Wildfell Hall: Still Relevant
ELIZABETH ALLEN
Anne Brontё was the youngest, least famous of the sisters. Yet hers is the novel that offers a stunning, overtly feminist, attack on the patriarchal structures of the mid-nineteenth century. It is The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, so much less known and applauded then Emily’s Wuthering Heights or Charlotte’s Jane Eyre, argues Frances Viner who has written and directed Fell, that represents issues which continue to demand interrogation.
The novel’s heroine is Helen Graham, creative, spirited and bored by the potential husbands offered by society. When she meets seductive Arthur Huntingdon, she recognises his moral weakness but is attracted by his apparently life-affirming gaiety, and is convinced that she can persuade him to a more upright life. She is, of course, deluded: their marriage, presented in remorseless, compelling detail, is a history of alcoholism and abuse.
At a time when women had no rights to divorce, Anne Brontё offered us in Wildfell Hall the story of a woman who effects an escape and establishes an independent life. In Fell, Viner focuses on the seduction and the disastrous marriage. What is it, she asks, that brings “naive women into the orbit of animal grooms? What is the initial attraction?” She emphasises Helen’s loss of innocence – spiritual, emotional and physical – and the destruction of her artistic creativity, along with the testing of her faith. The production, to be played in the intimate space of the Stables Studio, is very much an ensemble piece: the whole household functions as a chorus, witnessing and commenting on the action. The language is lyrical, and music, in the person of violinist Richard Van Zyl, is integral to the play’s effect.
When first published,The Tenant of Wildfell Hall was extremely successful but, after Anne’s death, sister Charlotte suppressed a second printing claiming that “the choice of subject was an entire mistake” and that “brooding over debauchery and depravity did [Anne] harm.” For many years this decision effectively buried a powerful text which can now be understood to have been a long way ahead of its era. In this audacious contemporary response of Fell, we have the opportunity to challenge Charlotte’s judgement.
Fell runs at the Stables from 24 August (open dress rehearsal) to 27 August.
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