Write your own The Tenant of Wildfell Hall story

Gilbert Markham

The narrator and protagonist, a young gentleman-farmer of about twenty-four living in ——shire. Ambitious but bound by his late father's wish that he manage the family farm, he is intelligent, somewhat proud, and prone to romantic entanglements. He recounts his story through letters addressed to his friend Halford.

Mrs. Graham (Helen)

A mysterious, strikingly beautiful young woman in her mid-twenties who arrives alone to inhabit the partially ruined Wildfell Hall, accompanied only by her young son and an old servant. She is reserved to the point of seeming cold, wears mourning dress, and fiercely guards her privacy and her child. Her true history, identity, and reasons for seclusion form the central mystery of the novel.

Arthur Graham (Young Arthur)

Mrs. Graham's small son, approximately five years old, with light brown hair and deep blue eyes. He is lively and curious, nearly injuring himself climbing the garden wall of Wildfell Hall before Gilbert catches him, which occasions his mother's first real interaction with the narrator.

Rose Markham

Gilbert's younger sister, a smart and pretty girl of nineteen with a round face, blooming cheeks, and merry brown eyes. Sociable and curious, she is the first to bring news of Wildfell Hall's new tenant to the family, and later marries a man who becomes Gilbert's close friend.

Fergus Markham

Gilbert's younger brother, about seventeen, with a shock of reddish-auburn curls and an incorrigibly impudent, boisterous temperament. He spends his time badger-baiting and resists any serious occupation, threatening to be a nuisance until the family consents to let him join the army or navy.

Mrs. Markham (Mother)

Gilbert's widowed mother, a kind but particular woman who keeps a tidy, well-ordered home and holds strong opinions about suitable marriages for her son. She is devout, socially proper, and deeply fond of all her children while being occasionally blind to their faults.

Eliza Millward

The vicar's younger daughter, a charming and flirtatious girl with dark, expressive eyes described as 'diabolically wicked or irresistibly bewitching.' Gilbert is romantically partial to her, though his mother disapproves of the match due to Eliza's lack of fortune. She is playful and kitten-like in manner.

Mary Millward

Eliza's older sister, plain, quiet, and sensible, who has devoted herself to nursing her late mother and keeping the vicarage household. She is trusted by her father and beloved by animals and the poor, but overlooked by polite society.

Reverend Michael Millward

The local vicar, a tall, ponderous, elderly clergyman of rigid principles and strong prejudices. He is intolerant of dissent, convinced of his own infallibility, and known for his particular dietary habits—including a raw egg before every sermon—and his dispensing of unsolicited moral and medical advice.

Jane Wilson

Daughter of the local widow Mrs. Wilson, a young woman of about twenty-six with striking red hair, ambitious social aspirations, and polished boarding-school manners. She looks down on her rural equals and reportedly has designs on the wealthy young squire Mr. Lawrence.

Mrs. Wilson

A wealthy farmer's widow, narrow-minded and inveterate gossip, who is among the first to call on Mrs. Graham out of burning curiosity. She has two sons, Robert (a rough farmer) and Richard (a scholarly young man studying for the clergy).

Mr. Lawrence

The young squire of the neighbourhood, whose family formerly occupied Wildfell Hall before abandoning it some fifteen years prior for a newer mansion nearby. He is the object of Jane Wilson's matrimonial ambitions and plays a larger role later in the narrative.

Halford

The unseen recipient of Gilbert Markham's letters, an old friend who has married Gilbert's sister Rose. He serves as the epistolary audience for the entire narrative but does not appear in person.

Mr. Huntingdon

Referenced in the Author's Preface as the primary antagonist and cautionary figure of the novel—a scapegrace surrounded by profligate companions whose vices and degradation are the central subject of Anne Brontë's moral warning. He is strongly implied to be Mrs. Graham's husband. His scenes of wickedness and eventual death are described as the novel's most charged dramatic material.

Wildfell Hall

A large, ancient Elizabethan mansion built of dark grey stone, perched near the top of a wild, exposed hill called Wildfell, about two miles from Linden-Car. Long deserted and partly ruinous, with mullioned windows, topiary run to ruin, and an overgrown walled garden, it has a reputation for being haunted. Mrs. Graham has had only a wing made habitable and lives there in deliberate isolation.

Linden-Car

The Markham family's farm and estate, situated in ——shire, a rural county of northern England. It is the principal domestic setting of the novel's opening chapters, a comfortable working farm with parlour, fields, and meadow-lands at the foot of Wildfell hill.

Wildfell Hill

A steep, wild, and lofty moorland eminence rising above the surrounding farmland, the wildest and highest point in the neighbourhood. Its upper reaches are rocky, heather-clad, and dotted with stone fences, larches, Scotch firs, and blackthorns—inhospitable terrain that mirrors the isolation of the Hall at its crest.

The Millward Vicarage

The home of Reverend Millward and his daughters Eliza and Mary, a social gathering place Gilbert visits for company and conversation. It is a modest but respectable establishment, where the sisters occupy themselves with embroidery and household tasks.

The Parish Church

The local Anglican church where the community gathers on Sundays, notable for the old Wildfell Hall family pew with its faded crimson cushions and heraldic escutcheons. Mrs. Graham's first public appearance in the neighbourhood occurs here, drawing universal scrutiny.

Wildfell Hall Family Pew

The old, reserved church pew belonging to the Wildfell Hall estate, distinguished by faded crimson cushions, grim heraldic escutcheons, and borders of rusty black cloth. Long unused, it serves as the dramatic stage for Mrs. Graham's first public appearance in the parish, focusing the congregation's collective curiosity upon her.

Sancho (the Setter)

Gilbert Markham's handsome black-and-white setter dog, who accompanies him on his shooting excursions across the moorland. Sancho inadvertently draws young Arthur Graham to climb the garden wall, precipitating Gilbert's first personal encounter with Mrs. Graham.

Epistolary Frame Narrative

The novel is structured as a series of long retrospective letters written by Gilbert Markham to his brother-in-law Halford, recounting events from autumn 1827 onward. This framing device creates an intimate, confessional tone and allows the narrator to hint at future developments and reflect with adult hindsight on youthful feelings and mistakes.

Victorian Rural Social Hierarchy

The society depicted operates on a finely graded rural hierarchy: gentleman-farmers like the Markhams, lesser gentry like the Lawrences, professional families like the Millwards, and prosperous widows like Mrs. Wilson. Reputation, wealth, church attendance, and correct domestic management are the currencies of social standing, and a woman living alone without clear social credentials invites immediate suspicion and gossip.

The Mystery of Mrs. Graham

Mrs. Graham's deliberate withholding of information about her identity, background, and reasons for inhabiting a ruin alone with a young child generates the novel's central dramatic tension. Neighbours speculate she is a widow, a romantic eccentric, or something more scandalous; her cold manner and refusal to attend church at first only deepen suspicion.

Moral and Didactic Purpose

Anne Brontë explicitly states in her Author's Preface that the novel is written as a warning to youth against vice and to expose, unflinchingly, the realities of dissipation and bad character—specifically those embodied by the character of Huntingdon. The book is as much a moral tract as a novel, written under what she felt was a religious obligation to speak unpalatable truths.

Key Chronology

The story is set retrospectively from autumn 1827 in rural northern England. Mrs. Graham arrives at Wildfell Hall in October 1827 after it has stood empty for roughly fifteen years since the Lawrence family vacated it. Gilbert begins writing his letters to Halford from a later, unspecified date, looking back on these events with the perspective of maturity.