The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall: A Feminist Analysis

One of Anne Bronte’s most popular novels, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, greatly invoked a sense of autonomy within women of Victorian England. The Bronte sisters were some of the most influential feminist writers of their time. Anne Bronte’s literary career drastically developed after she published The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Anne Bronte, the youngest of the Bronte sisters, was born in 1820 near Thornton, England. She lived a short life and died at the age of 29. Juliet Barker notes that, “When Anne Bronte turned 25, she had 11 of her poems, along with her sisters, published into one book” (Craik 128). The sisters were afraid the book would be judged wrongly if it were to be discovered that they were women. As a result, they agreed to publish
The novel was greatly criticized at the time of its release due to its blatant feminist ideas. However, to this day it is identified as one of the greatest feminist novels written for the Victorian Era. The novel is separated into three parts. The first part is a letter from Gilbert Markham intended for one of his friends. In the letter he describes a mysterious widow named Helen Graham. He documents all of her actions and characteristics. She is described by him as being secretive, shy, and extremely protective of her child. She also happens to be the protagonist in the novel. Eventually, Gilbert falls in love with Mrs. Graham, and he feels he must compete with Mr. Lawrence for her love. It is later discovered that Mr. Lawrence actually had no interest in courting Mrs. Graham. The second part of the novel is an excerpt from Helen Graham’s diary. The excerpt is in the form of a story that she tells to Gilbert. She tells Gilbert of her past life in excessive detail. However, Helen mainly focuses on telling Gilbert the mistakes she has made in her past. She starts off with her blind pursuit of Arthur Huntingdon. The third part of the novel starts off with their marriage ceremony. Eventually, Helen gets fed up with her husband’s constant drinking and abuse. So she plans to end the marriage by running away with her son. When Arthur finds out about her plans, he threatens Helen and
Also, Helen does not skip out in voicing her opinion about the matter to Mr. Huntington. She even goes as far as saying, ‘“If you expect me to stay in this house all day and clean while you go out with your reckless friends, you’ve married me for the wrong reasons”’ (Bronte 211). The conflict between Helen and her husband socially matches the tension that would have been present at the time. Maria Frawley makes an interesting argument saying, “Bronte herself follows an affective model of nurturing humanism. Yet she herself allows her heroine, Helen Huntingdon, to make broad radical claims of gender roles and masculinity” (Frawley10). The lifestyle that society forces on Helen makes her realize that marriage is more work than it is glamor. The expectations forced on women by their husbands were unethical. “A women forced that stay at home is like a man forced to work the rest of his life without pay” (Poole). Bronte chose to challenge the Cult of Domesticity due to its popularity in the mid-19th century. Bronte portrays Helen as going against the natural order of things to show that change was