Over the course of human existence, the idea of class structure and the division of individuals based on their societal rank and position has remained tried and true. From King Henry II’s monarchal vice grip on his English followers in the 11th century, to Hitler’s physical and mental disparaging of the Jews, the subjugation of people based on their place in society has endured as a common development. Similarly, in Emily Brontë’s Gothic novel Wuthering Heights, Brontë as a whole criticizes that Victorian society is ruled by aristocrats, corrupt noble families and individuals with great materialistic possessions. These immoral individuals in turn serve to oppress and undermine individuals of a lower class. The modern literary criticisms Wuthering …show more content…
In Emily Brontë’s well renowned, dramatic Gothic novel Wuthering Heights, Brontë’s character development of Heathcliff to have horrid motives, a vengeful ego, and to transform from an innocent child to a tyrannical madman exemplifies the corruptions and immoralities of Victorian Society and its destructive effects on an individual. Throughout the dark, romantic novel, Wuthering Heights, Brontë explores the false realities of high social status and wealth in Victorian society and its damaging consequences by outlining the loving, yet dysfunctional relationship of Catherine and Heathcliff. In the beginning of the novel, the orphan, Heathcliff, and Catherine, the daughter of Mr. Earnshaw grow up with each other in the mysterious complex of Wuthering Heights, and over time learn to deeply love one another. Catherine even goes on to articulate that, “He’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same” (Brontë 70). Although for many years Heathcliff and Catherine had adored each other, Catherine’s new found love for gaining social status and wealth triggers her to marry Edgar, an individual whom she is not emotionally …show more content…
Due to the three taking on the id, ego and superego of one character, and the luring economic and social forces of society it leads to the corruption of Heathcliff and the overpowering of the id over the ego and superego. Throughout the novel Heathcliff most represents the id as he seeks to fulfill his impulses and does whatever he desires without pondering the consequences set by society. Heathcliff can be seen representing the id when he mistreats his wife Isabella and does what he primitively desires. Heathcliff states that, “I have no pity! I have no pity! The more the worms writhe, the more I yearn to crush out their entrails…I grind with greater energy, in proportion to the increase of pain” (Brontë 131). The id is controlled by one’s unconscious mind and is not controlled by the law or morality in the slightest. In this conflict, it is clear that when Heathcliff degrades his wife and son he ignores moral factors, laws and ethics. Heathcliff performs his revenge and cruelty upon others to satisfy his primitive nature. As for Catherine, she represents the ego as she can deal with others in society and has a sense of thoughtfulness and ethics. Unlike Heathcliff, Catherine has the power to determine what is right and
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.
In Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights Heathcliff is represented as a non-conformist due to his unorthodox behavior in relation to other characters. The novel gives an idealistic insight into the accepted social discourses of the era, to which Heathcliff does not comply. These unconventional heroic traits can be closely associated with that of the Byronic Hero. Heathcliff also struggles to adjust his persona to the stereotypical romance hero in his quest for love.
Heathcliff cried vehemently, "I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!" Emily Brontë distorts many common elements in Wuthering Heights to enhance the quality of her book. One of the distortions is Heathcliff's undying love for Catherine Earnshaw. Also, Brontë perverts the vindictive hatred that fills and runs Heathcliff's life after he loses Catherine. Finally, she prolongs death, making it even more distressing and insufferable.
In comparison, Catherine has not only grown up with Heathcliff, allowing her access to a myriad of interactions which Brontë’s audience wasn’t previously privy to, but she has developed her understanding of societal norms alongside him. Thus, the unabashed sympathy Cathy initially feels for her “poor Heathcliff” provides a new narrative altogether—a narrative that focuses on the individual, closely following Heathcliff’s transmogrification from a “starving, and houseless, and as good as dumb [child] in the streets of Liverpool” to a man who Lockwood interprets as filled with cruelty and “savage vehemence” (22, 37, 27). In addition, Catherine’s possible retelling of Wuthering Heights through her diaries eventually allows for Heathcliff’s cruelty to be put into conversation with his upbringing as a non-white subject in a wholly white
In the novel Wuthering Heights, author Emily Brontë portrays the morally ambiguous character of Heathcliff through his neglected upbringing, cruel motives, and vengeful actions.
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.
Through self-centered and narcissistic characters, Emily Bronte’s classic novel, “Wuthering Heights” illustrates a deliberate and poetic understanding of what greed is. Encouraged by love, fear, and revenge, Catherine Earnshaw, Heathcliff, and Linton Heathcliff all commit a sin called selfishness.
On the face of it, it would seem that the relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff is self-destructive to an extreme. Due to the lovers’ precarious circumstances, passionate personalities and class divisions, it seems that fate transpires to keep them apart and therefore the hopelessness of their situation drives them to self destruction. However, although the relationship is undeniably self-destructive, there are elements within it that suggest the pain Heathcliff and Catherine put each other through is atoned for to an extent when they share their brief moments of harmony.
Melani, Lilia. "Psychological Interpretations of "Wuthering Heights"" Psychological Interpretations of "Wuthering Heights" 13 Oct. 2011. Brooklyn College Department of English. Web. 20 May 2014.
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 destructive force, motivating him to enact revenge and wreak misery. The power of Heathcliff’s destructive love is conquered by the influence of another kind of love. Young Cathy’s love for Hareton is a redemptive force. It is her love that brings an end to the reign of Heathcliff.
Wuthering Heights is not just a love story, it is a window into the human soul, where one sees the loss, suffering, self discovery, and triumph of the characters in this novel. Both the Image of the Book by Robert McKibben, and Control of Sympathy in Wuthering Heights by John Hagan, strive to prove that neither Catherine nor Heathcliff are to blame for their wrong doings. Catherine and Heathcliff’s passionate nature, intolerable frustration, and overwhelming loss have ruined them, and thus stripped them of their humanities.
A multitude of feelings and sentiments can move a man to action, but in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, love and revenge are the only two passions powerful enough to compel the primary actors. There is consensus, in the academic community,1 that the primary antagonist in the novel, Heathcliff is largely motivated by a wanton lust for vengeance, and it is obvious from even a cursory reading that Edgar Linton, one of the protagonists, is mostly compelled by a his seemingly endless love for his wife, and it even seems as if this is reflected in the very nature of the characters themselves. For example, Heathcliff is described as “Black-eye[d]” [Brontë,1], “Dark skinned” [Brontë, 3] and a “dirty boy” [Brontë, 32]; obviously, black has sinister connotations, and darkness or uncleanliness in relation to the soul is a common metaphor for evil. On the converse, Edgar Linton is described as blue eyed with a perfect forehead [Brontë, 34] and “soft featured… [with] a figure almost too graceful” [Brontë, 40], which has almost angelic connotations. When these features and the actions of their possessors are taken into account, it becomes clear that Edgar and Heathcliff are not merely motivated by love and revenge as most academics suggest, but rather these two men were intended by Brontë to be love and hate incarnate.
To sum up, Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights is a classic that portrays a love, even though confined by social classes, trespasses boundaries of life and death. The Gothic elements incorporated in this novel such as extreme landscape and weather, supernatural events and death brings about a mysterious and gloomy atmosphere suitable for a revenge plot with heightened emotions.
“Wuthering Heights is a strange, inartistic story”(Atlas, WH p. 299). “Wuthering Heights is a strange sort of book” (Douglas, WH p.301). “This is a strange book” (Examiner, WH p.302). “His work [Wuthering Heights] is strangely original” (Britannia, WH p.305). These brief quotes show that early critics of Emily Bronte’s first edition of Wuthering Heights, found the novel baffling in its meaning - they each agreed separately, that no moral existed within the story therefore it was deemed to have no real literary value. The original critical reviews had very little in the way of praise for the unknown author or the novel. The critics begrudgingly acknowledged elements of Wuthering Heights that could be considered strengths – such as, “rugged power” and “unconscious strength” (Atlas, WH p.299), “purposeless power” (Douglas, WH p.301), “evidences of considerable power” (Examiner), “power and originality” (Britannia, WH p.305). Strange and Powerful are two recurring critical interpretations of the novel. The critics did not attempt to provide in depth analysis of the work, simply because they felt that the meaning or moral of the story was either entirely absent or seriously confused.
In the novel Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte strongly emphasizes the dynamic and increasingly complex relationship of Mr. Heathcliff and Catherine. Heathcliff, the abandoned gypsy boy is brought to Wuthering Height by Mr. Earnshaw to be raised with his family. After Mr. Earnshaw's death, he suffers harsh abuses from his "brother" Hindley and from Catherine, whom he dearly loves. This abuse will pave the way for revenge. The evolving and elaborate plans for revenge Mr. Heathcliff masterminds for those who he feels had hurt him and betray him is what makes Wuthering Heights a classic in English literature. The sudden change in feelings and emotions in Mr. Heathcliff are powerful scenes. Revenge becomes the only reason to live for him. Revenge is the main theme in Wuthering Heights because it highlights important events, personality flaws, and the path of destruction.