The Tenant of Wildfell Hall : Formation, Deformation, Displacement, Controversy

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall’s narrative structure has been a consistent and prominent focus of the novel's reception. What these readings have in common is that they see as the novel’s structure tout court a particular rendition of its structure, namely that it comprises two letters from Gilbert Markham to his brother-in-law, Jack Halford, the second of which transcribes and encloses a journal spanning six years, written by the novel's titular tenant, Helen Graham. Conventionally, interpretations of this structure have considered the function of the enclosure of Helen's narrative by Gilbert's. This article argues that another reading of the novel’s form is available, whereby it may be shown to have a latent triplicate textual and metatextual structure, where no single element predominates. This enables a reading of Tenant as an ethicising of writing as a form of necessarily incomplete labour, aiding our understanding of its important political and theological dimensions.