Anne Bronte’s The Tenant of Wildfel Hall is unlike any novel that I have read so far. Not getting into the details of the story which was considered far too liberal or immoral for those times, I shall touch upon the power of the novel for presenting two remarkable characters in Mr. Arthur Huntingdon and Ms Helen Huntingdon. The conflict of both these characters, the first one an uncaring, selfish, voluptuous, inhuman husband and Helen a steady, patient, devout and dutiful wife, is the bedrock of the novel. The union of these two, engendered more from an initial infatuation or euphoria, a fascination for his exuberance, charm and panache by Helen and from a single minded pursuit from his side to posses this choicest of jewels, descends into irreconcilable agony as he treats her only as a showpiece and an adornment than as a person.
Helen is caught in a matrimonial relation which is vehemently exploitative. Her genuine sympathy is scorned at, her forbearance is ridiculed and her husband openly casts her away, saying she is too icy and ascetic for him and that any of his friends is welcome to have her. He is away from his wife for months together in far off lands or London, indulging in his favorite vices of drinking and debauchery. Things become downright vile when Mr. Huntingdon starts an illicit relation with Lady Lowborough (Arabella) the wife of his friend Lord Lowborough. Helen’s relationship with her husband Mr. Huntingdon goes beyond the marital crisis. It is more to do with the evil influence the father starts to exert on the child to spurn his wife. Ms. Huntingdon’s care and admonition are easily brushed away and young Arthur is encouraged to indulge in all the bad habits like swearing, cursing and drinking which are essentials for a man according to Mr. Huntingdon. Helen is unable to salvage anything from this deteriorating relationship and has to depend on Rachel,her maid, for a paltry loan towards the travelling expenses. When he brings in a mistress Ms. Myers on the pretext of a governess for little Arthur, their son, Helen vacates to the dilapidated abode at Wildfel Hall which used to be her home in childhood. She starts living in Wildfel hall with her faithful servant Rachel and her son Arthur under an assumed name ‘Mrs. Graham’ as a widow. Thus the name ‘The Tenant of Wildfel Hall.’
But persecution is not very far from encroaching upon her conscious seclusion. Many in the neighborhood are curious about this stranger. They are inquisitive about her past and spread vile rumors about her closeness and fondness towards Mr. Lawrence, who is actually her brother. Her elegance and beauty although shrouded under a claimed widowhood, are too extraordinary to go unnoticed. She comes out of her shell and the hall to fulfill her responsibilities as a parishioner, in spite of great risk to herself from being found out and forced back to Grassdale.
At Wildfel hall she becomes attached to Mr. Gilbert Markram, who worships and loves her. He stands firmly with her in spite of the vilification campaign against Helen in the parish. Helen awaits a change in her fate and even plans to move away to another undisclosed location. However at Grassdale Mr. Huntingdon falls ill from an accident in one of his hunting expeditions. Helen goes back to Grassdale to nurse her ailing husband, who desperately clutches to her for rejuvenation and salvation, more from his selfishness than honest repentance and remorse. His recovery is worsened by his drinking bouts. His cussedness and spitefulness he carries with him to the grave. After his eventual death it is not difficult for Helen to leave his memory aside, except that she has been drained emotionally and physically by this doomed husband. Her life regains composure and balance as she leaves Grassdale and goes to live with her aunt. She is now a beautiful, rich widow with a loving son and a caring aunt. The novel ends with the happy union of Mr. Markram with Helen and their matrimony is the happy reverse of all that she had to go through at Grassdale with Arthur.
Marital love and infidelity is the most important theme of the novel. Anne Bronte explores the psyche of a wounded woman’s heart. She elevates the character of Helen Huntingdon, bestowing immense maturity and patience upon her. Against the advances of Mr. Huntingdon’s friends, who sense his dislike of her, Helen remains steadfast to her integrity. In her character we are presented a picture of a woman aspiring towards self-will and determinism, since she takes all the important decisions by herself. The emotional strength of Helen is amazing. Pitted against a hostile society, especially at Wildfel hall, Helen holds herself remarkably. She doesn’t descend into the depths of sin that her husband has prepared for her. Her moral fiber is very strong and her belief in her destiny as ordained by God is unshakeable.
She doesn’t want to spite Huntingdon, even when he is sick and invalid. The battle that she has fought in her heart tells her to do her duty and leave the rest to God. Mr. Huntingdon is unable to receive this sort of plainness and truthfulness, bred as he is on flattery, self glorification and wantonness.
The disparity between Man and woman is another theme. The social edifice of those days was extremely in favor of Men and women could have little freedom except in small things like running the household or ordering the meals. Even their fortune was attached to their husbands. This unequal social construct translated into well-defined roles and contexts which were (and are still) exploitative and oppressive.
The addiction to alcohol needs to be mentioned as another important theme. Helen has to temper the drinks that young Author demands with a repulsive substance to unhook him from the habit which his father has willingly and cunningly cultivated in him. The deleterious effect of this dangerous habit which brings the physical, intellectual and moral decline of Arthur and his friends (except those who persist in their effort towards reformation: Ralph and Lord Lowborough) is portrayed with great detail by the novelist. This scourge of a lazy, decadent, dissipated, aristocratic society of those days possesses Helen’s husband like a sucking leach.
Economic independence may be a parameter to measure social and intellectual freedom. Helen’s efforts to detach herself from the family by becoming an amateur artist are shunned by Arthur when he discovers her sketches kept ready for sale. Again at Wildfel hall, when she declares that she aims to make a living out of selling pictures and portraits, her effort is looked down upon and even sneered at in private conversations. For all these reasons, the Tenant of Wildfel hall has been called the first feminist novel.
“I’m done with her. You are any of you free to have her.” Mr. Huntingdon. The holy bond of matrimony that chains a woman to an acrimonious yoke is excised by Helen Huntingdon. Things may have changed since the publication of this remarkable novel but it has an outreach that is still fresh and relevant.