The Word of a Woman, Thanks be to God: Women's Writing in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Anne Brontë's use of Victorian iconography of religious awakening and biblical language in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall highlights the potential for women's writing to facilitate spiritual conversion. Milicent Hargrave's letters and Helen Huntingdon's diary offer powerful explorations for both the legitimacy of women's writing and the role of Scripture in spiritual conversion. Gilbert Markham and Ralph Hattersley, through their conversions, participate in a new egalitarian Christianity, one that is just as much about behavioral reform as spiritual transformation, and one that honors women's words and lived experiences as metaphorical scriptures. For Anne Brontë, the spiritual and earthly planes were inseparable, and her novel of social realism points to a Christianity made of lifelong listening, learning, and relearning.