The purpose of this essay is to show that Catherine Earnshaw in Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë, and Helen Huntingdon in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, by Anne Brontë, develop their identities and how their identities shift as they meet men outside the immediate family. As the two novels have often been compared, it also shows the similarities and differences between Catherine and Helen. This purpose is achieved by analysing the two characters with the help of psychoanalytic development theory, psychosocial development and psychoanalytic feminism. The three theories are challenged and supported throughout both novels. This essay shows how the shifting identities of Catherine and Helen is incompatible with positive development.