Wuthering Heights by Charlotte Bronte

First published in 1847, Wuthering Heights was not met with immediate praise. Its depictions of violent characters and harsh realities were uncomfortable to a Victorian audience obsessed with outward appearances and societal orderliness. With time, though, more people were able to appreciate the novel’s beauty and scrutiny of the human psyche, and Wuthering Heights earned its place in the literary canon of classic works. Modern audiences continue to laud the book as the quintessence of good literature because of its complexity and comments on the human condition. Emily Bronte’s use of symmetry and juxtaposition between families, characters, and locations in Wuthering Heights functions not only to create an engaging and beautiful story about love and understanding, but also to explore the elaborate interactions between human suffering and cataclysmic downfall, thus affirming the inherent value of even debased and degraded individuals.

Wuthering Heights is a novel which deviates from the standard of Victorian literature. The novels of the Victorian Era were often works of social criticism. They generally had a moral purpose and promoted ideals of love and brotherhood. Wuthering Heights is more of a Victorian Gothic novel; it contains passion, violence, and supernatural elements (Mitchell 119). The world of Wuthering Heights seems to be a world without morals. In Wuthering Heights, Brontë does not idealize love; she presents it realistically, with all its faults and merits. She shows that love is a powerful force which can be destructive or redemptive. Heathcliff has an all-consuming passion for Catherine. When she chooses to marry Edgar, his spurned love turns into a

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.

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.

Wuthering Heights, a novel written by Emily Brontë is a passionate story of the intense love between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw. Written in the Victorian Era where social class played a major role in determining one’s position in society, Brontë utilizes mirroring characters to illustrate the parallelism of multiple characters to present the idea that one’s identity and the choices they make mirror their social standing.

Characters in Wuthering Heights exemplify the effect of dual natures and the destructive impact such internal struggles can have on filial relations. The motives that drive the characters are inextricably linked to the warring forces inside them that are the impetus for the rash and ruinous actions that are common to both major households in the novel. Consequently, the prevalence of duality throughout the novel signifies the importance of a double nature in characterizing humanity. Catherine is the most relevant example of contradictory natures as they define her personality throughout her life. Therefore; in Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, the recurring

Susan Myer’s central argument is that the racial other and stereotypical white woman of the nineteenth century, have both been excluded from social structures and subjected to an oppressive disempowerment of the British empire. She argues that in Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë employs a metaphorical link, an intersection of gender and race, between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff in order to identify their shared limitations and oppression while exploring their potential powers of resistance to social structures of British imperialism. Catherine and Heathcliff are both victims of suppression and subordination, Heathcliff through the expressed superiority of the British empire toward alien or dark races and Catherine through a domestic and

Vengeance at Wuthering Heights Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte, includes character with vengeful motivations during two generations of conflict. The novel exhibits vengeance by Heathcliff towards several people, but his main motives are towards Edgar Linton, who married Catherine Linton, when Heathcliff loved Catherine. Mr. Heathcliff’s evolving vengeance started with Hindley Earnshaw, Catherine’s brother. Edgar Linton despised Heathcliff due to talking harsh to his wife and his daughter. While there are several conflicts in the story, the main conflict is the rivalry between Heathcliff and Edgar Linton.

With this description, Catherine emphasizes the social values of the eighteenth century through her willingness to defy authority and reason, pitting her against the strict societal expectations of the era. However, the exposure of Catherine to Thrushcross Grange as she stays at the manor to recover from the injury to her ankle, prompts a transformation in her romanticist character that openly explores the cultural values of the Yorkshire Manors. The civility of the Lintons in Thrushcross Grange transforms the once-defiant and youthful Catherine into a mature and well-groomed lady that develops an internal conflict between her love for the well-mannered and wealthy Edgar Linton and the lowly Heathcliff. In Brontë’s novel, Catherine emphasizes her characterization in a scene where she laments this internal conflict saying, “I've no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in heaven; and if the wicked man in there had not brought Heathcliff so low, I shouldn't have thought of it. It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love him” (Brontë

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

Bette Davis said, “When a man gives his opinion, he 's a man. When a woman gives her opinion, she 's a bitch.” Feminism was always looked at as women fighting for the same rights that men have always had. A lack of feminism is just the opposite. Someone losing their femininity by allowing themselves to conform to men, to break the bond every women has gone through to break the barriers. In Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, Catherine shows her flaw in femininity over how her conformity to every man to show society 's 'norm ', her quest for money and not love, and she is foolish for thinking men can rule her life.

Wuthering Heights is a perfect example of how both denying and fulfilling a desire can lead to danger. Desire is a fascinating concept because it encompasses a multitude of things in life. You can desire someone in the sense of loving them or wanting to be with them. You can also desire to do good in the world or have a desire for a specific job. It is by no means a simple subject to talk about, especially accompanied by danger, an equally complex idea. The idea of danger can be physically, mentally, and emotionally straining as well as societal. For example, being in danger of being harmed, being in danger of becoming depressed, or, you could even be in danger of losing your status in society. The idea of losing you status or your family name was an enormous concern during the later 1700s and early 1800s which is when this book takes place. The characters in Wuthering Heights give numerous examples of how indulging or not indulging in desire can have equally toxic outcomes. In Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte uses the character relationships to demonstrate how desire, fulfilled or not, is dangerous by showing the consequences of desire.

The gothic and often disturbing Wuthering Heights is Emily Bronte’s classic novel that contains undeniably powerful writing that created her timeless love story. Andrea Arnold transformed her masterpiece into a cinematic rendition to recreate the wild and passionate story of the deep and destructive love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff.

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.

Is love rational? In the words of Chris de Burgh, “It’s the classical dilemma, between the head and heart.” Love can cause people to do crazy things and act in irrational ways. They think of their love first before considering the consequences. Heartbreak can also cause people to have odd behavior. “Like an addict chasing a high, someone in love might act rather odd or lose inhibitions or their sense of judgement.” (“The Head versus the Heart – Is Love Rational?) In the following novels, the characters are blinded by love and passion and it causes them to ignore rational thoughts and responsibilities and the pursuit of a happy ending leads to their eventual tragic deaths.