This essay will discuss the way in which the themes of Romance and the Gothic are portrayed heavily in Brontë’s novel, Wuthering Heights, while also being juxtaposed with dogged Realism, in a way that makes Brontë’s work significant and unprecedented. It aims to highlight how contemporary interpretations of the text as a timeless love story have undermined the powerful realism put forth by Brontë, in her deliberate language and refusal of societal conventions. It will also analyse the extent to which Kosminsky is able to represent these themes accurately, and where the shortcomings of the filmic representation become decidedly apparent. It will explore the representation of the sublime, and discuss how Brontë & Kosminsky’s views on gender and class appear to vary greatly, based primarily on which characters each text elects to focus on developing. Furthermore, it will focus on each text’s interpretation of gender conventions and character development.
Both the novel and the film convey many of the romantic elements, the sublime, and (particularly in the novel), the gothic. The characters of both Catherine and Heathcliff are wild and spirited, and the novel alludes to the supernatural in many instances. Kosminsky’s film, on the other hand, falls short in its representation of these imperative themes, primarily by failing to adequately detail the importance of the supernatural nor the undeniable connection between nature and character development. Unsurprisingly, Kosminsky
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte is a wild, twisted, passionate, and tragic love story between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff. The book has many similarities and differences with the elements of fairy tales. These elements also reflects on the way Emily Bronte has been brought up due to her surroundings and family. Most fairy tales usually ends with a happy ending where the prince and princess live happily ever after, however this one has a much more dark and vengeful taste.
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
Heathcliff cried vehemently, "I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!" Emily Brontë distorts many common elements in Wuthering Heights to enhance the quality of her book. One of the distortions is Heathcliff's undying love for Catherine Earnshaw. Also, Brontë perverts the vindictive hatred that fills and runs Heathcliff's life after he loses Catherine. Finally, she prolongs death, making it even more distressing and insufferable.
In Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte uses the setting of the English Moors, a setting she is familiar with, to place two manors, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. The first symbolizes man's dark side while the latter symbolizes an artificial utopia. This 19th century setting allows the reader to see the destructive nature of love when one loves the wrong person.
In this excerpt from Emily Brönte’s poem “How Clear She Shines” the elements of Gothicism are displayed clearly. The overall cynical mood sets the scene for a gothic style of writing; the contrasts between truth and treachery, joy and pain, peace and grief, bring out a feeling of unease that is Gothicism. Emily Bronte expounded on these themes in her novel Wuthering Heights, a classic work of gothic fiction. This novel portrays two lovers with a very unhealthy relationship in which they are very passionate but take their passion to the extreme. The lengths they go for their love can initially be classified as traditional romanticism, but love turns into obsession and quickly grows grotesque. This transformation marks the transition from Romanticism into Gothicism. Gothicism is a style of writing that is characterized by fear, horror, and death, but can also include Romantic qualities like nature, individualism, and emotion. Romanticism is known for its emphasis on emotion and imagination; Gothicism takes these themes and twists them into something dark and disturbing. In Gothicism, elements of Romanticism are taken too far to the absolute extreme, resulting in grotesque outcomes instead of the predictable plot generated by most romantic novels. Emily Brönte uses the Gothic themes of doppelgänger, sublimity, and revenge to stress the surreal and outrageous actions and thought of the main characters, Catherine and Heathcliff, in Wuthering Heights.
The root cause of all actions and behaviour of a person can be found through an in depth psychological analysis. Even in literature, a well-written character often demonstrates a complex psychological profile. Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights is rich with such troubled characters. Heathcliff is a perfect example of the theories of early childhood development; his inability to resolve fundamental conflicts in childhood impedes his social and moral development as he ages. Analysis of Heathcliff’s behaviour also reveals many key signs that Heathcliff suffers from an antisocial personality disorder. Finally, psychology also explains why Heathcliff develops such an intense attraction to Catherine. Heathcliff’s psychological profile is complex, involving stunted development, personality disorders, and even attraction theory.
Yet, not only are the images of Wuthering Heights similar to that of Heathcliff, but both are described using similar adjectives. Wuthering Heights is illustrated as a hostile ‘grotesque’ dwelling, with ’strong narrow windows, deeply set in the walls, the corners defended with large, jutting stones’ (I, 1). This is similar to descriptions of Heathcliff: his ‘savage’ face has ‘brows lowering, the eyes deep-set and singular with black eyes withdrawn so suspiciously under their brow’ (I, 10). Heathcliff’s temperament is therefore exemplified and detailed through the setting in which he is shown, showing the relationship between the character and his setting.
However, despite changes, the literary world remained predominantly male, and women writers not encouraged, or taken seriously. Consequently, to counteract this Emily Bronte published her novel Wuthering Heights, under the male pseudonym of Ellis Bell. Wuthering Heights is the story of domesticity, obsession, and elemental divided passion between the intertwined homes of the Earnshaw’s residing at the rural farmhouse Wuthering Heights, and the Linton family of the more genteel Thrushcross Grange. This essay will discuss how the language and narrative voices established a structural pattern of the novel, and how these differing voices had a dramatic effect on the interpretation of the overall story.
In the book Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, Heathcliff has taken it upon himself to seek revenge against anyone who mistreated him. While doing so, his cruel acts lead to the demise of the first generations of Earnshaws, the family who adopts him. Although his animosity is aimed to one it becomes out of control, it spreads to everyone like a disease of cruelty and heartbreak. Unfortunately a bitter childhood and betrayal of the heart turns a kind soul into an evil sour man searching for vengeance. The avengement of Heathcliff brings on the rage and corruption to the Earnshaw – Linton families tearing through the first generation.
Vengeance unleashes its utmost immoral behaviors in its perpetrators. And although its success brings temporary happiness, it ultimately rewards remorse. In the novel, Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte, the current tenant of Thrushcross Grange learns the history of the events that took place on the Yorkshire moors: the intense, dramatic romance between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, her betrayal of him, and Heathcliff’s resentful vengeance on the innocent heirs. In conversations of Bronte’s classic, Wuthering Heights, questions about the book’s meaning inevitably emerge. While many argue that the book focuses on love, others assert that the nature of redemption lies at the heart of the
Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights is not only one of the most widely read books in America, but it also encourages different critical approaches. One of the most interesting approaches is the psychoanalytical approach in this circumstance. Through the entirety of this book it is understood that defending oneself in different ways is a way to escape the stresses of reality. “Our unconscious desires not to recognize or change out destructive behaviors- because we have formed our identities around them and because we are afraid of what we will find if we examine them too closely- are served by our defenses” (Tyson 15). Just as the way
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
Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights draws a close line between love and hate as a major theme in the novel. The different sides of love are demonstrated by Bronte through situations that draw upon the nature of being human. The author displays the selfish, destructive and the betrayal side of love between the main character as well as minor characters in the novel and how they are imprisoned by the same recurring cycle.
“Find what you love, and let it kill you.” said Bukowski. If love really destroys people, then “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Bronte is the best example. Bronte is a British poetess and novelist. She wrote only one novel which is Wuthering Heights. Her novel was and still controversial for critics. This essay will discuss how Wuthering Heights represents a unique literary work of art that resembles a crossover between romanticism and realism, the defying features of ideal romantic heroism regarding Catharine and Heathcliff, the unusual ending of the novel and eventually my personal evaluation of the ending along with an insight assessment of the cross racial relationship during the Victorian era.
“The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean; not to affect your reader, but to affect him precisely as you wish,” said Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Treasure Island. Any person can write a book, but to be able to write what you mean and affect your readers is very difficult. A writer simply can’t just drop dialogue into a character’s mouth without having any context of the dialogue. If an author has his or her character saying “I’m broke,” what does this really mean without any context? To Oprah Winfrey, being broke may mean she can’t buy a Silk Jet, a winery, or a country. To a middle- class American, being broke may mean they can’t buy a new pair of shoes that week, buy a new car, or get their hair