Feb. 8 -- Feb. 14 Discussion: Chapters XX ("Persistence") through XXXVII ("The Neighbor Again")

[John]

..he did not wish me to be Londonized and to lose my country freshness

Obvious connections here with the purity/naivity dual nature of Helena, her insertion into a debacuhed London scene would change her utterly. Is there any credence to Arthur 'becoming' his character rather than it being innate?

Even by chapter 31 Helena is still stating lines such as But Arthur is not naturally a peevish or irritable man

This seems an absurd nativity consider how deep into the book we are. I do not think Huntigdon ever became Londonized. He is the dark soul of the city born into the world. He is too much of nature, is too much of passion.

[Kathleen]

Miriam, you've already caught up with some of us! Like Diane, I'll start the last part today.

I'm so glad you brought up Heathcliff and Catherine. I agree that Helen didn't really love Arthur. It's interesting that in more than a few novels from this period, the women are in love with an idea of love, and they equate it with some spiritual purpose. They want to do something noble with this love (like change their lover into a better person perhaps?). Dorothea in Middlemarch is an extreme version of this. But Catherine, this is why I like her so much, for her it's not an idea, it's a core reality she cannot avoid.

And I like your comparison between Arthur and Casaubon, John. I can pity Casaubon, but no way can I dredge that up for Arthur.

[Ginny]

Arthur Sr. and Annabella. Was this their plan all along? Arthur needed Helen's money, and Annabella wanted Lowborough's title and land. But they have had something going on from when we first meet them. Arthur gaslights Helen until that wonderful scene in the shrubbery (brilliantly written, I thought) when she sees with her own eyes, but there are many earlier interactions. Like the "misdemeanour" in Chapter 27, when he "ardently pressed [Annabella's] unresisting hand to his lips." When Helen takes him to task, he uses that sadly very familiar gaslighting line, "Will you never learn? ...that I love you wholly and entirely?




Illustration by Valentina Catto for The Folio Society’s edition of Anne Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

[Bionic Jean]

Cindy wrote: "I want to comment on another aspect of the novel--the relationship between Helen, Arthur, and little Arthur ..."

It's a bit late, but I just wanted to say that this comment is very insightful. There's a lot of talk about Helen being too good to be true, but actually a large part of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is showing how two completely different people clash! Helen has her faults too, and you give examples :)

[Bionic Jean]

Kathleen - Thanks for the link in comment 40, to explain divorce in English Law at this time. It was really quite rare, and not nearly as easy as some assume.

It's as well to remember that although Charles Dickens desperately wanted to divorce his wife, and made a lot of enquiries as to how to achieve this in Law, he had to give up. He did eventually separate from her (in 1858), but divorce was too expensive for him - even though he was a celebrity!