Wuthering Heights, By Emily Bronte

Throughout time, the moon has been seen as an important symbol in Western culture. Due to the moon’s constant presence every night, it has come to be associated with death and rest. Furthermore, it is seen as a symbol of beauty and perfection that cannot be attained by humans. Finally, the moon’s cyclical movement has caused it to be representative of emotions, time and change. In Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, the moon appears in many different circumstances. Early in the novel, the moon foreshadows the failure of a relationship between Heathcliff and the older Catherine. As the novel unfolds, the moon’s appearance begins to reveal the true inner nature or state of characters. Finally, the moon begins to symbolize the impact of change, or the lack of change, over time on the characters of Heathcliff and the younger Catherine. Throughout Wuthering Heights, Brontë uses the cosmological body of the moon to foreshadow the inability to attain perfection, to reveal the truth about certain characters, and finally to demonstrate effects of change on humans in order to emphasize the power of nature in the lives of humans.

Since the beginning of civilization, one’s wealth, and status were determining factors that influenced their place in a stratified society. In Emily Bronte’s novel Wuthering Heights, the author embodied the realities of England's class system during the Victorian Era. During this Era, people were born into a class and stayed there. This was essentially captured by the idea that social mobility was rare and limited. Bronte uses characters such as Catherine, Heathcliff and Edgar as well as the second generation as a tool to emphasize the differences in class, and how it ultimately impacted the fate of the characters.Through the use of symbolism and juxtaposition, Bronte exemplifies that the potency of love and relationships cannot outweigh the necessity social status. While many will argue the impracticality of social status being the determining factor of one’s way of life, this is most notably seen through Catherine Earnshaw.

Cruelty compels one to inflict cruelty upon others. In her novel, Wuthering Heights, Brontë illustrates the rough life of Heathcliff, conflicted with whether he should focus his life on loving Catherine Earnshaw or inflicting revenge on those who tortured him as a child. Mr. Earnshaw adopts Heathcliff into the Earnshaw family as an orphan gypsy, a social class that most of the Earnshaw did not care for. The eldest child of Mr. Earnshaw, Hindley, abuses Heathcliff horribly, shaping the way Heathcliff perceives the world around him. Catherine Earnshaw, Hindley’s younger sister, motivates Heathcliff to endure this pain through their affectionate relationship. With his heart focused on revenge, Heathcliff devises a cruel plan to retaliate those who hurt him; he returns to Wuthering Heights as a refined, powerful man. He takes some of his anger out on Hareton Earnshaw, Hindley’s son; this parallels Hindley’s abuse towards Heathcliff. Through Hindley’s and Heathcliff’s abusiveness in Wuthering Heights, Brontë asserts that cruelty cycles from its perpetrators to its victims.

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 descriptions used in the story distinguish the appearance of one class from another. “He is a dark-skinned gypsy in aspect, in dress and manners a gentleman: that is as much a gentleman as many a country squire (Chapter 1).” Heathcliff is rich and is perceived to be a gentleman, which is in contrast to his past as a ward of the country, and as a servant. In his past, Heathcliff is brought home by Mr. Earnshaw, and

    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.

Anger resulted from class struggle is a basic foundation for Emily Bronte's Victorian novel Wuthering Heights. This anger is portrayed through such relationships among characters such as Heathcliff, Hindley, and Catherine. The novel was published during the Industrial Revolution when labors had to fight for fair conditions in the workplace and the power was in having money. Firstly, the relationship between Heathcliff and Hindley is based on anger as Hindley used the power of his social class as a mean to get his revenge back. Hindley makes use of his aristocratic class by insulting Heathcliff as Nelly narrates that Hindley uses words such as "Vagabond" (Bronte 47), "worse than a brute" (54), "a dog" (31), and "imp of Satan" (31).

Civilization, then, posts a direct opposition to this purity. The social organization embodied by the Lintons and Lockwood, as well as Heathcliff’s branch of rebellious social structure, are eventually thwarted by the natural power through Cathy and Hareton Earnshaw. This revival of the natural and isolated power of Wuthering Heights represent Emily Bronte’s argument that the natural order - that which cannot be controlled nor defined by civilization - is the purest form of social

Martha Nussbaum describes the romantic ascent of various characters in Wuthering Heights through a philosophical Christian view. She begins by describing Catherine as a lost soul searching for heaven, while in reality she longs for the love of Heathcliff. Nussbaum continues by comparing Heathcliff as the opposition of the ascent from which the Linton’s hold sacred within their Christian beliefs. Nussbaum makes use of the notion that the Christian belief in Wuthering Heights is both degenerate and way to exclude social classes.

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

In Emily Bronte’s novel Wuthering Heights, we are introduced to the mysterious and enigmatic character of Heathcliff. Throughout the novel he is hellbent on exacting his revenge on those who have caused him the most pain in his life; as the story continues, this lust for revenge pushes him closer and closer to the point of madness. Without having read the book it is easy for a reader to write this character off as a villain, however, Bronte artfully portrays his character, his backstory, and his motivations in a way that elicits echoes of sympathy.

The social classes in Wuthering Heights are an insight to the society that  Emily Bronte experienced. The British society of 1770 wasn’t accepting of a person with darker features which is reflected in how Heathcliff is treated in the novel. Orphans were also never meant to rise from their station below the servants. This is an insight into why Hindley Earnshaw hated Heathcliff and referred to him as a usurper of his father’s affections. When Hidley became master of Wuthering Heights he returned Heathcliff to his “rightful” place.

Emily Bronte’s portrayal of Heathcliff presents him to readers “as dark almost as if it came from the devil’ and a ‘dirty, ragged, black-haired child.” (Emily Bronte) Although her suggestive description indicates Heathcliff is black, the author’s lack of a definitive depiction evokes ambiguity. Bronte purposefully intrigues readers with her absence of certainty by selecting specific language and creating a semantic field of the colour black. Bronte resurfaces the reader’s assumptions