To Be or Not to Be by Kenneth Louis Shepherd

Author:Kenneth Louis Shepherd
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
Published: 2019-07-30T16:00:00+00:00

Branwell Brontë (1817-48)

This man was a failure. He aspired to be a painter and writer. In each sphere, he failed. While his four sisters were educated at schools, he remained at home and received a classical education from his father.

While all of the Brontë family, as children and into early adulthood, lived in a make-believe world, his sisters developed away from this. Perhaps he never did. He aspired to be a writer and when the editorship of Blackwood’s magazine became vacant, he repeatedly applied for this post. These applications went unanswered. His father hired tutors who taught him art.

In 1835, he painted a portrait of his sisters. In the original version, he stood alongside them but he later painted this section out. As this is the best portrait of these girls that we have, it is now in the National Portrait Gallery. It is there for this reason and not for its artistic value. It is thought that in 1835, he went to London to study art. When there, he drank a lot and got into debt. After a short time, he returned home.

In 1840, he obtained a job as a family tutor. He celebrated this by getting riotously drunk. It is rumoured that while there, he fathered a child. Because of his behaviour, he was dismissed. Soon after this, he obtained a position as a railway clerk but money went missing. Apparently, while he was out boozing, another employee took advantage of the situation and stole the cash. It was never suggested that Branwell stole it. As it was as a result of his absence that this man had the opportunity. Branwell was dismissed and he had to repay the money. Again, he returned home.

In 1843, he obtained another job as a tutor. He allegedly had an affair with his boss’s wife. He was accused of ‘inappropriate behaviour’ with the family’s daughter and son. We are not sure of the nature of this. He forged checks which bounced. He was resultantly sacked.

Again, he returned home. When shortly afterwards his former employer died, the wife refused to marry Branwell because of his chronic alcoholism, use of opiates and his bad financial situation. Interestingly, for whatever reason, she continued to send him money. This lady’s name was Mrs Robinson and it was she that the character Mrs Robinson is based upon on the film, play and book called The Graduate.

When he died at home in 1848, the death certificate was worded in a diplomatic way to deceive us. In fact, it was the result of TB bought on by his lifestyle; he was an alcoholic, who was also addicted to laudanum and opium.

My thought process says to me that perhaps having such talented sisters played a part in his downfall. This however cannot be the case as their success was not apparent until after he died. Incidentally, his sisters did produce drawings and insignificant works of art. I have seen a landscape of a fictitious place produced by his sister Charlotte.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.