The Tenant of Wildfell Hall in nineteenth-century literature." However, some forty years later, in introduction to "The Essence of the Brontës", Spark radically changed her views on Anne: "I do not now agree with my former opinion on Anne Brontë's value as a writer. I think her works are not good enough to be considered in any serious context of the nineteenth century novel or that there exists any literary basis for comparison with the brilliant creative works of Charlotte and Emily... She was a writer who could 'pen' a story well enough; she was a literary equivalent of a decent water-colourist." Only in the
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