Helen In Bronte's Tenant Of Wildfell Hall

Helen is important when establishing the problems of marriage in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, her carless marriage at the young age of 18 shows how much you have to consider when marrying at that age. Although she is warned by family members, she believes she can change Arthur, and find romance within the relationship. After a troubled first year, involving the birth of her son, Helen realises she may have not considered ‘other things’ when picking her suitor. In the nineteenth century, baring children was seen more as an occupation for women, it was a necessity task which the woman had to fulfil. Bronte makes it evidently clear that considering having children with the suitor you choose is another factor you have to establish, Helen did not. Bronte uses the character of Helen to convey the mishaps of marriage, and how a woman has no other option to escape, but not escape mentally but physically from her estranged husband. “In Bronte’s Tenant of Wildfell Hall the subject is transgression- a woman’s illegal flight from her husband. Bronte uses the transgressive possibilities of narrative exchange to write her transgressive story, a story of female desire, and she uses the transgressive possibilities of
“By showing how Gilbert must first become Helen’s friend, rather than her love, Bronte argues for a form of companionate marriage radically different from that of Helen’s first marriage. Helen’s desire for a relationship in which she might be more of a ‘friend’ than a ‘pet’ is met through her intellectual engagements with Gilbert.” (MacDonald, 2015: 66) The way Bronte conveys Helens resistance differs hugely to other novels on the module, not only does Helen consider romance when marrying but Bronte evidently makes it apparent that you have to consider past relationships in order to be truly