Guiding Questions for Chapters I-XV
In the opening chapter, Gilbert and Fergus are explaining to their mother what they have spent the day doing. What is the significance of this brief scene?
What is the significance of the first description we get of Wildfell Hall in the long third paragraph of Chapter II?
Chapter III deals with the question of how to raise a young boy. What do you make of this debate, and does the novel come down on one side or the other?
Near the end of Chapter VI, Gilbert observes his mother and sister making busy preparations in the kitchen. How do you interpret the inclusion of this scene?
Fergus often says things out loud that others would only dare whisper in private. What do you think about his comments to Helen Graham in Chapter VII when he suggests that gossiping is a kind of game? Is it?
Chapter IX makes a big deal out of "eyes." What is their importance to this point in the novel?
In Chapter XII, Markham debates whether or not he should reveal his love to Helen. What do we make of the language he uses in trying to convince himself to do so?
Take a close look at the encounter between Gilbert and Mr. Lawrence in Chapter 14. How would you characterize Bronte's depiction of the assault?
The house appears unkept, because it hasn’t had an occupant for quite some time. The house appears cold and gloomy and former occupants have told Gilbert that the house is haunted. “the old boxwood swan, that sat beside the scraper, had lost its neck and half its body: the castellated towers of laurel in the middle of the garden, the gigantic warrior that stood on one side of the gateway, and the lion that guarded the other, were sprouted into such fantastic shapes as resembled nothing either in heaven or earth, or in the waters under the earth; but, to my young imagination, they presented all of them a goblinish appearance, that harmonised well with the ghostly legions and dark traditions our old nurse had told us respecting the haunted hall and its departed occupants.” Love this quote, reminds me of the house that Cinderella lives in. I believe Ms. Graham gets judged by the residents in the neighborhood so much because the house is so awful, and they predict that she must be as well.
ReplyDeleteMs. Graham certainly shields her son away from the rest of the world. But Ms. Graham is right that women are held to a higher standard than men. It seems that more is expected out of women.
The women are expected to do all the housework and please the gentleman in the house. And are not supposed to think about themselves. Gilbert tries to challenge this with his mother and she tells him off. Gilbert writes to his friend Halliford and asks him if it’s the same for him. Is the wife supposed to please the man?
“the frequent distortions of her wrinkled physiognomy, and the winking and malicious twinkle of her little ugly eyes, I judged it was some spicy piece of scandal that engaged her powers; and from the cautious privacy of the communication I supposed some person then present was the luckless object of her calumnies: and from all these tokens, together with my mother’s looks and gestures of mingled horror and incredulity, I now concluded that object to have been Mrs. Graham.”
There's a saying eyes are the windows to the soul. Gilbert uses the eyes to determine what the person's character or intention is.
“and revolving the pros and cons for opening my heart to her there and then, and imploring a return of affection, the permission to regard her thenceforth as my own, and the right and the power to defend her from the calumnies of malicious tongues.” Gilbert’s language suggests that he wants to protect Ms. Graham. “Make her my own… and defend her from the calumnies of malicious tongues.” I think using language around Ms. Graham that suggests ownership and talking about the other villagers harshly behind their backs will actually put her off, not make her love him. But I think he’s so far gone and he doesn’t really know what she wants so he just tells her how he feels.
Towards the end of reading chapter 14, I began to realize that the book is Bramwell’s story. Brahmwell at one point in time fell in love with a woman who he worked for. They were having an affair behind her husbands back. The woman becomes widowed and Brahmwell wants to marry her, but she doesn’t want to see him again. Gilbert to some extent is just like Brahmwell. Gilbert falls in love with the divorced lady Ms. Graham. Who lives with her son and servants.
Mr. Lawrence asks him why he fights with his friends for no reason. And Gilbert can’t tell him what he’s seen, so he gets upset and hits Mr. Lawrence with the horses whip. The whip makes his head bleed, but he falls off of his pony causing him to crack open his skull and break his leg. Similarly in real life, Brahmwell hits their father after he refuses to give him money for a pint.
Anne Bronte writes from experience and imagination. Her work is very descriptive and I’m enjoying reading The Tenant of Wildfell Hall very much!
They were badger baiting. Gilbert says he needs to find something else to do with his time. The significance of this is that the hall is described as a gloomy, closed off house, like Ms. Graham the person who lives there. She gets judged a lot for living there because it is such a messy place from the people who last lived there. Mrs. Graham wants to take her son’s education into her own hands with Mrs. Markham believes that is a mistake. Graham prefers to shield her son from the rest of the world and Markham does not. That this is what you are supposed to do if you are a woman. It doesn’t matter if you are a sister, mother, or wife, your job is to do the chores in the house and please the men that live there. It doesn’t seem like he cares what he says and the reaction that he gets. From the first chapter, it sounds like his mother, even though he is older, has a lot of control over him so by him saying whatever he wants helps him through that. Eyes show us what the character is feeling or what their purpose is
ReplyDelete“The frequent distortions of her wrinkled physiognomy, and the winking and malicious twinkle of her little ugly eyes”. Eyes show their true colors. He seems like he has the right idea, but is executing it poorly. While he says he wants to defend her, he’s making it seem like he’s really overprotective. Also, she is being judged, judging people to her is not the best idea. When we first met in Gilbert he was sort of characterized as a boy in love but after that confrontation, you can see that he is also kind of impulsive and dangerous.