The Key to the Brontë Works / The Key to Charlotte Brontë's 'Wuthering Heights,' 'Jane Eyre,' and her other works.

by John Malham-Dembleby

For constructive purposes the West Indian girl, or Creole, in "Lagrange's Manuscript," is made to take the place of the Mrs. Rochester of Jane Eyre, who is therein represented as a Creole:—

I did my best [continues Catherine Bell] to make a friend of her, but to no purpose. Whatever was the reason she disliked me from the first. ["I am convinced she does not like me," wrote Charlotte to Emily of Madame Héger.] I felt intuitively she was my enemy.... Had we been thrown together when I was a child [!] I should probably have suited her ... for at that time I was a little given to flattery myself. But that was before I had learned how many better things there are than mere beauty.... Perhaps ... I preferred more solid advantages, because my vanity assured me that I had them myself, whilst my personal appearance was insignificant compared with hers. I was certainly fond of talking of what I knew, which answered very well with those who knew as much, and was rather pleasing to those who knew more. [M. Héger seems to have found pleasure in his intellectual talks with Currer Bell], but to Isabella [this, as I have said, is the name of Catherine's rival in Wuthering Heights, who was married to Heathcliffe] it was hateful. She imagined I wanted to expose her ignorance.

I have given some of the biographical facts respecting Miss Brontë embodied in Mdlle. Lagrange's story, and before closing this chapter dealing with that extraordinary manuscript I will print a further extract or so from it. The opening is as follows:—

"KITTY BELL, THE ORPHAN."

I was not above four years old when my mother died, my father having gone to his grave two years before.... Oh, it is a sad, sad thing to be an orphan!... My little head has been cut with more than one fall, and blood has flowed down my neck. But nobody cared.... It was only Kitty Bell.... There was no loving heart to take me to itself and soothe me.... I had been taken home by some relation of my mother, ... a widow [Mrs. Burke], and though she treated me with great rigour, she melted on her death-bed.

She is locked in the room wherein Mrs. Burke died, after the manner of the same incident in Jane Eyre, and the writer takes an opportunity of inserting the most distinctive feature of Jane Eyre, the light-bearing apparition, the original of which I have shown Charlotte Brontë found in Montagu's Gleanings in Craven:—

Suddenly there came a gleam of light through the key-hole, ... and now I could hear a short, heavy tread upon the stairs—it was coming up.... The gleam shot through the key-hole a third time, with treble radiance. But what had I seen?... Was it a vision? was it a ghost? It was a tall figure in white, like a winding sheet, with a hideous face and balls of gleaming fire where the eyes should be. The sight had stunned and levelled me almost like a blow on the temple.... I cannot say how long I continued in this swoon, but when I began to recover myself I was in my own bed.

She had received medical treatment, she learns as did Jane Eyre in the similar incident. The "ghost," however, had been only George Burke—the John Reed of Jane Eyre. Hence the choice of the name Burke by reason of its connection with the Hare of the Burke and Hare association, the writer by this choice showing his acquaintance with the fact that in real life the Reeds and Jane Eyre were relations. After this incident the story is for a while occupied with the petty happenings connected with this orphan who "was not yet nine years old." An aunt of the Burkes [? Aunt Branwell] comes to live with them, a "poor, quiet, elderly spinster who paid a small stipend in order to preserve her independence and keep up her dignity.... I must not attempt to describe her ... she was fully six feet high." This is palpably antithetical: Miss Branwell was not tall. And it is this aunt who provides the money for Catherine Bell to go to school. Under the guise of presenting the Lowood school in "Lagrange's Manuscript," M. Sue gives us often the Héger pensionnat. Aunt Branwell provided Charlotte Brontë the money that enabled her to go to the Hégers'.

I will give in parallel columns the arrival of Charlotte Brontë at the Clergy Daughters' Institute as it is described in "Mademoiselle Lagrange's Manuscript," and in Jane Eyre the original:—

Jane Eyre.	"Kitty Bell, the Orphan."
By Currer Bell.	By the Mademoiselle Lagrange,of Eugène Sue's Miss Mary ouL'Institutrice.
The first days at the Institution.	The first days at the Institution.
————	————
The coach door was openand ... a servant was standing atit: I saw her ... by the lightof the lamps. "Is there a little girl calledJane Eyre here?" she asked. Ianswered "Yes," and was liftedout, my trunk was handed down.	We got to Kendall House....I had been sitting near my trunkon the outside of the coach, andmy legs were numb with cold. Iwas quite unable to move, so thecoachman lifted me down alongwith my box. The door wasopen when the coach stopped; aservant was standing there with alamp. "Are you Catherine Bellwe expects down here to-day?"she asked me. "My name is Kitty Bell, ifyou please," replied I.
The servant led me ... intoa room, with a fire, where sheleft me alone.... I stood andwarmed my numbed fingers overthe blaze; ... there was nocandle.	The girl returned no answer,but having ushered me into aspacious room with a fire in it,she left me there by myself; ...there was no candle. I stood... warming my numb handsand limbs. I heard the dooropen ... and I saw a face ...I never can forget. My hearttold me directly it was Miss Ashton[Eshton]. Dear, noble girl!her face was rather large, butaccurately oval—just as you seethem in the fine sacred picturesof Murillo—those pictures ofgrand female beauty. Everything in that face wasgreat, open, frank, truthlike, ...and yet there was a grave ...melancholy overspreading thatregal countenance.... It wassingular to see a woman actingas the manager of a benevolentinstitution and living apart fromthe world who might have shonein any court in Europe and ...perhaps had no equal on anythrone ... [!] She advancedtowards me stately, but kindly,touched my cheek with herfinger, and then seeing me smile,she smiled in return, and, afterscanning my features a moment,she lifted me up and kissed me.
The door opened, and an individualentered, ... a talllady with dark hair, dark eyes,and a pale and large forehead[Miss Temple. Her real namewas Miss Evans], her countenancewas grave, her bearing erect.
She considered me attentivelyfor a minute or two. ... "Are you tired?" sheasked, placing her hand on myshoulder. ... "A little, ma'am."	"I love you, madam," I said.Then she set me down ...and, putting her hand upon myhead, she asked me:— "Your name is CatherineBell, is it not?"... [Herefollows the "Shakespeare's Day"reference I have already given.]
I have not ... alluded tothe visits of Mr. Brocklehurst[Rev. Mr. Carus Wilson]; hisabsence was a relief to me....One afternoon (I had ... beenthree weeks at Lowood) ... Irecognized almost instinctivelythat gaunt outline, ... it wasMr. Brocklehurst. After some lines we have thehair-cutting incident I havequoted already from "Lagrange'sManuscript." This incident comesafter and not before Catherine(Jane) has been commanded tostand before the class.	I had been at the KendallInstitute about three weekswithout seeing Mr. King [Mr.Brocklehurst] the master or registrar....One morning whenI woke up I heard the bells inthe dormitories ringing louderthan ever.... I knew without being told thisstrange man was Mr. King. "Catherine Bell!" called outMiss Ashton.
... "Fetch that stool," saidMr. Brocklehurst.... "Placethe child upon it." And I was placed there. "Miss Temple, ... children,it becomes my duty to warn youthat this girl ... is a little castaway,... this girl is—a liar!...Let her stand ... on thatstool."	On hearing my name I leftmy place in the rank, andadvanced.... "So! this is Catherine Bell, isit?" cried Mr. King. "I haveheard her kind friends at homespeak of Catherine Bell, andthey tell me she is a naughty,vicious, headstrong child—veryungrateful to those for whosegenerosity she ought to have somuch respect and gratitude! Isthis true, Catherine Bell?" "No, sir; not a word of it." "What, child!... Are youa little liar as well as an ingrate?Stand here!"
What my sensations were nolanguage can describe.... Imastered the rising hysteria ...and took a firm stand on thestool.	The passions and feelings of achild are only known to children.Grown-up people seem to haveforgotten them.[60] I stood therewith cheeks burning with shame,indignation, and anger.... Mypride had been savagely assailed.I did not want pity. I wanted... a refutation of the cruelcharge; I was not a liar; andthose who taxed me with ingratitudehad no gratitude toclaim from me. Great God!what emotions there were ragingin my breast! and how my littleheart did swell!