Theme Of The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall

Women who had no claim to wealth or beauty received the harshest of realities in America’s Victorian era. Author Charlotte Bronte – from America’s Victorian era – examines and follows the life of a girl born into these conditions in her gothic novel Jane Eyre (of which the main character’s name

Creating a haven from the cruel outside world, families ideally provide protection and support for each of their members. In Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, however, bitterness grows between the Earnshaws and the Lintons. Within these two families, siblings rival for power and parents fail to fulfill their roles as caregivers. The intertwining relationships of the Earnshaws and the Lintons are marked by physical abuse, degradation, and emotional negligence. These reduce each of the family members’ life to a lonely and meaningless journey though the cold and misty moors.

In its simplest form, Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre tells the story of a young woman, Jane Eyre, who grows up poor, makes the decision to be independent, does so, and, eventually, marries rich. The novel follows her from her childhood to her reunion with the love of her life and she, throughout it, deals with classism and sexism and exhibits her own form of feminism. By the end, it becomes clear that, with this semi-autobiographical novel, Charlotte Bronte was providing a criticism on society’s discrimination toward those of a lower class, a subtle argument against the male-dominated society’s treatment of women, and an even subtler call to action for women to find their own agency outside of the men in their lives. On another end, however,

Violence is the most recurrent gothic convention used in Jane Eyre, which is prominent in Charlotte Brontë's effective development of the novel and the character of Jane Eyre, who, throughout this novel, is searching for a home in which she would have a sense of belonging and love which would ultimately resolve this exact unfulfilled need she had as a child. The neglect she experienced in her childhood is manifested in the way she is treated by her aunt, Mrs. Reed, as in the first page of the novel Jane Eyre admits: ‘Me, she had dispensed from joining the group, saying, 'She regretted to be under the necessity of keeping me at a distance’’. This opening shows how there is a clear line of separation drawn between Jane and her relatives due to her complicated family background which consequently results in their reluctance to accept her into their environment. These complications lead to her maltreatment, which also adds on to the violence she experiences acting as a catalyst for the development of the character and her subconscious quest.

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall contains one of the earliest examples of marital abuse written in the Victorian Era. It prominently displays women being abused, separated from society and their subsequent solitude. The author, Anne Brontë, did not shy away from certain ‘taboo’ topics, like alcohol abuse, domestic violence, and sexual assault and has been criticised for it, even by her own sister Charlotte. Domestic violence has been around for many years and yet it was, and still is, treated as a forbidden subject that should be handled quietly and without causing a commotion. Anne Brontë does not ignore these issues. She gives a clear look at how someone can change overtime and how the effects of alcohol are not to be taken lightly. The Tenant

However, despite changes, the literary world remained predominantly male, and women writers not encouraged, or taken seriously. Consequently, to counteract this Emily Bronte published her novel Wuthering Heights, under the male pseudonym of Ellis Bell. Wuthering Heights is the story of domesticity, obsession, and elemental divided passion between the intertwined homes of the Earnshaw’s residing at the rural farmhouse Wuthering Heights, and the Linton family of the more genteel Thrushcross Grange. This essay will discuss how the language and narrative voices established a structural pattern of the novel, and how these differing voices had a dramatic effect on the interpretation of the overall story.

Charlotte Bronte’s novel Jane Eyre embraces many feminist views in opposition to the Victorian feminine ideal. Charlotte Bronte herself was among the first feminist writers of her time, and wrote this book in order to send the message of feminism to a Victorian-Age Society in which women were looked upon as inferior and repressed by the society in which they lived. This novel embodies the ideology of equality between a man and woman in marriage, as well as in society at large. As a feminist writer, Charlotte Bronte created this novel to support and spread the idea of an independent woman who works for herself, thinks for herself, and acts of her own accord.

Jane Eyre, often interpreted as a bildungsroman, or a coming-of-age story, goes further than the traditional “happy ending,” commonly represented by getting married. Instead, the novel continues beyond this romantic expectation to tell full the story of Jane’s life, revealing her continual dissatisfaction with conventional expectations of her social era; as a result, many literary critics have taken it upon themselves to interpret this novel as a critique of the rigid class system present in 19th century Victorian society. One literary critic in particular, Chris R. Vanden Bossche, analyzes Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre through a Marxist lens, asserting the importance of class structure and social ideology as historical context and attributing this to the shaping of the novel as a whole. This approach of analysis properly addresses Brontë’s purposeful contrast of submission and rebellion used to emphasize Jane’s determined will for recognition as an equal individual.

In Anne Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Arthur Huntington, Helen’s husband and Arthur’s father, is presented as an alcoholic, disgraceful, narcissistic “gentleman” (Brontë 311). Despite Helen’s efforts to shelter their son, Arthur, from the corrupted masculinity embodied by Huntington and his friends, Huntington encourages Arthur’s “manly accomplishments” that mirror his own character, such as excessive drinking, swearing, and selfishness (297). For fear of Arthur becoming “a curse to others and himself”, like his father, Helen has acquitted herself to prepare for an escape; however, Huntington seizes her journal which reveal her plans (203). In this passage Mr. Huntington is not only devaluing aspect of his corrupted masculinity,

Charlotte Bronte’s “Jane Eyre” has captivated readers for generations. As with all coming of age novels, young adults can relate to the struggles and triumphs of Jane. Jane’s setting influences and parallel her emotions. A reader can see the novel through her eyes and perspective. In Bronte’s “Jane Eyre,” the location often parallels Jane’s emotional growth through the tone presented by the environment, resulting in the different places she lives revealing her journey through depression. Jane’s behavioral patterns and thoughts suggest clinical depression that affected her choices throughout the novel and her life at Gateshead, Lowood, Thornfield, Marsh End, and Ferdean.

Throughout the nineteenth century, women were expected to conform to the ideal standard of femininity set before them to be accepted within society. However, in Charlotte Bronte’s novel Jane Eyre, Jane paves the path for her own destiny without sacrificing her passions and desires. Jane encounters both “fire” and “ice” characters and environments throughout the entirety of the novel, which ultimately refine instead of defining her. Jane’s maturation into self-independence is observed through fire and ice characters and environments in Gateshead, Lowood, Thornfield, and Moor House.

“I am no bird and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will” (Bronte, Jane Eyre 293). In the Victorian time period Charlotte Bronte lived the unequal life as a woman, like many others. The only difference is Bronte did not believe in living in inequality, and she wrote about her hardships in her literature. In her book, Jane Eyre, the reader can see many similarities in her main character’s life and her own. Jane Eyre has many ways of showing how Victorian women were expected to be and act, included in the life of Jane. Bronte also continues her portrayal of the inequality of women and the decision of love versus autonomy through two of her poems, “Life” and “The Wife’s Will.” Charlotte Bronte displays the inequality in life of women in the Victorian era by taking her life and revitalizing it into themes of her works, by providing a journey of discovery of love or autonomy.

Helen Graham, the heroine in The tenant of Wildfell Hall, is a strong and unique woman. She is in many ways a typical Victorian upper-class lady, but in many ways also a very modern and independent kind of woman. She lives with her aunt and uncle, who want to see her married to a wealthy man, but she refuses any offers of marriage since she does not want to marry a man she does not love. When she is about 18 years old and still quite naivë, she falls in love with Mr Huntingdon, who woos and courts her - and seems very much in love with her too. "I will willingly risk my happiness for the chance of securing his" (p 125), she says when trying to persuade her aunt into

Jane Eyre is a novel written by Charlotte Brontë. It is distinctly a female Bildungsroman, as it follows the progress and growth of Jane’s character on her quest for selfhood and independence in a society that tries its best to impress upon her the roles and expectations of women in the Victorian era (which is neatly packaged in the figure of the ‘Angel-in-the-house’.) This is something with which this essay seeks to engage by looking at female figures which feature prominently in Jane’s life, how those who embrace the figure of ‘Angel-in-the-house’ are treated and viewed, versus those who do not. Furthermore, important male figures will also be looked at in order to understand Jane’s own feelings to the ‘Angel-in-the-house’ figure and how she approaches it, as well as how the Byronic hero might relate – if it even does.

As the story’s introduction progresses, Jane Eyre, a ten-year-old child, begins to face gender injustice by his cousin, John Reed. In “In the Window-Seat: Vision and Power in Jane Eyre,” Peter J. Bellis states, “John Reed claims the house and its contents as his. . .”(page number/period) He exerts authority on her simply because he is a male by controlling her, abusing her, and bossing her. The situation starts holding Jane back as a female, leaving her defenseless, as Bellis claimed “the powerless victim of its oppressive force.” Jane speaks of how John harshly demanded her, saying, “‘I want you to come here;’ and, seating himself in an armchair, he intimated by a gesture that I was to approach and stand before him,” referring to him as ‘Master’ (4). The simple act of her needing to call him ‘master’ shows the difference of power among them. John deprived Jane from freedom such as simply reading a book by controlling her life at a young age, and it marked a new beginning to encounters with dominating men.