"The doctor had said that she would not bear crossing much, she ought to have her own way; and it was nothing less than murder in his eyes, for any one to presume to stand up and contradict her, ... serious threats of a fit ... often attended her rages."

Thus I find there is a connection between Catherine's "fit of frenzy" and delirium in Wuthering Heights, Chapters XI. and XII., and the scenes attendant upon Jane's fit of frenzy in Jane Eyre, Chapters I., II., III. The one is told by Charlotte as from Tabitha Aykroyd's (Bessie's) standpoint, the other from Catherine's (Charlotte Brontë's), an inversion of attitude which proves Charlotte Brontë to be the author and heroine of Wuthering Heights.

Wuthering Heights.Jane Eyre.
Charlotte Brontë in the locked chamber, and Tabitha Aykroyd, the Brontë servant, told by Tabitha, as it were.Charlotte Brontë in the locked chamber, and Tabitha Aykroyd, the Brontë servant, told by Charlotte.
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She [Catherine—Charlotte Brontë] rang the bell till it broke.... I [Tabitha—Nelly Dean] entered leisurely. It was enough to try the temper of a saint, such senseless, wicked rages! There she lay dashing her head against the ... sofa and grinding her teeth.... I brought a glass of water; and as she would not drink, I sprinkled it on her face. In a few seconds she stretched herself out stiff, and ... assumed the aspect of death.
Linton [? Mr. Brontë] looked terrified. "There is nothing the matter," ... and I [Tabitha—Mrs. Dean] told him how she had resolved ... on exhibiting a fit of frenzy. I incautiously gave the account aloud, ... she [Charlotte Brontë] started up ... and then rushed from the room. The master directed me to follow; I did to her chamber door; she ... secured it against me.... On the third day Catherine [Charlotte Brontë] un-barred her door, ... desired a basin of gruel, for she believed she was dying.
"These ... awful nights; I've never closed my lids—and oh!... I've been ... haunted, Nelly! [Tabitha]. But I begin to fancy you don't like me.... They have all turned to enemies; ... they have, the people here."
Tossing about, she increased her feverish bewilderment of madness.... "Don't you see that face?" she inquired, gazing nervously at the mirror.... "Oh! Nelly [Tabitha], the room is haunted! I'm afraid of being left alone...."
I [Nelly Dean—Tabitha] attempted to steal to the door ... but I was summoned back by a piercing scream.
... "As soon as ever I barred the door," proceeded Catherine [Charlotte Brontë], "utter darkness overwhelmed me, and I fell on the floor. I couldn't explain ... how certain I felt of having a fit, or going mad."
"A sound sleep would do you good," said Nelly Dean—Tabitha Aykroyd.		I [Jane—Charlotte Brontë] sat looking at the white bed, ... occasionally turning a fascinated eye towards the ... mirror.... I hushed my sobs, fearful lest ... signs of grief might waken a preternatural voice ... or elicit from the gloom some haloed face.... This ... I felt would be terrible.... At this moment a light gleamed on the wall; ... shaken as my nerves were by agitation, I thought the swift-darting beam was a herald of some coming vision from another world. My heart beat thick, my head grew hot; a sound filled my ears which I deemed the rushing of wings: something seemed near me; I was oppressed, suffocated; endurance broke down; I rushed to the door and shook the lock in desperate effort. Steps came running along the ... passage, ... Bessie and Abbot entered.
"Miss Eyre, are you ill?" said Bessie [Tabitha Aykroyd].
"What a dreadful noise! It went through me!" exclaimed Abbot.
"Take me out!" was my cry.
"... Are you hurt? Have you seen something?" demanded Bessie [Tabitha].
"Oh! I ... thought a ghost would come."
"She has screamed on purpose," declared Abbot [?].... "And what a scream! If she had been in pain one would have excused it, but she only wanted to bring us all here: I know her naughty tricks."
... Mrs. Reed [Aunt Branwell] came.... "Silence!" she exclaimed; "this scene is repulsive." I was a precocious actor in her eyes. She sincerely looked upon me [Charlotte] as a compound of virulent passions, mean spirit, and dangerous duplicity.... I suppose I had a species of fit: unconsciousness closed the scene.... The next thing I remembered is waking ... with a feeling as if I had had a frightful nightmare ... agitation, uncertainty, and a predominant sense of terror confused my faculties.... Bessie [Tabby] stood at the bed-foot with a basin in her hand.
"Do you feel as if you could sleep, Miss?" asked Bessie [Tabitha Aykroyd] rather softly.
For me [Charlotte] the watches of that long night passed in ghostly watchfulness; ear, eye, and mind were alike strained by dread, such dread as children only can feel.

By her Method II.: altering the age of a character portrayed, Charlotte Brontë gives us Tabitha Aykroyd as a young woman in Bessie; and by the same Method II, in the scene just read from Wuthering Heights, we have an instance of her presenting, as an incident in womanhood, an incident which the testimony of Jane Eyre and other evidences show occurred really in Charlotte's own childhood. As she relates in Jane Eyre, her dread was "such dread as children only can feel"; and she goes on to say "this incident [of the locked room] gave my nerves a shock of which I feel the reverberation to this day." Thus in both Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre Charlotte paints an excellent picture of the matter-of-fact but good-hearted Tabitha Aykroyd going to the room in response to her, Charlotte Brontë's, frantic appeal, sceptical and certainly unsympathetic.

The part played by the wild summoning of Tabitha to the room, the references to "a fit," the ghost and haunted chamber, the dread of the mirror, the suggestion that the frenzy of fear was wilfully assumed, the piercing scream, Tabitha Aykroyd with her basin and her final suggestion of sleep, are in themselves ample evidence that Charlotte Brontë in both Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre drew this scene from an experience of the kind in her own childhood. In each work stress is laid by her upon her own hypersensitiveness, and we learn how the Brontë household misunderstood her excessive passionateness and misread it as wicked acting[26].

We see Tabitha best in Mrs. Dean of Wuthering Heights, as Hannah of the Rivers family of Jane Eyre, and by Currer Bell's Method II., alteration of age of the character portrayed, as Bessie of that work. Tabitha Aykroyd lives and breathes her life through the pages of Charlotte Brontë's Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre to-day, and ever will she remain in literature, a real Yorkshire woman amazingly translated from the wide Yorkshire hearth with its great, wind-whitened fire and smell of hot cakes, to the pages of two of the finest examples of the English novel. Her portrayal I declare to be one of the most admirable achievements in the works of Charlotte Brontë.

CHAPTER VI.

CHARLOTTE BRONTË'S CHILD APPARITION IN "THE PROFESSOR," "WUTHERING HEIGHTS," AND "JANE EYRE."