The Tenant

710 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Bronte's portrayal of characters

Seneca Falls. This topic in my opinion closely relates to Anne Bronte’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. In 1848, around the same time this novel was published the Seneca Falls women's rights convention took place in the United States. They fought for the woman’s right to vote and overall equality. It was like men and women lived in different worlds they had to obey different rules and standards. Men basically had little rule, while women were very oppressed. They couldn’t make decisions and own property. Bronte certainly flipped the script with this novel showing the empowered female through her protagonist Helen Graham.

Helen Graham is a young woman who changes her identity when she flees from her alcoholic husband who's been leading a life of corruption. She enters this nosy town who finds her new face to be quite interesting. Her new neighbor, Gilbert Markham, is terribly fascinated with Helen. At one point I felt that he could be deemed a stalker because she would not give him the time of day and he still persisted. Eventually Helen gives him her diary which pours out the confessions of her previously disastrous life and gives way to hope for a new future and helps both Gilbert and the reader understand the pain of this troubled woman.

Helen passionately challenging ideas such as the extreme sheltering of girls, and the extreme exposure of boys, to the harshness of the world. We especially see this when Gilbert Markham argues with Helen over the differential treatment of boys and girls and the implied outcomes. Helen's protective treatment of her son Arthur sparks reaction in Gilbert. Gilbert's response to this is to say that “…and by such means ... you will never render him virtuous”. His outlook is that based on the society in order to prepare boys to be men it is necessary for them to be exposed to the dangers of the world as a means of developing a strong moral character. It is a double standard for females by the view that girls and women must be protected from the harsh realities of the world in order to protect them from moral distress or tainting. It is this contradiction that Helen addresses, challenging the importance of exposure to use as a strengthening of moral character, and the value of keeping girls in complete ignorance of the world's vice to prevent their corruption.

Show More
Related

  • Antebellum Reform DBQ

    716 Words  | 2 Pages

    However, the writers of the Constitution had omitted women in that pivotal statement which left women to be denied these “unalienable” rights given to every countryman. Gaining the support of many, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the leader of the Women’s Rights Movement declared at Seneca Falls that women had the same rights as men including the right to vote and be a part of government. The Women’s Rights movement gained support due to the years of abuse women endured. For years, men had “the power to chastise and imprison his wife…” and they were tired of suffering (Doc I). The new concept of the cult of domesticity supported women’s roles in society but created greater divisions between men and women.

    Read More

  • Kathryn Kish Sklar

    823 Words  | 2 Pages

    I have read Kathryn Kish Sklar book, brief History with documents of "Women's Rights Emerges within the Antislavery Movement, 1830-1870" with great interest and I have learned a lot. I share her fascination with the contours of nineteenth century women's rights movements, and their search for meaningful lessons we can draw from the past about American political culture today. I find their categories of so compelling, that when reading them, I frequently lost focus about women's rights movements history and became absorbed in their accounts of civic life.

    Read More

  • Sarah and Angelina Grimké

    1974 Words  | 4 Pages

    Up until and during the mid -1800’s, women were stereotyped and not given the same rights that men had. Women were not allowed to vote, speak publically, stand for office and had no influence in public affairs. They received poorer education than men did and there was not one church, except for the Quakers, that allowed women to have a say in church affairs. Women also did not have any legal rights and were not permitted to own property. Overall, people believed that a woman only belonged in the home and that the only rule she may ever obtain was over her children. However, during the pre- Civil war era, woman began to stand up for what they believed in and to change the way that people viewed society (Lerner, 1971). Two of the most famous pioneers in the women’s rights movement, as well as abolition, were two sisters from South Carolina: Sarah and Angelina Grimké.

    Read More

  • Women's Suffrage in the 1800’s-19th Century

    1178 Words  | 3 Pages

    Women, like black slaves, were treated unequally from the male before the nineteenth century. The role of the women played the part of their description, physically and emotionally weak, which during this time period all women did was took care of their household and husband, and followed their orders. Women were classified as the “weaker sex” or below the standards of men in the early part of the century. Soon after the decades unfolded, women gradually surfaced to breathe the air of freedom and self determination, when they were given specific freedoms such as the opportunity for an education, their voting rights, ownership of property, and being employed.

    Read More

  • How and why did the lives and status of Northern middle-class women change between 1776-1876

    800 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the times of these notorious women, there were several injustices against females, that fueled their fiery and passionate desires for equality. In 1848, activists at Seneca Falls saw the likeness between women and slaves as an issue. They enunciated, "[The husband] has taken from her all right in property, even to the wages they earn." Women advocates also stated the husband becomes, "to all intents and purposes, her ma...

    Read More

  • The Seneca Falls Convention

    1012 Words  | 3 Pages

    Women had limited rights during the 19th Century. The Seneca Falls convention was a woman’s rights convention located in Seneca Falls in what is today known as Finger Lakes District (Page 3). This convention paved the road to help women gain rights and to stop being so dependent on men. At this time period women were not allowed to vote, own land, have a professional career, they only received minor education, etc. In an interesting book, Seneca Falls and the Origins of the Women’s Rights Movement, by Sally G. McMillen she explains the widespread significance of the convention that changed women’s history. From 1840 to 1890, over the course of 50 years. Four astonishing women; Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Susan B Anthony and Lucy

    Read More

  • Championing Women's Rights: The Seneca Falls Declaration

    1117 Words  | 3 Pages

    It was not until the early 20th century, that women officially gained the right to vote and participate in legislation. Unlike men, women were deprived of their basic rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They were discouraged from receiving education, and their achievements were not recognized as they were for male counterparts. As a result of women suffering, Elizabeth Cady Stanton decided to petition for women suffrage by drafting the Seneca Falls Declaration, a lengthy document written to resolve inequality between men and women. Through the use of a few select rhetorical devices, Stanton effectively argues for the importance of equal rights and opportunities for women in the “Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions.”

    Read More

  • The Impact Of The Seneca Falls Convention And Its Impact

    1093 Words  | 3 Pages

    Some of the great women who were willing to deal with those things were Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Jane Hunt, Mary McClintock, and Martha C. Wright. These women gave this movement, its spark by conducting the first ever women’s rights convention. This convention was held in a church in Seneca Falls in 1848. At this convection they expressed their problems with how they were treated, as being less than a man. These women offered solutions to the problem by drafting the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions.

    Read More

  • The Impact Of The Women's Suffrage Movement

    1824 Words  | 4 Pages

    “We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men and women are created equal.” In the 19th century, the state of freedom of women in the United States was limited and contained a non-egalitarian relationship between men and women. Voting and participation in political decisions were reserved exclusively for men. Women began to desire for a different social climate involving the necessary rights to participate in society, regardless of sex. The effect of the Seneca Falls Convention led to a time of change and reform known as the Women’s Suffrage Movement, and influenced leading suffragists, who prompted the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment.

    Read More

  • Women in the Workplace

    2059 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 started a women’s rights movement; a small group of women demanded the right to vote, claim progress in property rights, experience employment and educational opportunities, have social freedoms, and other essential demands touching every aspect of life. Women wanted a change and needed a new place in society. They did not have the most basic democratic equality of all, the equal right to vote, until the 19th amendment was adopted in 1920. As they gained the right to vote, women began feeling the right to explore other opportunities.

    Read More

  • Women's Rights Essay

    1705 Words  | 4 Pages

    Throughout history women have suffered from inequalities that differentiate from men, including the right to vote among many others. When New Zealand granted women the right to vote it empowered women from other countries to fight for the vote, where Europe and the Unites States then fought for women’s rights changing them forever. Many suffrage groups were formed, throughout the U.S and Europe, to fight for women’s rights. Two major events, Seneca Falls, and a parade led by Alice Paul, created a turning point for women’s rights.

    Read More

  • Seneca Falls And The Origins Of The Women 's Right Movement

    1593 Words  | 4 Pages

    McMillen, S. (2008). Seneca falls and the origins of the women 's rights movement. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Read More

  • The Women's Rights Movement

    1330 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Women's Rights Movement was a significant crusade for women that began in the late nineteenth century and flourished throughout Europe and the United States for the rest of the twentieth century. Advocates for women's rights initiated this movement as they yearned for equality and equal participation and representation in society. Throughout all of history, the jobs of women ranged from housewives to factory workers, yet oppression by society, particularly men, accompanied them in their everyday lives. Not until the end of the nineteenth century did women begin to voice their frustrations about the inequalities among men and women, and these new proclamations would be the basis for a society with opportunities starting to open for women. The supporters of women's rights strived for voting rights, equal pay in jobs, no job discrimination, and other privileges that would put them on the same level as men in both society and in the workplace. Starting with the Seneca Falls Declaration in 1848 and continuing through the twentieth century with documents like the United Nations Declaration of Women's Rights, women became significant leaders that aided in the advancement of twentieth century life and society.

    Read More

  • The Oppressed Role Of Women

    1035 Words  | 3 Pages

    Women in history were subjected to an oppressed role, which men were in control. Many of these women created groups to talk about these problems such as the Seneca Falls. Women fought for equality, but some were happy with the status quo, and some simply became the change.

    Read More

  • The Parable Of The Wicked Tenants

    938 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Parable of the Wicked Tenants and enhances Godly characteristics. This parable explains what happens when one is denied over and over again. There is story to this parable, Sin is something that everyone does, but why does one choose to do it over and over again.

    Read More

More about The Tenant

Open Document