The Tenant of Wildfell Hall - Background and Locations

Background and Locations

Some aspects of the life and character of the author's brother Branwell Brontë correspond to those of Arthur Huntingdon in The Tenant. He resembles Branwell Brontë in three ways: physical good-looks, sexual adventures (before his affair with Mrs. Robinson, Branwell is thought to have fathered an illegitimate child, who died at birth), and especially in his alcoholism. Another character of the novel, Lord Lowborough's association with opium may also reflect the behaviour of Branwell Brontë.

The Brontё biographer Winifred Gérin believed that the original of Wildfell Hall was Ponden Hall, a farm house near Stanbury in West Yorkshire, England. Ponden shares certain architectural details with Wildfell: latticed windows, a central portico and date plaque above.

Blake Hall at Mirfield, where Anne had been employed as governess, was suggested as the model for Grassdale Manor, Arthur Huntingdon's country seat, by Ellen Nussey (though it is not certain), a friend of Charlotte Brontë, to Edward Morison Wimperis, a commissioned artist for the Brontë sisters' novels in 1872. Neither Blake Hall nor Thorpe Green, place of another Anne's employment as governess, corresponds exactly with Grassdale.

Linden-Car, in whose vicinity Wildfell Hall stands, is located in Yorkshire. Car in northern dialect means pool, pound or low-lying and boggy ground. In Lindenhope hope in north-east dialect means a small enclosed valley.