Essay on Helen as Angel and Rebel in The Tenant of...

Helen as Angel and Rebel in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall In nineteenth century England, the lives of men and women were completely different. The women had very few - or no - rights and the man had absolute power over his wife and children. He even had the rights to his wifes income or heritage! The only acceptable way for a woman to lead her life was to be a social character, a supporting wife and loving mother, so to speak an angel in the house. The term the angel in the house refers to Coventry Patmores poem with the same name. The poem depicts the ideal of a loving, unselfish, (sexually) passive and sensitive woman, who was religious and devoted to please her husband: Man must be please; but him to please, is womans†¦show more content†¦But a considerate and high-principled woman, may, without loss of dignity, and certainly without loss of respect, make them feel that she regards it as her duty to be their friend as well as their mistress, and that she looks upon herself as under a sacred obligation to advise them in difficult ies, to guard their welfare, and to promote their comfort, simply because the all-wise Disposer of human affairs has seen meet to place them within the sphere of her influence (Ellis, p 210-211). Helen Graham, the heroine in The tenant of Wildfell Hall, is a strong and unique woman. She is in many ways a typical Victorian upper-class lady, but in many ways also a very modern and independent kind of woman. She lives with her aunt and uncle, who want to see her married to a wealthy man, but she refuses any offers of marriage since she does not want to marry a man she does not love. When she is about 18 years old and still quite naivà «, she falls in love with Mr Huntingdon, who woos and courts her - and seems very much in love with her too. I will willingly risk my happiness for the chance of securing his (p 125), she says when trying to persuade her aunt intoShow MoreRelatedA Dialogue of Self and Soul11424 Words   |  46 Pagesthe red-room; to be imprisoned literally as well as ï ¬ guratively. For ‘the fact is,’ confesses the grownup narrator ironically, ‘I was [at that moment] a triï ¬â€še beside myself; or rather out of myself, as the French would say . . . like any other rebel slave, I felt resolved . . . to go all lengths’ (ch. 1). But if Jane was ‘out of’ herself in her struggle against John Reed, her experience in the red-room, probably the most metaphorically vibrant of all her early experiences, forces her deeply