A Study Of The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall From The Perspective Of Biblical Archetypes

Charlotte Bront(e|¨), Emily Bront(e|¨) and Anne Bront? are the three most outstanding and fascinating female writers in United Kingdom and around the world. Each one of them has created some of the best works in the history of world literature in a relative short space of time. Anne Bront(e|¨) was the youngest of the three prodigiously gifted Bront? sisters, has been judged the least talented. Her second and final novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall was considered scandalous and immoral. Nonetheless, her novels have been widely praised for their realism, integrity, and moral force. The novel, details the incompatibility of the marriage of Helen Huntingdon and her tyrannical, alcoholic husband Huntingdon, then she leaves her husband with her son and earns her own living as an artist. This thesis attempts to make a biblical archetypal study of Anne Bront?'s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall on the basis of the theory of archetypal criticism so as to reveal the relationship between Anne Bront? and the Bible on the one hand, and to probe into Anne Bront?'s view of the Bible and literature on the other. The thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter One briefly introduces the writer Anne Bronte and her novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and also illustrates the present situation of the research. Chapter Two mainly introduces the theory of archetypal criticism with the emphasis on Northrop Frye's archetypal analysis of the Bible. Chapter Three analyzes the themes, structures and main characters in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall from the perspective of archetypal theory. Chapter Four deals with the displacement of the main characters' biblical archetypes, and then discusses Anne Bront(e|¨)'s view of religion and Christian ethics. The last chapter comes to the conclusion, which summarizes the investigation results in the archetypal analysis of the biblical archetypes associated with the themes, structures and characters of the novel and concludes with a further comment on the vital role of the Bible in Anne Bront?'s literary creations.