The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Victorian literature in general, and novels by the Brontës in particular, use weather and landscape to hint at emotional states—a literary device known as pathetic fallacy. In The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, seasons often function to foreshadow an event or feeling. Helen’s feelings for Huntingdon are solidified in summer. She marries in winter, the darkest time of year, a forecast for her first marriage. In spring, when the natural world awakens, Helen longs for new life in her relationship. She finally leaves Huntingdon in the fall, the season of harvest but also of withering. The seasons provide a motif that hint at a character’s experience.

Time of day also holds an emotional resonance in certain key moments. It is twilight when Helen goes outside to find her husband and discovers him with Annabella. Likewise, she is watching a sunset and admiring a single, lone star—a symbol for her feelings—when Lord Lowborough informs her he has learned of his wife’s infidelity. She leaves Grassdale for good in the early morning, in the darkness before dawn, symbolizing a new beginning and an emergence from her sadness at last. Likewise, Gilbert enjoys the dawn light after he finishes Helen’s journal and realizes he has a fresh chance at a relationship with her.