Oppressiveness of Society Exposed in Emily Jane Bronte's Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights, the creation of Emily Jane Bronte, depicts not a
fantasy realm nor the depths of hell. Rather, the novels focuses on
two main characters' battle with the restrictions of Victorian
Society. Societal pressures and restrictive cultural confines exile
Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff from the world and then from each
other.
The story commences in the desolate moors of Yorkshire, home of
the estate Wuthering Heights. True to its setting, the novel develops
Catherine and Heathcliff as mischievous children who wander the
isolated bogs, separating themselves from the activities of Wuthering
Heights. Catherine^s childhood exile stems from her lack of compliance
with the rules concerning the conduct of a Victorian lady. As a child,
her father was too ill to reprimand the free spirited child, ^who was
too mischievous and wayward for a favourite.^(33). Therefore,
Catherine grew up among nature and lacked the sophistication of high
society. Catherine removed herself from society and,
"had ways with her such as I never saw a child take up
before; she put all of us past our patience
fifty times and oftener in a day;...we had not a minute^s security
that she wouldn^t be in mischief. Her spirits were always at
high-water mark, her tongue always going--singing, laughing, and
plaguing everyone who would not do the same. A wild, wicked slip
she was--"(37). Catherine further disregarded social standards and
remained friends with Heathcliff despite his degradation by Hindley,
her brother. ^Miss Cathy and he [Heathcliff] were now very thick;^(33)
and she found her sole enjoyment in his companionship. Catherine grew
up beside Heathcliff, ^in the fields. They both promised to grow up as
rude as savages; the young master [Hindley] being entirely negligent
how they behaved,^(40-41). During her formative years Catherine^s
conduct did not reflect that of a young Lady, ^and one of their chief
amusements [was] to run away to the moors in the morning and remain
there all day,^(41). Thus, Catherine^s behavior developed and rejected
the ideals of an oppressive, over-bearing society, which in turn
created an isolation from the institutionalized world. The two existed
on their private island unchecked until Catherine suffers an injury
from the Linton^s bulldog. Forced to remain at Thrushcross Grange, the
Linton^s home, after her injury, isolates Catherine from Heathcliff and
her former world of reckless freedom. Living amongst the elegance of
the Lintons transforms Catherine from a coarse youth into a delicate
lady. However, sublimation into Victorian society does not fit her
... lava flows, vegetation, size and number of craters, and anything else you observe from the satellite images.
Ever since classical times, incidences of babies, born from drunken women, have been recorded. The first to search for these statements in historical documents were Jones and Smith in 1973. They note that in Carthage there was a law against drinking on one’s wedding night, as well as a quotes credited to Aristotle who lived from 384 to 322 B.C., ‘foolish, drunken, or haire-brain women [for the] most part bring forth children like unto themselves, morose and feeble’.
Alcohol (wine, beer, or liquor) is the leading known preventable cause of developmental and physical birth defects in the United States. When a woman drinks alcohol during pregnancy, she risks giving birth to a child who will pay the price, in mental and physical deficiencies, for his or her entire life. One study (Phyllis Trujillo Lewis, MA, Philip A. May, PhD, and Virginia C. Shipman, PhD, 2007) asserted that “Numerous studies on alcohol-related birth defects have concluded that maternal drinking, compounded by other risk factors, leads to fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). FAS is a serious birth defect and the most common non-genetic cause of mental retardation” as said by (Hankin, 2002; Abel & Sokol,1986; O’Connor, Kogan, & Findlay, 2002; May & Gossage, in press). It is unknown how much maternal alcohol consumption results in FAS or other related disorders, or why some women who drink are at substantially higher risk of giving birth to a child with alcohol-related disabilities than others (Stratton, Howe, & Battaglia, 1996). However, researchers have identified several maternal risk factors differentially associated with FAS. These include advanced maternal age, number of pregnancies, previous births of a child with FAS, cohabitation with a male partner who drinks heavily, and low socioeconomic status (SES; May et al. 2004; 2008a; Viljoen et al., 2002). FAS is 100% preventable, which makes awareness and education the core preventative method for FAS. It is seen through Lewis, May & Shipman’s research that women who are less educated are less aware of the risks involved with drinking while pregnant.
Alcohol, also known as ethanol, is a legal substance, which causes a person to become relaxed and “care-free”. Once alcohol is consumed, it is released into the bloodstream, which causes the brain to react, causing side effects. When a woman drinks alcohol while being pregnant, it can cause some physical and mental damage to the fetus. When a fetus is affected by alcohol exposure, it is called Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). If the affects are severe, it is then termed Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS). The abnormalities occur in the central nervous system, facial structure, growth, and neurobehavioral development of the child. Severity of the damage depends on the amount of consumption, frequency, and timing of the consumption (Ungerer, Knezovich and Ramsay, 2013). Approximately 1 in 100 births have FASD effects. In the United States, 2-7 out of 1000 births are affected by FAS. 2-5% of young children in the United States and Western Europe are affected by FASD, while in Italy, the rate of FASD is 20.3-40.5 per 1000 births (Riley, Infante, Warren, 2011). These results are happening because 10-20% of women in the United States, 40% in Uruguay, and 50% of Italy consume alcohol while pregnant (Valenzuela, Morton and Diaz, 2012).
A growing issue that continues to go on today is the drug and alcohol abuse by pregnant women. This has become a growing issue due to the fact that pregnancy is starting at a much younger age. Women tend to become pregnant around the age of 15 to 44 (“Birth Data”). In young women among the ages of 18 to 24, the alcohol and tobacco rates were 25.5 percent and 15.5 percent, respectively (Chen). As of 2001, about 12 percent of all pregnant women admitted to consuming alcohol during their pregnancy (Burd). Out of the 4 million or so births in the United States, 64,000 have had high levels of exposure to alcohol while pregnant (Burd). Similarly, teenagers and those in their early adulthood are getting exposed to all different types of drugs. Both of these facts are the leading causes to the increase of drug and alcohol abuse by pregnant women. Another rising issue that is still going on up to this day is whether or not abortion should be legal. Due to the fact that in some states, having an abortion is considered murder; drug and alcohol abuse during pregnancy should be dealt with in a similar way. Drug and alcohol use not only makes an impact on the life of the mother but also puts the unborn baby in risk of danger. Drug and alcohol abuse during pregnancy has many adverse long term effects on a child and should be punished as a crime.
Heathcliff's love for Catherine transcends the normal physical "true love" into spiritual love. He can withstand anything against him to be with her. After Hindley became the master of Wuthering Heights, he flogged Heathcliff like a slave. Although Heathcliff could have simply run away, his decision to endure the physical pains shows his unrelenting devotion to Catherine. Fortunately, Catherine feels as deeply for Heathcliff as he does for her, explaining to Nelly that "Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same…" Their love for each other is so passionate that they can not possibly live apart. At Catherine's death, Heathcliff hopes that she will not rest, but will haunt him until he dies. This absurdity contradicts the traditional norm that one should pray that the dead rest in peace. Near the end of the novel, we learn that Catherine has haunted Heathcliff, allowing him only fleeting glances of her. This shows that despite their physical separation, nothing can part them spiritually. When Heathcliff dies and unites with Catherine once again, the neighbors see them haunt the moors. We finally see the power of their love; Not only does this love transcend physical barriers, it transcends time as well...
Assessing patient’s knowledge of the negative effects of alcohol consumption during pregnancy is most important step of a nursing process. It will lay a foundation for developing a nursing diagnosis and setting up goals with the only one outcome in mind-a healthy baby. We know now that even small amount of alcohol can cause birth defects, and for that reason patients need to be educated and aware of the negative effects alcohol will have on their baby if they chose to drink during pregnancy.
McKibben and Hagan take different approaches to Wuthering Heights, but both approaches work together to form one unified concept. McKibben speaks of Wuthering Heights as a whole, while Hagan concentrates on only sympathies role in the novel. McKibben and Hagan both touch on the topic of Catherine and Heathcliff’s passionate nature. To this, McKibben recalls the scene in the book when Catherine is "in the throes of her self-induced illness" (p38). When asking for her husband, she is told by Nelly Dean that Edgar is "among his books," and she cries, "What in the name of all that feels has he to do with books when I am dying." McKibben shows that while Catherine is making a scene and crying, Edgar is in the library handling Catherine’s death in the only way he knows how, in a mild mannered approach. He lacks the passionate ways in which Catherine and Heathcliff handle ordeals. During this scene Catherine’s mind strays back to childhood and she comes to realize that "the Linton’s are alien to her and exemplify a completely foreign mode of perception" (p38). Catherine discovers that she would never belong in Edgar’s society. On her journey of self-discovery, she realized that she attempted the impossible, which was to live in a world in which she did not belong. This, in the end, lead to her death. Unlike her mother, when Cathy enters The Heights, "those images of unreal security found in her books and Thrushhold Grange are confiscated, thus leading her to scream, "I feel like death!" With the help of Hareton, Cathy learns not to place her love within a self created environment, but in a real life where she will be truly happy. The character’s then reappear as reconciled, and stability and peace once more return to The Heights.
Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights is a novel about lives that cross paths and are intertwined with one another. Healthcliff, an orphan, is taken in by Mr. Earnshaw, the owner of Wuthering Heights. Mr. Earnshaw has two children named Catherine and Hindley. Jealousy between Hindley and Healthcliff was always a problem. Catherine loves Healthcliff, but Hindley hates the stranger for stealing his fathers affection away. Catherine meets Edgar Linton, a young gentleman who lives at Thrushcross Grange. Despite being in love with Healthcliff she marries Edgar elevating her social standing. The characters in this novel are commingled in their relationships with Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange.
Although the title of the novel was the most important feature that gave the characters their traits, Emily Bronte included two places to make the novel more interesting. The two families were disjointed by the cold, murky, dark and desolate moors, Wuthering Heights and of Thrushcross Grange. Both houses hold different morals and values. Wuthering Heights represents wildness. On the other hand, Thrushcross Grange and the Linton family represent culture, sophistication, settlement, and education. It did not take long for Wuthering Heights to take over Thrushcross Grange.
Parents today have a responsibility to ensure their children are supervised when watching violent programs if they are allowed to watch these programs at all. When parents are in the room with children, parents should point out to children that television is not real. Children tend to see television as real life, and lack the maturity to differentiate the difference between news and fiction programs on television. Studies by George Gerbner, Ph.D., at the University of Pennsylvania, have shown that children’s television shows contain about twenty violent acts each hour and that children who watch a lot of television are more likely to think that the world is a mean and dangerous place.
In "Wuthering Heights," we see tragedies follow one by one, most of which are focused around Heathcliff, the antihero of the novel. After the troubled childhood Heathcliff goes through, he becomes embittered towards the world and loses interest in everything but Catherine Earnshaw –his childhood sweetheart whom he had instantly fallen in love with.—and revenge upon anyone who had tried to keep them apart.
Isolation is a powerful force. Human beings live, work, and play in groups, and to be separate from the whole of humanity can disorient us, debilitate us, and even make us question our place in the world. Isolation is easily confused with other forms of aloneness such as loneliness and alienation, but the condition of being isolated requires that one be detached from others through reasons not in one’s control. This can be taken into context as to why Heathcliff’s feelings of revenge for basically everyone at Wuthering Heights. His feelings overshadowed and clouded his judgement and made him a bitter man, isolating him from those who he once held dear. Heathcliff’s great natural abilities, strength of character, and love for Catherine Earnshaw all enable him to raise himself from humble beginnings to the status of a wealthy gentleman, but his need to revenge himself for Hindley’s abuse and Catherine’s betrayal leads him into a twisted life of cruelty and hatred.
...ly declared their love there. As respite from the prison of Wuthering Heights the moors are a mysterious place that is liberating, and boundaryless. Catherine says, “I wish I were out of doors- I wish I were a girl again, half savage and hardy, and free” (105). Once Catherine compares Linton and Heathcliff saying, “My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods. Time will change it, I’m well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath a source of little visible delight, but necessary” (84).
Wuthering Heights is a reflection of Emily Bronte's life in many ways. Through fictional setting, characters, and story line she mirrors her own and her family's real life. It is too bad that Emily Bronte died at the young age of thirty-one. She produced this great novel in a short life span and the world will never know what other great works could have come from her life and her pen.