In Anne Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Arthur Huntington, Helen’s husband and Arthur’s father, is presented as an alcoholic, disgraceful, narcissistic “gentleman” (Brontë 311). Despite Helen’s efforts to shelter their son, Arthur, from the corrupted masculinity embodied by Huntington and his friends, Huntington encourages Arthur’s “manly accomplishments” that mirror his own character, such as excessive drinking, swearing, and selfishness (297). For fear of Arthur becoming “a curse to others and himself”, like his father, Helen has acquitted herself to prepare for an escape; however, Huntington seizes her journal which reveal her plans (203). In this passage Mr. Huntington is not only devaluing aspect of his corrupted masculinity, like excessive drinking, but he is implying a new quality to his definition, the lack of violence and ability to deal with situations, such as Helen’s planning to escape, with calmness and rationality is gentlemanly; this brings into question the violent men in the novel as lesser because of their irrationality and behavior.
The evident identification Mr. Huntington has placed on alcohol in his corrupted view of masculinity is revealed early in his marriage to Helen. He often refers alcohol in a positive manner, or represents drunkenness as “glorious”, which arguably displays Huntington’s intimacy with alcohol (218). His excessive drinking become cause for extensive absences from Helen when he goes to London and lengthy illness when he returns to Grassdale because of acting in “regular bachelor style” (218). Helen notes Huntington’s dependence on alcohol when she identifies it as “his medicine and support, his comforter, his recreation, and his friend” (220); alcohol is closely tied with Huntingt...
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...ssage, trivializes intoxication, deflates violence, and stresses the dishonor of Helen’s plan. Huntington’s alcoholism, selfishness, and disgracefulness are threats to Arthur’s well-being, justifying Helen’s plans to escape. Although Huntington’s intoxicated actions and behaviors, along with his affair, are disgraceful to his character, they are justified through his profane image of masculinity. Huntington argues and reveals the humiliation Helen’s plan would cause simply because of the gossip it would produce. Therefore, the significance of this passage is Huntington’s ability to “carry [his] point like a man,” reasserting his disvaluing of alcohol, disapproval of violent masculinity, and his illumination of his conception of shamefulness (311).
Works Cited
Brontë, Anne. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Ed. Herbert Rosengarten. New York: Oxford Press, 2008. Print.
As Herie and Skinner state “Beverage Alcohol can be described as a depressant drug which diminishes the activity in parts of the brain and spinal cord in accordance with the amount of alcohol in a person’s bloodstream” (Herie & Skinner, pg. 42). With its long history and unique properties such as the cure of all diseases “prolongs life, clears away ill humours, revives the heart and maintains youth”, alcohol is often related to tradition and expressions; many of these traditions are adaptation from earlier times where it was believed alcohol reflected water of life (Herie & Skinner, 2010). This is quite evident in Days of Wine and Roses where Joe is first seen drinking because “it was part of his job” and because “he had to because of everyone
During these times, domestic violence was commonplace and many blamed alcohol as the culprit. Reformers also noticed that alcohol decreased efficiency of labor and thought of alcohol as a menace to society because it left men irresponsible and lacking self control. One reformer, named Lyman Beecher, argued that the act of alcohol consumption was immoral and will destroy the nation. Document H depicts the progression of becoming a drunkard from a common m...
It is a fact of life that Alcoholism will distort the victim’s view of reality. With authors, they put parts of their personality and symptoms of their condition into their characters sometimes, flawed distortions included, with varying degrees
Bronte, Charlotte. The Letters of Charlotte Bronte: 1829-1847. Ed. Margaret Smith. 2 vols. New York: Oxford UP, 1995-2000.
Brennan, Zoe. "Reader's Guide: Bronte's Jane Eyre." Ebrary. Continuum International Publishing 2 2010. Print. April 28, 2014
Moglen, Helen. "The Creation of a Feminist Myth." Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. New York: W.W. Norton, 1987. 484-491. Print.
Some scholars argue that the narrator’s actions are not propelled by perversity, but rather his actions are propelled by alcoholism. Alcoholism answers some questions as to why the narrator commits his actions; however, it is still unclear as to what first drove him to alcoholism. Joseph Stark further disproves alcoholism as an acceptable answer behind the narrator’s actions, “the two murders (of cat and wife) occurred while he was sober. Only the gouging of the cat’s eye happened while he was drunk (qtd. in Piacentino, footnote 9). Hence, though alcohol may have been a contributing factor to his crime it cannot be described as the ultimate cause” (260). Furthermore, I argue that the narrator’s perversity is initially why the narrator becomes an alcoholic. Perversity is the only answer that can be given to explain each action the narrator commits.
A the murder of Banquo. He tells the two men that Banquo is the reason
Although he should lose faith in himself as an effective human, husband, and master the absurdity of Hawthorne’s tale lies in the anomaly of Wakefield’s return home as if having been gone no longer than the week he intended to stay away. However, because Hawthorne judged not the actor but the actions, we still rally in the wonderment of knowing "each for himself, that none of us would perpetrate such a folly, yet feel as if some other might" (Hawthorne 76).
Bradstreet, Anne. "Upon the Burning of Our House July 10th, 1666." The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. 197.
Gray begins with his argument by explaining the roles of women and men, both in lower class families and in the noble houses, focusing on their submissive roles. "The busy housewife [plies] her evening care," minding the children until "their sire's return" from a hard day of work (lines 22-23). Gray depicts the work of a lower class male as a ploughman, working from morning until night at his useful toil, without ambition and wit...
... Norton Anthology of English Literature. 9th ed. Vol. D. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2012. 1166-86. Print.
Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights. Norton Critical ed. 3rd ed. Ed. William M. Sale, Jr., and Richard J. Dunn. New York: W. W. Norton, 1990.
“Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte is a novel about an orphan girl growing up in a tough condition and how she becomes a mature woman with full of courage. Her life at Gateshead is really difficult, where she feels isolated and lives in fear in her childhood. Her parents are dead when she was little, her dead uncle begged his evil wife, Mrs. Reed, to take care of Jane until she becomes an adult. But Mrs. Reed does not keep her promise, no one treats Jane like their family members even treats her less than a servant. By the end of this essay it will be proven that Jane’s life at Gateshead has shaped her development as a young woman and bildungsroman.
Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights. Norton Critical ed. 3rd ed. Ed. William M. Sale, Jr., and Richard J. Dunn. New York: W. W. Norton, 1990.