"You thought to disgrace me, did you, by running away and turning [an] artist": A Woman as an Artist in Anne Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Abstract

In my thesis I analyse the situation and treatment of a female artist in Anne Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. The woman artist was practically an oxymoron in the Victorian period, due to the construction of Victorian femininity and female spaces. Thus I argue that Helen Huntingdon is a special heroine, who is able to gain control over her own life and to become a professional artist, even if her ambition is motivated by the most traditional desire of a woman: to protect her son and raise him properly. However, this traditional desire inspires Helen to take transgressive steps. Moreover, men are also of great importance in the novel, so it is necessary to discuss Victorian masculinity as well. Actually, the novel deals with problems that are still relevant today, for instance, domestic violence and abuse or the financial dependence of women and children.