Devoted Sister or Cynical Saboteur? The Two Faces of Charlotte Brontë

Abstract

Many critics, including Juliet Barker, Edward Chitham, Christopher Heywood and Janet Gezari, have made reference to Charlotte Brontë’s meddling in her sisters’ work following their deaths. This article offers a detailed examination of the many interventions Charlotte made to the sixteen, arguably seventeen, poems by Emily that she selected for publication in 1850. Whilst some of these might be considered as editorially valid (such as changing explicit Gondal references and a minority of punctuation alterations), most, this article will argue, are not. Worse, the nature of Charlotte’s interventions impact negatively on Emily’s original vision and words. Through her 420 punctuation changes, 103 individual word changes, thirty-five whole-line or part-line substitutions, six instances of stanza deletions and additions, rewriting of the last two lines of ‘No coward soul is mine’ and the possible inclusion of one of her own poems, Charlotte effectively reframed Emily’s poetry as more orthodox and conventional than it was. In addition to a comprehensive analysis of all these interventions, this article will also consider the motivations behind the image of Emily that Charlotte sought to put forward through her editorial changes and in the ‘Biographical Notice’ and ‘Preface’ that accompanied the publication of the poems.