Criticism of Victorian women stereotypes, professionalization, and marriage in Anne Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Abstract

[eng] Anne Brontë published The Tenant of Wildfell Hall in 1848. The novel follows heroine Helen Graham as she settles in Wildfell Hall after running away alongside her son from her abusive husband, Arthur Huntingdon. Upon her arrival, Helen is faced with malicious rumors that are being spread by her new neighbors related to her relationship with her landlord, her son’s education, and especially, her work as a painter. This work aims to analyze Brontë’s use of the female characters to criticize the situation of women in Victorian England focusing on the issues of female stereotyping, the position of women after marriage, and the professionalization of the female artist. The female characters of the novel have been analyzed following stereotypes associated with Victorian women such as The Angel in the House, the New Woman, or The Fallen Woman, as well as Auerbach’s concept of Women and the Demon. Furthermore, the novel’s female characters have also been analyzed to show the unfair situation of married women and the difficulties that female artists faced during their rise to professionalization. Brontë’s novel works to highlight some of the problems that women faced in Victorian England, exposing them, and demanding change.