The Tenant of Wildfell Hall a woman as narrator. Langland concluded that "if Charlotte Brontë was radical in claiming sexual identity for women, then Anne Brontë was radical in claiming professional identity for women." Robert Liddell, noting Anne's apparent distaste for Romantic tradition, claimed that "The Tenant" criticized both Branwell's life and "Wuthering Heights". Edward Chitham in "A Life of Anne Brontë" (1991) also juxtaposed the novels of Anne and her sisters'. He stated that in Anne's view "Wuthering Heights" exhibited elements which she called in the preface to the second edition of "The Tenant" a "soft nonsense," thus making "almost an accusation against Emily."
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall a widow, Helen makes her role as an artist who sells her works, especially to support a child, more socially acceptable. Resembling the time of Arthur's courtship, when Helen's portraits of him betrayed her affection, artwork once again serve the autobiographical role during her meetings with Gilbert – the painting of Wildfell Hall deceptively labelled "Fernley Manor" discloses her precarious position as a runaway wife. Showing Gilbert handling Helen's paintings without her permission, Brontë, according to Diederich, "hints that remarriage to Gilbert may not hold any greater promise to Helen's self-definition and freedom as an artist than did her first