Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T12:15:57.273Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 6 - Burning Art and Political Resistance

Anne Brontë's Radical Imaginary of Wives, Enslaved People, and Animals in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2019

Alexandra Lewis
Affiliation:
University of Aberdeen
Get access

Summary

Deborah Denenholz Morse’s chapter on Anne Brontë’s radical imaginary of wives, slaves, and animals links art and political resistance both within the novels and in terms of their creation. Morse extends the recent Animal Studies interest in Emily Brontë’s work to a close consideration of how the mistreatment of animals, particularly dogs, in Anne’s novels embodies interrogations of other forms of confinement and abuse. With a focus on The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and reference to Agnes Grey, and attention to specific Yorkshire and West Riding links to slavery and abolitionism, Morse shows how Anne Brontë’s writing exposes the cultural and societal license that connects acts of violence against women and animals, and in doing so undermines masculine privilege and human mastery. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall insists upon the humanity of slaves and also, by extension, of wives (another form of human property) as well as arguing for the humane treatment of animals. Morse traces Helen’s movement from servitude to rebellion through changes in her art. Both Helen’s art and diary and Anne Brontë’s novel are powerful indictments of oppressive masculine prerogative and English law, which come together in the legally brutal control of gentlemen over enslaved female bodies.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Brontës and the Idea of the Human
Science, Ethics, and the Victorian Imagination
, pp. 125 - 146
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×