The gothic and the supernatural in the Brontë novels

Stavroula Kremmydiotou presented a fascinating talk on the supernatural and gothic elements in the Brontë novels as part of the Brussels Brontë Group’s annual member talks on Saturday, Feb. 15. 

Backed by a visually striking Powerpoint presentation, Stavroula gave a wide-ranging and well-researched exploration of the supernatural in the sisters’ works, tempered by asides about her own journey and perspective as she discovered the Brontës. 

Stavroula is a fellow member with me in the Thursday book group, and she is always a very active and sharp participant in our discussions, often coming up with interesting ideas and opinions. So I was looking forward to hearing what she would have to say about a theme which is rather close to my heart. I was not disappointed. 

She said her love for the classics and particularly the Brontës was born the moment she read the passage in Wuthering Heights where Mr. Lockwood is first “haunted” by Cathy’s ghost at the window. Stavroula argued that Emily’s novel is a tale about hatred, obsession and violence, and not a love story as it is often made out to be. Rather it is a study in intergenerational abuse which creates monsters. 

Where could the seeds for such a horrific story have been sown? Stavroula posited that there may have been many sources for the gothic elements in the Brontë sisters’ works. She reminded us that the Brontë children had been exposed to supernatural stories from a very young age, firstly by family/household members – Aunt Branwell, Patrick and Tabby Aykroyd all contributed various ghost stories and legends. These, together with the siblings’ own personal experiences of the occult, local legends and the literature they had access to (including, for example, Walter Scott and James Hogg for Scottish fairy stories, and possibly even John Polidori for vampire folklore) helped form their young minds accordingly. 

So what are these gothic elements that seem to have infiltrated all the sisters’ novels, to a greater or lesser extent? The main ones are atmosphere, weather, vulnerability and isolation, the themes of death and the supernatural. Supernatural elements include ghosts, vampires, beings like the Yorkshire gytrash (a sort of red-eyed dog) and the Irish brownie. 

While it appears that Anne was probably the sister who was least inclined to include gothic/supernatural elements in her works, Emily and Charlotte both did so frequently, albeit in different ways. Emily has Catherine’s ghost terrorizing Mr. Lockwood at the beginning of Wuthering Heights, and later roaming the moors with Heathcliff after his death. Stavroula suggested that Charlotte may have used the ghostly nun in Villette as a way to show Lucy Snowe’s emotional state at the time and move the story on. Of course, the nun in Villette is later proven not to have been a ghost at all, but “she” has served her purpose. 

When it comes to vampiric elements, Bertha Mason reminds Jane Eyre of a goblin or a vampire, while Heathcliff’s physical change during the final days of his life causes Nelly to wonder whether he was a ghoul or a vampire. 

The last part of the presentation was rather fun as it described a number of reported 20th-century sightings of the Brontë sisters. These stories include the haunting by Anne’s ghost of the Blake Hall staircase after it had been dismantled and reconstructed on Long Island in the U.S., and Harriet Beecher Stowe’s reporting to George Eliot that she was in contact with Charlotte Brontë, who told her that she was in heaven’s antechamber. Our own Helen MacEwan had her own anecdote as told to her by someone who had known an employee of the British Museum (the keeper of manuscripts, no less!) who had apparently shared a taxi ride with Charlotte’s ghost. So the plot thickens! 

Stavroula’s presentation was now at an end and the floor was open for questions and comments. It was noted that whereas Charlotte “cleans up” the apparently supernatural elements in her novels by providing an earthly explanation for them, Emily leaves it all rather ambiguous. One explanation of why Charlotte used the ghostly nun in Villette was given by one of the group’s newest members who said that she had a practical psychological purpose – the fact that the nun was found to actually have physically been there (and not a ghost at all) shows that Lucy can trust her own senses after all. She was not imagining the nun, despite her highly emotional state at the time of the sightings. 

Stavroula then spoke a bit about Charlotte’s interest in mesmerism and seances, and reminded us that Jane hearing Rochester call her across the moors is supernatural (though Ana suggested, tongue-in-cheek, that maybe it was actually her woman’s intuition).

Georgette Cutajar