Influences: ‘Acton Bell is neither Currer nor Ellis Bell’

Abstract

In the Brontë mythology of three talented, intimate and devoted sisters, Anne has played, in George Moore’s words, the role of ‘literary Cinderella’, relegated to the ashes of history for her failure to reach the standards set by her sisters.¹ In short, it is usually assumed that Anne is trying to do what Emily and Charlotte are doing but that Anne cannot succeed through lack of talent. I suggest, instead, that Anne was self-consciously critiquing her sisters’ work and establishing alternative standards and values. Ironically, Anne has played, vis-a-vis her sisters, the traditional role of the woman writer within patriarchy. That is, Anne is critiquing her sisters’ works in the same way that women writers critique the values and standards of male writers. And rather than acknowledge the critique and distinction, we have measured the work by inappropriate standards which cannot do justice to its achievement. Such is often the fate of the woman writer in patriarchal culture. We might also note that as the surviving sister, Charlotte was in the position of ‘patriarch’ to determine which of Emily’s and Anne’s novels were reprinted and which were not.