Shakespeare and the Brontës

Abstract

This article was originally presented as a lecture to the Brontë Society on 31 October 2003. Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own is used to contextualize the kind of influence that Shakespeare has on the Brontës, before then going on to consider the Shakespeare the Brontës might have known (through print and performance), and the Shakespearian influences and interest which can be interpreted in Shirley and Wuthering Heights. This article is dedicated with fond admiration to the memory of Professor Inga-Stina Ewbank (1932–2004).