Infidelity in Victorian England: Double Standards Based on Gender and Class Anonymous College

Anne Bronte’s The Tenant of Wild fell Hall is a novel in which the plights of the female protagonist overlap with the issues faced by the majority of women in the Victorian Era of England. The book raises questions of the Brontës’ family’s sisters own experience with infidelity, alcoholism, and overall debauchery pertaining to the men in their life. The sisters shared the two men closest to them, Branwell and their father Patrick, as well as the escapades that came with these family members, specifically Branwell. Branwell was well known for his inability to keep a job, however he is more similar to Arthur Huntingdon, the abusive antagonist of the novel, in their shared love of alcohol, gambling, and adultery whether within their own respective relationships or the relationships of other prestigious community members. Huntingdon’s wife Helen is the female protagonist of the novel, though she faces criticism throughout for her inability to detach herself from her physically and emotionally abusive husband. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is an introduction to a more shocking variety of the Brontës’ literature; the novel covers topics that were not considered acceptable for social conversations, but aimed more towards the Victorian...