The Tenant of Wildfell Hall takes place in Yorkshire, England in the 1820s amongst the landed gentry class. Half of the novel is centered on Wildfell Hall (and the nearby town of Linden-Car) in Yorkshire and the other half occurs in and around Grassdale Manor (elsewhere in Yorkshire near the coast).
Northern England is known for its moors and dramatic landscapes, elements that Brontë works into her novel, using them to capture Helen’s isolation, as seen in the following passage (told through Gilbert’s point of view):
But sometimes, I saw her myself, – not only when she came to church, but when she was out on the hills with her son, whether taking a long, purpose-like walk, or – on special fine days – leisurely rambling over the moor or the bleak pasture-lands surrounding the old hall.
The description of Helen taking “long, purpose-like” walks through “the bleak pasture-lands” hints at the burdensome secrets she is carrying, one of the many ways that Brontë uses setting to develop her characters and advance the plot.
Also important to note in terms of the setting of the novel is that, at this time in British history, women were essentially powerless. Prior to 1870, married women were completely dependent on their husbands, who had claim to their wives’ money, property, and children. Helen’s indecision about whether or not to leave the abusive Arthur is due to the fact that, at the time, she could have been charged with kidnapping her son if she’d left with him. The fact that she decides to flee from Grassdale Manor anyway shows the desperation of her situation—she was willing to risk her reputation as well as her claim to her son in order to be free from Arthur’s abuse.
