The Tenant of Wildfell Hall - Anne Brontë

To be perfectly honest, I initially didn't enjoy this novel as I found that it was quite a slow read. Although it is evidently ahead of its time in terms of the subject matter, it didn't quite have the same wildness and thrill that enshrouds Anne's sisters' novels. Nevertheless, on reflection, the novel is actually much more complex than it appears at first glance, rendering it more interesting than I initially believed.

The book describes the story of Helen Graham, a mysterious, secretive, beautiful woman who moves into a mansion on the outskirts of a small Yorkshire village. She soon becomes the hub of all gossip there, and the reader starts to uncover, through the narrator, Gilbert Markham, the truth about her dark past. Anne Brontë was extremely brave in tackling such subjects as domestic abuse and strong-willed women finding domestic and creative liberty, but then it seems that all the Brontë sisters enjoyed pushing the boundaries of what was considered 'right' or 'proper' in Victorian society. Her novel, no doubt, came under heavy criticism when it was first published, with critics such as Charles Kingsley saying it was "tortured by a defective chord, in which one false note perpetually recurs" while others dismissed it as "coarse" and "brutal". Clearly, the Brontë sisters were too much for Victorian society to handle as Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights received similarly negative comments, but I suppose, in a way, this negativity with which the book was first met highlights its brilliance at breaking through society's conventions; the book was disliked because it challenged the rigid social hierarchy that was so prevalent at the time, and this scared many in Victorian society. Anne Brontë knew that the domestic abuse that was rife in households across the country, was wrong, and should be brought to attention, so by writing about it and questioning these practices, she is shown to be quite forward-thinking and brave.

The domestic abuse in the novel takes the form of psychological abuse, slowly but surely encroaching on Helen Graham's mind until she realises that she can't take it any longer. To me, these references seemed to be quite subtle, but I suppose that Anne Brontë couldn't be too overt in her description of it, for fear that it would shock society a bit too much. Furthermore, this way of describing it is also quite effective in structurally mirroring the way in which the psychological abuse occurred; in an almost drip-style fashion where the abuse seems to increase a little each time. I think that this was also a very clever method for Anne to describe the abuse in a way that wouldn't shock the reader too much as they don't really realise the extent of the abuse due to the subtle way it happens.

Not only this, but even the names of the characters in the book seem to have a deeper, more thoughtful meaning to them. As I was reading, I quickly realized that everyone's names either began with 'H' or 'G', and at first, I was very confused and couldn't think why she used such similar names for everyone. However, as the book went on, it became evident that the character's name revealed something about their personality, or rather, the group of people they were affiliated to. For example, there are men with the surnames Huntingdon, Hargrave, and Hattersley, and other characters such as Helen Graham and Gilbert Markham. The men who are identified by their surnames beginning with 'H' represent the more awful behaviour of men; abusing their wives, servants, and children, gambling, and getting excessively drunk, whilst Helen Graham (most often identified as Ms. Graham), and Gilbert Markham (often referred to as Gilbert), seem to represent society of a higher moral superiority and integrity, therefore highlighting the intention behind Anne Brontë's naming of her 'H' and 'G' characters.

Now, everyone has heard of her sister, Emily Brontë's novel, Wuthering Heights, and it seems that there are some striking parallels between the two sisters' stories. The

most obvious one is the shared initials of the house names - 'WH' - and the similarities between the houses do not end there. Both houses are enshrouded in mystery; Wuthering Heights rises high up on the Yorkshire moors, a hostile and strange place, filled with family secrets, whilst Wildfell Hall is situated outside the main village, not fully refurbished, and inhabited by a secretive, elusive woman. This seeming wildness

or furtiveness about the two houses greatly contributes to both novels' plots, being central to both the creation of mystery and the uncovering of secrets. Moreover, both novels take a frame-style narration with the story being relayed from one character to another, and finally to the reader, either through letters (as is the case in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall) or through a conversation between characters (eg. Nelly Dean and Lockwood in Wuthering Heights). This style of narration was clearly popular with the sisters as it exacerbates the sense of mystery and secrecy surrounding the stories, as the reader sees the information under a filtered light, as relayed to them through different characters and mediums. The last similarity I will describe is the female characters in both novels. To me, there is a striking similarity between the women as they are all, in their own ways, strong characters who challenge and break the rigid social constructs of respectability, and the confines that have been imposed on them. Similarly to Isabella in Wuthering Heights (Warning: spoiler alert!), Helen Graham also flees a demoralising, hostile marriage that she entered into on a thwarted idea of being in love with a man who didn't love her back. In Victorian society, this was a huge step for a woman to take as they risked losing their reputation and respectability, highlighting the strength that both these characters possessed in their novels, but also the strength of the sisters for writing about such controversial topics. While The Tenant of Wildfell Hall lacks the thrilling nature of Wuthering Heights and is perhaps a bit more simplistic, the similarities between the two novels are undeniable.

So, this book, while not one of my favourite Victorian novels, is still worth a read if you are willing to persevere with it. While there is a sense of mystery, it does lack the thrill and enigmatic quality of Wuthering Heights, Anne Brontë's novel is a first of its time, breaking through societal boundaries and tackling a controversial topic of the time, and for that reason, I think it is a good, well-written book with a sense of complexity that is revealed on reflection.