Masaryk University

Faculty of Arts

Department of English
and American Studies

English Language and Literature

Teaching English Language and Literature for
Secondary Schools

Petra Vycpálková

"Mary Wollenstonecraft's
Concept of Marriage and its Reflection in
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall"
Master’s Diploma Thesis

Supervisor: Bonita Rhoads, Ph. D.

2012
 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently,
using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

……………………………………………..
Bc. Petra Vycpálková
 Acknowledgement
I would like to thank my supervisor Bonita Rhoads for kind leadership of my work. I would also like to
thank my family and friends for all the support during my studies.
Table of Contents

Preface ...................................................................................................................................... 7

Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 9

1 Background Study ...............................................................................................................11

1.1 Concepts ........................................................................................................ 10

1.1.1 The Cult of Domesticity ............................................................................ 10

1.1.2 Angel in the House .................................................................................... 11

1.2 Conduct Books and Literature Appropriate for Female Readership .... 13

1.3 Women and Their Writing............................................................................ 15

2 Mary Wollstonecraft and A Vindication of the Rights of Woman................................. 19

2.1 Biography ....................................................................................................... 19

2.2 A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral

Subjects ................................................................................................................ 20

2.2.1 Main Objectives and Criticism ................................................................. 20

2.2.2 Content and Ideas on the Notion of Marriage Explored ...................... 23

3 Anne Brontë and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall ................................................................. 29

3.1 Biography ....................................................................................................... 29

3.2 The Tenant of Wildfell Hall .......................................................................... 30

4 Analysis ................................................................................................................................ 34

4.1 Reasons for Marriage and Courtship ........................................................ 33

4.1.2 Wealth ......................................................................................................... 34

4.1.2 Obedient Wife ............................................................................................ 37

4.1.2 Love and Friendship ................................................................................. 39

4.2 Unhappy Marriage and its Consequences ............................................... 43

 4.3 Mothers and Upbringing of Children .......................................................... 49

4.4 Traditional versus Reformist ....................................................................... 54

Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 59

Bibliography ............................................................................................................................ 64

List of Primary Sources ...................................................................................... 64

List of Secondary Sources ................................................................................. 63

List of Internet Sources ...................................................................................... 63

Appendix 1 .............................................................................................................................. 67

Appendix 2 .............................................................................................................................. 69

Summary ................................................................................................................................. 71

Resumé ................................................................................................................................... 72
Preface

The aim of my master’s thesis, entitled "Mary Wollstonecraft's Concept of

Marriage and its Reflection in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall," is to analyse Mary

Wollstonecraft's ideas on the rights of women as she introduces them in her work A

Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects

(1792) and their representation in the novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848) by

Anne Brontë. The thesis consists of five main parts: the Introduction, Background

Study, Biographies, Analysis and Conclusion.

First, I will provide background information on the key issues which I raise in

the course of the thesis. I will also note the importance of the novel and its role for

women writers and various concepts concerning women, their role in society and

literature, such as the "angel in the house" concept and "the cult of domesticity." In

the "Biography" section, I will concentrate on the lives of both writers and their key

works. I will provide bibliographical details of Mary Wollstonecraft and Anne Brontë

which shaped their work to support my argument. Furthermore, I will provide

information about the key works of this thesis: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. In the final section, I will focus on the analysis of

Mary Wollstonecraft's ideas and their reflection in Brontë's novel. This section will

provide a close analysis of the vindication and the novel. I will analyse by topics

examined in the vindication and will consequently provide their examples in the

novel. Furthermore, I will provide insight into the tension between traditional views of

women and the reformist ideas of "a new woman."

7
Introduction

Mary Wollstonecraft was a great thinker and propagator of ideas on the

equality between men and women. In her famous work A Vindication of the Rights of

Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, she introduces her

revolutionary ideas. Wollstonecraft fought for women’s rights already in the 18th

century, which was daring indeed at that time because the society was strongly

patriarchal. Her book therefore aroused sharp criticism and alarm in general. Until A

Vindication of the Rights of Woman appeared, many female writers had secretly

raised the matter of their unsatisfactory position; Mary Wollstonecraft was however

the first woman to present her distress and dissatisfaction openly. Indeed, a number

of novels discussed the position of women in society where the matter was usually

set into a strong story of a heroine. The heroine had to face hardship caused not only

by the situation she found herself in but mainly by her gender. The novel was a genre

not yet enjoying a great reputation and furthermore, when the author was female, it

was not even considered serious.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is the first work of the kind in which a

woman openly criticizes the traditional role of women in various spheres of their lives,

such as marriage, the process of education, or even in religious matters. Moreover,

the style is also noticeable as Mary Wollstonecraft writes A Vindication of the Rights

of Woman in a purely academic style. She proposes arguments and gives various

reasons to support them in order to be seriously considered. She definitely does not

intend her work to be a piece for entertainment and she therefore determined her

work as serious by choosing an academic instead of novelistic style.

Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman was an influential

8
work in her times. It influenced the societal manner of thinking but moreover, it

encouraged female writers to express their ideas more openly in their novels. In my

thesis, I would therefore like to prove that Mary Wollstonecraft's ideas on women’s

rights had a great impact, inspired women writers, and were consequently reflected in

the work of fiction. Certainly, one of the novels influenced by her great thoughts is

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë. My intention is to analyse Wollstonecraft's

ideas and examine them in Anne Brontë's novel, as I find this novel a great example

of the heroine’s struggles between the traditional role of a woman and the desires

and needs of a "new" woman. Traditional values, also referred to as the "angel in the

house" concept or "the cult of domesticity" and the new, independent woman create

great tension.

9
1 Background Study

The Background Study will provide three main sub-chapters dealing with the

position of women within society. Furthermore, it will deal with various forms of writing

which women experienced both as readers and writers. The main focus will be

conduct books and novels designated for female readership in order to support

traditional roles and expectations., as all the traditional expectations originated in

concepts which provided an explanation of how women were perceived and the

expectations of the society. Thus, one sub-chapter will examine two of the most well-

known concepts, the "cult of domesticity" and the "angel in the house". The last sub-

chapter will concentrate on women who overcame the passive role and overtook the

active, as well as women who devoted their lives to writing and thus contributed to

the rise of the novel as a genre not only by women and for women but for the broader

audience.

1.1 Concepts

1.1.1 The Cult of Domesticity

The "cult of domesticity" represents a general concept which prescribes

certain roles and characteristics to women. It was favoured not only in Victorian

England but also with American Puritans. The characteristics were based on gender,

as women were recognized by their "emotional qualities" as opposed to men who

were recognised by their "economical and political qualities" which determined their

roles within the society. The women's task was to take care of the family and

household (Armstrong 15). According to "The Cult of Domesticity and True

Womanhood," the concept has four ideals: Piety, Purity, Submissiveness and

10
Domesticity.

Firstly, an ideal woman should devote herself to religion to purge the world of

its sins through unconditional and pure love. The woman should suffer for her family

to secure its peace and welfare. Secondly, the woman should be pure and sexually

virtuous. This ideal stresses the importance of virginity as the greatest gift to a

woman's husband on the wedding night. The woman must not lose her purity and

become a "fallen woman," as this will reprobate her from the society. Therefore, she

will not have a chance to marry an appropriate man and thus fulfil her goal as a

woman. Thirdly, the woman should be passive and absolutely devoted to her

husband (Lavender). According to the Puritan doctrine, men's and women's equality

lays in the difference of the sexual roles they fulfilled; however, a wife was definitely

subordinate to her husband (Armstrong 18). Lastly, the woman should be

domesticated: she should be at home and fulfil her duties as a wife, mother and

supervisor of the household. To maintain her family is her greatest duty.

Certainly, the "cult of domesticity" portrays the ideal woman put on a pedestal

by society. However, the concept is also a means of control and actually prescribes

certain qualities and roles for women to follow. The "angel in the house" concept

represents the general idea of the "cult of domesticity" in Victorian England.

1.1.2 Angel in the House

The concept of the "angel in the house" is the representation of the general

concept the "cult of domesticity." Coventry Patmore made the "angel in the house"

concept widespread by encapsulating its main ideas in his series of poems The Angel

in the House (1854) which celebrate true love realized through marriage. Patmore

was inspired by the love of his wife, Emily, in that he perceived her as the perfect

11
wife, the Victorian ideal of a woman. (Victorian Web)

The Angel in the House depicts the process of how Felix Vaughan, the main

male character, courts and marries Honoria. Felix is an active character in the

process of courtship while Honoria is passive, always waiting at home for her suitor

to come. Since Honoria's virtue is to please her husband, as exhibited in the passage

"man must be pleased; but him to please is woman's pleasure," (Patmore 53) the

woman actually develops through her husband.

Her heart is thrice as rich in bliss,

She's three times gentler than before;

He gains a right to call her his,

Now she through him is so much more (Patmore 74)

In addition, Patmore provides more qualities an Angel should possess. Honoria is

always cheerful and blissful, "she must be glad as well as good".

(59). She is often compared to a flower; this imagery ties to her naturalness and

fragility. Moreover, Felix often addresses her as a pet which underlines her

subordinate position. She is like a child and devotes herself to ordinary activities

usually also connected to nature; therefore she feeds birds, waters flowers or pets a

dove.

Furthermore, the poem does not only describe the perfect, angelic wife, it also

shifts the ideal from heaven into a house and describes it as divine: "Were you for

mortal woman meant?" (3)

She's not of the earth, although her light,

As lantern'd by her body, makes

A piece of it past bearing bright (Patmore 69).

Since the Middle Ages, the ideal of a woman was based upon the Virgin Mary as a

12
symbol of purity which perfectly fit the concept; in Victorian England this notion

however shifted to the "angel in the house" transgression from divine into domestic

(Gilbert & Gubar 20).

The "angel in the house" was the ideal of womanhood not only in real life but

also in fiction. Women were described either as angelic or as monstrous with the

angelic character always stressed as an example for female readership. Later,

Goethe summarized the philosophical background of the "angel in the house"

concept in his novel Wilhelm Meister's Travels. His character, Makaria, serves as an

example of the angelic figure:

She ... leads a life of almost pure contemplation ... in considerable isolation on a

country estate ... a life without external events - a life whose story cannot be told

as there is no story. Her existence is not useless. On the contrary ... she shines

like a beacon in a dark world, like a motionless lighthouse by which others, the

travellers whose lives do have a story, can set their course. When those involved

in feeling and action turn to her in their need, they are never dismissed without

advice and consolation. She is an ideal, a model of selflessness and of purity of

heart (Gilbert & Gubar 22).

To conclude, the "angel in the house" concept created an aesthetic depiction

of a woman not only in reality but also in fiction which literally killed her true identity.

To be able to start writing independently and free from all prejudices, women had to

kill both this ideal portrayal of a woman, the "angel in the house," and the evil

depiction of a woman, "monster in the house" ( Gilbert & Gubar 19).

1.2 Conduct Books and Literature Appropriate for Female Readership

Education became a great means of social control over society. Since many

13
middle-class people became literate, they started reading in their free time.

Consequently, reading became one of the most powerful tools of government control.

Indeed, many middle-class women started to read novels (Armstrong 17). During the

eighteenth century, novel-reading was equal to sin, but this notion gradually changed

towards the end of the century. Certain novels were found as an appropriate

occupation for women. These novels of the time strengthened the imagery of an ideal

angel-woman and also warned through the portrayal of women-monsters (Armstrong

18). Apart from novels, conduct books and other works of instruction were provided

which supported the desirable ideal of domesticity.

Conduct books were a favourite during the late 18th century. Conduct books

usually provided standards by a patriarchal society which were strongly supported in

women. The main "effort was to make a woman desirable to a man of a good social

position" as only an appropriate woman will marry a man of her preference. These

books of advice instructed women on several matters. The main objectives describe

the qualities which a proper future wife should possess in order to wed. She should

be educated according to the standards, but should "lack the competitive desires and

worldly ambitions" which were the qualities ascribed to males (Armstrong 59). While

marriage happened to be the goal of every young lady, it actually became the sense

of her life. Conduct books instructed how to get a perfect husband and further taught

how to take care of a husband after the wedding. They dealt with household matters

such as cooking and the upbringing of children, and also taught economic matters.

They prescribed women a certain position which society expected from them and

discouraged them from getting involved in politics and the economy, as these

occupations would destroy virtues "essential to wife and mother" (Armstrong 60).

Similar to conduct books were the novels of manners also referred to as books

14
of courtesy for women (Armstrong 61). The novels of manners possessed the same

characteristics, as their main goal was to instruct women on the standards of which

they were expected. However, apart from mere instructions, they provided a manual

of appropriate conduct with examples of undesirable behaviour to stress the

importance of the good manners a young lady should possess in order to marry a

respectable man. These novels were produced not only by male writers but also by

females, who were often accepted and referred to as lady novelists (Armstrong 97),

as this kind of book was accepted as a respectable fiction and widely read by female

readers. It is noticeable that many books devoted to women and about women were

entitled with female names such as Pamela,1 Evelina,2 or Jane Eyre.3 These novels

made the novel a respectable genre (Armstrong 21), as they were considered polite

and set a good example for young women (Armstrong 97).

Certainly, the main purpose of these books was to strengthen and support the

ideal women proposed by the "cult of domesticity" concept and the "angel in the

house" concept.

1.3 Women and Their Writing

Women had not attempted the pen for a long time, since they were under strict

control from the patriarchal society. Furthermore, an image of a desirable woman

which was based on the "angel in the house" concept was so widespread and

promoted that it became the further means of control over their character and

1 Pamela: or Virtue Rewarded (1740), a novel of manners, by Samuel Richardson

2 Evelina or the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World (1778), a novel of manners,

by Fanny Burney

3 Jane Eyre (1847), a social novel, by Charlotte Brontë

15
occupation. It had taken years for women to come to the state of affairs when they

dared overstep the boundaries set by society, as writing was not fit for women in a

man’s world. Thus, a pen was "so rigorously kept from them they must escape just

those male texts which, defining them as ‘Cyphers,’4 deny them the autonomy to

formulate alternatives to the authority that has imprisoned them and kept them from

attempting the pen" (Gilbert & Gubar 13).

However, several women dared to attempt the pen and thus they broke free of

the stereotypes and set into writing fiction in order to break the silence of their

gender. Certainly, the rise of fiction is greatly connected with women writers and their

stories on social matters. By the middle of the eighteenth century the novel was

known as a genre written particularly by women (Armstrong 97).

In her work Desire and Domestic Fiction (1987), Nancy Armstrong comments

on fiction as a genre discussing social disorder (39) which was "supposed to rewrite

political history as personal histories that elaborated on the courtship procedures

ensuring a happy domestic life." According to Armstrong, novels were especially

precise in grasping "the fragments of an agrarian and artisan culture when it recast

them as gender differences and contained them within a domestic framework" (38)

Certainly, novel was the genre which provided the most information on the situation

of women within society (48) and was particularly successful in portraying the social

matters of the period.

Originally, the writings of the period created and depicted the ideal of

womanhood (Armstrong 96) and thus reinforced the ideal of a woman-angel.

Therefore, female novelists attempted to redefine and reconstruct this ideal (Gilbert &

Gubar 77) by creating heroines who challenged the desired womanhood and

4 a person of no importance (The Free Dictionary Online)

16
overstepped their role, status and domesticity. Although, the novelists challenged the

traditional stereotypes they still perceived marriage as an important step in a

woman's life. Even though they often depicted marriage which changed the social

status of the woman and above all often also led to an affliction, particularly of the

female character (Armstrong 177) they still perceived marriage as a potential

solution. However, the heroines were depicted as strong characters who took on an

active role and sought their own personal fulfilment. Sometimes the novelists were so

passionately engaged in creating the strong woman character that they made them

rather melodramatic or even rebellious, acting out "the subversive impulses every

woman feels when she contemplates the ’deep-rooted’ evils of patriarchy" (Gilbert &

Gubar 76-77).

Unexpectedly, women writers were not favoured among men for destroying the

angelic image and therewith destroying the working social system which they found

satisfactory. For this reason, they adopted the woman-monster alongside the woman-

angel to discourage women from breaking the ideal.

From a male point of view, women who reject the submissive silence of

domesticity have been seen as terrible objects - Gorgons, Sirens, Scyllas, serpent-

Lamias, Mothers of Death or Goddesses of Night. But from a female point of view

the monster woman is simply a woman who seeks the power of self-articulation.

(Gilbert & Gubar 79)

Fortunately, by the time of the novel’s rise as a genre, many women found their position

within society unsatisfactory and strove to break the silence. One woman articulated her

distress towards the end of the eighteenth century and openly spoke for her gender in her

manifesto advocating woman's rights; the defender was Mary Wollstonecraft.

17
2 Mary Wollstonecraft and
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
2.1 Biography

Mary Wollstonecraft was born on 27 April 1759 in Spitalfields, London, as the

second of seven children. As the family encountered financial and social problems,

none of the children received formal education apart from Mary's brother Edward

(Tomaselli). During her childhood, Mary was exposed to the cruel behaviour of her

father towards his wife, she adopted a submissive nature to relieve Mr.

Wollstonecraft's hot-tempered and despotic outbursts (Godwin 9). However, William

Godwin5 describes Mary as "distinguished in early youth" and of "exquisite sensibility,

soundness of understanding, and decision of character" (9) which were qualities that

improved and developed throughout her life.

Indeed, Mary was extraordinary. She taught herself "in the progressive

ideology, politics and poetics of sensibility" (Sage 675), and she possessed a good

knowledge of various literary works and subjects thanks to influential friendships

which brightened her intellect. One of the most significant people was her dearest

friend, Fanny Blood (Tomaselli). Mary was impressed by her character to such an

extent that she attempted to improve in everything and devoted herself to writing and

literature with more effort (Godwin 20).

Apart from working as a lady’s companion and governess she, Fanny and her

5 William Godwin became Wollstonecraft's husband, after her death he completed Memoirs of

Mary Wollstonecraft about her life and work. The work is sentimental and demonstrates his affection

for her. In other words, his depiction of Mary is affectionate and idealistic, though frank. However, his

open portrayal of her unconventional lifestyle posthumously destroys her reputation.

18
sisters planned to establish a school as she was advocate for the education of

women. Unfortunately, in 1785 Fanny died; her death was one of the unhappy

moments of Mary’s life. Mary later left the project of establishing a school due to

financial problems that were partially relieved through the publication of her first book,

Thoughts on the Education of Daughters: with Reflections on Female Conduct in the

More Important Duties of Life (1787). She published the book with the help of her

friend and patron, Joseph Jonson with whom she published more of her works: The

Cave of Fancy (1787), Original Stories from Real Life; with Conversations, Calculated

to Regulate the Affections (1787), Form the Mind to Truth and Goodness (1788) or

her anthology, The Female Reader; Miscellaneous Pieces in Prose and Verse;

Selected from the Best Writers and Disposed under Proper Heads; for the

Improvement of Young Women (1789), which she published under the male name

“Mr. Cresswick, teacher of Elocution” (Tomaselli). Her male pseudonym indicates that

female authors were not taken as seriously as works published under a male name.

Apart from her own publishing, she reviewed, edited and translated several

books. Until the end of 1789, all her writing bore the features of morality and

aesthetics. In 1789, she reviewed a work, A Discourse on the Love of our Country, by

her old friend, Richard Price, which was attacked by Edmund Burke in his Reflections

on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London

Relative to that Event (1790). Therefore, Mary took up the pen and wrote defence of

Price's A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790), which marked her as a political

writer. She continued her political works and in 1792 published A Vindication of the

Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects.

In early 1793, she travelled to pro-revolutionary Paris where she developed a

relationship with an American merchant, Gilbert Imlay (Sage 676). Mary gave him a

19
daughter, Fanny; however, she and Imlay never married. Actually, Imlay did not love

her and the relationship gradually faded away. This led her to two suicide attempts

and the cruel realization that "the passions are not so easily brought to heel by

reason" (Tomaselli). After the breakup with Imlay, she formed a new relationship with

an old friend, political theorist and novelist, William Godwin, whom she married in

1797. Later that year, their daughter, Marry, later known as Mary Shelley and the

author of Frankenstein, was born. Mary Wollstonecraft died in 1798 from an infection

following her second daughter’s birth.

2.2 A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral

Subjects

2.2.1 Main Objectives and Criticism

Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Right of Woman was published in

1792 in London. The main proposal of supporting the equality of men and women

was so provocative that even a second edition appeared in the same year. The

editions in Dublin, Paris and America soon followed. Both London editions were

published with the help of her friend, Joseph Johnson. A Vindication introduced a

completely new "sub-genre of political pamphlet" which "combines aspects of a

political pamphlet with aspects of educational treatise" (Hodson 287).

Wollstonecraft was very influenced by the ideas of the French Revolution. Her

reaction to Burke, A Vindication of the Rights of Man (1790) established her as a

political writer. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman came soon thereafter and was

compiled within months or rather weeks as a reaction to the ideas of the French

Revolution. After following her experiences in Paris, Mary was so "full of sentiment of

liberty" and interested in struggle (Godwin 51) that she become enthusiastic for a

20
matter and perceived herself as a defender of one half of the human race (Godwin

53).

The main argument was inspired by the period when she ran a school. She

advocated the education of women as the brightening of their mind would make them

better wives, mothers and above all human beings, as up to then they were

oppressed and enslaved through ignorance. Wollstonecraft argues that education

would make better wives and mothers out of women, and they would become real

companions to their husbands and, moreover valuable members of society.

However, she does not only attack men, she also tries to persuade women to

follow her ideas as they seemed satisfied in their current state. While women are kept

away from education and have no rights or powers over their own lives they are

simply flattered to feel like goddesses, but have no real powers except the sexual

ones defined by their only role to give birth and consequently take care of the whole

family. Wollstonecraft therefore still stands for "sexual passivity, indolence, and

effortless power" as she does not support the usage of female sexual powers.

Consequently, A Vindication creates the notion of an "asexual rational woman" who

has "little on the emotional and physical side to do but suckle her baby and make

sure she does not overfondle it" (Wollstonecraft, Political Writings xxii-xxiii). Indeed,

Wollstonecraft goes far in her argument of creating a rational being out of a woman

by calling for suppression of a woman’s nature.

A Vindication was received with great shock as it was controversial, though the

first reviews were positive (Janes 293). Although the situation for women at that time

was slightly changing and many intellectuals were in favour of education for women,

as they agreed it would make them a more valuable part of society, Wollstonecraft's

idea on changing the social roles within the family and approaching the rights and

21
powers of the other, male, sex was inadmissible (Janes 294). Also, the idea of

including women in the public sphere (Ferguson 427) or giving them economic

independence was under strong opposition (Ferguson 432). In other words, women

were not desired to play an active part either the public sphere or the household

(Wollstonecraft, Political Writings xvi).

Unfortunately, with the publication of Memoirs, Wollstonecraft's reputation

broke down and all her works were degraded. Certainly, Godwin did not mean to

destroy his deceased wife's reputation, but his open depiction of her life with all the

details of her relationship with Gilbert Imlay, their illegitimate child, two suicide

attempts and last but not least her hasty marriage to William Godwin in the high state

of pregnancy led to severe criticism (Janes 297-298). All this led to an anti-Jacobin

attack against Wollstonecraft, her ideas, work and even against her mental health

(Janes 299). For example, Ferdinand Lundberg and Marynia Farnhan sharply

criticize her mental health in their article "Mary Wollstonecraft and the

Psychopathology of Feminism." They claim her to be "an extreme neurotic of a

compulsive type," further stating that from her illness "arose the ideology of feminism"

and also that "fateful book," A Vindication (Wollstonecraft, A Vindication 225-226).

They argue that the book originated from Wollstonecraft's hatred towards men, as

she had witnessed the despotic behaviour of her father towards her mother, who

endured it in silence. They further state that Wollstonecraft actually repeated her

mother's behaviour through the bad relationship with Imlay whom she greatly wanted

to marry. Thus, her hatred towards men strengthened and resulted in A Vindication.

Lundberg and Farnham based their harsh criticism on the correspondence between

Wollstonecraft and Imlay, which in their opinion, broke her mentally and the suicide

attempts just prove their argument correct about her mental disorder (Wollstonecraft,

22
A Vindication 225-229).

Although responses and reviews of A Vindication varied a great deal, it

certainly had an impact on the perception of and towards women, as at least two

female writers followed Wollstonecraft in her revolutionary ideas, namely Mary

Robinson and Mary Hays. Mary Robinson compiled Letters to the Women of

England, in the Injustice of Mental Subordination, with Anecdotes (1799) under a

pseudonym "Anne Frances Randall." Mary Hays already began to work on the

Appeal to the Men of Great Britain on behalf of the Women. Its publication, however

was postponed until 1798 due to the publication of A Vindication in 1792. Thus,

Hays's Appeal was published anonymously by John Johnson. In 1803, Hays

published an anonymous work defending Wollstonecraft's reputation, A Defence of

the Character and Conduct of the Late Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin which, though

published anonymously, was ascribed to Hays (Janes 300).

2.2.2 Content and Ideas on the Notion of Marriage Explored

Mary Wollstonecraft divides A Vindication of the Rights of Woman into thirteen

chapters in which she provides a detailed advocacy over the rights of women. She

often repeats her arguments and puts them in new connections. She dedicates A

Vindication to whole society as she pleads for her sex and strives for independence

and freedom (3), as women are rather slaves than the equal part of social system (5).

Her main argument suggests that the advancement of women in terms of education

would cause the advancement of whole society (4).

In the Introduction she stresses the importance of education, as it is apparent

from women conduct and manners that "their minds are not in a healthy state" due to

the lack of proper education (7). Although Wollstonecraft admits that women are, and

23
always will be, of less physical strength due to their physical construction as this is

the law of nature, she states that men tend to sink women even lower (8).

Wollstonecraft turns not only to men but also to women as to "rational creatures"

because she believes that flattering and keeping them in the state of "perpetual

childhood" just softens the "slavish dependence." Therefore, she encourages women

to strengthen both, body and mind, as "the soft phrases, susceptibility of heart,

delicacy of sentiment, and refinement of taste, are almost synonymous with epithets

of weakness" (9).

The first chapter "The Rights and Involved Duties of Mankind Considered"

argues that reason, virtue and knowledge distinguish an individual and place them

over the rank of a brute. Wollstonecraft states that all those qualities create a human

being that is able to follow their duties set by a society (12). Moreover, she is

convinced that "the more equality there is established among men, the more virtue

and happiness will reign in society" because the subordination injures morality (16-

17).

Chapters two and three consult the same topic of "The Prevailing Opinion of a

Sexual Character" where Wollstonecraft examines the stereotypes women encounter

since their childhood. Women are told from their infancy, and taught by the example

of their mothers, that a little knowledge of human weakness, justly termed cunning,

softness of temper, outward obedience, and scrupulous attention to a puerile kind of

property, will obtain for them the protection of man; and that they should be beautiful,

as every thing else is needless, for, at least, twenty years of their lives (19). All these

prejudices are strengthen not only by books by accepted authors, such as Rousseau,

whom Wollstonecraft criticizes for degradation of women but also by myths on the

creation of a woman out of a man's rib which makes her automatically inferior to him.

24
She proposes an idea of marriage as a partnership of two rational human beings

whereas she suggests that no marriage is better than an unhappy one. In the

following chapter on the same subject she examines the nature of children as they all

possess the same predispositions to become reasonable. She stresses the

importance of strengthening the body which would enable women to become a useful

part of society, as up to now their standard occupation comprises of arts which are

perceived useless and thus woman is, actually, useless too.

The fourth chapter "Observations on the State of Degradation to Which

Woman is Reduced by Various Causes" focuses on an unsatisfactory state in which

women found themselves. Wollstonecraft is discontent that women are actually

satisfied with their lives due to their ignorance. Since she is aware of several women

who "from having received a masculine education, have acquired courage and

resolution," she alludes the fact that both men and women placed in the same

situation would acquire similar character (77). She suggests that women are

controlled by flattering and "trivial attentions" (57). She argues that women seek only

for "pleasure as the main purpose of their existence" (60) on that account, giving

women "the employment of life" and "an understanding to improve" (63) would make

them real partners to their husbands. Wollstonecraft perceives esteem and friendship

as reasons for marriage instead of love that is only evanescent affection (73).

In the following, fifth chapter, "Animadversions on Some of the Writers Who

Have Rendered Women Objects Pity, Bordering on Contempt" Wollstonecraft

criticizes and opposes opinions stated in several educational books on the state of

women within society. In five separate sections she deals mainly with Rousseau's

Émile that highlights the idea of women subordination to men, Dr. Fordyce's Sermons

to Young Women supporting the "angel in the house" concept (96), Dr. Gregory A

25
Father's Legacy to his Daughters and others.

The main point of the next chapter "The Effect Which an Early Association of

Ideas Has upon the Character" argues that associations should originate from reason

and not from a mere affection as affectation vanishes in the course of time, as reason

make women free because "the right use of reason alone which make us

independent of everything" (121).

The Chapter 7, "Modesty. - Comprehensibly Considered, and Not as a Sexual

Virtue" examines the nature of modesty. Due to appropriate quality of modesty men

might to think of themselves in appropriate terms: they have neither too high nor not

too low opinion of themselves. She stresses the importance of understanding and

education as means of acquiring modesty. She further alludes the idea that women

should not stay together in nurseries or schools as they adopt vicious habits there.

Moreover, the mutual stay supports the intimacy among women which then they tend

to adopt in marriage but the same affection is not possible as men are not

sensational creatures.

Chapter 8, "Morality Undermined by Sexual Notions of the Importance of a

Good Reputation" argues that the importance of a good reputation is "strenuously

inculcated on the female world" (131). Wollstonecraft connects a good reputation with

"chastity, modesty and public spirit." All these virtues should be "understood and

cultivated by all mankind" because their cultivation leads to "virtue and happiness" in

society (140).

In chapter 9, "Of the Pernicious Effects Which Arise from the Unnatural

Distinctions Established in Society" Wollstonecraft criticizes the habit of paying

respect to wealth and mere charms. She argues that firstly, women should learn how

to accomplish duties to themselves, secondly, those of citizens and lastly, those of

26
mothers. Wollstonecraft also stresses the fact that women should be made valuable

part of society either single or married because they possess capacities of performing

more useful occupations such as physicians.

Chapter on "Parental Affection" deals with two ways of upbringing children that

Wollstonecraft perceives particularly unsuitable: mothers tend either to spoil or

neglect their children. She states that the woman's duty is to love her child, not spoil

it, but at the same she should time keep the family together for the sake of good of

her child. In "Duty to Parents" Wollstonecraft examines the duty of children towards

their parents as parents took care of children when they were small and feeble thus

children should take care of their parents when they get older. In twelfth chapter "On

National Education" Wollstonecraft examines ideas and provides suggestions on the

education for children of both sexes. She discusses advantages of both private and

national education as appropriate means of acquiring general knowledge to benefit

that leads advancement of whole society. The last chapter, "Some Instances of the

Folly Which the Ignorance of Women Generates; with Concluding Reflections on the

Moral Improvement That a Revolution in Female Manners Might Naturally Be

Expected to Produce" is divided into six sections in which Wollstonecraft revises her

main points discussed throughout A Vindication.

The style and content of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman alludes that

Mary Wollstonecraft compiled the work full of emotions and thoughts of the

Revolution, as she was full its ideas on freedom. Through the course of the work, she

often repeats her ideas and also provides personal comments. Wollstonecraft

apparently spoke her mind on a paper but also attempted to provide valid reasoning

for her case in order to bring it to recognition of public.

27
3 Anne Brontë and The Tenant of
Wildfell Hall
3.1 Biography

Anne Brontë was born in 1820 in Thornton, Yorkshire as the youngest of six

children. Apart from her siblings she did not receive any formal education. She was

educated at home by her aunt, Elizabeth Branwell. Mrs. Branwell started living with

the family after the death of Mrs. Brontë, Anne's mother and Mrs. Branwell's sister, in

1821. Mrs. Branwell was a Wesleyan and thus brought up Anne into a strongly

religious person. Anne was particularly attached to her sister Emily. In 1834 they

made up an imaginary kingdom of Gondal and wrote many books about it.

In 1839, she got her first job as a governess for the Ingham family at Blake

Hall. She worked there for two years and then moved to Thorp Green Hall, York,

where she and her brother Branwell worked together for the Robinson family. In

1844, Anne and her sisters attempted to establish own school at the Haworth

Parsonage but due to its remoteness they were not able to open it, as no students

attended. Thus, she returns to the Robinsons. However Anne and Branwell were

dismissed due to Branwell's intimate relationship with their employer's wife. The

dismissal subsequently broke Branwell down and he started drinking. These

experiences as a governess and Branwell's alcoholism inspired her two novels,

Agnes Grey (1846) and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848). Her novels were published

under a pseudonym "Acton Bell" to spare them from prejudices of society towards

women writers as Anne was convinced that "if a book is a good one, it is so whatever

the sex of the author may be" (Brontë 14). After an immediate success of The Tenant

of Wildfell Hall she wrote a famous preface to the second edition. She continued

28
publishing her poems in several magazines until her death in 1849.

3.2 The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Anne Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall was published in June in 1848 under

Anne's pen name Acton Bell. It was an immediate success and even the second

edition was published two months later. In addition the famous preface by Anne

herself was attached to it.

The novel has several possible inspirations. Anne was either inspired or

responded to novels by her sisters, Wuthering Heights (1847) by Emily and Jane

Eyre (1847) by Charlotte. On the other hand, the next possible inspiration might have

been the life of Anne's brother Branwell who became an alcoholic (Deiderich 25).

Whatever her inspiration was, The Tenant is indeed a revolutionary feminist novel

(Davies xi) touching upon various topics in connection to position of women within

society (Diederich 25). Brontë discusses mainly topics of marriage, religion,

education and culture; she also criticizes aristocracy, gossip and stereotypes

concerning division of society according to male-public and female-domestic

spheres. According to Carol A. Senf, The Tenant is a portrayal of the Victorian society

rather than a portrayal of an individual (450).

Certainly, Brontë subjects many aspects of women lives to criticism. She

concentrates on the position of a woman within marriage from various perspectives.

Brontë examines not only domesticity, occupations of a wife or her affections, she

also examines the legal side of matrimony. Since Helen, the main female character,

flees from her husband, Arthur Huntington, taking their child with her, she breaks not

only marriage vows and her duties as a wife but also a law. According to the law,

women had no right to their children or possessions because all were subjected to

29
their husbands. Brontë's novel, however, does not attempt to criticize Helen's escape

but events that brought her to find the escape as a solution to her bad marriage.

Since Helen she was a subject to a domestic violence and psychological terror,

Brontë's objective was to "unmask ... the myth of a married life" (Ward 158). The

Tenant highlights the fact that laws, which place a wife under infinite powers of her

husband, enable such abuse. Thus, Brontë alludes that all the misery Helen

experiences happens with the consent of inhumane laws and therefore with the

consent of society.

Brontë further touches upon "espousal of Christian values" (Gilbert & Gubar

80) by portraying Helen as a strongly religious person. Even though she is aware of

Arthur's imperfections in spirit, she marries him. She sees him as a "fallen angel"

(Gilbert & Gubar 81) whom she decides to reform by her love and example. Plainly

speaking, she wants to "redeem the sinner" (Ward 155). Thus she self-sacrifices for

him supporting the traditional view on a feminine nature (Carnell 17). Helen's

innumerable efforts to reform her husband actually prove that a woman does not

possess any effective powers within marriage. Helen's attempts to reform Arthur

prove that she does not possess any powers to change him. Indeed, Brontë provides

"images of masculine 'corruption' and of Helen's tenuous control over it" (Pool 860).

Among other criticism, Brontë points out a critique of an educational system as

unjust, favouring men over women. She reproaches aristocrats with their "aimless,

idle lives that stoke vanity and repulse thought." She also warns against gossip and

idle chat as these are degrading. Brontë's criticism of double standards in education

and contempt of gossip and idle talk coincide with thoughts of Mary Wollstonecraft

and her Vindication, as Wollstonecraft was a great critic of gossip and small talk to no

purpose, too, as degrading feminine occupations (Priti 908).

30
 Brontë gives a reader the female character of Helen who is extraordinarily

strong and "independent in spirit" (Ward 155). Helen's extraordinariness facilitates

Brontë's criticism. Helen's bad experience in the matrimony hardens her spirit and

she gradually comes to hatred towards men. However, her bad experience makes

her "superior in every respect" (Senf 454). Brontë makes her "rational, confident and

self-sufficient" which "would be deemed as masculine" (Carnell 10). Thus, Helen

speaks freely and rationally about education, marriage, arts, etc. Brontë perceives an

opportunity to education as unjust, as she expresses her discontent over double

perception of women as "essentially so vicious, or so feeble that she cannot

withstand temptation" whereas in men "there is a natural tendency to goodness,

guarded by superior fortitude." She, however, suggests that both sexes have the

natural ability to weakness and are "prone to err" (Brontë 35). Further, Brontë

examines Helen's attitude to art which she first sees as means of expressing her

artistic skills, skills which later become her way of making living, as digression from

traditional women role (Carnell 23). Helen's occupation as an artist enables her to

gain independence from men.

Apart from various female character, Brontë provides several male characters

divided into two main categories. One type of male characters is abusive and

oppresses the women depicted in the novel. These characters represent the

traditional system whereas the second type of male characters is protective and thus

is meant to represent the new standard in society. Brontë provides these two kinds,

evil and good, just like women were commonly portrayed either as angels or

monsters in literature (Senf 450-452). Even, "Sharpe's London Magazine was

shocked at the portrayal of women as 'superior in every quality, moral and

intellectual, to all the men', who 'appear at once coarse, brutal, and contemptibly

31
weak, at once disgusting and ridiculous" (Davies xvi).

Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall caused a great controversy due to its

radicalism and lively portrayal of Arthur's abuse. Brontë's novel has both qualities of

an old and new world. She put these two views in close contrast to portray an

inadequacies of traditional system. She depicts female desires as "repressed and

liberated," as their desires are repressed by tradition and liberated by reformatory

notions. Male desires are depicted as "condemned and encouraged," as Brontë

advocates good qualities and despise vices of men. Finally, she describes "social

practices" as "reformed and reproduced," as Brontë criticizes injustice of social

system and proposes solutions while providing more appropriate options (Pool 871).

32
4 Analysis

The analysis will be devoted mainly to matrimony and its aspects as marriage

is an important step in a life of every women. In Anne Brontë's novel The Tenant of

Wildfell Hall marriage is the main concern. Nearly every character depicted in the

novel, both male and female, strives for marriage and looks for a suitable match. This

section will, therefore, examine reasons for marriage that various characters have

when looking for their potential partners. Apart from common reasons such as money

and love, the chapter on courtship will analyse the qualities of an ideal wife according

to traditional values strengthened and supported by society. The next chapter on an

unhappy marriage will examine the nature of a bad marriage and its impact on the

chosen characters regardless their sex. Consequently, the following chapter will

analyse motherhood and upbringing of children because this topic connects directly

to consequences of an unhappy marriage. Finally, the last chapter will study the shift

in both female and male characters towards the "new" ideal. The chapter will,

moreover, compare traditional to reformist concepts, with the main concern on male

and female roles that often differ from traditional conception. All the aspect will be

compared to the innovative ideas of Mary Wollstonecraft, presented in her feminist

manifesto A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, as Mary Wollstonecraft also

perceives marriage as an important part of the life women and often "the only way

women can rise in the world" (Wollstonecraft 10).

4.1 Reasons for Marriage and Courtship

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall presents a number of characters in search of a

suitable match. Before an actual marriage takes place there is a stage of courtship. A

33
woman needs to be introduced into the society in order to meet her potential

husband. The Tenant depicts these introductions into the society, too. Young women

are usually brought to London during the season to get to be known to men in search

of wives. Thus, a man chooses his potential wife and seeks for the suitable match.

There are many reasons for marriage. The most common reason is money or

improvement in terms of a social rank or obtaining title, than it is beauty, good spirits

and obedience of a lady; another reason is love. Although the reasons for marriage

may vary as different men and women are involved. Anne Brontë's The Tenant of

Wildfell Hall depicts all reasons for marriage mentioned above.

4.1.2 Wealth

Brontë depicts the search for money or a title as reasons for marriage. She

provides several characters who share these reasons, Lord Lowborough, Annabella

Wilmont and Jane Wilson. Mrs. Hargrave also perceives wealth as an important

reason for marriage even though she is not in search for match herself but she looks

for suitable suitors for her daughters, Milicent and Esther.

Lord Lowborough's only possession is his title because he has lost everything

while having gambling and drinking problems thus, he seeks a woman of fortune who

would repay his debts. However, he is also looking for a wife to remain reformed

though he does not believe to fall in love again.

‘“A wife,” he answered; “for I can’t live alone, because my own mind distracts me,

and I can’t live with you, because you take the devil’s part against me.”

‘“Who—I?”

‘“Yes—all of you do—and you more than any of them, you know. But if I could get

a wife, with fortune enough to pay off my debts and set me straight in the world—”

34
 ‘“To be sure,” said I.

‘“And sweetness and goodness enough,” he continued, “to make home tolerable,

and to reconcile me to myself, I think I should do yet. I shall never be in love again,

that’s certain; but perhaps that would be no great matter, it would enable me to

choose with my eyes open—and I should make a good husband in spite of it; but

could any one be in love with me?—that’s the question. With your good looks and

powers of fascination” (he was pleased to say), “I might hope; but as it is,

Huntington, do you think anybody would take me—ruined and wretched as I am?”

(Brontë 159)

Even though Lord Lowborough has reformed, his reputation has suffered and thus no

lady is willing to marry him. Yet, his title is an attraction for Annabella Wilmont. Since

she possesses a considerable fortune, she longs for increase in the social ladder and

thus she marries him for his title. Their marriage might seem as the suitable match as

both characters get what they have been looking for, Lord Lowborough gets the wife

and money to pay off his debts, Annabella gets the title. Regardless all presumptions,

their marriage is unhappy for Annabella does not love nor respect her husband and

eventually she has a love affair with Arthur Huntington.

The next character striving for money is Jane Wilson who "had, or might have

had, many suitors in her own rank of life, but scornfully repulsed or rejected them all;

for none but a gentleman could please her refined taste, and none but a rich one

could satisfy her soaring ambition" (Brontë 24). Therefore, she tries to charm

Frederick Lawrence due to his fortune and agreeable position in the society.

However, her desire for money is too obvious and thus Gilbert Markham reveals her

character to Frederick as "selfish, cold-hearted, ambitious, artful, shallow-minded"

(Brontë 322) and he even alludes that if Frederick married her his "home would be

35
rayless and comfortless" and the unfortunate connection would break his heart

(Brontë 323). Even though Frederick is shocked at first, he ceases to visit Jane. Jane

eventually does not marry at all for she could not find an eligible match.

Mrs. Hargrave, the mother of Milicent, Esther and Walter, also belongs to the

category of characters who perceive money as a legitimate reason for marriage. She

wants her daughters to marry advantageously because the Hargraves are not very

rich and that is why she wants to see her daughters properly established.

Our dear mamma is very anxious to see us all well married, that is, united to rich

partners. [...] She says when I am safe off her hands it will be such a relief to her

mind; and she assures me it will be a good thing for the family as well as for me.

(Brontë 179-180)

Since Mrs. Hargrave does not care about the personal like or dislikes, she

manipulates Milicent into an unhappy marriage. Similarly she attempts to set the

advantageous match for her younger daughter, Esther, but Esther is in opposition

because she is of a stronger personality than Milicent. On that account, Esther's

mother and brother severely criticize her for being "disobedient and ungrateful;" and

tell her that she is a burden to the family (Brontë 287).

[...] she will not put herself to the expense of taking me up to London again, unless

I surrender: she cannot afford to take me to town for pleasure and nonsense, she

says, and it is not every rich gentleman that will consent to take me without a

fortune, whatever exalted ideas I may have of my own attractions. (Brontë 288)

Brontë probably found inspiration in Wollstonecraft's ideas when creating the

character of Mrs. Hargrave. Wollstonecraft's idea compares advantageous marriage

for money in spite of personal preferences to prostitution.

To rise in the world, and have the liberty of running from pleasure to pleasure, they

36
 must marry advantageously, and to this object their time is sacrificed, and their

persons often legally prostituted. (Wollstonecraft 60)

To conclude, wealth and advantageous social position were key factors during

courtship but Brontë insinuates that these motives do not lead to happy marriage

because Lord Lowborough gets divorced, Jane Wilson does not marry at all and

Milicent suffers in her marriage first.

4.1.2 Obedient Wife

Most men find beauty and obedience of a lady as a valid reason for marriage.

A man is usually looking for a beautiful maiden of sufficient wealth. She should be

also obedient, able to fulfil husband's needs, love him, appreciate him and serve him.

The Tenant presents Mr. Arthur Huntington and Mr. Ralph Hattersley as examples of

such a man. They represent the view on wives from the traditional perspective.

According to the tradition, women are taught from early infancy how to behave as

obedient wives. The criticism of such a traditional is to be found in both Mary

Wollstonecraft's A Vindication and Anne Brontë's The Tenant.

Mary Wollstonecraft criticizes the traditional requirements on women education

which

should be always relative to the men. To please, to be useful to us, to make us

love and esteem them, to educate us when young, and take care of us when

grown up, to advise, to console us, to render our lives easy and agreeable: these

are the duties of women at all times, and what they should be taught in their

infancy. (Wollstonecraft 79)

Wollstonecraft, therefore, explains at length that the insufficient education of women

makes mere toys of them and thus degrades them. She instructs that education on

37
household matters and instructions on pleasing a husband makes women of weak

mind. Wollstonecraft goes even further with this idea and compares a wife to a

"convenient slave" (Wollstonecraft 5). She is completely dissatisfied with the

subjection to men and traditional qualities that woman are taught from infancy. In her

opinion, the dull obedience and sweet temper enable potential abuse because a

woman was

. . . formed to obey a being so imperfect as a man, often full of vices, and always

full of faults, she ought to learn betimes even to suffer injustice, and to bear the

insults of a husband without complaint; it is not for his sake, but her own, that she

should be of a mild disposition. (Wollstonecraft 83)

Brontë presents two male characters, Arthur Huntington and Ralph Hattersley,

who search for obedient wives and eventually abuse them. Both characters know

precisely what a perfect wife should be like to fulfil their needs and desires. Arthur

Huntington has a clear idea of a perfect wife.

His idea of a wife is a thing to love one devotedly and to stay at home - to wait

upon her husband, and amuse him and minister to his comfort in every possible

way, while he chooses to stay with her; and, when he is absent, to attend to his

interests, domestic or otherwise, and patiently wait his return; no matter how he

may be occupied in the meantime. (Brontë 192)

He perceives woman as a pet (Brontë 164) and often refers to her as to a creature.

"It is a woman's nature to be constant - to love one and one only, blindly, tenderly,

and for ever - bless them, dear creatures!" (Brontë 189) Even though, Arthur is

particularly selfish, these expectations on the wife's behaviour were not rare; and the

novel offers a man of similar views, Mr. Ralph Hattersley.

Mr. Hattersley is another male character who shares the same idea of a wife

38
and goes in search of an obedient wife who would not stand in his way.

I must have somebody that will let me have my own way in everything. [...] I must

have some good, quiet soul that will let me just do what I like and go where I like,

keep at home or stay away, without a word of reproach or complaint; for I can't do

with being bothered. (Brontë 178)

He is consequently introduced to Milicent Hargrave, a quiet person brought up in a

traditional way and thus supporting the "angel in the house" imagery. Milicent is

certainly a perfect match for Hattersley. Even though she is neither in love with him

nor feels much of an affection, her mother forces her into marriage because of

Hattersley's wealth. Due to Milicent's traditional education, she does her best to

please her Ralph who constantly abuses her and she does not defy.

Certainly, both writers share the idea that beauty and good spirits do not

ensure happy life to a possessor. Moreover, they argue that these qualities enable a

woman to endure abuse and manage it because her character is not strong enough

to resist it.

4.1.2 Love and Friendship

Love and mutual understanding are the last reasons for marriage to be

explored. Wollstonecraft's A Vindication proposes the idea of marriage as a

partnership of two rational human beings. She suggests that for accomplishment of

this proposal, women should be educated and learn to think rationally and not just on

the basis of pleasures and emotions. Secondly, she is convinced that marriage

should be based on mutual understanding and love. However, love is not to be

confused with an artificial affection but is to be apprehended rather as a friendship.

Since marriage is not well-grounded on friendship but on artificial affection, it soon

39
disappears. A wife is, consequently, confused because she cannot understand why

her husband ceased to love her after he treated her like a goddess, flattered her and

ensured her of his infinite love. She is therefore perplexed and only dreams of a

perfect and loving husband.

Love, considered as an animal appetite, cannot long feed on itself without expiring.

And this extinction, in its own flame, may be termed the violent death of love. But

the wife who has thus been rendered licentious, will probably endeavour to fill the

void left by the loss of her husband's attentions; for she cannot contentedly

become merely an upper servant after having been treated like a goddess. She is

still handsome, and, instead of transferring her fondness to her children, she only

dreams of enjoying the sunshine of life. (Vindication 73) (Thus they) waste their

lives in imagining how happy they should have been with a husband who could

love them with a fervid increasing affection every day, and all day. But they might

as well pine married as single—and would not be a jot more unhappy with a bad

husband than longing for a good one. (Wollstonecraft 33)

Although Helen perceives love as the most legitimate motive for marriage, her notion

of it is rather idealistic. She wants to find a husband whom she might love, respect

and honour.

I not only should think it wrong to marry a man that was deficient in sense or in

principle, but I should never be tempted to do it; for I could not like him, if he were

ever so handsome, and ever so charming, in other respects; I should hate him—

despise him—pity him—anything but love him. My affections not only ought to be

founded on approbation, but they will and must be so: for, without approving, I

cannot love. It is needless to say, I ought to be able to respect and honour the

man I marry, as well as love him, for I cannot love him without. (Brontë 111)

40
Since Helen has no experience, she is easily deceived by artful play of Arthur

Huntington and falls in love with him. Thus, Brontë provides an example of a wife's

perplexity over the loss of love. While Arthur courts Helen he is charming, treats her

with respect and endows her with deep admiration. He often calls her "his angel" and

expresses how good she makes him and will make him in future if they stay together.

. . . until my acquaintance with you, dear Helen, taught me other views and nobler

aims. And the very idea of having you to care for under my roof would force me to

moderate my expenses and live like a Christian—not to speak of all the prudence

and virtue you would instil into my mind by your wise counsels and sweet,

attractive goodness. (Brontë 142)

In other words, he attributes her as his goddess capable of changing his vices into

moderation and nobility. Helen's aunt warned her on the subject saying that "beauty

is that quality which, next to money, is generally the most attractive to the worst kinds

of men; and, therefore, it is likely to entail a great deal of trouble on the possessor"

(Brontë 110). She instructed her that she should not consider "external attractions",

"fascinations of flattery and light discourse" as an appropriate ground for her

affection, as love and affection should be based on esteem and that she should study

first, then approve and then love (Brontë 111). Regardless all the warnings from the

aunt and Helen's ideal of a husband, she fells in love with Arthur and consequently

marries him. Her choice might be influenced by the character of Mr. Boarham who

makes a proposal to Helen but she refuses because she finds him boring and

despises him. Helen's false reasoning make her choice of marrying Arthur fatal

because only eight weeks after their wedding Helen finds out that her powers over

Arthur's character will not be so influential. She even regrets that she has ever fallen

in love with him and then married him. The rest of their marriage she wishes that he

41
has changed and reformed but gradually she reconciles that he will not ever reform.

Milicent's marriage is not found on any attraction or affection because she is

manipulated into marriage with Mr. Hattersley. She is unhappy for her husband does

not love her and moreover he engages in drinking. So she spends her days dreaming

how perfect her marriage could be if Ralph reformed, loved her and respected her.

Certainly, marriage based on artificial love is not determined to end up as a

happy one. For that reason Wollstonecraft and Brontë advocate that friendship,

rather than love, is more suitable foundation for marriage.

Friendship is a serious affection; the most sublime of all affections, because it is

founded on principle, and cemented by time. The very reverse may be said of

love. In a great degree, love and friendship cannot subsist in the same bosom;

even when inspired by different objects they weaken or destroy each other, and for

the same object can only be felt in succession. The vain fears and fond jealousies,

the winds which fan the flame of love, when judiciously or artfully tempered, are

both incompatible with the tender confidence and sincere respect of friendship.

(Wollstonecraft 73)

Brontë coincides with Wollstonecraft's idea that friendship is a suitable foundation for

marriage and thus she bases the relationship between Helen and Gilbert Markham

on friendship. Gilbert's ideas on marriage differ from the traditional notions and he

finds friendship as an important factor in the relationship of two people.

Let me first establish my position as a friend,’ thought I—‘the patron and playfellow

of her son, the sober, solid, plain-dealing friend of herself, and then, when I have

made myself fairly necessary to her comfort and enjoyment in life (as I believe I

can), we’ll see what next may be effected. (Brontë 64)

Anne Brontë's depiction of Arthur's courtship certainly coincides with the

42
thoughts of Mary Wollstonecraft in her Vindication. According to Mary Wollstonecraft,

while courting a man treats a maiden like a goddess: is attentive, kind and loving

(Wollstonecraft 73) but he actually deceives her. Helen's aunt expresses the same

contempt of flattering while advising Helen not to marry accordingly the superficial

fondness. Moreover, Brontë and Wollstonecraft share the idea that affection should

be based on knowledge and esteem for the future partner as "fondness is a poor

substitute for friendship!" (Wollstonecraft 29). They both agree that friendship and

mutual understanding is the best reason for marriage. Therefore they prove that this

motive has the best consequences for both partners and thus makes marriage

successful. When the motive for marriage is not valid then the marriage emerges as

an unhappy one with harsh consequences.

4.2 Unhappy Marriage and its Consequences

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall presents three characters who undergo the

hardship in an unhappy marriage: Helen Huntington, Milicent Hargrave-Hattersley

and Lord Lowborough. All three characters are distressed and deal with their

situation differently accordingly to their dispositions and also gender. Lord

Lowborough has the most possibilities how to solve his situation as for him, as a

man, obtaining a divorce is not difficult. On the other hand, both female characters

have less possibilities because, according to the law, they are not permitted to get

divorced so easily. Even though their situation is the same, they decide on different

solutions and also their marriages end up differently. Helen decides to escape from

her husband and hide at a distant and secret place as a refugee. On the contrary,

Milicent decides to be the obedient wife and endure all the suffering. Luckily her

husband reforms towards the end of the novel and consequently their marriage

43
becomes a happy one. Certainly, fact that Helen influences both other relationships,

of Lord Lowborough and Annabella and of Milicent and Ralph Hattersley is the most

striking.

Lord Lowborough has been striving for a wife for a long time. As he states, he

needs her to stay reformed and also for money. He succumbs to the charms of

Annabella Wilmont who plays an active role during their courting. In a sense,

Annabella might serve as a male character for she is strong in terms of her will. While

courting, she actually deceives Lord Lowborough when telling him that she has no

interest in his title and assures him of her love. In their marriage she does not fulfil

traditional duties of a wife. Annabella does not honour him or respect her husband

but the contrary. She acts rather contemptuously and humiliates him on several

occasions in front of the whole company. Lord Lowborough lapses into depressions

and when discovering Annabella's affair with Arthur he is broken and does not know

what to do. He talks to Helen on the subject. Their dialogue portrays a change of

Helen's character due to her unhappy marriage and also sadness over the traditional

role of wives in society and their subjection, for Lord Lowborough has more rights as

a man.

'Two years ago; and two years hence you will be as calm as I am now, - and far,

far happier, I trust, for you are a man, and free to act as you please.'

Something like a smile, but a very bitter one, crossed his face for a moment.

'You have not been happy lately?' he said, with a kind of effort to regain

composure, and a determination to waive the further discussion of his own

calamity.

'Happy!' I repeated, almost provoked at such a question - 'Could I be so, with such

a husband?'

44
 'I have noticed a change in your appearance since the first years of your marriage,'

pursued he: 'I observed it to - to that infernal demon,' he muttered between his

teeth - 'and he said it was your own sour temper that was eating away your bloom:

it was making you old and ugly before your time, and had already made his

fireside as comfortless as a convent cell - You smile Mrs. Huntington - nothing

moves you. I wish my nature were as calm as yours!'

'My nature was not originally calm,' said I: 'I have learned to appear so by dint of

hard lessons, and many repeated efforts.' (Brontë 265)

Helen plays the active role here when reminding Lord Lowborough on his possibilities

and powers within society. In the end, Lord Lowborough divorces Annabella and later

he marries again. Certainly Lord Lowborough has the most possibilities how to solve

his unhappy marriage as opposed to Milicent and Helen.

Milicent marries Ralph Hattersley due to her mother's wish and even though

she is not fond of him, she attempts to be a good wife to him. Her obedience results

from her naturally weak character and strict upbringing. She does not complain about

anything even when her husband abuses her. She, however, expresses her

discontent in several letters to Helen in which she tries hard to make an amount of

excuses for her husband's terrible behaviour. The point is that their marriage does

not arise from any esteem or mutual understanding. Even though Ralph got an

obedient wife as he wanted and Milicent obeys him, he is not satisfied.

Since Ralph can do whatever he pleases to Milicent, abuse her, be engaged in

heavy drinking, swear, nothing seems to arouse any effect on her. Her seeming

indifference makes him angry.

How can I help playing the deuce when I see it’s all one to her whether I behave

like a Christian or like a scoundrel, such as nature made me? and how can I help

45
 teasing her when she’s so invitingly meek and mim, when she lies down like a

spaniel at my feet and never so much as squeaks to tell me that’s enough?’ [...] ‘I

sometimes think she has no feeling at all; and then I go on till she cries, and that

satisfies me.’ (Brontë 224)

Eventually he acknowledges that even though he married the obedient wife he is not

satisfied and states that men "shouldn’t always have what we want: it spoils the best

of us, doesn’t it?" (Brontë 224) He perceives her obedient silence as a dishonest

behaviour. He suggests that the traditional education of women which makes them

dull and finally none of the partners is contended, "she should tell me so: I don’t like

that way of moping and fretting in silence, and saying nothing: it’s not honest. How

can she expect me to mend my ways at that rate?" (Brontë 225) Thus, he rejects the

traditional way of women education with this remark. The problem also is that Ralph

does not know his wife properly and is not able to recognize her true feelings for their

relationship is not built on friendship. Similarly to Lord Lowborough's case, Helen

plays an active role also in the story of the Hattersleys. She attempts to enlighten

Ralph and thus to help Milicent. She helps him understand his wife's true feelings

when disclosing Milicent's letters to him and thus proving her emotive nature and

romantic feelings for Ralph. Consequently Helen makes the second attempt which

finally reforms Ralph and since then their marriage becomes a happy one.

Even though Helen actively helped the both characters, Lord Lowborough and

Milicent, it seems that in terms of her own marriage she stays passive and willing to

endure Arthur's abusive behaviour for years. However apart from Milicent, Helen

becomes active and decides to leave Arthur but not for the sake of herself but

because of her son.

Brontë depicts the marriage of the Huntingtons in a naturalistic way. She does

46
not omit the scenes of abuse and portrays them in detail. Helen passively endures

Arthur's abuse and terrible behaviour but when she discovers his affair with

Annabella she decides to come to an agreement with Arthur. She wants to take their

son and leave him. The scene examines the power of a husband in a marriage as his

wife is fully subordinate to him. Arthur strictly prohibits her to leave as he will not be

laughed at. When he later discovers her plans of escape, he exercises his powers

within the matrimony again and confiscates all her property of any value to prevent

her from escape. He even destroys her painting equipment, as she plans to make

some money on it. However Helen is determined to escape not for her own sake, but

for the sake of her son, Arthur. She is worried about an influence of his father

because he acts contrary to her bringing up and deliberately spoils the child's

character. Thus, Helen asks her brother to help her. This scene of asking Frederick

for help depicts the subordinate position of women to men. Since Arthur took all her

valuables and painting equipment, she is not able to escape without help; and her

brother has financial resources and a place to hide her in. Both Brontë and

Wollstonecraft criticize the subordinate position of women not only to husbands but to

all men that occur in women's lives meaning also their fathers and brothers. They

state that when a woman finds herself without means of supporting herself on her

own, she needs to turn to a man for help; just like Helen turns to her brother. Brontë

develops her revolt against men assistance in support and depicts Helen as a

breadwinner for she insists on supporting herself and her child by her hands. Thus,

she becomes a professional painter to gain financial independence from both Arthur

and Frederick.

Indeed, the unhappy marriage changed Helen a lot. She used to be a happy,

charming and high-spirited maiden and the hardship in her marriage forces her to

47
hide behind the mask of indifference and sadness. The change of her nature is

apparent from the conversation with Lord Lowborough, as Helen does not only

become unhappy but she begins to hate Arthur and nearly all men.

I must have a bad disposition, for my misfortunes have soured and embittered me

exceedingly: I was beginning insensibly to cherish very unamiable feelings against

my fellow-mortals, the male part of them especially; but it is a comfort to see there

is at least one among them worthy to be trusted and esteemed; and doubtless

there are more, though I have never known them, unless I except poor Lord

Lowborough, and he was bad enough in his day. (Brontë 286)

The stories of unhappy marriages reveal Milicent and Helen as traditionally

brought up women who do their best to fulfil their duties as a wife to please their

husbands. They are passive, hiding their true feelings and hoping that their marriages

will get better. On the other hand, they are well aware of their unhappy situation and

wish that no other woman repeats their mistakes by choosing an inadequate

husband. Therefore they make an effort that Esther, Milicent's younger sister, does

not make the same mistake. They give her advice on marriage and beg her not to

submit to wishes of her mother if she does not agree with her mother's choice of a

suitor. Milicent insists that Esther "never, on any account, or for anybody's

persuasion, (to) marry for the sake of money, or rank, or establishment, or any earthly

thing but true affection and well-grounded esteem" (Brontë 219). Similarly Helen

warns her against the traps of courtship and bad choice that will make her unhappy

for the rest of her life.

Keep both heart and hand in your own possession, till you see good reason to part

with them; and if such an occasion should never present itself, comfort your mind

with this reflection, that though in single life your joys may not be very many, your

48
 sorrows, at least, will not be more than you can bear. Marriage may change your

circumstances for the better, but, in my private opinion, it is far more likely to

produce a contrary result. (Brontë 288)

To summarize, both Helen and Milicent stay passive in terms of their own marital

situations but they play active roles while giving advice to Esther.

Certainly, Brontë wants to warn against marriage which might end up

unhappily and therefore she portrays the consequences of a bad choice. Brontë's

The Tenant explores the nature of an unhappy marriage and depicts several

situations which end up differently to examine the problem of unhappy marriage

thoroughly. She also examines the influence of abuse on women and thus secretly

criticizes society enabling it. For that reason, she describes situations of abuse in

much detail and adds inner thoughts of the victim who successively starts hating

men. Even though Helen breaks both her duty as a wife by her escapes and the law

when taking her son, Brontë advocates Helen's behaviour as the only possibility.

However Brontë suggests that marriage may still become a happy one when both

partners make an effort by describing the happy ending of the Hattersleys.

4.3 Mothers and Upbringing of Children

Wollstonecraft makes a shocking, though true point, when stating that a bad

marriage makes better mothers of unhappy wives, as exhibited in the passage "an

unhappy marriage is often very advantageous to a family, and that the neglected wife

is, in general, the best mother" (Wollstonecraft 31). Certainly, both Helen and Milicent

are excellent mothers. Moreover Helen's mother love causes the turning point of the

novel. She is convinced that parents have the key influence on the nature of their

child. On that account, she does her best to prevent little Arthur from vices of his

49
father and finally, she places the innocence of the little Arthur before her duty as a

wife and escapes with him.

In Helen's opinion parents have the key influence on their children; they may

spoil them or educate them properly. She often makes excuses of Arthur and

subscribes his bad qualities to an inappropriate upbringing by his parents.

I lay them both to the charge of his harsh yet careless father, and his madly

indulgent mother (Brontë 182). [He] had a bad, selfish, miserly father, who, to

gratify his own sordid passions, restricted him in the most innocent enjoyments of

childhood and youth, and so disgusted him with every kind of restraint;—and a

foolish mother who indulged him to the top of his bent, deceiving her husband for

him, and doing her utmost to encourage those germs of folly and vice it was her

duty to suppress,—and then, such a set of companions as you represent his

friends to be—’(Brontë 144)

Also Arthur himself takes advantage of the vices of his parents as an excuse for his

bad conduct, "My father, you know, was something of a miser, and in his latter days

especially saw no pleasure in life but to amass riches; and so it is no wonder that his

son should make it his chief delight to spend them" (Brontë 142).

Helen thinks that bringing up, educating her children and forming their character

properly is woman's duty. She perceives not spoiling her child but doing her best to

protect him against the vices of the world are her sacred duties as a mother, "If ever I

am a mother I will zealously strive against this crime of over-indulgence. I can hardly

give it a milder name when I think of the evils it brings" (Brontë 183). Similarly,

Wollstonecraft shares the idea of proper upbringing.

Wollstonecraft warns at length that women should be careful not to spoil their

children's temper. She proposes that women should bring up children reasonably,

50
rather than over-sensitively in order to prevent them from spoiling.

Mankind seem to agree that children should be left under the management of

women during their childhood. Now, from all the observation that I have been able

to make, women of sensibility are the most unfit for this task, because they will

infallibly, carried away by their feelings, spoil a child's temper. The management of

the temper, the first, and most important branch of education, requires the sober

steady eye of reason; a plan of conduct equally distant from tyranny and

indulgence: yet these are the extremes that people of sensibility alternately fall

into. (Wollstonecraft 68)

Helen complies Wollstonecraft's views on qualities of a mother because even though

Helen loves her son a lot, she is guided by her reason while upbringing him. She is

worried about the character of her son Arthur because he is under a damaging

influence of her husband who does not possess any qualities she longs her child

should have. For that reason, she is strict with her son and exercises his good tastes

and senses. Since she is worried that little Arthur might become an alcoholic just like

his father, she makes him despise spirits.

Helen is consistent in giving her son a detestation for "intoxicating liquors"

(Brontë 284) to prevent him from becoming an alcoholic an future. On the contrary,

her husband encourages little Arthur to drink, as drinking will make a man. Thus, little

Arthur "learned to tipple wine like papa, to swear like Mr. Hattersley, and to have his

own way like a man, and sent mamma to the devil when she tried to prevent him"

(Brontë 269). Brontë reveals that alcohol drinking is common for small children and

rationalized as making men of them, "The poor child will be the veriest milksop that

ever was sopped! Only think what a man you will make of him" (Brontë 32). Since

occasional drinking is supposed to strengthen child's mind and teaches it to resist

51
temptation, prohibition to resist it spoils child's character. However Helen would

rather have her son dead than possess the same vicious qualities like his father.

Brontë depicts in what extent upbringing of Arthur and Helen differs and

explores its effects on the child. Arthur encourages the vicious behaviour he once

despised in his own father. Furthermore spoiling his son's temper becomes an

entertainment and means of torturing Helen, because he is well aware of the distress

he causes her. Thus, Brontë actually diverges from Wollstonecraft's idea that

unhappy wives are better mothers because when Helen is unhappy she feels not

being a suitable companion for her son.

But in the morning, when I woke without that cheering hope that had been my

secret comfort and support so long, and all this day, when I have wandered about

restless and objectless, shunning my husband, shrinking even from my child,

knowing that I am unfit to be his teacher or companion, hoping nothing for his

future life, and fervently wishing he had never been born,—I felt the full extent of

my calamity, and I feel it now. I know that day after day such feelings will return

upon me. I am a slave—a prisoner—but that is nothing; if it were myself alone I

would not complain, but I am forbidden to rescue my son from ruin, and what was

once my only consolation is become the crowning source of my despair. (Brontë

283)

Apart from Wollstonecraft's suggestion that unhappy wives make better mothers, she

also states that when marriage is based on friendship a mother will bring up her child

better, as "the mother will not neglect her children to practise the arts of coquetry,

when sense and modesty secure her the friendship of her husband". (Wollstonecraft

6) On that account, Brontë portrays damaging effect of an unhappy marriage not only

for wife but also for children in terms of pervasive tension between parents and their

52
disunited way of upbringing.

4.4 Traditional versus Reformist

Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall criticizes a traditional conception of women

and their position in relation to men. The position which enables their degradation

and unjust treatment within marriage. The Tenant examines the tension between

traditional and reformist views in connection to female characters: their duties in

marriage, the expectations of a husband, etc. Apart from a portrayal of female

characters, the novel also provides two types of male characters, the traditional and

reformist.

The characters belonging to the traditional type category perceive women in

purely subordinate role and express their expectations on behaviour and occupation

of women, Arthur Huntington and Ralph Hattersley are examples. Brontë and

Wollstonecraft criticize this is type of men in their works as degrading women and

suppressing their qualities. On the other hand, Brontë also presents characters who

support women, protect them and perceive them as equal human beings, for

examples Gilbert Markham and Frederick Lawrence. The portrayal of this type of

characters coincides with Wollstonecraft's thoughts on marriage as a partnership of

two rational beings who share mutual respect and honour each other. Frederick is an

example of a protective man. He enables his sister's escape when he lets her stay in

Wildfell Hall. Even though he tries to persuade her to solve the unbearable situation

differently, he agrees to help in the end because he wants neither his sister nor his

nephew to suffer. Gilbert Markham is the next character belonging to the reformist

category is.

Gilbert has a reformist vision of marriage quite a contrary to wishes of Ralph

53
and Arthur. He wants to make his wife happy, not to be only pleased by her but also

return his affection, "when I marry, I shall expect to find more pleasure in making my

wife happy and comfortable, than in being made so by her: I would rather give than

receive" (Brontë 53). Gilbert perceives the importance of friendship and suggests that

friendship might secure him Helen's affection, as he wants to become her friend first

to reinforce his position and then he would attempt to gain her love. When Helen falls

in love with Gilbert Markham Brontë explores Helen's perplexity between traditional

and reformist duty as a wife.

Certainly, Helen's new love for Gilbert and the obligation towards her

legitimate husband creates the tension between the traditional and the reformist view

on marriage and women as such. According to the traditional view on marriage,

women should be obedient. Since Wollstonecraft argues that the women subjection

is partly the woman’s fault, as exhibited in the passage "the perverseness and ill-

nature of the women only serve to aggravate their own misfortunes, and the

misconduct of their husbands; they might plainly perceive that such are not the arms

by which they gain the superiority" (Wollstonecraft 83), she calls for a change in the

behaviour of the women "who (should) strengthen her body and exercise her mind

will, by managing her family and practicing various virtues, become the friend, and

not the humble dependent of her husband" (Wollstonecraft 29). She proposes a

move from passivity to activity just like in the case of Helen who stops being passive

and changes her life actively. Unfortunately, Helen oversteps the traditional

boundaries just partly. She escapes from Arthur but returns when he is ill, as her

obligation towards him is strong. When Arthur dies, Helen stays in their household

until Gilbert comes to propose but when he finds about Helen's wealth he feels unfit

to marry her. For that reason, Helen makes a proposal herself. In this scene, Brontë

54
reverses the traditional roles of men and women. She introduces various situations

where Helen possesses the qualities often attributed to men or plays an active role

instead of men thus influencing them.

Brontë's The Tenant reverses the traditional characteristics often rigidly

ascribed to men and women. She depicts Arthur having qualities which

Wollstonecraft severely criticized in women; and Helen with qualities often ascribed

to men.

In A Vindication Wollstonecraft criticizes that women are kept in the state of

childhood in order to secure their good conduct (Vindication 20). She is distressed

that women find their tastes in seeking artificial pleasures and are narrow-minded.

She, however, compares men and women and states that "husbands, as well as their

helpmates, are often only overgrown children" (Vindication 22). Certainly, this

description resembles Arthur faithfully. Brontë portrays him as a husband in the

traditional marriage where everything is subordinated to him but at the same time,

she attributes him the qualities of a childish woman. He is very selfish and requests

that his wife amuses and pleases him; and in return, he teases her with childlike

amusements while describing her his former love affairs. Helen's outburst of hurt

feelings flatters him instead of causing shame. He deliberately ruins himself by heavy

drinking and when partially recovering from an illness, he restores his drinking habits.

Helen warns him that the illness might return but he does not care. This scene shows

his childish and weak character while Helen is the reasonable person here.

If I had reasoned with him like a rational creature, he says, it never would have

happened; but to be treated like a baby or a fool was enough to put any man past

his patience, and drive him to assert his independence even at the sacrifice of his

own interest. He forgets how often I had reasoned him ‘past his patience’ before.

55
 He appears to be sensible of his danger; but nothing can induce him to behold it in

the proper light. (Brontë 341)

Thus, Brontë puts Arthur in contrast with Helen, as she reverses their roles in their

relationship in terms of rationality and sense. Moreover Brontë portrays Helen

overstepping passivity by active control over her own fate and influence of conduct of

others.

From the traditional point of view, Gilbert, as a man, should be the vehicle of

action but it is Helen who plays an active role in the key moments of their

relationship. She hands him her diary explaining her behaviour and finally she makes

a proposal to him. Since Gilbert decides to terminate their friendship because he

thinks Helen has an affair with Frederick, Helen's diary is the key document which

enlightens Gilbert on Helen's past. At that moment Helen does not stay passive but

comes and hands him his diary explaining her reserved conduct and extreme

opinions on matters they have discussed. Later, when Gilbert comes to regain

Helen's affection he loses his courage due to her wealth and thus Helen makes a

proposal to him herself.

This rose is not so fragrant as a summer flower, but it has stood through hardships

none of them could bear: the cold rain of winter has sufficed to nourish it, and its

faint sun to warm it; the bleak winds have not blanched it, or broken its stem, and

the keen frost has not blighted it. Look, Gilbert, it is still fresh and blooming as a

flower can be, with the cold snow even now on its petals.—Will you have it?

(Brontë 373)

She compares herself to a rose which has endured much hardship but still is strong

enough to move on and beautiful enough to be given. Offering the rose means

offering herself to Gilbert. Helen explains him that she does not care about different

56
social rank but wants her husband to be her friend. Certainly, Helen plays the active

role here when proposing to Gilbert and thus reversing their traditional roles. Apart

from becoming active and breaking traditional roles, Helen is also influential with

other characters.

Brontë introduces several male characters undergoing a change in their

conduct towards women due to Helen's interference. Gilbert Markham matures under

the influence of more experienced Helen and changes from a naive and selfish youth

into an attentive partner who values and respect the opinions of his lover. Mr.

Hattersley becomes aware of the needs of Milicent when realizing damaging effects

of his behaviour. The last but not least, Lord Lowborough recognizes his value and

becomes more sensible, as his second marriage provides him happiness. The

second time, Lord Lowborough is wiser and does only not look for a lady with a

beautiful face and a good family background. His second choice carries the marks of

the equal marriage proposed by Mary Wollstonecraft. To conclude, though Helen

sometimes acts passively, she helps and enlightens men and women surrounding

her. Her interferences often improve the quality of marriage and the position of

women in general.

57
Conclusion

The ideas on marriage in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë often

coincide with innovative thoughts proposed by Mary Wollstonecraft in her political

manifesto A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Brontë's novel deals with the

problem of an unhappy marriage and its damaging effects on women and children.

Even though the heroine undergoes the unhappy marriage and escapes, Brontë

does not want to portray marriage as worthless. Since Brontë still perceives marriage

as an important step in the lives of women, her novel serves as a warning and

depicts the consequences of a bad choice of a husband. Similarly, Wollstonecraft

does not want to abandon matrimony, as she respects "marriage, as the foundation

of almost every social virtue" (Vindication 71). However, both writers want to change

the traditional conception of marriage in which a wife is absolutely subordinate to her

husband.

Brontë and Wollstonecraft subject the traditional marriage to severe criticism.

Wollstonecraft is discontented with the subordination of women without any

reasonable foundation but being created by the standards of society. On that

account, Brontë examines the nature of marriage and the subordination of a wife. A

husband may act as he pleases, has powers to forbid anything, and all his wife's

possessions belong to him. She depicts these powers in the scene when Arthur

confiscates Helen's valuables. He even destroys her painting equipment she wanted

to use as means of living, thereby preventing her from leaving. Arthur exercises his

powers to abuse Helen and she has no means of stopping him. When she escapes,

taking her son with her, she breaks her husband's right because she must not take

the child without her husband's consent. Brontë's novel criticizes a woman's

58
subordination and also the laws supporting their degradation as illegitimate, though

this subordination is often justified by their delicate bodily construction.

Wollstonecraft argues that a delicate bodily construction does not signify a

weakness of mind, as in her opinion, the weakness of mind is rather caused by

insufficient education. Wollstonecraft compares education to the ability of reasoning.

For that reason, Brontë and Wollstonecraft explore the causes of improper reasoning

as a lack of education and its consequences. The most improper are reasons for

marriage. They underrate traditional motives such as money, beauty, obedience and

artificial affection as insufficient, and Brontë's novel proves them to cause unhappy

marriage. Both authors, however, agree that marriage based on friendship and

mutual understanding is the most successful. Brontë examines the way Helen falls in

love with Arthur and consequently with Gilbert. The relationship with Arthur is based

on false reasoning, as she thinks she would be able to make him a better man, and

strengthened by Arthur's skillful manipulation. On the other hand, Gilbert and Helen

become friends first; they share tastes and opinions and therefore their relationship is

determined to be successful in the end. Even though Helen underwent the unhappy

marriage and abuse, she becomes a strong character and gains experience.

Under severe circumstances, Helen grows wiser and her views of the marriage

mature. She is no longer naive nor seeks a man who would just charm and deceive

her by either false kindness or false affection. She values understanding, friendship

and deeper knowledge of Gilbert. They are equal partners. Helen is not a pet, a

decoration, or a slave any more. She reaches a crucial change by the turn from the

passive silence to the active and a control over her own fate.

Mary Wollstonecraft and Anne Brontë propose a change in the thinking of

women and encourage them to control their lives actively. Brontë's The Tenant of

59
Wildfell Hall proves that passivity makes women unhappy. She introduces Milicent

and Helen to depict the difference between passive and active control over their lives.

At the beginning, Helen seems to be an active female character freely choosing her

future husband and basing her choice on love because she refuses her first suitor,

Mr. Boarham, whom she does not love. She has idealistic thoughts about the

character of her potential husband. However, Arthur's skillful play and flattering

manipulates her into marriage rather than her active approach and sensible notions

of Arthur's qualities. On the contrary, Milicent is educated according to traditional

values and is therefore passive, representing the qualities of the "angel in the house,"

indeed. For her passive approach, she is manipulated into marriage by her greedy

mother. The marriages of both characters are unhappy; they endure their abusive

husbands and hope that they will reform. Even though both women end up happy,

Brontë depicts two different ways leading to their happy endings. Milicent's marriage

improves thanks to Helen's intrusions. She enlightens Mr. Hattersley on the subject

and he thus realizes his mistakes and also his true feelings for Milicent; that is why

he reforms. Milicent herself still stays passive and not having had Helen's help, would

suffer until her husband reformed himself, which would probably take a long time or

would not happen at all. On the contrary, Helen actively takes control over her fate

and thus breaks the traditional characteristic of an ideal woman-angel.

The unhappy marriage changes Helen's character a lot. She has to hide her

true feelings from Arthur because he takes advantage of them. He often makes fun of

her and the outbursts of her injured feeling flatter him. Helen therefore strengthens

her character, suppresses her feelings, and thus becomes purely reasonable. Brontë

uses her voice to express opinions on delicate problems in society comparable to

Wollstonecraft's ideas. Thus, Helen comments on education, supporting the idea of

60
Wollstonecraft that both sexes should be educated because they have the same

capacities for becoming reasonable human beings. Helen criticizes traditional

character conceptions, the subordination of women to men, and thus also a society

which supports such an injustice. She suggests that men have more rights and

powers than women, as they can divorce easily or leave their partners whenever they

want, but women are expected to stay at home and obey their husbands’ wishes.

Women have no legal rights to their property or children. Since Helen's main concern

is the welfare of her son, she also comments on the upbringing of children and on the

need to support their good qualities, as she is convinced that parental influence is

key for children’s education. On that account, she severely criticizes alcoholism and

other vices of mankind in spite of their sex, because she claims that both sexes have

the capacity of being good and evil. This capacity is not subjected to sex but to

personal preferences because Arthur himself chooses his occupations. Even though

her opinions cause astonishment and are subject to the criticism of her character,

Helen's voice is always reasonable and she is able to support her arguments.

Indeed, Helen is an extraordinary female character. She improves not only her

own position but also the position of other characters in the novel by changing their

views on marriage and partnership. She helps Lord Lowborough to realize his

possibilities in society. She enlightens Mr. Hattersley on the character of his wife, and

thus she assists them in improving their marriage. Furthermore, she prevents Esther

from giving in to her mother's pressure and marrying an unsuitable suitor for mistaken

motives. She, however, influences Gilbert Markham the most. Under Helen's

influence, Gilbert ceases looking for artificial pleasures and starts appreciating the

virtues in women. He represents the man who perceives marriage as a partnership of

two equal and respectable human beings. His new notion of marriage as a

61
partnership coincides with the idea of Mary Wollstonecraft.

Brontë and Wollstonecraft share many ideas on marriage and other topics,

however Brontë often proves to be more radical in her ideas than Wollstonecraft.

Brontë reverses the traditional qualities of her characters in order to demonstrate that

both sexes are equal. For that reason, she gives Arthur qualities which are commonly

subscribed to women: he is childish, selfish and weak in mind. He deliberately

destroys his own health due to drinking. On the contrary, Helen plays a sensible

member in their partnership. Helen is also the key character in terms of the

relationship with Gilbert when adopting an active role and proposing to him. Brontë's

reversal of traditional roles stresses the importance of an active approach of women

leading to the new and reformed ideal proposed by Mary Wollstonecraft. Anne

Brontë's ideas in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall are certainly comparable to the ideas of

Mary Wollstonecraft as she proposes them in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.

62
Bibliography

List of Primary Sources

Brontë, Anne. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Harmonsworth: Penguin Books, 1994.

Print.

Wollstonecraft, Mary. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. New York: W.W. Norton

& Comp., 1975. Print.

List of Secondary Sources

Armstrong, Nancy. Desire and Domestic Fiction: A Political History of the Novel. New

York: Oxford UP, 1987. Print.

Gilbert, Sandra M; Gubar, Susan. The Madwoman in the Attic: the Woman Writer and

the Nineteenth-century Literary Imagination. New Haven: Yale UP, 1984. Print.

Godwin, William. Memoirs of Mary Wollstonecraft. London: Constable, 1928. Print.

Patmore, Coventry. The Angel in the House. London: George Bell and son, 1887.

Print.

Sage, Lorna. The Cambridge Guide to Women's Writing in English. Cambridge:

Cambridge UP, 1999. Print.

Wollstonecraft, Mary. Political Writings. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1994. Print.

List of Internet Sources

Armitage, Michael. "A Chronology of Anne Brontë". Anne Brontë - The Scarborough

Connection. Web. 3 March 2012.

<http://mick-armitage.staff.shef.ac.uk/anne/chronolg.html>.

63
Carnell, Rachel K. "Feminism and the Public Sphere in Anne Brontë's The Tenant of

Wildfell Hall." Nineteenth-Century Literature 53.1 (1998): 1-24. JSTOR. Web. 4

Nov. 2011.

Davies, Stevie. Penguin Classics Introduction to The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne

Brontë. London: Penguin, 1996. Literature Online. Web. 4 Nov. 2011.

<http://lion.chadwyck.co.uk>.

Diederich, Nicole A. "The Art of Comparison: Remarriage in Anne Brontë's "The

Tenant of Wildfell Hall"" Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature

57.2 (2003): 25-41. JSTOR. Web. 4 Nov. 2011.

Ferguson, Susan. "The Radical Ideas of Mary Wollstonecraft." Canadian Journal of

Political Science / Revue Canadienne De Science Politique 32.3 (1999): 427-

50. JSTOR. Web. 4 Nov. 2011.

Hodson, J. "Women Write the Rights of Woman: The Sexual Politics of the Personal

Pronoun in the 1790s." Language and Literature 16 (2007): 81-304. Sage

Journals Online. Sage Publications. Web. 4 Nov. 2011.

Janes, R. M. "On the Reception of Mary Wollstonecraft's: A Vindication of the Rights

of Woman." Journal of the History of Ideas 39.2 (1978): 293-302. JSTOR.

Web. 4 Nov. 2011.

Lavender, Catherine. "The Cult of Domesticity and True Womanhood". Women in

New York City, 1890-1940. Web. 15 March. 2012.

<http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/386/truewoman.html>.

Poole, Russell. "Cultural Reformation and Cultural Reproduction in Anne Brontë's

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall." Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 33.4

(1993): 859-73. JSTOR. Web. 4 Nov. 2011.

Priti, Joshi. "Masculinity and Gossip in Anne Brontë's Tenant." SEL Studies in English

64
 Literature, 1500-1900 (2009): 907-24. Literature Online. Web. 4 Nov. 2011.

<http://lion.chadwyck.co.uk/>.

Senf, Carol A. "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall: Narrative Silences and Questions of

Gender." College English 52.4 (1990): 446-56. JSTOR. Web. 4 Nov. 2011.

Tomaselli, Sylvana. "Mary Wollstonecraft", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

(Spring 2012 Edition). Web. 20 March 2012.

<http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2012/entries/wollstonecraft/>.

The Free Dictionary Online. Web. 23 Apr. 2012.

The Victorian Web. Web. 23 Apr. 2012.

Ward, Ian. "The Case of Helen Huntingdon." Criticism: A Quarterly for Literature and

the Arts (2007): 151-82. Literature Online. Web. 4 Nov. 2011.

<http://lion.chadwyck.co.uk/>.

65
Appendix 1

Mary Wollstonecraft - Chronology6

Apr 27, 1759 Mary Wollstonecraft Born

1774 Moves to Hoxton, befriends Mr. and Mrs. Clare who encourage

her education

1775 Befriends Fanny Blood

1776 Moves to Wales

1777 Back to London

1778 First Job as a Lady's Companion, Bath

1781 Moves Back to London

Takes Care of Her Ill Mother

Apr 19, 1782 Mother Dies

1783 Moves in With Sister

1784 Establishes School in Newington Green

Nov 29, 1785 Fanny Blood Dies

Nov 1785 Closes School Down

1786 Thoughts on the Education of Daughters, on Women's Education

Work as a Governess for the Kingsborough

1788 Mary, A Fiction, a Novel

Original Stories from Real Life, a Children's Book

1789 French Revolution, Wollstonecraft's Inspiration

The Female Reader, under a Pseudonym "Mr. Cresswick"

Dec 18, 1790 A Vindication of the Rights of Man

6 addopted from Sylvana Tomaselli

66
1791 Meets William Godwin

1792 A Vindication of the Rights of Women

Nov 1792 Moves to Paris

Mar 1793 Forms Relationship with Gilbert Imlay

Apr 1794 Fanny Imlay Born

An Historical and Moral View of the Origin and Progress of the

French Revolution, a Political Tract

Apr 1795 First Suicide Attempt

Sep 1795 Second Suicide Attempt

Feb 1796 Breakup with Imlay

Letters, inspired by travels in Scandinavia the previous year

Mar 1796 Relationship with Godwin

Mar 29, 1797 Marries Godwin

Aug 30, 1797 Mary Shelley Born

Sep 10, 1797 Mary Wollstonecraft Dies

1798 Memoir of Mary Wollstonecraft, a Biography by William Godwin

Godwin Publishes Several Posthumous Works of Mary

Wollstonecraft

67
Appendix 2

Anne Brontë - Chronology7

Jan 17, 1820 Anne Born

1821 Elizabeth Branwell Moves to Haworth, Nurses Her Dying Sister

Sept 15,1821 Anne's Mother Dies

1825 Anne's Eldest Sister, Maria (11), Dies

Anne's Sister, Elizabeth (10), Dies

1831 Anne and Emily Create Gondal

July 29, 1835 Charlotte Teacher at Roe Head School, Anne Accompanies her

as a pupil

1836 'Verses By Lady Geralda', A 'Gondal' poem

Apr 1839 Governess for the Ingham family

Dec 1839 Leaves Inghams

May 8, 1840 Governess to the Robinsons

Oct 29, 1842 Aunt Branwell Dies (66)

Jan 1843 Branwell Gets Job for the Robinsons

Aug 2, 1844 'Fluctuations', A Poem

1844 Own School at the Haworth Parsonage, Does not open

1845 Branwell Dismissed from the Robinsons

1846 Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell Published

Agnes Grey

1848 The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Jul 1848 Preface to the Second Edition

7 adopted from Michael Armitage

68
Sept 24, 1848 Branwell Dies (31)

Dec 19, 1848 Emily Dies (30)

1848 Poems 'The Narrow Way' and 'The Three Guides' Published in

the Leeds Intelligencer and Fraser's Magazine

May 28, 1849 Anne Dies of Consumption (29)

69
Summary

The thesis entitled "Mary Wollstonecraft's Concept of Marriage and its

Reflection in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" analyses Mary Wollstonecraft's ideas on the

topic of marriage as she expresses them in her revolutionary feminist manifesto A

Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Consequently, the thesis compares

Wollstonecraft's ideas to Anne Brontë's novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which

examines the nature of marriage and its impact on people within the marriage. The

aim of the thesis is to prove that Anne Brontë was influenced by Mary Wollstonecraft.

The thesis is divided into three main parts. The first part provides background

information about the situation of women within Victorian society. It studies the

concepts of the "cult of domesticity" and the "angel in the house" as the portrayal of

an ideal woman. Furthermore, it examines conduct books and the novels of manners

as the literature produced for women, as the support of the notion of the ideal woman

was the main role of such literature. However, many female writers started writing

novels and thus attempted to reconstruct the ideal. The second part provides the

bibliographies of Mary Wollstonecraft and Anne Brontë. It also examines various

interpretations and reactions to their works, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. The final part analyses Brontë's novel The Tenant

and its ideas on marriage, consequently comparing them to the ideas of

Wollstonecraft.

The thesis proves that Anne Brontë was influenced by the ideas of Mary

Wollstonecraft and her A Vindication of the Rights of Woman because the analysis

verifies that most of their thoughts on marriage coincide. However, Anne Brontë is

more radical in her ideas on an unhappy marriage.

70
Resumé

Práce s názvem "Koncept manželství Mary Wollstonecraftové a jeho odraz v

díle Dvojí život Heleny Grahamové8" analyzuje koncept manželství prezentovaného

ve feministickém manifestu Obhajoba ženských práv9 (A Vindication of the Rights of

Woman) od Mary Wollstonecraftové. Následně práce srovnává názory

Wollstonecraftové na manželství s postoji Anny Brontëové v jejím románu Dvojí život

Heleny Grahamové (The Tenant of Wildfell Hall). Brontëové román zkoumá jak

podstatu manželství, tak také dopad na jedince žijící v tomto svazku. Cílem mé práce

je nejenom čtenáře seznámit s podobou konceptu, ale zaroveň komparací s

myšlenkami manifestu Obhajoba ženských práv z pera Mary Wollstonecraftové, že

mezi oběma autorkami je prokazatalná myšenková spojitost.

V úvodní teoretická část je věnována pozornost postavení žen ve

viktoriánském období. Vysvětluje pojetí dvou nejdůležitějších konceptů, které

zobrazovaly ideál ženy a manželky, a to "kult rodinného života10" a koncept "anděl v

domě11". Stranou mého zájmu nezůstávají ani výchovné knihy a romány mravů,

neboť právě tato literatura, primárně určena ženám, upevňovala ženský ideál ve

společnosti. Mnoho ženských spisovatelek se tudíž zaměřilo na psaní románů, v

nichž záměrně tento ideál přetvářely. Následující kapitoly své práce věnuji nejenom

životu obou autorek, ale také vykreslením reakcí tehdejší společnosti na jejich díla,

tedy Obhajoba ženských práv a Dvojí život Heleny Grahamové.

Analýza románu Anny Brontëové, již provádím v závěrečné kapitole své práce,

společně s vykreslením autorčiných postojů k manželství a jejich následnou

8 český název převzatý od Aleny Maxové z roku 1995, nakladatelství Naše vojsko
9 můj překlad
10 můj překlad
11 můj překlad

71
komparací s myšlenkami Mary Wollstonecraftové dokumentují tvrzení z primární

literatury, totiž že se odkaz Mary Wollstonecraftové, byť s jistými odchylkami, stal

inspiračním zdrojem Anny Brontëové.

72