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 marriage." However, unlike Arthur, Gilbert shows much more esteem to Helen's artwork. Diederich concludes that "the domestic realm, whether established with marriage or re-established in remarriage, doesn't support women's self-definition as artists, nor does it provide structured setting for the unferreted expression of their talents" and that "The Tenant" calls for "more support for married and remarried women's legal rights and artistic opportunities in nineteen-century Britain." Seemingly pious Universalist ideas in "The Tenant" contradicted prevailing at that time Protestant doctrine in England and thus advocated a socially unacceptable view. Helen expresses several times in the story her belief in eventual