Class and Gender in Wuthering Heights

698 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Social class gender in gathering heights

Conflict as a result of class and gender division is a common theme seen throughout Emily Brontë's novel Wuthering Heights. Social contrasts and gender boundaries create oppression and tension amongst the characters, affecting their composure and behaviour throughout the novel.

The most obvious distinction between upper and lower classes is with the two settings; Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights. Both places differ significantly in both disposition and appearance. The society in Wuthering Heights is that of the working class. Wuthering Heights is a worn out farm that represents difficulty; ruthlessness, and hard work. Life at Wuthering Heights is more domestic yet spiteful revenge and personal struggles envelop the characters that live there. Thrushcross Grange is located in the valley and represents refinement, comfort and wealth. The society of Thrushcross Grange is of higher nobility; such as the Linton's were, those who lived here were well mannered individuals. "A splendid place carpeted with crimson--covered chairs and tables, and a pure white ceiling bordered by gold, a shower of glass-drops hanging in silver chains from the center, and shimmering with little soft tapers" (Brontë, 140). The interior decorations at the Grange are much more elaborate in comparison with those found at Wuthering Heights. The weather also plays a comparable role to both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, it was always much calmer at Thrushcross Grange and it was always windy or storming at Wuthering Heights.

Heathcliff's character parallels with the qualities possessed by The Heights; he is depicted as a member of lower class and does not have the qualities necessary to live at Thrushcross Grange. Cold, dark, and...

... middle of paper ...

...cation as she does. "Those books, both prose and verse, were consecrated to me by other associations, and I hate to have them debased and profaned in his mouth!" (Brontë, 395). Catherine goes on to ridicule Hareton further by imitating aloud how a beginner would read. Eventually Catherine and Hareton become friends and she helps with his education, only then does Hareton become a gentleman and finally overcomes his rough behaviour.

Wuthering Heights shows the repression between social classes and gender subjection. The settings in the novel provide insight to the characters social interactions and positions from either Wuthering Heights or Thrushcross Grange, the contrasts between these places are what truly make the overall presentation of the story so enticing.

Works Cited

Brontë, Emily. Wuthering Heights. Toronto: Broadview Press Ltd, 2002.

Show More
Related

  • Comparing Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway and Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights

    1672 Words  | 4 Pages

    Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway and Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights share similarities in many aspects, perhaps most plainly seen in the plots: just as Clarissa marries Richard rather than Peter Walsh in order to secure a comfortable life for herself, Catherine chooses Edgar Linton over Heathcliff in an attempt to wrest both herself and Heathcliff from the squalid lifestyle of Wuthering Heights. However, these two novels also overlap in thematic elements in that both are concerned with the opposing forces of civilization or order and chaos or madness. The recurring image of the house is an important symbol used to illustrate both authors’ order versus chaos themes. Though Woolf and Bronte use the house as a symbol in very different ways, the existing similarities create striking resonances between the two novels at certain critical scenes.

    Read More

  • Wuthering Heights: The Power to Transform

    1438 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although, Mr. Earnshaw tried to make Heathcliff an equal part of the family, Heathcliff never truly fits in. Heathcliff is from a completely different social class than the rest of his “family”. This led to the hatred that Hindley felt towards Heathcliff. Hindley robs Heathcliff of his education, forces him to work as a servant at Wuthering Heights and frequently beats him. Throughout this all, Heathcliff never complains.

    Read More

  • Comparing Virginia Woolf and Emily Bronte

    886 Words  | 2 Pages

    Virginia Woolf and Emily Bronte possess striking similarities in their works.  Both works have inanimate objects as pivotal points of the story line.  For Bronte, Wuthering Heights itself plays a key role in the story.  The feel of the house changes as the characters are introduced to it.   Before Heathcliff, the Heights was a place of discipline but also love.  The children got on well with each other and though Nelly was not a member of the family she too played and ate with them.  When old Mr. Earnshaw traveled to Liverpool he asked the children what they wished for him to bring them as gifts and also promised Nelly a “pocketful of apples and pears” (WH 28).  Heathcliff’s presence changed the Heights, “So, from the beginning, he had bred bad feeling in the house” (WH 30). The Heights became a place to dream of for Catherine (1) when she married Linton and moved to the Grange.  For her it held the memories of Heathcliff and their love.  For her daughter, Cathy, it became a dungeon; trapped in a loveless marriage in a cold stone home far away from the opulence and luxury of the home she was used to. Then, upon the death of Heathcliff, I can almost see, in my minds eye, the Heights itself relax into the warm earth around in it the knowledge that it too is once again safe from the vengeance, bitterness, and hate that has housed itself within its walls for over twenty years.

    Read More

  • Character Analysis Of Wuthering Heights

    995 Words  | 2 Pages

    The initial downward spiral of Heathcliff’s life was predominantly caused by harsh influences in the environment in which he was raised. Heathcliff, an adopted child, grew up in Wuthering Heights, a desolate and dystopian estate when compared to the beauty of the neighboring Thrushcross Grange. In childhood, Heathcliff displayed evidence of a sympathetic personality through his emotional attachment to Catherine and kind attitude towards Nelly. At the time of Mr. Earnshaw’s death, Nelly describes a scene where, “Miss Cathy had been sick, and that made her still; she

    Read More

  • Wuthering Heights

    1913 Words  | 4 Pages

    Catherine was born into a rich solid family, where her father, Mr. Earnshaw, was a strict man, and her mother, Mrs. Earnshaw, was a pretentious woman. Through her conceited youth Catherine’s immaturity is clearly explained. Born with a very strong attitude; she is the type that throws a fit when doesn’t get what she wants. An example is, “when she learnt the master had lost her whip in attending the stranger, showed her humor by grinning and spitting at the stupid little thing” (33). Catherine was never love by her father, whom felt the need to tell her, “Nay Cathy, I cannot love thee; thou’rt worse than thy brother. Go, s...

    Read More

  • Selfishness in "Wuthering Heights"

    797 Words  | 2 Pages

    Heathcliff is a character who was abused in his childhood by Catherine’s brother, Hindley, because of his heritage as a “gypsy”, and Hindley was jealous of the love that Heathcliff got from Mr. Earnshaw, Hindley’s father. This is also selfishness upon Hindley’s part since he only wanted his father’s love for his sister and himself. So to reprimand Heathcl...

    Read More

  • The Country Setting in Wuthering Heights

    584 Words  | 2 Pages

    Wuthering Heights is a classic in which Emily Bronte presents two opposite settings using the country setting. Country settings are often used as a place of virtue and peace or of ignorance and one of primitivism as believed by many city dwellers. But, in the novel Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte has used Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights to depict isolation and separation. Wuthering Heights setting is wild, passionate, and strong and Thrushcross Grange and its inhabitants are calm, harshly strict, and refined and these two opposite forces struggle throughout the novel.

    Read More

  • Interweaving Characters and Surroundings in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights

    1715 Words  | 4 Pages

    The setting used throughout the novel Wuthering Heights, helps to set the mood to describe the characters. We find two households separated by the cold, muddy, and barren moors, one by the name of Wuthering Heights, and the other Thrushcross Grange. Each house stands alone, in the mist of the dreary land, and the atmosphere creates a mood of isolation. These two places, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange differ greatly in appearance and mood. These differences reflect the universal conflict between storm and calm that Emily Bronte develops as the theme.

    Read More

  • Comparing Pride And Prejudice And Wuthering Heights

    721 Words  | 2 Pages

    One of the biggest rivalries in the nineteenth century was between the Bronte sisters and Jane Austen. These women wrote some of the most popular novels in their time that often had very common themes. Emily Bronte's novel Wuthering Heights and Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice both deal with the common theme of social standing, especially in relation to marriages. In Wuthering Heights, Catherine's higher class standing than Heathcliff’s status hinders them from being together. In Pride and Prejudice the gender roles are reversed, and it is Darcy who must deal with being with a woman, Elizabeth Bennet, in a lower standing than he and his family is. The problem of conflicting social classes extends throughout the entirety of the two novels as an obstacle that both couples most overcome in order for them to be together. These novels show how these two couples differed in their reactions to each other of being in a different social class, and how this affected their love in the end.

    Read More

  • How the Houses in Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights Compare

    997 Words  | 2 Pages

    Although both estates are wealthy, there is a definite difference in class between them and this bears greatly on the characters from both estates. ability to socialise with each other. The two different buildings have their own strengths and weaknesses. and the characters reflect their features. On the one hand there is Wuthering Heights with its stark and intimidating appearance.

    Read More

  • Generational Curses In Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights

    1131 Words  | 3 Pages

    In this dark, romantic novel, by Emily Brontë, elements of Gothic style are used to show the concept and effects of generational curses. The second-generation characters in Wuthering Heights experienced the generational curse of their parents, due to the poor decisions they made. The generational effects are mistreatment, not learning how to be comfortable with who they are, and being victims of their own environment. Only by the very end of the novel, does Brontë depict that there is hope of overcoming the generational curse.

    Read More

  • Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

    736 Words  | 2 Pages

    (2) Emily Bronte’s purpose in writing Wuthering Heights is to depict unfulfilled love in a tragic romance novel and hence the theme of Wuthering Heights is love is pain. Emily Bronte reveals an important life lesson that love is not sufficient for happiness and if anything, stirs up more agony. This message is important because, although it is difficult to accept, the message is devastatingly honest. In Wuthering Heights, two characters named Heathcliff and Catherine loved each other immensely. However, their pride and adamance disabled them from making any progress on their romantic relationship. In fact, Heathcliff and Catherine purposely hurt each another through reckless and cruel actions. The author is exemplifying a recurring theme in history that love is associated with pain. The message allows readers to be aware that love is not constant perfection and happiness.

    Read More

  • The Presentation of Childhood in "Wuthering Heights"

    1832 Words  | 4 Pages

    In chapter three, Lockwood opens a window to Catherine Earnshaws childhood through perusing through her books “Catherine’s library was select…scarcely one chapter had escaped a pen-and-ink commentary…scrawled in an unformed childish hand” we can see that her collection of books was limited but nevertheless well used. Two voices also come to the fore one being Lockwood’s and the other the autobiographical elements of Emily Brontë’s voice, ‘pen-and-ink commentary’ and ‘unformed childish’ the pre-modifiers reveal that the Brontë sisters also wrote in the margins of the novels they owned as paper was a scarce material.

    Read More

  • Importance of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange

    1088 Words  | 3 Pages

    The setting used throughout the novel Wuthering Heights helps to set the mood to describe the characters. We find two households separated by the cold, muddy, and barren moors, one by the name of Wuthering Heights, and the other by the name of Thrushcross Grange. Each house stands alone, in the mist of the dreary land, and the atmosphere creates a mood of isolation. In the novel, there are two places where virtually all of the action takes place. These two places, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, differ greatly from each other in appearance and mood. These differences reflect the universal conflict between storm and calm that Emily Bronte develops as the theme in her novel Wuthering Heights.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Social Class In Wuthering Heights

    1518 Words  | 4 Pages

    In Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, Bronte uses the issue of social class to focus in on how an outsider, Heathcliff, is treated when he enters in a new society with a changing class structure to show the idea that class is something that begins with ancestors and current members conform into it is present. At the time, the industrialization of England caused the levees in place to yield to allow for a new middle class. This rise of middle, working class stirs up conflict between the dominant upper class and the rising lower classes. This class conflict, the oppression against the lower classes serves as the basis for Heathcliff’s interactions, treatments, and future tyrannical actions in Wuthering Heights to show the class struggle placed on society by industrialization.

    Read More

More about Class and Gender in Wuthering Heights

Open Document