By: Maranda Wabik
Literary Love, , ,

Emily Bronte’s Impact: Kate Bush, the Music Videos, and The Unthanks

For today’s post, I would like to take a look at the lasting impact of the works of Emily Bronte.    Wuthering Heights is my favorite novel of the nineteenth-century, and that says a lot given I do love nineteenth-century literature!    While this was the only novel that Emily Bronte ever wrote, it is not the only literature she created.   Emily Bronte was a poet for her entire life, and that made her the most poetically gifted of all the sisters.   

Wuthering Heights is what inspired Kate Bush when she was just a teenager to write her song of the same title.   This was the song that made her a star, and it is a beautiful and haunting song that I can listen to on a loop.   The song is sung from the point of view of Catherine’s ghost as she is haunting the man that she loves, Heathcliff.   This makes for evocative emotion and references back to the opening of the novel when the narrator first encounters her ghost and sees Heathcliff begging her to come back! 

Kate Bush made two incredible official music videos for this song.   They are often referred to as the white dress and red dress videos, based on what she wore in each of them.    Both videos feature the beautiful song with Bush dancing with a lovely bit of choreography.   I adore both versions of the video, however, I would have to give preference to the red dress version.   I prefer this because Kate Bush is dancing in the woods, and it has a very woodland faery vibe to it!

Now for the other part of Emily Bronte’s impact, I mentioned in the title of this post.   The Unthanks are a British music group who were commissioned by the Bronte Society to create an album based on Emily’s poetry to mark her 200th birthday in 2018.   The resulting album is a haunting and beautiful tribute to the poet, as well as an absorbing musical journey in its own right!   My husband got me this album on vinyl for my birthday in 2020, and I really adore listening to it.   In fact, I recently danced to this whole album while doing a dancing movement meditation.   It was a truly moving experience between Emily’s words and The Unthanks musical compositions!   I recommend this to anyone who is a fan of Bronte’s poetry.   I also recommend using it during meditation, or movement meditation, as I did, and see what happens!

At the end of the day, Emily Bronte was a writer who lived her life on The Moors and died too young.   Even though she died young, she left behind literature that would continue to impact many generations, and inspire further art, and in that way, she has made an indelible mark on the world!   I hope you have enjoyed learning a bit about how Emily Bronte has impacted the artistic and literary worlds.    Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is a cover of Wuthering Heights.   I found the image on https://www.amazon.com/Wuthering-Heights-Emily-Bronte/dp/150531349X.

Further Reading/Watching/Listening