I wanted to see more about the lives of the sisters. They basically wrote their books, waited for them to be published, then everything else they did was centred around the brother.
shareI know what you mean about wanting more - two hours was just a taster as far as I was concerned! The drama chose to focus on the years 1845 to 1848, when all four siblings were living under the same roof at Haworth.
When you think about it, Branwell was the central figure. The girls wrote because of - and in spite of - Branwell, and he influenced what they wrote. We also saw how their father indulged and hoped in his son while neglecting his daughters and being ignorant of their talent.
Sally Wainwright said this in The Independent:
It's important to show that Branwell was a very important part of their lives. He wasn't just the wastrel brother, he was very much part of their world and, but for the grace of God, he could have been one of the Brontë sisters – he could have been up there with them.
And there was something about his illness that motivated them, and also informed their work. I mean, Anne's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is all about living with an alcoholic, and there are aspects of Wuthering Heights that are to do with alcohol addiction.
If there aren't any skeletons in a man's closet, there's probably a Bertha in his attic.
Agreed. It's ironic that the programme is called To Walk Invisible, because it seemed like Charlotte, Emily and Anne were invisible in a story that really should have centred on them. As you said, the sisters writing seemed to be defined totally by their relationships with their father and their brother: they wrote to support the family, and themselves, for when their father passed away. Branwell was not only an influence on their work, but the programme portrayed his addiction to alcohol as practically being the defining factor in their writing, as he inspired them but also hindered them by his behaviour.
We never really got to see what inspired them beyond their brother and their family situation. What about their own experiences, their feelings about their lives, their birthplace or their love of writing? Considering the impact they have had on literature in the UK and beyond, To Walk Invisible counts as a missed opportunity.
Is this still just available in the UK? Anyone know about US delivery/ distribution?
shareIt's not on Amazon.com, but I've just purchased it from Amazon.uk (I'm from the UK). It's region 2 only.
If there aren't any skeletons in a man's closet, there's probably a Bertha in his attic.
Really? The Bronte sisters are three of the most important figures in the Literature. Three women with enormeous talent that created amazing novels and poems. They did it in the kitchen. Hiding their writing and when all the domestic tasks, that were many and took a lot of time and were very tiring at that time, were finished. Those women wrote because they were genious. Not because of his brother. They published because they need money and because Charlote thought that Emmily poems were very good. As women at that time they had to fight a lot of obstacles to write and publish.
So you have these three mysterious genious, about whom we do not really know much about. And instead of telling their story they choose to tell the brother's one. A man who was a failure, a horrible painter, and untalented artist, uneable to keep a job. A burden for the three sisters. And they portray him like the inspiration, like the one who made the sister to write the way they did. Come on!!! Three amazing female writers and they choose the brother????.
Like talented women are not recognized enough we are going to make a movie about an untalented man. He was not so important, nor an inspiration. Or at least, not more than the moors. Not more than Brussel, than working as teachers, than the isolation and the rainy weather, that the death son present in their lives. These three women wrote stories, novels and poems since they were very young, because they were artists. Not because of him.
It is very dissapointing that having these three women, one of the few examples of female talent that is recognized , they took their own merit an give it, along with the protagonism to an unuseful and untalented man. What a shame!!
Of course, what you say is true. There have been other drama series and documentaries which have told the extended story of the Brontes in a more traditional, linear way, but I thought this was an interesting angle. Making Branwell a more pivotal character in no way glamourized or glorified him (or, indeed, confer on him any personal credit). On the contrary, it served to make his sisters' achievements even more remarkable. That they should produce such masterpieces while living with this disruptive and destructive influence was outstanding. And this talent went unnoticed and un-nurtured by their father who lavished his attention on his wastrel son.
If there aren't any skeletons in a man's closet, there's probably a Bertha in his attic.
Yeah, the brother's tiresome. Die already!
Additionally, the family is a bunch of f-ing enablers. They should have let him go off to Debters' Prison.
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Well, it sounds like the life of that family was totally centered around the brother. He was the father's favorite, the heir, the one who was allowed to enter public life, the family's future, the one expected to be the future head and star of the family, and hopefully the one who'd bring the family into greatness. Hah!
The fact is, that he'd steal the spotlight in any movie about the Bronte family, because he lived a VERY dramatic life, while all the genius sisters did was work. If they ever had a moment away from the neverending grind of housework they wrote their immortal works, and were strictly forbidden by law, custom, and family tradition from ever doing anything dramatic. So yes, any film about the Brontes is going to be dominated by his actions, simply because he was the only Bronte who was allowed any independent actions. The sisters were quite literally forced to live the life of the mind, because they were forbidden any other kind of life.
Being a writer is not that dramatic so that's why this tends to happen. But actually, this series was much more balanced and did a better job at showing the individual natures of the sisters than did the previous series about them. So things are getting better at least.
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