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RE: ADSactly Literature - Runs in the Family - The Story of the Bronte Sisters (Part 1)
I can imagine how hard these women's lives could have been not only because of illness, but also because of the conservatism of the time. It is said that Branwell and his sister Emily felt a forbidden love, and that's why it was their hobby for drugs and alcohol. My favourite is the dark, shy and introverted Emily Brontë and her only novel Wuthering Heights, the great classic of English literature. She is said to be the writer who transferred to paper the passions she could not live and even suffered from Asperger's Syndrome. I will wait for your next delivery, @honeydue. Thank you for always sharing fun materials.
I'm a bit skeptic of that story, to be honest, given that there is absolutely no proof that Emily and Branwell had an incestuous relationship. Many writers and biographers of the Brontes have insisted on that idea (making various claims from the one where they were lovers to the one where Branwell raped his own sisters) , but I think they did so to enhance their own popularity (because everyone loves a good scandal). There was no actual evidence that such a relationship existed, though.
As for her suffering from any sort of mental disease, I think that's just another example of our modern day society trying to impose ideas on the past and to explain it. Given that there is precious little information available about Emily's life, I find it a bit hard to believe that it was enough for doctors to actually find she suffered from any sort of mental issue.
Thanks for reading and commenting :)