Diverging Twins: Some Clues to Wildfell Hall

Abstract

The in-bred nature of Brontë literary influence has often been remarked. Whereas we are quite right to see reflections of Byron, Cowper, Scott and other writers of previous generations occurring in Brontë writing, the most pervasive influence of all on each writer was the family and the other writers within it No one has yet analysed how far Patrick Brontë’s light-weight, but charming, didactic verse influenced Charlotte and Anne, for example. Branwell may not have contributed one line to Wuthering Heights as tradition says he did, but the parallels in plot and treatment between, say, Jabez Branderham’s sermons and the Methodist meeting in The Weary are at Rest cannot be denied. Fraudulent publishers such as Newby made capital from the likeness of Anne’s later work to Jane Eyre, scandalising Charlotte and Anne excessively. But in a sense Newby was right: the Brontës, while three entirely separate writers, do in a way present a combined work which to this day is sometimes presented within the same covers.¹