The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Annabella is insolent to Helen and no longer hides her affection for Huntingdon when Lord Lowborough is not around. Helen fears her afflictions are turning her bitter. Annabella tells Helen that she loves Huntingdon more than Helen does and, where Helen has failed to make him more temperate in his habits, Annabella has succeeded. When Hargrave questions her whether she feels any more loyalty to Huntingdon, or would consider herself free, Helen says he insults her.

December 20, 1824. It is the third anniversary of her marriage, and Helen and her husband live with “no love, friendship, or sympathy between them” (328). When she again proposes a separation, Huntingdon objects on the basis of his reputation. He says that “he was not going to be the talk of all the old gossips in the neighbourhood” (329). Helen feels she is his steward and housekeeper, no more. Huntingdon continues to drink, which makes him cruel and depressed. Helen feels he has forfeited every claim to her regard, and she refuses to be blamed for his bad behavior. She is relieved when he leaves to spend time elsewhere.

Huntingdon complains of Helen’s cold manner and sour face, accusing her of “unnatural, unwomanly conduct” (330). When she tries to act less cold and more kind, he repays her by sharing a love letter that Annabella wrote him. Helen feels her son is all she has left to live for, but he is attached to his father, and every effort to discipline or teach her child is subverted by Huntingdon, who delights in trying to be the boy’s favorite. She looks to religion for consolation.

December 20, 1825. Helen is weary of her life, but she cannot leave Huntingdon and thus abandon her child. She reports that Walter Hargrave continues to pursue her. One day in May, as they walked outside among the pleasant scenery of trees and pond, he tried again to declare his love. He insists he could make her happy, but when Helen refuses to use him to take revenge on her husband, Walter accuses her of being “only half a woman—your nature must be half human, half angelic” (338), he says, for her to be so heartless, icy, and cold.

After months of acting injured, Walter accosts Helen while she is walking to the village school and berates her for making him miserable. She reminds him of her faith and that adultery would be a disgrace. If he truly loves her, he will never mention this subject again, Helen says, adding: “I have nothing left me but the solace of a good conscience and a hopeful trust in Heaven” (343).

This is the end of the second volume of the Newby 1848 edition.

December 20, 1826. It is her fifth wedding anniversary, and Helen plans in secret to leave her husband. In September, Huntingdon held a house party, and Helen warned Lady Lowborough that if she had any reason to suspect Annabella was still carrying on their affair with Huntingdon, Helen would inform Lord Lowborough.

One night, Helen is in the library, taking refuge in watching darkness fall over the hills and a single, hopeful star shine out. Lord Lowborough enters in distress and reproaches Helen for not informing him of his wife’s infidelity. Then, he takes pity on her, for he knows Helen has been suffering also. When Lowborough remarked on Helen’s changed manner to her husband, Huntingdon claimed, “[I]t was your own sour temper that was eating away your bloom; it was making you old and ugly before your time, and had already made his fireside as comfortless as a convent cell” (349). Helen says she has learned through hard lessons to remain calm.

Hattersley encourages Lowborough to challenge Huntingdon to a duel, but Lowborough refuses. Helen sympathizes with his agony and respects how he clings to the right action no matter how battered he feels. The couple departs, and Helen hears later that they have separated. Lowborough takes their two children and lives in the country while Annabella leads a dashing life in London. The remainder of the house party is “night after night one scene of riot, uproar and confusion” (354), Helen writes. She locks herself in her room or retreats to the library to avoid as much as she can.

Helen’s deepest concern is how Huntingdon and his friends are influencing Arthur. In trying to “make a man of him” (356) they teach him to swear, curse his mother, and drink, and she is desperate to protect her child from this corruption. “I could endure it for myself,” Helen says, “but for my son it must be borne no longer” (357). She hopes to make a living selling her pictures and so begins painting in earnest. Her lady’s maid, Rachel, is part of the escape plan.

Walter Hargrave informs Helen that Huntingdon ended things with Annabella, but when Hattersley asked if he would reform and go back to his wife, Huntingdon swore he had no wife. Helen lets slip that she means to leave him, and Walter begs Helen to run away with him. When she refuses, he insists that she can no longer deny him and rushes toward her. Helen holds up her palette knife to warn him away. When Hattersley and Huntingdon appear, Huntingdon holding a gun, Helen insists that Hargrave admit that she spurned his advances.

It appalls Helen that she should be treated thus by a so-called gentleman, but she is proud she stood up for herself. She writes that she has gained such courage through rough experience and despair. Helen works all the harder to create paintings she can sell for the income that will help her escape, especially when she sees how her son is torn by his father’s insulting remarks about Helen.

January 10, 1827. One night, while they are alone in the drawing room, Huntingdon reads Helen’s journal and learns of her plans to leave him. He takes her keys and goes through all her things, destroying her paintings and her painting materials and taking her money and her jewels. He takes pleasure in foiling her plans. Helen is devastated by this blow and feels she is enslaved or a prisoner, writing in her journal that since “I am forbidden to rescue my son from ruin […] what was once my only consolation is become the crowning source of my despair” (373). She clings to her faith in God and belief in His mercy.

March 20. Huntingdon is gone. Helen is doing her best to uproot what she calls the “weeds” in Arthur’s mind and sow good seed instead; she is glad his nature is “not a barren or a stony soil” (375). She teaches him to hate wine by feeding it to him when he is sick in hopes that she can save him from alcohol addiction. Helen’s new scheme is to take refuge at the old hall where their family lived before her mother died. She has been circumspect in her letters to Frederick, but when he comes to visit, she tells him the whole of her situation, and he agrees to help.

Esther Hargrave’s mother is pressuring her to marry a rich man whom Esther despises. Helen tells Esther to stand firm and marry a man she can respect and love, for “you might as well sell yourself to slavery at once, as marry a man you dislike” (380). When Esther says she does not want to live as a dependent on her mother or brother, Helen advises Esther that remaining single is better than being in an unhappy marriage. Seeing that she does not believe that either her sister Millicent or Helen are happily married, Esther agrees it seems wiser to wait.

September. The Hattersleys visit Helen while they are staying at the Grove, and Mr. Hattersley reports that he has wearied of Huntingdon. He considers leaving off his riotous lifestyle and devoting himself to a life of decency, sobriety, and his family. Helen encourages this goal of reformation and hints that Millicent will love him more if he behaves better. Showing him one of Millicent’s letters to her, Helen makes him see that Millicent’s changed demeanor, from pretty, plump, and cheerful to anxious and worn, is because of worry for him. Hattersley goes at once to find his wife and declares his intentions to change. Millicent is overjoyed, and Helen hopes for both their sakes that his resolution will hold.

October 10. Huntingdon returns from a trip and announces he has found a governess for Arthur. He overrules Helen’s objections that she can educate Arthur herself and brings Alice Myers into the house. Rachel and Helen realize that Alice is his latest mistress. Helen resolves to leave at once and Rachel insists on going with her. Helen writes a letter apologizing to her aunt for disappointing her but insists she is leaving to protect her son. She will not tell Aunt Maxwell where she is going in hopes that Huntingdon will not be able to find her. They pack some things and, with the butler’s help, send the crates ahead in a cart. Helen adopts the surname Graham, which was her mother’s maiden name.

October 24. Helen writes in her journal that she is free and safe. They left early in the morning, and when Helen looks back at the house, “the scene of so much guilt and misery,” she feels “no doubt about the propriety of such a step” and “no shadow of remorse” (394). Her only fear as they journey to L— is that Huntingdon might find her. They take a rough cart up the steep and stony lane to Wildfell. The house appears a grim, dark pile as night falls, but there is a fire in one room. An old woman brings them supper, and Helen tucks Arthur into her bed.

The next morning, she looks over the house, bare save for some old furniture, with “the desolate wilderness below” and the barest remains of a garden (397). Frederick comes, and they decide to keep it secret that Helen is his sister. After two weeks, Helen feels she is settled. She sells some of her clothes for money and works hard at her painting, enjoying the chance to support herself.

By accident a portrait she made of Huntingdon was packed, and Helen notes how different she feels about the subject now. Then she was in love, but now she sees no beauty in him. She can see how much his looks have coarsened due to his lifestyle. She hears that Huntingdon is looking for her, telling everyone he only wants his son, but Helen will not deliver Arthur into his hands.

Her only complaint is that her neighbors are curious about her. She does not want to encourage their friendliness or arouse their suspicions. To try to hold off censure, she writes, she will attend church. She notes one fine young gentleman who fancies himself the beau of the parish.

And there, Gilbert writes, the rest of the pages in the journal are torn away. He wishes they were not, for he is sure Helen was writing of him and wants to know what she thought.