I started reading Anne Bronte’s novel Jane Eyre several years ago. It wasn't interesting. While other classics seem to have a definite conflict related to the government and worldly philosophies, Anne Bronte’s novels often portray a bucolic setting absent of political unrest. The story’s plot, in addition to the author’s motive, was so peaceful that I gave up the reading halfway through. After all, novels devoted to political ideologies such as The Tale of Two Cities pique my interest more than passive novels do. So when I initially heard the play The Tenant of Wildfell Hall in class, I already wanted to skip the event. I’m glad I didn’t.
From a personal perspective, the play does not seem overly interesting. I am no experienced play critic, but the part that stands out is the well-written plot compaction during the first scene. Not only does it introduce the characters and their relationships, but it also gives hints to the main conflict of the storyline. This scene is where the protagonist Gilbert, his mother Ms. Markham, his ex-wife Eliza Millward, and the mysterious neighbor Helen Graham are introduced. The director also provides a little hint about the upcoming conflict regarding Gilbert’s love for Helen and her discrimination in the community. Capable of compressing the content of the book into just a few lines, the director is amazing.
The plot continues with Gilbert falling in love with Helen. Helen lives an ascetic and solitary lifestyle, refraining from conversing with those around her. For example, she once says to Gilbert that she only travels to church on Sundays and stays at home on other days. This gives her a mysterious aura throughout the play, for the audience can question why she tries to isolate herself. Of course, this aura is dispelled after the audience can tap into the diary she gives to Gilbert.
The diary explains Helen’s past. She is married to an indulgent alcoholic Huntingdon. Initially she finds him attractive, but eventually she cannot bear his attitudes toward the family. He drinks alcohol and neglects his son. He brings other women into the house and has affairs in front of his wife. So with the help of her brother Frederick Lawrence, she escapes with her child and lives in the old house near Gilbert’s community. To prevent her identity from being revealed, she isolates herself from people so that Huntingdon’s relatives won’t recognize her face.
The diary clarifies a lot of questions from both the audience and the protagonist. Sympathizing with her predicaments, Gilbert swears to protect her from the Huntingdon. But in a rush, Helen quickly moves back to Huntingdon’s family, leaving Gilbert for several consecutive years. Eventually, she and Gilbert meet again and live happily together.
I thought that a historical perspective of the play can give it more depth. The book came out in 1848 when the patriarchal human society limited women’s rights. The women suffrage movement, around 1900, occurred half a century after the book was written. During this time, women were usually denounced when they made any important decisions or managed businesses without consents from their husbands. Also, married women did not have much power in a family household and were not allowed to disobey their husbands.
The play has a relatively unique focus on the female protagonist Helen Graham, who performs the unconventional actions that a woman in the 1900’s would not do. She argues against her husband Huntingdon and runs away from his home, stealing his child in the process. While such actions may be acceptable nowadays, they were socially undesirable when Anne Bronte lived. Fortunately, she prevented the criticisms of the readers by telling the protagonist’s reasons behind her actions.
Helen has a virtuous, inviolable personality. Her strong moral belief in a healthy wife can’t be swayed, even when she lives with her indulgent husband. In fact, her conviction is so powerful that she is willing to sacrifice her possessions and ranks, exemplified by the escape she makes with her child. She also reunites with Huntingdon in a weakened state, perhaps to sympathize with him and to forgive him for his past actions.
Gilbert’s cliché personality resembles that of Romeo in Romeo and Juliet and Lysander in Midsummer Night’s Dream. The story describes Gilbert pursuit of love, which culminates when Helen moves into the community. He forces himself through the walls that Helen has established between herself and the society. He makes many visits to her places and disregards his peers’ warning that his reputation could be damaged from his actions. Despite his aristocratic behavior, he acts rashly when he assumes that Helen has been taken by another person. During the first time, he punches Frederick hard, knocking him almost unconscious. He is not as barbaric the second time, but he still displays a threatening, uncontrollable attitude when confronting Frederick.
The play is amazingly simplistic in design. While others utilize tables, chairs, and background scenes to convey the setting of each scene, this play only has the chairs to form places to sit and the bed for Huntingdon. The background has windows, but I don’t think they contribute to the audience’s comprehension. I like the elaborate costumes, for they truly depict the status and personalities of the characters. Helen, for example, always wears a black dress. Black often emphasizes darkness and sadness, both of which she experiences throughout her life. Meanwhile, the flamboyant dresses of other women show their extravagant, outgoing style. Finally, I found the speaking styles of the characters easy to understand. While they speak pure Old English at the beginning of the play, there are some parts later on when they unknowingly switch back to Modern English. Personally, I prefer this style over a pure, incomprehensible Old English style.
This play might have catalyzed the suffrage movement. Through her The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and famous novels, Anne Bronte manages to instill within the women a rare sense of dignity and respect. This sense, through a slow process of incubation, was finally hatched after 50 years. The result? A huge woman-right movement changed all of history and the social structure today.
Perhaps I have put too much importance behind this small classic play. There are other causes of the suffrage movement such as Martin Luther King. Nevertheless, I will endorse that the plot contains a theme of woman liberty.
I am glad I did not skip the play. Until now, I did not realize how such a peaceful plot can have such interesting political influences. I think I will reread Jane Eyre, along with other Anne Bronte’s books I haven’t read yet. Maybe they, just like The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, also focus on the underrepresented woman populace during the 1900s.
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