Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Gender, Sexism, and Double Standards
Christian Faith and Morality
Love and Marriage
Work and Idleness
Summary
Analysis
Gilbert gets in a coach headed for Grassdale Manor. The driver is a talkative man. He used to be a servant at the Grove, and gossips about the Hargrave family as he drives. Walter is finally married. He engaged himself to a rich older woman, and that woman has since regretted her decision to marry him. He was charming at first, but is now cruel and conniving, and it is not a happy match. Gilbert finds it difficult to listen to the man’s ramblings, as he is too focused on meeting Helen. She is not at Grassdale Manor, however; she is at Staningley with her aunt.
Walter is yet another character whose fate aligns well with his relative worth. Although Helen’s feelings for Walter often fluctuated, her first instincts were correct, as were her impressions of his character during the long-ago chess match. His selfishness and devious nature ultimately trump his good intentions. Esther and Milicent might want to think the best of him, but he is not, in the end, a good man.
Themes
Gilbert decides to make the journey there, even though it will take him several days. He writes a letter to his mother, assuring her he is still alive, and begins the trip in a very excited state of mind. As he nears Staningley, however, he hears news that depresses him immensely. Helen, it seems, is to inherit her uncle’s estate. She is now a rich, independent woman, free to live as she chooses, and Gilbert assumes she would choose to remain single. Her love for him must be a faint memory by now. He jumps out of the carriage before it can arrive at the house and rests against a tree, planning to return home as soon as possible.
Gilbert assumes that, because Helen is now an heiress, she will want nothing to do with him because he is a humble farmer and she a strong, independent woman with ideas of her own. But he does not yet know her mind. The tree he leans against harkens back to their first conversation during which Gilbert lectured Helen on her mothering style. Despite his love for Helen, Gilbert often misreads her and sells her short.
Themes
Literary Devices
