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How Is Heathcliff Successful?

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During the late 1770s in England, the social class system one was born into determined their future success. Class was primarily determined by the status of one’s ancestors rather than financial wealth. There was little interaction between the classes except in a servant and master dynamic, and people usually did not change classes. Those who did rise in social class standing were seen in a different light than others with their same monetary worth. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte is a British gothic romance novel that was published in 1847. The setting of the story is an old 1770s moor populated by two households owned by Heathcliff, an adopted boy who rose in power throughout his life. The story is based on Heathcliff’s background and tells of how he was not meant to be the proprietor any of the manors but used manipulation and force in order to make his family and neighbors miserable and gain ownership of all their land. Heathcliff was successful in his goals to gain wealth, but was alienated and despised because of his rising in social class. Bronte’s distaste for social class hierarchy and feelings that it is both unfair and discriminatory …show more content…

Unlike her sisters and her aunt who raised her, Emily was quite skeptical of religion and rarely attended church services (Symons). Her mysterious background is reflected in Wuthering Heights given that the book has many gothic and romantic elements. While Wuthering Heights may currently be considered a classic of English literature, at the time of its release, the novel was not accepted as a respectable work. Appearing as the first two volumes of a three-volume set that included her sister Anne’s Agnes Grey, the novel was seen as offensive to the public as it challenged strict Victorian ideals regarding religious hypocrisy, morality, social class, and gender inequality (Knapp

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