In Anne Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Arthur Huntington, Helen’s husband and Arthur’s father, is presented as an alcoholic, disgraceful, narcissistic “gentleman” (Brontë 311). Despite Helen’s efforts to shelter their son, Arthur, from the corrupted masculinity embodied by Huntington and his friends, Huntington encourages Arthur’s “manly accomplishments” that mirror his own character, such as excessive drinking, swearing, and selfishness (297). For fear of Arthur becoming “a curse to others and himself”, like his father, Helen has acquitted herself to prepare for an escape; however, Huntington seizes her journal which reveal her plans (203). In this passage Mr. Huntington is not only devaluing aspect of his corrupted masculinity, like excessive drinking, but he is implying a new quality to his definition, the lack of violence and ability to deal with situations, such as Helen’s planning to escape, with calmness and rationality is gentlemanly; this brings into question the violent men in the novel as lesser because of their irrationality and behavior.
The evident identification Mr. Huntington has placed on alcohol in his corrupted view of masculinity is revealed early in his marriage to Helen. He often refers alcohol in a positive manner, or represents drunkenness as “glorious”, which arguably displays Huntington’s intimacy with alcohol (218). His excessive drinking become cause for extensive absences from Helen when he goes to London and lengthy illness when he returns to Grassdale because of acting in “regular bachelor style” (218). Helen notes Huntington’s dependence on alcohol when she identifies it as “his medicine and support, his comforter, his recreation, and his friend” (220); alcohol is closely tied with Huntingt...
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...ssage, trivializes intoxication, deflates violence, and stresses the dishonor of Helen’s plan. Huntington’s alcoholism, selfishness, and disgracefulness are threats to Arthur’s well-being, justifying Helen’s plans to escape. Although Huntington’s intoxicated actions and behaviors, along with his affair, are disgraceful to his character, they are justified through his profane image of masculinity. Huntington argues and reveals the humiliation Helen’s plan would cause simply because of the gossip it would produce. Therefore, the significance of this passage is Huntington’s ability to “carry [his] point like a man,” reasserting his disvaluing of alcohol, disapproval of violent masculinity, and his illumination of his conception of shamefulness (311).
Works Cited
Brontë, Anne. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Ed. Herbert Rosengarten. New York: Oxford Press, 2008. Print.
In Stephen Dunn’s 2003 poem, “Charlotte Bronte in Leeds Point”, the famous author of Jane Eyre is placed into a modern setting of New Jersey. Although Charlotte Bronte lived in the early middle 1800’s, we find her alive and well in the present day in this poem. The poem connects itself to Bronte’s most popular novel, Jane Eyre in characters analysis and setting while speaking of common themes in the novel. Dunn also uses his poem to give Bronte’s writing purpose in modern day.
During these times, domestic violence was commonplace and many blamed alcohol as the culprit. Reformers also noticed that alcohol decreased efficiency of labor and thought of alcohol as a menace to society because it left men irresponsible and lacking self control. One reformer, named Lyman Beecher, argued that the act of alcohol consumption was immoral and will destroy the nation. Document H depicts the progression of becoming a drunkard from a common m...
Some scholars argue that the narrator’s actions are not propelled by perversity, but rather his actions are propelled by alcoholism. Alcoholism answers some questions as to why the narrator commits his actions; however, it is still unclear as to what first drove him to alcoholism. Joseph Stark further disproves alcoholism as an acceptable answer behind the narrator’s actions, “the two murders (of cat and wife) occurred while he was sober. Only the gouging of the cat’s eye happened while he was drunk (qtd. in Piacentino, footnote 9). Hence, though alcohol may have been a contributing factor to his crime it cannot be described as the ultimate cause” (260). Furthermore, I argue that the narrator’s perversity is initially why the narrator becomes an alcoholic. Perversity is the only answer that can be given to explain each action the narrator commits.
Bradstreet, Anne. "Upon the Burning of Our House July 10th, 1666." The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. 197.
A the murder of Banquo. He tells the two men that Banquo is the reason
Although he should lose faith in himself as an effective human, husband, and master the absurdity of Hawthorne’s tale lies in the anomaly of Wakefield’s return home as if having been gone no longer than the week he intended to stay away. However, because Hawthorne judged not the actor but the actions, we still rally in the wonderment of knowing "each for himself, that none of us would perpetrate such a folly, yet feel as if some other might" (Hawthorne 76).
Bronte, Charlotte. The Letters of Charlotte Bronte: 1829-1847. Ed. Margaret Smith. 2 vols. New York: Oxford UP, 1995-2000.
During the Victorian Era, society had idealized expectations that all members of their culture were supposedly striving to accomplish. These conditions were partially a result of the development of middle class practices during the “industrial revolution… [which moved] men outside the home… [into] the harsh business and industrial world, [while] women were left in the relatively unvarying and sheltered environments of their homes” (Brannon 161). This division of genders created the ‘Doctrine of Two Spheres’ where men were active in the public Sphere of Influence, and women were limited to the domestic private Sphere of Influence. Both genders endured considerable pressure to conform to the idealized status of becoming either a masculine ‘English Gentleman’ or a feminine ‘True Woman’. The characteristics required women to be “passive, dependent, pure, refined, and delicate; [while] men were active, independent, coarse …strong [and intelligent]” (Brannon 162). Many children's novels utilized these gendere...
Jane Eyre, written by Charlotte Brontë, was published in 1847 by Smith, Elder & Company, in London. This year is exactly ten years into Queen Victoria’s sixty-four year reign of the British Empire. The Victorian Era was renowned for its patriarchal Society and definition by class. These two things provide vital background to the novel, as Jane suffers from both. Jane Eyre relates in some ways to Brontë’s own life, as its original title suggest, “Jane Eyre: An Autobiography”. Charlotte Brontë would have suffered from too, as a relatively poor woman. She would have been treated lowly within the community. In fact, the book itself was published under a pseudonym of Currer Bell, the initials taken from Brontë’s own name, due to the fact that a book published by a woman was seen as inferior, as they were deemed intellectually substandard to men. Emily Brontë, Charlotte’s sister, was also forced to publish her most famous novel, Wuthering Heights, under the nom de plume of Ellis Bell, again taking the initials of her name to form her own alias. The novel is a political touchstone to illustrate the period in which it was written, and also acts as a critique of the Victorian patriarchal society.
Moglen, Helen. "The Creation of a Feminist Myth." Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. New York: W.W. Norton, 1987. 484-491. Print.
Brennan, Zoe. "Reader's Guide: Bronte's Jane Eyre." Ebrary. Continuum International Publishing 2 2010. Print. April 28, 2014
... Norton Anthology of English Literature. 9th ed. Vol. D. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2012. 1166-86. Print.
Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights. Norton Critical ed. 3rd ed. Ed. William M. Sale, Jr., and Richard J. Dunn. New York: W. W. Norton, 1990.
“Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte is a novel about an orphan girl growing up in a tough condition and how she becomes a mature woman with full of courage. Her life at Gateshead is really difficult, where she feels isolated and lives in fear in her childhood. Her parents are dead when she was little, her dead uncle begged his evil wife, Mrs. Reed, to take care of Jane until she becomes an adult. But Mrs. Reed does not keep her promise, no one treats Jane like their family members even treats her less than a servant. By the end of this essay it will be proven that Jane’s life at Gateshead has shaped her development as a young woman and bildungsroman.
Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights. Norton Critical ed. 3rd ed. Ed. William M. Sale, Jr., and Richard J. Dunn. New York: W. W. Norton, 1990.