#gilbert markham

[the-fairy-thing]

[shakespear-esque]

(...) Cupid's arrows not only had been too sharp for me, but they were barbed and deeply rooted, and I had not yet been able to wrench them from my heart.

By Anne Brontë, from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

[mzannthropy]

[adobongsiopao]

"The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" 1996 version starring Tara Fitzgerald, Toby Stephens and Rupert Graves.

[buddyhollyscurls]

On a scale of Gilbert Markham to John Thornton, how well does your hero take seeing the woman he loves with another man he assumes is her lover, when in actuality it's her estranged brother named Frederick?

[warrioreowynofrohan]

Wildfell Weekly - Chapter 6 (Progression)

This is where we start seeing some character development from Gilbert, and the author starts developing her themes further.

Gilbert at the start of the chapter is displaying some conventional and dismissive opinions as he assumes there’s no real reason that Mrs. Graham could like the company of Mary Millward (described in thr furst chapter as a plain woman, her family’s ‘housekeeper and drudge’ who is ‘loved and courted by all dogs, cats, children, and poor people, and slighted and neglected by everyone else’).

Over several months Gilbert gradually becomes friends with Mrs. Graham and her son, and gets to like her conversation; and upon returning hometo find Eliza Millward there, he finds her more superficial than before and enjoys her time with her less. His tastes are improving; he’s finding that he likes intellectual engagement (which he had few opportunities for before, in his small circle) better than flirtation and flattery.

He spends increasing amounts of time with her, and they have something resembling an actual personal conversation when he asks if she finds Wildfell Hall lonely.

Upon returning home, we see Gilbert voicing principles that seem at least in part related to spending his time in thoughtful conversations with Mrs. Graham, and also showing good principles and attitude on his own part. This raises some of the author’s main themes in the book, as Gilbert’s sister Rose objects to men always being favoured within the household, and Gilbert agrees with her.

The basis for Gilbert’s arguments against men being indulged by theur female relatives is severalfold:

If men care about their mothers and wives, they will want them to be comfortable and not always waiting on the men (“if you would really study my pleasure, Mother, you must consider your own comfort and convenience a little more than you do”)

It makes them take it for granted and not even realize that they are being given their own way in everything without even asking, because they never hear contrary views or desires (“I might sink into the grossest condition of self-indulgence and carelessness about the wants of others, from the mere habit of being constantly cared for, and having all my want anticipated or immediately supplied, while left in total ignorance of what is done for me.”)

Men and women are meant to be true partners and care for one another, and it’s morally healthy to do that rather than men being indulged and spoilt (“I was not sent into the world merely to exercise the good capacities and good feelings of others - was I? - but to exercise my own towards them”). This contains several (uncited, but clear) references to the Bible (“I would rather give than receive”; “we must bear one another’s burdens”), emphasizing that this, not male domination, is in line with scriptural ideas of a good marriage.

It’s rhetorically effective by the author to have the patriarchal argument stated by a woman, Gilbert’s mother (“it’s your business to please yourself, and [your wife’s] business to please you”), because most men even of that time would not have said such a thing out loud - they would simply have tended to act in ways that took for granted that it was true, and never interrogated it.

Gilbert’s got a good head on his shoulders - his first debate with Mrs. Graham, about teetotalling and child-raising principles, was a vigorous and sharply-argued one - and here we we see him start to break away from more conventional opinions and argue his point strongly in favour of views different from the ones that predominate in his little community.

[park-bench-poet]

I cannot BELIEVE Tenant of Wildfell Hall isn't more popular in classic lit/feminist circles. Rochester WHO?! Heathcliff WHAT?? Gilbert Markham is the only man I am aware of !!

[immediatebreakfast]

God damn this chapter was intense.

Anne Brontë really has a tight control over continuous scenes, and building tension because I FELT like I was present in that tea party with Mrs. Graham as Gilbert was fighting for his life while Eliza and Miss Wilson were slandering left and right.

Literally this while reading how Eliza and Miss Wilson plainly "implied" that Arthur was Mr. Lawrence's son.

[blogjaneeyre]

[bethanydelleman]

So I read Jane Eyre after I watched a confusing adaptation (2011, I literally never figured out who Adele was), and hearing a lot about it from friends. I expected to hate Rochester. I also expected to hate the final ship.

and I DID hate Rochester! He was such a jerk! The chapter where he proposes was awful. Why is he making her believe he’s going to marry Blanche if he’s in love with Jane? What is wrong with this man?!?

But then I met St. John Rivers and I was so extremely and totally creeped out that I honestly thought: 

BRING ME BACK THE BIGAMIST

Cheered when she went back to find Rochester and then married him. Did not hate the final ship at all.

So I guess my assessment of men is mediated by the goodness of other men within book? Maybe I like Henry Crawford of Mansfield Park because the Bertrams suck so much? Maybe I like Gilbert Markham because the other men in Tenant are the bottom of the barrel? Like the scum under the bottom of the barrel or the bugs hiding under the barrel...

I don’t know. I try to be objective. But then I think the point of Mansfield Park is that you start to root for Henry and Fanny, or at least for Henry to be better. If I believe Gilbert is as bad as Arthur, than the ending of Tenant is just so freaking depressing. I guess I’m accepting the world the author built, she tells me Gilbert is essentially a good guy who messed up but is capable of growth, I’m in.

But I guess who is really objective anyway? As much as I true to use quotes and sources, are we not all half running on vibes?

[autumnrose11]

I'm reading The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë. It has now become my favourite Brontë novel (I'm about 150 pages in). It's absolutely BEAUTIFUL. Gorgeous and haunting and a captivating plot and passionate characterisation. Helen Graham has become one of my favourite female protagonists. She's fearless and enigmatic (so far) and speaks her mind and wants to be treated as an equal and she seems like a wonderful, devoted mother to her little boy... And the novel is SO unreservedly scornful of the gender inequality of the times they lived in, the complete lack of autonomy especially with regards to marriage in Victorian society, and shows just how much women like Helen are punished simply for wanting to live their lives and make their choices.

I can't put it down and I can't praise this book enough. It deserves way, way more love than it gets.

[the-fairy-thing]

Jonah Hauer-King is my fancast for Gilbert Markham in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

[the-other-art-blog]

Finished The Tenant of Wildfell. Definitely made me feel like when I read The Story of Avis when Helen is writing about her marriage.

Well, where do I begin... I love it! Truly, thank you so much @thatscarletflycatcher for the recommendation. Any good adaptation?

Helen really missed all the red flags, didn't she? But to be fair he did present himself as a good person. At the very least, at that moment he rescued her from Lowborough. He fooled me too.

When you think it couldn't get worse, it did! The fear I felt when he discovered her first flight attempt. It was a good plan, and it showed she had the capacity to make a living by herself through her art. But, god that was tough.

But the highlight for me is this:

"Is your love all earthly, then?"

THAT CONVERSATION!!!!!! OMG!!!!! I don't think I have ever read anything similar.

I don't know how Gilbert managed to wait for so much time. And then, the idiocy of them both, "I didn't ask about you because you didn't ask about me" Seriously!

[thoumpingground]

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall Thoughts: Chapters 43-44

Another instance of Helen springing into action because Huntingdon's adultery... He has some nerve to bring her home as his son's governess, though. I know Helen comes back to take care of him in his deathbed, where is this Miss Myers then, huh? Does him well. Asshole.

Go Benson for helping with the plan! Man's putting his neck in the game. I was so afraid Huntingdon was gonna intercept her letters to Esther, Millie and Aunt Margaret. I'm still kind of afraid Huntingdon will ring info out of them, especially from Hattersley. I hope he sticks to his good husband, good father, defender of Helen schtick.

I was so relieved when Helen got to Wildfell Hall I forgot she's about to be accused of sleeping with her brother. Loved to hear her talk about freedom and hope again. Her giddiness is contagious. It's really bittersweet that she's about to meet the town.

Gibert being dissapointed he doesn't get to read about himself is so funny and so relatable. I forgot she'd torn pages out of the diary. I appreciate that the man knows he probably doesn't deserve the nice things Helen may have said about him while they were on good terms. Flaws are good, flaws with self-awareness are great.

[adobongsiopao]

"The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" 1996 version starring Tara Fitzgerald as Helen and Toby Stephens as Gilbert.

[thatscarletflycatcher]

Some friends were speculating which 19th century lit romantic hero Henry Cavill could have played a decade ago, and now I'm haunted by the concept of his playing Gilbert Markham.