The Tenant of Wildfell Hall construction, the artists hand also offers a form of independence, a possibility of earning a living, in a period when a woman had virtually no independent power base in any sphere." Nicole A. Diederich has argued that in "The Tenant" Anne Brontë constructs marriage and remarriage as a comparative and competitive practice that restricts Helen's rights and talents. Helen's artistic ability plays a central role in her relationships with both Gilbert and Arthur. Her alternating freedom to paint and inability to do so on her own terms not only complicate Helen's definition as wife, widow, and artist, but also enable
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall adherence to the diaries may be considered as a 'testimony of experience'. Since the Renaissance writing a diary had been a popular form of documenting and expressing personal opinions. Naomi Jacobs argues that "the displacement [of framing narration by the inner] is exactly the point of the novel, which subjects its readers to a shouldering-aside of familiar notions and comfortable perceptions of the world", and both narrations and jarring discrepancies of tone and perspective between them are essential to the purpose. In "The Tenant", like in "Wuthering Heights", a horrific reality of private life is obtained after passing through the