Peripheral Voices in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

The character system developed in Anne Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall offers a case study of characters and characterization through its focus on their "proper place." What is the proper place of major and minor characters? This article argues for a reconceptualization of character landscapes within narratives. Despite the overwhelming presence of rupture in Tenant—bonds broken by death, infidelity, or abuse—from the margins, a host of minor and very minor characters encourages a consideration of how peripheral voices are perceived. Studying minor characters and their interrelationships expands the thematic discourse surrounding the novel, whose characters model a range of bonds between men, between women, and between men and women.