwell, was equivalent to liberation. It is suggested he may have used it to help his epileptic seizures, but with the attempts that he made at professions and constant failure, it seemed to be a growing addiction and comfort where he could escape the troubles of his life. He had "failed the father who well-nigh worshipped him, and failed the sister who had been his boyhood's dearest companion." He wrote to his friend Leyland: "Cheerful company does me good till some bitter truth blazes through my brain, and then the present of a bullet would be received with thanks."

Several points of interest that Daphne Du Maurier mentions is that Branwell was ambidextrous. He would sit and write in either hand for hours at a time. She also mentioned that out of all the siblings, he was fondest of children. This may have been why he was brought in to tutor Edmund Robinson, son of Anne’s employer. Whether it was Anne, or Mrs. Robinson who came up with this idea to bring Branwell into the Robinson household as tutor, it would only lead to further problems. It was yet another attempt for Branwell to try and prove himself. For whatever reason, he became involved with Mrs. Robinson as more than an employer, so much that it resulted in immediate dismissal by Mr. Robinson. Branwell's final separation and intense love for her brought him even further into his “infernal world”. Charlotte wrote to her friend Ellen Nussey about Branwell quoting “I do not know how much to believe of what he says, but I fear she [Mrs. Robinson] is very ill. Branwell declares that he neither can, nor will do anything for himself, good situations have been offered him more than once, for which, by a fortnight’s work, he might have qualified himself, but he will do nothing, except drink and make us all wretched.”

In the midst of all of Branwell’s troubles, his three sisters were continuing to write. He must have seen the return of their rejected packages from publishers and only in his mind would confirm his fixed opinion that it was useless for an unknown writer to attempt an entry into the literary world. He was giving up even more, retreating into his own world of demons, as his sisters persisted in their endeavors and moved on to success. Charlotte wrote to her publisher "my unhappy brother never knew what his sisters had done in literature,..he was not aware that they had ever published a line. We could not tell him of our efforts for fear of causing him too deep a pang of remorse for his own time misspent, and talents misapplied. Now he will never know."

The Infernal World of Branwell Bronte is truly a sad story. For the only son of a curate, with so much promise, so much talent, lending inspiration to his other famous siblings, it is truly tragic that his life took the course of events that lead to his ruin.

The cause of Branwell's death was stated in his death certificate as chronic bronchitis and marasmus (wasting of the body). Charlotte said of her brother "I seemed to receive an oppressive revelation of the feebleness of humanity; of the inadequacy of even genius to lead to true greatness if unaided by religion and principle. When the struggle was over.....all his errors, all his vices, seemed nothing to me in that moment....he is at rest, and that comforts us all. Long before he quitted this world, life had no happiness for him."

"A Parody," a sketch by Branwell of death summoning him to a fight; Haworth church appears in the background at the right. When he lost the fight on September 24, 1848, he cried out to his father's sexton and his friend, John Brown "In all my past life I have done nothing either great or good. Oh John, I am dying!" But the epitaph of Francis Grundy, another close friend, was more generous: "Poor, brilliant, gay, moody, moping, wildly excitable, miserable Branwell. No history records your many struggles after the good - your wit, brilliance, attractiveness, eagerness for excitement -- all the qualities which made you such "good company" and dragged you down to such an untimely grave."

quote from The Brontes at Haworth, Juliet Gardiner




interpretation by BJTanke May 2000