Though The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is, for the most part, a very serious and melancholy book, Brontë does, at times, use humor to highlight the sexism of her time. With the character Mrs. Markham (Gilbert’s mother), Brontë is satirizing women who perpetuate the double standards placed on their own gender, believing themselves to be teaching other women valuable lessons in the process.
The following passage—when Mrs. Markham recounts for Gilbert a recent interaction with Helen—captures Brontë’s choice to make Mrs. Markham’s character satirical:
“I gave her some useful pieces of information, however, and several excellent recipes, the value of which she evidently could not appreciate, for she begged I would not trouble myself, as she lived in such a plain, quiet way, that she was sure she should never make use of them. ‘No matter, my dear,’ said I; ‘it is what every respectable female ought to know.”
Here Mrs. Markham forces her own beliefs about what being a “respectable female” entails (namely cooking and excelling at domestic tasks), knowing nothing about the burdens Helen carries that might make her less inclined to prioritize such things. Ultimately, Mrs. Markham proves, to a comical degree, that she does not respect Helen’s right to choose what kind of woman she wants to be.
