How The Romantic Period Was Characterised By Political And Social Upheavals

Emily Bronte was born on July 30, 1818, in Thornton, Yorkshire, England. (“Emily Bronte” 1) She was the daughter of Reverend Patrick Bronte and Maria Branwell Bronte, and was the youngest of five children. (1) At the young age of three Emily and her family moved to Haworth with Emily’s new little sister, Anne. (1) When Anne was nine months old their mother passed away from cancer, Maria’s sister, Elizabeth Branwell came to live with and care for the children. (1) Years later when Emily was six, her and her two sisters, Elizabeth and Maria, were sent to study at the Clergy Daughters’ School at Cowan Bridge. (2) The school took little care of the children attending, including little food preparation and no heat or blankets during the winter.

When evaluating the family problems of a typical middle class American you may find deaths in the family, divorces, money problems, sibling rivalries, and more. In Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, all of the above is seen with a topping of vengeance and selfishness. This interesting conflict is caused by the abusive actions of the characters. From relationship to relationship, one character abuses another to get to their way or to get back at another character for their own wrongdoing. Having this occur frequently throughout the novel creates a dumbfounded sort of tone and leaves the reader on the edge of their seat. Throughout the novel Wuthering heights, Emily Bronte emphasizes the characters ' abusive and unhealthy relationships; this is exemplified through repeated vengeant duality, internal and external conflict, and irrational thinking.

    Critics analyze and examine Wuthering Heights to obtain a deeper understanding of the message that Emily Bronte wants to convey. By focusing on the different literary elements of fiction used in the novel, readers are better able to understand how the author successfully uses theme, characters, and setting to create a very controversial novel in which the reader is torn between opposite conditions of love and hate, good and evil, revenge and forgiveness in  Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights. There is no doubt that the use of conflictive characters such as Catherine Earnshaw, Heathcliff, and Edgar, with their interactions in the two different settings creates an

Heathcliff was the primary character that drove the plot of Wuthering Heights. The novel began and ended with him and his vindictive actions are most important to the progression of the story. He was unique from the other characters in the way that he looked, with “black eyes [withdrawn] so suspiciously under their brows...[and] dirty, ragged, black hair” (Bronte 3, 37). Mr. Earnshaw had generously brought this gipsy boy when he returned from a trip, picking him up from the miserable factory towns occupied by the lower classes in 1840. Earnshaw’s family did not receive this boy well, so Heathcliff was often characterized as a demon, epitomizing the equivocal attitude of the upper class, who at times felt charitable to and at times afraid of the lower class.

The political landscape was changing because intellectual like Adam Smith starting to write about how evil was the monarchy and the importance of the democracy. The first political change that happened during the romantic period was the French revolution in 1789. That revolution spread the idea that politic and public moralities need to be decided by the population. The romantic period bring the idea of

This chapter, attempts to highlight and depict the social and cultural aspects occurring in North and south and Wuthering heights used by the different characters in the novels

With the invention of sedentary farming came the still-relevant concept of social stratification. Power-hungry leaders rose to power globally as beneath them, inferior social and economic classes divided themselves, vying for the desirable positions of the privileged. Except in a few extremely rare communities, a true egalitarian society can never be achieved; the power gap and humanity’s greed are too great. This real life struggle for control over the masses is an important theme in Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë as Heathcliff, the natural born lower-class “gipsy,” fights his way through the novel to gain power over his unjust society (Brontë 37).

People often say “money makes the world go ‘round”. Money brings power, and power brings action. Elitism has a constant trend throughout history. Jane Eyre learns this lesson quite well in her life in the Victorian era. She constantly floats on the fringes of different social classes, allowing readers to see the revolution that really emphasizes the materialist nature of the book. Her journey towards independence represents her ability to free herself from the oppressive hierarchy of the patriarchal, elitist Victorian era. Jane represents the Marxist nature of the book which bases life on socioeconomic status and not ideology. She also represents the Marxist cycle of contradiction, tension, and revolution. Brontë wrote of a society that affirmed the power of the upper-class male. Jane Eyre is able to overcome this patriarchal hierarchy of social classes because she does not live in a definite socioeconomic status.

The theme that will take the limelight in this paper will the concepts of injustice and justice, concentrating around the character of Heathcliff. This interesting individual is quite unique, coming into this tale, or reintroduced by Nelly as a young dark skinned lad from the streets. As soon as he comes to his new stay at Wuthering Heights, he is faced with a certain type of injustice from the blood son of Heathcliff’s adoptive father, Hindley. Taking a dislike to Heathcliff and treats him so. This is the first form of injustice, bringing him into a hard shell of sorts that makes him blunt against his adoptive sibling’s lashes at him. Here we see him slowly gather the emotions that will cause him to seek out justice against his abuser in a large mastermind plot against him and many others as time goes by, The term justice here is unique to Heathcliff,

As represented in Catherine Earnshaw’s early characterization, the social and cultural ideals of the time period are heavily reinforced through Catherine’s defiant individualism and love for the initially lowly Heathcliff, which contrasts with the civility and propriety of the people around her. Despite being set solely in the Yorkshire Moors in England, the delicate social hierarchy of class is clearly seen in the residents of both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, in which Wuthering Heights lacks the class, refinement, and civilization of the latter. Despite the era’s social expectations of women as submissive and demure individuals expected to marry into a wealthy family, Catherine rejects these very standards through her fierce love for Heathcliff

A community alters its lifestyle as a new era arises. Emily Bronte, in her novel Wuthering Heights, compiles how people behaved in the 19th century through the characters: Heathcliff, Catherine Earnshaw, and Catherine Linton. The novel allows readers to observe the living circumstances of those days. Several customs of the Victorian era might seem awkward from a modern point of view. Especially, how the privileged treated women and those of a different race. The minorities in Wuthering Heights suffer from the experience of repressing their identity. They must dress, speak, and act as others expect them to, based on protocols assigned to their race and gender by the bourgeois class of Anglo-Saxon and men. Social minorities in Wuthering Heights

Many authors use the setting of a novel to illuminate certain values and principles in their writing. In Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte utilizes this technique to enhance the theme of the work. The novel is set in a harsh environment in Northern England, highlighting two specific estates, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, as the main places of action. The dreary landscape and houses not only serve as the primary setting, but also as major symbols that aide in establishing the tone and enhancing the novel's theme of good versus evil.

Jane Eyre, written by Charlotte Brontë, illustrates a British society that depicts an uneven distribution of wealth among people in the Victorian Era, creating this gap between the rich and poor. Social class in British society was made of the lower, middle, and upper class. Brontë implemented characters like Mr.Brocklehurst and the Reeds to show that characters that were high in class and supported the social hierarchy were not good people and are not usually rewarded. The main character and protagonist, Jane Eyre, has challenged the view that wealth is equivalent to superiority and good character. She has expressed feminine power and independence. Throughout the entire novel, Jane encountered dominant male figures that attempted to force her to abandon her morals and emotions, she challenged and escaped those who tried to suppress her. Women of this era’s patriarchal society were expected to know their place, men were controlling and dominant but this novel proved otherwise. Brontë’s novel, Jane Eyre, challenges the class structure of British society through gender, wealth, and education.

Heathcliff is adopted into the Earnshaw family and is accepted as a son by Mr.Earnshaw himself, however can still be seen as an outsider by Hindley and his mother. Bronte wanted to use the disparity between the lower social class and upper class to the best of her possibility and did so by essentially incorporating the struggles and outcasts of the lower and the power and prejudice of the upper in Heathcliff’s growth. An example of prejudice is when Miss Linton finds out that Catherine is the daughter of Mr.Earnshaw and sees Heathcliff with her and says “Miss Earnshaw scouring the country with a gipsy!” (Bronte 46). This is highly crucial for the audience to really feel and grasp Heathcliff’s true loneliness and predestined outcast image that constantly stayed with him throughout the story. Brontë’s portrayal of Heathcliff in the beginning establishes a sense of remembrance for us when we look back on what he went through and in turn we give him a “benefit of the doubt” or sympathetic

In Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, realism and gothic symbolism combine to form a romance novel that's full of social relevance. Follow the self-destructive journey of Heathcliff as he seeks revenge for