The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is the second and final
novelA novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
author
Anne BrontëAnne Brontë was a British novelist and poet, the youngest member of the Brontë literary family.The daughter of a poor Irish clergyman in the Church of England, Anne Brontë lived most of her life with her family at the parish of Haworth on the Yorkshire moors. For a couple of years she went to a...
, published in
1848The year 1848 in literature involved some significant new books.-New books:*R M Ballantyne -Life in the Wilds of North America*Anne Brontë - The Tenant of Wildfell Hall*Edward George Bulwer-Lytton - Harold...
under the
pseudonymA pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
Acton Bell. Probably the most shocking of the Brontës' novels, this novel had an instant phenomenal success but after Anne's death her sister
CharlotteCharlotte Brontë was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood, whose novels are English literature standards...
prevented its re-publication.
The novel is framed as a letter from Gilbert Markham to his friend and brother-in-law about the events leading to his meeting his wife.
A mysterious young widow arrives at Wildfell Hall, an Elizabethan
mansionA mansion is a very large dwelling house. U.S. real estate brokers define a mansion as a dwelling of over . A traditional European mansion was defined as a house which contained a ballroom and tens of bedrooms...
which has been empty for many years, with her young son. She lives there under an assumed name, Helen Graham, and very soon finds herself the victim of local slander. Refusing to believe anything scandalous about her, Gilbert discovers her dark secrets. In her diary Helen writes about her husband's physical and moral decline through alcohol and the world of debauchery and cruelty from which she has fled. This passionate tale of betrayal is set within a stern moral framework tempered by Anne's optimistic belief in universal redemption.
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is considered by some to be one of the first sustained feminist novels.
May SinclairMay Sinclair was the pseudonym of Mary Amelia St. Clair , a popular British writer who wrote about two dozen novels, short stories and poetry. She was an active suffragist, and member of the Woman Writers' Suffrage League...
, in 1913, said that the slamming of Helen's bedroom door against her husband reverberated throughout Victorian England. In escaping from her husband, she violates not only social conventions, but also English law.
Background and locations
Some aspects of the life and character of the author's brother
Branwell BrontëPatrick Branwell Brontë was a painter and poet, the only son of the Brontë family, and the brother of the writers Charlotte, Emily, and Anne.-Youth:...
correspond to those of Arthur Huntingdon in
The Tenant. Arthur Huntingdon resembles Branwell Brontë in three ways: physical good-looks, sexual adventures (before his affair with Mrs. Robinson, Branwell is thought to have fathered an illegitimate child, who died at birth), and especially in his
alcoholismAlcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
.
The Brontё biographer Winifred Gerin believed that the original of Wildfell Hall was
Ponden HallPonden Hall is a farm house near Stanbury in West Yorkshire, England. It is famous for reputedly being the inspiration for Thrushcross Grange, the home of the Linton family, Edgar, Isabella, and Cathy in Emily Brontë's novel Wuthering Heights...
, a farm house near
StanburyStanbury is a small village in the metropolitan borough of the City of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England, west of Haworth, close to the Pennine Way, and on the River Worth. It is approximately 4 miles from the town of Keighley. The surrounding countryside is mainly moors and farmland, but the...
in
West YorkshireWest Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Ponden shares certain architectural details with Wildfell: latticed windows, a central portico and date plaque above.
Linden-Car, in whose vicinity Wildfell Hall stands, is located in
YorkshireYorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
.
Car in northern dialect means pool, pound or low-lying and boggy ground. In Lindenhope
hope in north-east dialect means a small enclosed valley.
Plot summary
The novel is divided into three volumes.
Part One (Chapters 1 to 15): Gilbert Markham narrates how a mysterious widow, Mrs. Helen Graham arrives at Wildfell Hall, a nearby old mansion. A source of curiosity for the small community, the reticent Mrs Graham and her young son Arthur are slowly drawn into the social circles of the village. Initially, Gilbert Markham casually courts Eliza Millward, despite his mother's belief that he can do better. His interest in Eliza wanes as he comes to know Mrs. Graham. In retribution, Eliza spreads (and perhaps creates) scandalous rumours about Helen.
With gossip flying, Gilbert is led to believe that his friend, Mr. Lawrence is courting Mrs. Graham. At a chance meeting in a road, a jealous Gilbert strikes (with a whip) the mounted Lawrence, who falls from his horse. Unaware of this, Helen refuses to marry Gilbert, but gives him her diaries when he accuses her of loving Lawrence.
Part two (Chapters 16 to 44) is taken from Helen's diaries and describes her marriage to Arthur Huntingdon. The handsome, witty Huntingdon is also spoilt, selfish, and self-indulgent. Before marrying Helen, Arthur Huntingdon flirts with Annabella and uses this to manipulate and convince Helen to marry him. Helen marries him blinded by love and resolves to reform Arthur with gentle persuasion and good example. Upon the birth of their child, Huntingdon becomes increasingly jealous of their son (also called Arthur) and his claims on Helen's attentions and affections.
Huntingdon's pack of dissolute friends frequently engage in drunken revels at the family's home, Grassdale, oppressing those of finer character. Both men and women are portrayed as degraded, with Lady Annabella Lowborough shown to be an unfaithful spouse to her melancholy but devoted husband.
Walter Hargrave, the brother of Helen's friend Milicent Hargrave, vies for Helen's affections. While not as wild as his peers, Walter is an unwelcome admirer: Helen senses his predatory nature, something revealed when they play chess. Walter tells Helen of Arthur's affair with Lady Lowborough. When his friends depart, Arthur pines openly for his paramour and derides his wife.
Arthur's corruption of their son — encouraging him to drink and swear at his tender age — is the last straw for Helen. She plans to flee to save her son, but her husband learns of her plans from her journal, and burns her artist's tools (by which she had hoped to support herself). Eventually, with help from her brother, Mr. Lawrence, Helen finds a secret refuge at Wildfell Hall.
Part Three (Chapters 45 to 53) begins after the reading of the diaries when Helen bids Gilbert to leave her because she is not free to marry. He complies and soon learns that she has returned to Grassdale upon learning that Arthur is gravely ill. Helen's ministrations are in vain. Huntingdon's death is painful, fraught with terror at what awaits him. Helen cannot comfort him, for he rejects responsibility for his actions and wishes instead for her to 'come with him', to plead for his salvation.
A year passes. Gilbert pursues a rumour of Helen's impending wedding, only to find that Mr. Lawrence (with whom he has reconciled) is marrying Helen's friend, Esther Hargrave. He goes to Grassdale, and discovers that Helen is now wealthy and lives at her estate in Staningley. He travels there, but is plagued by worries that she is now far above his station. He hesitates at the entry-gate. By chance, he encounters Helen, her aunt, and young Arthur. The two lovers reconcile and marry.
Helen and her family
- Helen Lawrence Huntingdon, also Mrs Graham (Graham is her mother's maiden name). The protagonist of the novel and the tenant of Wildfell Hall. An Elizabethan mansion, Wildfell Hall is the place where she and her brother were born. After their mother's death she goes to live with their aunt and uncle in Staningley Manor, while her brother, Frederick, remains with their father.
- Master Arthur Huntingdon, the son of Arthur Huntingdon and Helen. Has a strong resemblance to his uncle, Frederick, which gives rise to gossip.
- Mr. Maxwell, Helen's wealthy uncle.
- Peggy Maxwell, Helen's aunt, who tries to warn her against marriage with Huntingdon.
- Frederick Lawrence, Helen's brother. Helps her to escape from Huntingdon and lends her money, so she can paint again.
Huntingdon and his circle
- Arthur Huntingdon, Helen's abusive and alcoholic husband. He is a Byronic figure of great fascination but also of hardly-concealed moral failings. Nevertheless when he becomes ill (falling from his horse when drunk and injuring his leg badly), Helen returns to Grassdale to take care of him. He is thought to be modelled on Branwell
Patrick Branwell Brontë was a painter and poet, the only son of the Brontë family, and the brother of the writers Charlotte, Emily, and Anne.-Youth:...
.
- Annabella Wilmot, Lady Lowborough, Arthur Huntington's paramour. She is flirtatious, bold and exquisitely beautiful, but her unfaithfulness and debauchery lead her to self-destruction.
- Lord Lowborough, one of Arthur's friends and Anabella's husband, apathetic but devoted. It's clear that he truly loves Annabella and her conjugal infidelity makes him suffer.
- Ralph Hattersley, a friend of Huntingdon and husband of Milicent, who he marries because he wants a quiet wife who will let him do what he likes with no word of reproach or complaint. He mistreats his wife. "I sometimes think she has no feeling at all; and then I go on till she cries - and that satisfies me," - he tells Helen. But when he reforms himself, he become a loving husband and father.
- Mr. Grimsby, one of Arthur's friends, misogynist
Misogyny is the hatred or dislike of women or girls. Philogyny, meaning fondness, love or admiration towards women, is the antonym of misogyny. The term misandry is the term for men that is parallel to misogyny...
. Helps him to conceal his affair with Annabella.
Linden-Car Farm inhabitants
- Gilbert Markham, a twenty-four year old farmer, and narrator in the novel. Although he is the hero of the novel, Markham is noted for his imperfect nature, exhibiting jealousy, moodiness, and anger.
- Fergus Markham, Gilbert's younger brother, high-spirited and witty. Gets Linden-Car Farm after Gilbert goes to live with Helen in Staningley.
- Rose Markham, a smart and pretty girl. Gilbert's younger sister and friend of Millward sisters.
- Mrs. Markham, Gilbert's mother, great admirer of Reverend Millward and his ideas.
Ryecote Farm inhabitants
- Jane Wilson, a friend of Eliza Millward and scandalmonger. Tries to ensnare Frederick Lawrence, but when Gilbert reveals to him her hatred of his sister Helen, Frederick breaks off their relationship.
- Richard Wilson, Jane's brother. Succeeds Reverend Millward to the vicarage of Lindenhope and eventually marries his daughter, the plain and unattractive Mary.
- Robert Wilson, brother of Jane and Richard, a rough countrified farmer.
- Mrs. Wilson, mother of Wilson children and a talebearer like her daughter.
The Vicarage inhabitants
- Eliza Millward, daughter of the vicar, friend of Jane Wilson and like her a scandalmonger. Gilbert carries on a half-serious flirtation with her before he first meets Helen.
- Mary Millward, Eliza's elder sister, she is the direct opposite of her. Plain, quiet, sensible girl, housekeeper and family drudge. She is trusted and valued by her father, loved and courted by all: children and poor people, dogs and cats; and slighted and neglected by everybody else.
- Reverend Michael Millward, Eliza's and Mary's father. Man of fixed principles, strong prejudices and regular habits. A man of unshakable opinions, he considers anyone who disagrees with them deplorably ignorant.
The Grove inhabitants
- Walter Hargrave, a friend of Arthur and, first of all, dangerous admirer of Helen while she is still living with her husband. A cousin of Annabella Wilmot.
- Millicent Hargrave, Walter's sister and Helen's close friend. Meek and calm. Married to Ralph Hattersley against her will, but with the lapse of time and Ralph's reform they start to love each other.
- Esther Hargrave, the younger sister of Milicent and Walter, and Helen's friend. Unlike her sister she is bold, high-spirited and independent. Eventually marries Helen's brother, Frederick Lawrence.
- Mrs. Hargrave, mother of the three Hargrave children, a hard and stingy woman. Adores her only son and tries to marry off her daughters as soon as possible.
Other characters
- Mr. Boarham, one of Helen’s suitors prior to her marriage. However, Helen ultimately refuses his marriage proposal because she is repulsed by his dull conversation and considers that they are too different to each other. Helen prefers to spell his name 'Bore'em'.
- Mr. Wilmot, the uncle of Annabella Wilmot and another of Helen's suitors, whom she considers a scoundrel.
- Rachel, a servant and friend of Helen and her son. Has taken care of Helen since her birth.
- Alice Myers, an unskilled governess
A governess is a girl or woman employed to teach and train children in a private household. In contrast to a nanny or a babysitter, she concentrates on teaching children, not on meeting their physical needs...
of little Arthur and another paramour of the elder Huntingdon.
- Benson, a servant at Grassdale Manor. Has compassion for Helen in her misfortune and helps her escape.
- Jack Halford, an esquire
Esquire is a term of West European origin . Depending on the country, the term has different meanings...
, husband of Rose Markham and the addressee of Gilbert's letter.
Timeline
The novel is set between Regency and
Victorian timesThe Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
.
- 1793 - Arthur Huntingdon born.
- 1803 - Helen Lawrence born at Wildfell Hall; Gilbert Markham born.
- 1821 - the beginning of Helen's diary (1 June). She is back from her first season in London where she met Arthur; Wedding of Helen and Arthur (20 December).
- 1822 - Arthur junior born at Grassdale Manor (25 December).
- 1824 - Helen reveals Arthur's affair with Annabella (7 October).
- 1827 - Helen flees to Wildfell Hall with Rachel and little Arthur (24 October).
- 1828 - Helen goes back to Grassdale to take care of ill Arthur (4 November); Arthur dies (5 December).
- 1830 - Gilbert and Helen are married (August).
- 1847 - Gilbert ends his letter to Jack Halford and narrative (10 June).
Alcoholism
In
The Tenant, Huntingdon and most of his friends are heavy drinkers. Lord Lowborough is 'the drunkard by necessity' 'whom misfortune has overtaken, and who, instead of bearing up manfully against it, endeavors to drown his sorrows in liquor.' Arthur, however, is the 'drunkard from excess of indulgence in youth'.
Only Ralph Hattersley, husband of the meek Milicent, whom he mistreats, and Lord Lowborough reform their lives. Helen's undesirable admirer Walter Hargrave has never been such a heavy drinker as Arthur and his friends and he indicates this to her, in an attempt to win her favour.
Arthur and Lord Lowborough particularly seem affected by the traditional signs of alcoholism. They frequently drink themselves into incoherence and on awakening after their 'orgies' they drink again, to feel better. Lord Lowborough understands that he has a problem and with willpower and strenuous effort overcomes his addiction.
Arthur continues drinking even when he injures himself falling from a horse, which eventually leads to his death.
Ralph, although he drinks heavily with his friends, does not seem to be as much afflicted by alcoholism as by his way of life. Once he resolves to spend his time in the country with Millicent and their children, away from London and its temptations, he becomes a happy man. Mr. Grimsby, by contrast, continues his degradation, going from bad to worse and eventually dying in a brawl.
Huntingdon's son Arthur becomes addicted to alcohol through his father's efforts. But Helen, unwilling to let her son be a drunkard like his father, begins to add to his wine a small quantity of tartar-emetic 'just enough to produce inevitable nausea and depression without positive sickness'. Very soon the boy begins to be made to feel ill by the very smell of alcohol.
Gender relations
Gilbert's mother holds the doctrine that it is 'the husband's business to please himself, and hers [i.e. the wife's] to please him'. The portrayal of Helen, in contrast, emphasises her capacity for autonomy rather than submitting to male authority, and the corrective role of women in relation to men.
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is thus considered by some a feminist novel.
Marriage
Until the passing of the
Married Women's Property ActThe Married Women's Property Act 1870 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that allowed women to legally be the rightful owners of the money they earned and to inherit property.-Background:...
in 1870, under English law a wife had no independent legal existence, and therefore no right to own property or to enter into legal contracts separately from her husband, to sue for divorce, or for the control and custody of her children.
Helen is misled by ideas of romantic love and duty into the delusion that she can repair her husband’s conduct. Hattersley declares that he wants a pliant wife who will not interfere with his fun, but the truth that comes out later is that he really wants quite the opposite. Milicent can't resist her mother's pressing, so she marries Ralph against her own will. Wealthy Annabella wants only a title, while Lord Lowborough truly and devotedly loves her. The social climber Jane Wilson seeks wealth.
Motherhood
Helen escapes from her husband in violation of English law not for herself but for young Arthur's sake. She wants to "obviate his becoming such a gentleman as his father".
Piety
Helen never forsakes her devotion to her religion and its moral precepts and after all torments she endures she is rewarded with wealth and a happy second marriage.
Helen's best friend, the meek and patient Milicent Hargrave, in contrast humbly tolerates all her husband's vices before he, with Helen's assistance, reforms himself.
Mary Millward and Richard Wilson marry after a secret engagement. They are slighted and neglected by most of their neighbours and relations. Helen makes friends with Mary, entrusting little Arthur only to her care. Mary, like Gilbert and his sister Rose, refuses to believe anything scandalous about Helen without knowing her true background. They sense her good nature that is not easily bent to vice.
Woman artist
In
The Tenant Brontë constructs remarriage as a comparative and competitive practice that restricts Helen's rights and talents. Helen's artistic ability plays a central role in her relationships with both Gilbert and Arthur. Her alternating freedom to paint and inability to do so on her own terms not only complicate Helen's definition as wife, widow, and artist, but also enable Brontë to criticize the domestic sphere as established by marriage and re-established with remarriage.
In the beginning of her diary, the young and unmarried Helen is already defining herself as an artist. She writes that her drawings "suit me best, for I can draw and think at the same time." All her early drawings reveal her private and true feelings for Arthur Huntingdon, feelings that will lead her to overlook his true character and lose herself to marriage. Nevertheless, in addition to revealing Helen's true desires, the self-expression of her artwork also defines her as an artist. That she puts so much of herself into her paintings and drawings attests to this self-definition.
After her marriage, Helen has accepted the nineteenth-century ideal wherein the wife manages a household, cherishes her children and husband, helps the poor and goes to church. As Elizabeth Langland notes, this domestic ideal "endorsed public management behind a façade of private retirement", keeping the wife engaged with duties that left little time for such activities as painting. She no longer has the power to pursue her own art. Although his demolition suppress her artistic talent, Helen reclaims her artistic talent as her own, distinct from her husband's possession of her art, and of her.
After moving from Grassdale Manor, Helen acquires the freedom to own and practise her art. By remarrying she risks losing this freedom, so Gilbert's quest to marry Helen is the more competitive in that he must not only win her heart, but also battle with the loss of legal authority and ownership that remarriage will bring her.
Helen's paintings reveal the truth of her situation even as she strives to conceal it: just as her early sketch lets Arthur know of her love, so the painting of Wildfell Hall, deceptively labelled "Fernley Manor," confirms her desperate role as a runaway wife.
Reception
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall had an instant phenomenal success and rapidly outsold Emily's
Wuthering HeightsWuthering Heights is a novel by Emily Brontë published in 1847. It was her only novel and written between December 1845 and July 1846. It remained unpublished until July 1847 and was not printed until December after the success of her sister Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre...
. Within six weeks, the novel was sold out.
However, the critical reception was mixed—praise for the novel's "power" and "effect" and sharp criticism for being "coarse".
Charlotte BrontëCharlotte Brontë was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood, whose novels are English literature standards...
herself, Anne's sister, wrote to her publisher that it "hardly seems to me desirable to choice of subject in that work is a mistake." Many critics mistakenly interpreted Anne's warning of the danger of debauchery as an approval of dissipation. The
North American Review criticized Gilbert as "fierce, proud, moody, jealous, revengeful, and sometimes brutal", and though it admitted that Helen was "strong-minded", but complained about her lack of "lovable or feminine virtues in her composition". It concluded, "The reader of Acton Bell gains no enlarged view of mankind, giving a healthy action to his sympathies, but is confined to a narrow space of life, and held down, as it were, by main force, to witness the wolfish side of his nature literally and logically set forth." The
Spectator and others misunderstood the book's intentions, accusing it of "a morbid love for the coarse, not to say the brutal".
A reviewer in
Sharpe's London Magazine wrote an article warning his readers against reading the book, especially his lady readers. His review noting its "profane expressions, inconceivably coarse language, and revolting scenes and descriptions by which its pages are disfigured".
In response, Anne wrote her now famous preface to the second edition in which she defended her object in writing the novel, saying that she did not write with the intent of amusing the reader or gratifying her own taste, but because she "wished to tell the truth, for truth always conveys its own moral to those who are able to receive it". She added that she was "at a loss to conceive how a man should permit himself to write anything that would be really disgraceful to a woman, or why a woman should be censured for writing anything that would be proper and becoming for a man".
In September, the
Rambler published another hostile review, opining that Acton and Currer Bell were probably one Yorkshire woman, and while allowing that the writer was clever and vigorous, it denounced the "truly offensive and sensual spirit" in the novel, saying that it contained "disgusting scenes of debauchery" and was "neither edifying, nor true to life, nor full of warning". Around the same time,
Sharpe's Magazine warned ladies against reading
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, saying that it was not a "fit subject matter for the pages of a be obtruded by every circulating library-keeper upon the notice of our sisters, wives, and daughters".
However, there were a few positive reviews to balance this. The
Athenaeum called it "the most interesting novel which we have read for a month past".
Analysis
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall challenged the prevailing morals of the
Victorian eraThe Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
. Especially shocking was Helen's slamming of her bedroom door in the face of her husband after continuing abuse, thereby overturning the sexual politics of the time. One critic went so far as to pronounce it "utterly unfit to be put into the hands of girls", though another cited it as "the most entertaining novel we have read in a month past." It is considered by some to be a
feministFeminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
novel. The main character, Helen, is spirited and forthright, unafraid to speak to the men in her life with frankness. Anne Brontë portrays this approvingly, in contrast to the meekness of Milicent who is trampled and ignored by her unrepentant husband. Helen leaves with her beloved son in tow.
Vice is not unique to the men, however; Lady Lowborough's
adulteryAdultery is sexual infidelity to one's spouse, and is a form of extramarital sex. It originally referred only to sex between a woman who was married and a person other than her spouse. Even in cases of separation from one's spouse, an extramarital affair is still considered adultery.Adultery is...
has a particularly devastating effect on her husband, and the malice of Eliza Millward is poisonous to the entire community. The eternal struggle between good and evil is emphasised by heavy use of Biblical references: sinners who repent and listen to reason are brought within the fold, while those who remain stubborn tend to meet violent or miserable ends.
The novel also has slight some resemblance to Emily's
Wuthering Heights. The preponderance of "H" names (Halford, Helen, Huntingdon, Hattersley, and Hargrave) recalls her novel, and there are similarities in the names and locations of Wildfell Hall and Wuthering Heights. Alcoholism and physical/emotional abuse are recurrent themes in Wuthering Heights, as seen in Isabella's escape from the cruelty of her husband Heathcliff. But there is a marked difference between Emily's
romanticismRomanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
and Anne's
realismRealism, Realist or Realistic are terms that describe any manifestation of philosophical realism, the belief that reality exists independently of observers, whether in philosophy itself or in the applied arts and sciences. In this broad sense it is frequently contrasted with Idealism.Realism in the...
and
moralityMorality is the differentiation among intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad . A moral code is a system of morality and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code...
.
Suppression
A great success on initial publication, the work was almost forgotten in subsequent years. When it became due for a reprint just over a year after Anne's death, Charlotte prevented its re-publication. Some believe that Charlotte's suppression of the book was to protect her younger sister's memory from adverse onslaught to her character. However, this seems rather a weak argument when it is considered that Charlotte did not take the same action on Emily's behalf, although
Wuthering Heights had brought similar accusations of Emily, and despite always appearing closer to her than to Anne. Others believe Charlotte was jealous of her younger sister. Even before Anne's death, Charlotte had criticised the novel, stating in a letter to W.S. Williams: "That it had faults of execution, faults of art, was obvious, but faults of intention of feeling could be suspected by none who knew the writer. For my part, I consider the subject unfortunately chosen - it was one the author was not qualified to handle at once vigorously and truthfully. The simple and natural - quiet description and simple pathos - are, I think Acton Bell's forte. I liked
Agnes Grey better than the present work." Interestingly, this was the only known praise Charlotte ever gave of
Agnes Grey.
Adaptations
The novel was adapted into two television films, both of which were made by the
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
. The
1968 versionThe Tenant of Wildfell Hall is the first adaptation of Anne Brontë's novel of the same name, produced by BBC and directed by Peter Sasdy. The serial stars Janet Munro as Helen Graham, Bryan Marshall as Gilbert Markham and Corin Redgrave as her spoiled and drunkard husband Arthur Huntington.-Plot...
starred
Janet Munro-Career:Munro starred in three Disney motion picture releases, Darby O'Gill and the Little People , Third Man on the Mountain and Swiss Family Robinson , as well as The Horsemasters , which aired on Disney's weekly television series...
, while
Tara FitzGeraldTara Anne Cassandra Fitzgerald is an English actress who has appeared in feature films, television, radio and the stage....
,
Toby StephensToby Stephens is an English stage, television and film actor who has appeared in films in both Hollywood and Bollywood. He is best known for playing megavillain Gustav Graves in the James Bond film Die Another Day , Edward Fairfax Rochester in the BBC television adaptation of Jane Eyre and Philip...
,
Rupert GravesRupert Graves is an English film, television and theatre actor. He is best known for his role as DI Lestrade in the critically acclaimed television series Sherlock.-Early life:...
and
James PurefoyJames Brian Mark Purefoy is an English actor best known for portraying Mark Antony in the HBO series Rome.-Early life and work:...
starred in the
1996 versionThe Tenant of Wildfell Hall is a 1996 British television serial adaptation of Anne Brontë's novel of the same name, produced by BBC and directed by Mike Barker...
.
The novel was also adapted into a three-act opera (following the original three volume structure) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with the music composed by Garrett Hope and the libretto by Steven Soebbing.
External links