Theme Of Wuthering Heights

The concerns, values, ideals and beliefs of a historical period can be understood through the analysis and deconstruction of texts written in said period. Through texts, one is able to gain a greater and richer understanding of the intricacy of societal values and ideals as these things permeate through all texts created in the time period.

In the novel Wuthering Heights by Emile Brontë (1847) various ideas and concepts recur in the different chapters. These recurring concepts give us a means to peer into the societal ideals of the 1800’s in which the novel is shaped by and set in. The questioning of the position of the individual in society and in life is brought out in the story through the use of various characters and their interactions

Marriage is repeatedly used in the text as a means to bind one person to another and suppress their individuality. Isabella’s marriage to Heathcliff leads to her being bound to him with no means of escape. She was no longer an individual but rather the lesser part of a unit. The idea that a women becomes a vassal to her husband is further explored.

Moreover, the concept of female subservience is also explored through the taming of Cathy. In the beginning she is portrayed as a symbol of rejection in regards to the idea that females have to be timid, frail and weak people whose only purpose is to serve men. Through her wild nature she fought against these tropes, but as she spent more time in The Grange she was refined and was transformed into a person that reflected the stereotypes associated with women at the time, of subservience and fragility. Cathy’s inability to escape the stereotypes and traits cast upon her by society

This caused political and civil unrest within Britain. All around was chaos and what seemed to be madness with diseases spreading like wildfire as a result of travel being easier and the empire had begun to lose momentum. The chaotic state of the world is replicated in Wuthering Heights as there is absolute chaos going on everywhere. Each event is followed by more disaster. Cathy’s love for Heathcliff being turned away by fate, Cathy’s happiness being put on the side and the toll this has on Heathcliff. Her death and the madness that it drives Heathcliff into and the rest of the unrest that occurs is a mirror of the happening in society. In this time of unrest and technological change the only thing that remains the same is the wild, the natural world. The idea that the natural world is the only place in which tranquility and serenity can thrive is touched upon in the novel as it is in the moors that Cathy and Heathcliff seem happy. In a place where they can be themselves and a place where they are free to act how they want. The natural world acts as a bridge for Cathy and Heathcliff as it is a place in which their connection is amplified. In the real world the natural world worked in the same way as it was resistant to change, no matter what happened it