By Bea Tan

Thornton, Yorkshire, birthplace of the famous Bronte sisters. Charlotte, Anne and of course Emily. Emily Jane Bronte was born on July 30,1818. She was the fifth child of Reverend Patrick Bronte and Maria Branwell Bronte. Both of Emily's parents were writers though unsuccessful unlike their daughters, they were the ones who instilled literary environment into their home. When Emily was 2 years old, the Bronte family moved to Haworth. More than a year after they moved Emily's mother died of cancer on September of 1821, leaving her sister Elizabeth to take care of their household chores. Emily's life had been tragic somehow. A year after she and her three sisters Maria, Charlotte and Elizabeth enrolled at Cowan Bridge School, an epidemic broke taking the life of Maria and months later Elizabeth died as well. Charlotte became sick too and the two of them came back home.

At 1835, Emily went to attend Roe Head School, where Charlotte teaches. But she did not stay there long because she became very lonesome and homesick that Anne had to take her place. At September of 1837, Emily became a teacher as well at Law Hill School. She stayed there for only about six months.

Emily, Charlotte and Anne wrote their poems in secret. Unknown to each other was their common passion for poetry. Until that day in 1845, Charlotte discovered some of Emily's poems on. They confessed to each other their secrets and persuaded Anne to join them in publishing their work. So the three of them published a book entitled Poems under the alias Curer, Ellis and Acton Bell. The book was unsuccessful. Branwell, the only boy in the family convinced them to switch to novel writing. This prompted Emily to write the very successful novel Wuthering Heights. Her novel was not released until the success of Jane Eyre, a novel written by her sister Charlotte.

Branwell was later hooked on drugs and alcohol. Emily being the closest to him was the one most affected by his situation She tried to help but to no avail. He died on September 1848 wherein Emily caught a cold which developed into an inflammation of the lungs which took her life on December 19,1848.