SOURCE: "Art, Death, and the Composition of Shirley," in The Victorian Newsletter, No. 28, Fall, 1965, pp. 22-4.

In the following essay, Knies examines Brontë's writing timetable in order to challenge other critics ' claims that Anne Brontë 's death brought about changes in the character and fate of Caroline.

It is a well-known fact that the composition of Charlotte Brontë's third novel, Shirley, was interrupted by the successive deaths of Branwell, Emily, and Anne Brontë; and writers—notably Janet Spens and J.M.S. Tompkins—have argued plausibly that as a result Charlotte altered her original plan while she was writing the novel. Thus, many of the readily acknowledged weaknesses of the novel can be attributed to personal rather than artistic problems. But these theories, as well as the statement in Mrs. Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Brontë upon which they are based, appear in view of the...