Wuthering Heights Social Class Quotes

“What good is social class and status? Truthfulness is measure within. Pride in one’s status is like poison – holding it in your hand and eating it, you shall die”. This was stated in the Sri Guru Granth Sahib, the central religious text in the religion of Sikhism. The quote is used to describe the social class system in society and how it will lead to a downfall to those who become contemptuous with their status. In the novel, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, the author illustrates two separate households in which both houses represent inverses from one another. Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, the two houses in the novel, are in many ways set in opposition to each other. Wuthering Heights is depicted as an intimidating household

In the academic journal Wuthering Heights and Violation of Class by T. K. Meier, the writes about the elements which transcend social class and a related theme of moral decline due such violations of class. An important character this journal talks about is Heathcliff. He is seen as a man who “seeks not to destroy the existing social system but merely to dominate it”. His demonic vengeance is directed against individuals, and his aim is to secure the traditional prerequisites of economic power and social elevation for his posterity. We see Heathcliff as a nameless illiterate savage at the beginning of the novel and is transformed into a gentleman’s son after being picked up by old Earnshaw. He achieves in time a violent communion with Catherine and toleration from Nelly Dean, two members of the household who are going undergoing a reduction from their former positions. Heathcliff humbly accepts his new status, but it becomes a foreign concept to him once he realizes his status is higher to that of Hindley’s given where he started at the beginning of the story. While in this depraved state, he seeks vengeance towards Catherine and Edgar, however, he abandons his lust for revenge “in favor of a mystical communion with Cathy’s soul, leaving two generations of economic and conjugal ruin behind him”. Heathcliff demonstrates a prime example on how he violated his class status and became contemptuous with it by seeking revenge on the people he loved. Yet, he chose not to seek his revenge because of his love for Catherine and realizes that all of his hate was for nothing and only made himself more miserable than he already was, showing his moral decline in the