Wuthering Heights

Emily Brontë, known for her novel Wuthering Height, was inspired for her writing through her siblings from a young age. Brontë was born in Yorkshire, England in 1818. She had one younger sibling, Anne, and four older ones, Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte, and Patrick Branwell. When Brontë and her family moved to Haworth in West Yorkshire, Maria and Elizabeth both died of tuberculosis. Emily was raised in the rural countryside in solitude, which provided a background for her Gothic novel, Wuthering Heights. When Emily, Charlotte, and Patrick were younger they would act out stories creating a fantasy realm in the rural countryside. (Krueger, Christine). In the 1840s, the three sisters, Emily, Charlotte, and Anne, had written poetry throughout their lives together. They submitted their work through a more masculine pen name in hope to elude readers and reviewers. Ellis was the pseudonym for Emily. The three sisters remained close with one another and consistently inspired each other for their work. Another inspiration, besides from her sisters, was Mary Wollstonecraft, who wrote gothic and feminist writings. (Snodgrass, Mary Ellen). When Emily Brontë wrote Wuthering Heights, it is relevant to notice the Gothic description of Wuthering Heights and the feminist actions of the female protagonist, Catherine Earnshaw.

In Emily Brontë’s novel, Wuthering Heights, Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights play ironic roles in the emotional and physical suffering of the characters that overall created a generational cycle of revenge that is told from the neutral perspective of Nelly Dean to Lockwood. Nelly Dean was the maid to the Earnshaw and Linton family and was a neutral witness to the generational cycle of revenge and suffering. She tells th...

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...e and convincing reality”. (Howells, William Dean). Readers have the capability of relating to them through their rebelliousness, love, and gentleness making them likeable characters to the readers. The consistent cycle of revenge through the two generations finally conclude with Cathy and Hareton marrying, bringing the two lands to tranquility from an endless battle between families.

Works Cited

Brontë, Emily. Wuthering Heights. London: Arcturus, 2009. Print.

Howells, William Dean. "Heroines of Nineteenth-Century Fiction: XIX. The Two Catharines of Emily Brontë." Bloom's Literature. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 14 Nov. 2013.

Krueger, Christine, ed. "Brontë, Emily." Bloom's Literature. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 14 Nov. 2013.

Snodgrass, Mary Ellen. "Brontë, Emily." Bloom's Literature. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 14 Nov. 2013.