The Victorian Period : Wuthering Heights By Emily Bronte

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.

The Victorian Era is a remarkable time in history with the blooming industries, growing population, and a major turnaround in the fashion world. This era was named after Queen Victoria who ruled United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from June 1837 until she passed away 64 years later in January 1901.When Victoria received the crown, popular respect was strikingly low. The lack of respect for the position she had just come into did not diminish her confidence. Instead she won the hearts of Britain with her modesty, grace, straightforwardness, and her want to be informed on the political matters at hand even though she had no input. She changed Britain into a flourishing country. She also impacted how women interacted

   "My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I am Heathcliff" (81)" These words, uttered by Catherine, in the novel Wuthering Heights are for me the starting point in my investigation into the themes of love and obsession in the novel. Catherine has just told her housekeeper that she has made up her mind to marry Edgar Linton, although she is well aware that her love for him is bound to change as time passes. That she is obsessed by her love for Heathcliff she confirms in the above quotation and by saying that she will never, ever be separated from him. Why does she not marry him then? Well, she has

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.

Comparing Literature When examining literature as a whole, it is important to keep in mind that things can change drastically, or they can change very little. From the Romantic Era, to Victorian England, all the way to the turn of literature in the 1920’s, the world changed, and so did the way people wrote and the things they wrote about. From chivalry and nature in the Romantic Era, all the way to the juxtaposition of the Victorian Era and the symbolism of the 20th Century. Romanticism was an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement that originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate period from 1800 to 1850. Romanticism was characterized by its emphasis on emotion

Harsh, wild and unforgiving; the Yorkshire moors on which Emily Brontë played, provided the backdrop and catalyst of turmoil in her most tragic book Wuthering Heights. Born in 1818 in rural England, Haworth she lived in the heart of these wild, desolate expanses which provided her an escape where she truly felt at home and where her imagination flourished. Along with her sisters and brother, the Brontë children in their pastimes would often create stories and poems largely based on their playful ramblings in this environment.

The Victorian era refers to the sixty-three-year reign of Queen Victoria of Great Britain, from 1837-1901. From a huge population boom in Great Britain to technological improvements that changed the way people lived, to the increasingly noticeable differences between the wealthy and the working poor, the 19th Century saw more profound social and political developments than any century before.

Presently, society is constructed in such a way that the upper class and the lower class cannot work to change places unless they are extremely fortunate. The ladder of society has always existed in this manner, and many authors have chosen to explore what pushing the constraints of a set society will do. In Wuthering Heights, a novel by Emily Brontë, the social constraints of the community in which the characters live, are constantly being pushed as the characters change social classes, through marriage and hard work, and in the treatment of other characters. The actions are often motivated by a superficial impression; many interactions between the characters are based on the influence of social classes, and the changes that shift the characters from one social class to another which Brontë occurs as an overlaying theme in the story. Brontë illustrates the differences in the classes using the literary devices of imagery, symbols, dialogue, and irony. A change in the social class for a certain character leads to a change in the interactions with that character.

Change is the word that most describes the Victorian Era. This era began in 1837 and ended in 1901 (Online-Literature). The Victorian era brought themes such as: "crime, poverty, power, politics, gender inequality, sociality, and gothic ideas" ( Chegg YouTube video). The reason you can summarize this era with the word change is, because many things changed during this era as compared to the previous era. There were more inventions during this period which led to society altering and views changing. Books also helped change the era. Books ,such as Dr. Jekyll, and Mr. Hyde and poems shaped this era. The Victorian Period is known for change; change in society, in lifestyle, and change in literature.

The Victorian Period is marked by Queen Victoria’s reign from 1837 to 1901. The Romantic Period preceded the Victorian Period and served as a transition period between 20th-century literature. The salvaging of themes in classical literature and medieval literature were repurposed into the writings of the English Victorian Period. The Victorian writers exhibited well-established styles of writing from previous eras, while at the same time pushing various customs to new and interesting directions. Every aspect of society was unstable and suspect to change because of industrialization and technology evolving. The economy expanded, the Church was being undermined, and factory production increased. Some writers saw the rapid and unpredictable change

The Victorian Era of the British Empire begins on 20 June 1837, the beginning of Queen Victoria’s reign, and ceases on 22 January 1901, the year of the Queen’s death. The Victorian Era marks the conclusion of the Romantic period, which was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement originating in Europe toward the second half of the 18th century. The Victorian Era was characterized by rapid change—from the advancements in several fields such as medical, scientific and technological. These developments lead to a national self-confidence and optimism leading to the Empire’s economic prosperity.

Similar to many epic heroes, Victoria the Queen influenced culture. The VIctorian Era was named for her during her reign on England. During her reign, England went through many advancements; technology, sciences, bridges, underground sewers, railways for buildings, and literary augmentations. Queen Victoria was sheltered from many works of literature for they referenced wars she was not to know about. One literature work she

“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

Gothic literature originated and was very strong at the time of the Romantic Writers Movement. They were very popular and had authors such as Horace Walpole who wrote “The Castle of Oranto”, and novels such as “Frankenstein” and “Dracula“. Gothic novels all had a similarity between each other. They always had typical Gothic features which alleviated the novel in one way or another. For example, most Gothic novels involved settings which generally added fear and suspense. They were always quite dark, scary and isolated. Also the characters of the Gothic novels never seemed to fit in the community and the society. They usually were handicapped, disabled or deformed