Emily Bronte 's Wuthering Heights

At the center of Wuthering Heights lies a tragic vision of decay and detachment which depends completely on the severances Emily Bronte has created between characters, estates, and social statuses. Bronte reveals societal flaws that had never before been recognized during her time and creates a raw vision of Victorian life; one in which the differences between characters and their social standings outweigh their true beliefs and desires when it comes to who they choose to be, who they choose to surround themselves with, and how they choose to treat those around them. In its most distinct form, Wuthering Heights is a love story that chronicles the lives of Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, regardless of the distance between them. It is

Charlotte Brontë’s works were greatly influenced by her life, which was riddled with trouble and loss. The passing of her mother, and later, her two eldest sisters, deeply marked her. The loss Charlotte experienced was represented in Jane Eyre, where the main character leads a childhood similar to Brontë’s. The isolation she was raised in also played a role in her writing, this because her and her siblings were only able to communicate with each other, causing her and her sister’s writing styles to be very similar. These similarities led to the public thinking that many of the separate sisters’ works to be written by only one person. Another factor that influenced Brontë’s writing was the change of career- shifting from writing poetry to writing novels. Brontë, in her early years, experimented with forms of poetry that were characteristic of the Victorian period, but soon settled into her own signature style of writing.

The curious life Emily Bronte, author of Wuthering Heights and a collection of poems, has been highly analyzed alongside those of her sisters and fellow writers, Charlotte and Anne, for decades. Born in 1818, Emily was the fifth of six children born to Patrick and Maria Bronte. Her father was curate of Haworth parsonage in Yorkshire, England, a home for local clergymen, where Emily spent nearly all of her life. The lonely parsonage offered few companions for Bronte besides her family, but included a large library which consumed her childhood. Bronte never married, and much of her later life was filled with caring for her alcoholic brother, Branwell. This solitary life and experience with Branwell seems to have heavily influenced Wuthering Heights, the only novel written by Bronte, which centers on a similar setting of isolated, lonely households and contains a heavily alcoholic character.

For many years, Anne Brontë’s literary works have been viewed as classics of English literature. Brontë had a unique way of being able to portray realistic situations in her poems and short novels (PoemHunter, 2014). She was not afraid to bring up the realities behind male alcoholism and brutality in her most famous pieces of literature, Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. In addition, she also wrote several poems including Farewell, A Prayer, and Confidence. Anne Brontë is part of a literary dynasty with her famous sisters Charlotte Brontë, known for writing Jane Eyre, and Emily Brontë, known for writing Wuthering Heights. Although Anne Brontë is thought of as the least talented Brontë sister, she has continued to dominate English Literature for almost 200 years (Devaney, 2014).

Britain's society had an unbalance of power during the late eighteenth century amongst genders. The roles of men and women were distinct, however the women had far less say and input. In the novel Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë displays the revolutionary change amongst women beginning in the late 1860s. The barrier of not having a voice as well as restricted freedom had finally been broken down. The roles of women have progressed drastically from the stay home mother, to marriage rights, to finally the rebellious actions of women wanting to achieve their individualism.

Heathcliff, born dark-skinned and an orphan, was already considered to be of a lower class than everybody else. He was adopted by Mr. Earnshaw, where his status was elevated and was eventually favored more than Mr. Earnshaw’s son, Hindley. Because of this elevated position, Hindley, after Mr. Earnshaw’s death, reduced Heathcliff back to his previous low status by treating him as a servant. Through the abuses and sufferings that Heathcliff experiences by those who see him as lower class, he ultimately turns into this ultra aggressive as well as hostile person that will never escape the reality of the restrictive hierarchy that the Victorian Era put in place despite his best efforts to infringe these norms. Likewise, Hareton, son of Hindley, also faces the same events as Heathcliff. Abused and essentially deprived of all his childhood by Hindley and Heathcliff, he is illiterate and quick-tempered and is treated like a lower class individual. Heathcliff and Hareton are mirroring characters that share the same experiences and Bronte utilizes their

“My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath...” In making this comment, Edgar Earnshaw and Heathcliff once again represent the two sides of Catherine’s character. Bronte uses Edgar’s character in the same way she utilized Thrushcross Grange- a representation of public sophistication. Heathcliff a representation of passion, once again creating a tear in Catherine’s

The following Bachelor Thesis entitled “Between Devils and Angels: Representations of Feminity in Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë” aims to give a broad outline of the role of women in Victorian society and to present two great 19th century writers, Emily Brontë and Anne Brontë and two rebellious protagonists they created: Catherine Earnshaw and Helen Graham. The main aim of this diploma work is to point out the impact of Victorian gender roles on Brontë sisters’ novels and their

Controversial Viewpoints Presented in Wuthering Heights The plot and ongoing legacy of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights leaves readers with both the feeling of astonishment and discomfort. Unlike most romantic stories of the 19th century, Wuthering Heights employs the role of a disturbing novel that advertises itself as a love story. It portrays dark, gothic, and often times morbid views of love and compassion. “The social’s dominance emerges in too much pain and violence to become a comfort zone, the psychic’s persistence ensures ‘unquiet slumbers’ after all the pain inflicted. Wuthering Heights, in other words, allows its aesthetics to complicate ideological preference: imparting a complex reading experience--liberal anguish--creates ideological

Bette Davis said, “When a man gives his opinion, he 's a man. When a woman gives her opinion, she 's a bitch.” Feminism was always looked at as women fighting for the same rights that men have always had. A lack of feminism is just the opposite. Someone losing their femininity by allowing themselves to conform to men, to break the bond every women has gone through to break the barriers. In Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, Catherine shows her flaw in femininity over how her conformity to every man to show society 's 'norm ', her quest for money and not love, and she is foolish for thinking men can rule her life.

In the haunting book Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, love, rejection, and revenge are the main topic points of this composition. Rejection is a very large factor in this book: Catherine rejects Heathcliff because he is poor, to marry Edgar for money, and she ends up rejecting him as well. But all that is on Heathcliff’s mind is Catherine’s rejection of him and the revenge he wants to get on Edgar and Hindley. Throughout the book, Heathcliff’s want for the love of Catherine and his feel of rejection with her get stronger and stronger as well when Catherine’s ghost ignores him. Though rejection is the theme and revenge is a large portion of Wuthering Heights, a main key point is love. The love Catherine has for Heathcliff, the love Catherine has for Edgar’s money, Edgar’s love for Catherine, and Heathcliff’s love for Catherine. Heathcliff’s entire existence is wildly obsessed with Catherine and her ghost after she passes. Although Wuthering Heights does have some lighthearted moments, rejection and a dark love, revenge, and the psychology behind it all are not happy-go-lucky. The characters in this novel all experience rejection, love, and revenge in different ways but Heathcliff and Catherine, whose passion for one another is an over abundance, are the characters who experience the most somber feelings of love and rejection which later cause the need for revenge.

Being at the wrong place at the wrong time is dangerous enough, but stumbling across the wrong person can be life threatening. Toxic qualities infect the host individual as well as those surrounding them. Much like a merciless virus that can destroy a life from the inside out, poisonous characteristics run rampant through a community and spread as quickly as the plague. Historian and philosopher Howard Zinn proposes that, “the air of the world is poisonous. And you must carry an antidote with you, or the infection will prove fatal (Zinn 114). In Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte demonstrates the corrosive effects of human interaction through the motif of disease and contagion coupled with mental decay and the deaths of

While at Thrushcross Grange, she grows infatuated with Edgar, despite her love for Heathcliff. Edgar came from an upper class family as well and took care of her when she was in a dog accident. This leads to her acceptance of Edgar Linton’s marriage proposal despite her statements regarding her love for Heathcliff. Heathcliff overhears unfortunate passages of Catherine's discourse and disappears for a period during which he mysteriously makes his fortune and changes irrevocably from the person he was. Vengeance consumes him, and Heathcliff attempts to destroy the lives of those who wronged him, (as well as their children). Ultimately, Heathcliff’s bitterly executed vengeance is effaced by a love between Hareton and Cathy that mirrors Heathcliff’s own love for Catherine. Hareton is Catherine’s nephew and Cathy is Catherine’s daughter, which makes the two first cousins.

In Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights revenge is a common, reoccurring theme. According to Webster’s Dictionary, revenge is to inflict punishment in return for injury or insult. Within the novel, Wuthering Heights, revenge is an action taken by many people in order to redeem themselves. However, all of the characters end up in misery because of their hearts’ desire to avenge. In many novels, revenge is an action typically taken by the main villain upon the main hero. Revenge occurs often in both fiction and non-fiction books. Within Withering Heights, there are three examples of revenge that posses romantic tenets; Heathcliff’s revenge on Edgar and Catherine is the isolation tenet; Catherine’s revenge on Heathcliff is the elevated

Distinguishing traits of the author: Emily Bronte, otherwise known as Ellis Bell, had many siblings growing up in the isolated town of Thornton, Yorkshire. One of which was Charlotte Brontë author of the masterpiece, Jane Eyre. At the time of their publishment Jan Eyre was known as the superior book but over time Wuthering Heights has proven to be superior due to its elaborate and complex plot.