feminism in wuthering heights essays

Wuthering Heights

Emily brontë, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Written when gender roles were far more rigid and defined than they are now, Wuthering Heights examines stereotypes of masculinity and femininity. Emily Brontë constantly contrasts masculinity and femininity, but not all of the comparisons are simple; sometimes boys act like girls and girls act like boys. Edgar Linton and Linton Heathcliff , for instance, are men, but Brontë frequently describes them as having the looks and attributes of women. Likewise, Catherine Earnshaw has many masculine characteristics; even though she is outrageously beautiful, she loves rough, outdoor play and can hold her own in any fight. She is a complex mix of hyper-feminine grace and loveliness and ultra-masculine anger and recklessness. Heathcliff , with his physical and mental toughness, has no such ambiguities—he is exaggeratedly masculine and scorns his wife Isabella for her overblown femininity.

Emily Brontë seems to favor masculinity over femininity, even in her women. In general, she portrays weak, delicate characters with contempt, while she treats strong and rugged characters like Heathcliff, both Catherines, and Hareton, with compassion and admiration, despite their flaws.

Masculinity and Femininity ThemeTracker

Masculinity and Femininity Quotes in Wuthering Heights

The Role of Women in "Wuthering Heights"

• Study Guides
• Authors & Texts
• Top Picks Lists
• Best Sellers
• Plays & Drama
• Shakespeare
• Short Stories
• Children's Books
• M.A., English Literature, California State University - Sacramento
• B.A., English, California State University - Sacramento

Readers are often surprised by the strong, passionate women in Wuthering Heights . The Gothic landscape (and literary genre) offers Bronte some flexibility in how her characters are portrayed against that dark, brooding, even foreboding backdrop. But, the novel was still controversial (even banned and criticized) and a good deal of that had to do with the brazen way in which she allows her female characters to speak their minds (and act upon their passions).

Catherine Earnshaw Linton

The main female protagonist of the book is a motherless child. She grew up with Hindley and Heathcliff (a gypsy child, rescued and adopted by her father—he is raised with the two children, as a member of the family). She loves Heathcliff but chooses social advancement instead of true love. It is her betrayal in marrying Edgar Linton and the act of abandonment that is at the heart of the other acts of barbarity and cruelty that we see through the course of the novel as Heathcliff vows that he will enact revenge upon her and her entire family.

In the novel, she is described thus: "Her spirits were always at high-water mark, her tongue always going—singing, laughing, and plaguing everybody who would not do the same. A wild, wicked slip she was—but she had the bonniest eye, the sweetest smile, and lightest foot in the parish: and, after all, I believe she meant no harm; for when once she made you cry in good earnest, it seldom happened that she would not keep you company, and oblige you to be quiet that you might comfort her."

Catherine (Cathy) Linton

Cathy Linton is the daughter of Catherine Earnshaw Linton (who dies, offering very little input in her life) and Edgar Linton (who is very protective). She shares more than just her name with her illustrious mother. Like her mother, she's passionate and stubborn. She pursues her own desires. Unlike her mother, she inherited something that could be seen as a greater measure of humanity or compassion. If she marries Hareton, she may also experience a different. perhaps more positive, ending to her story. We can only try to imagine what kind of a future the two will have together.

Isabella Linton

She is the sister of Edgar Linton and so she's the sister-in-law of the original Catherine. To her, Heathcliff is a romantic figure, so she marries him but discovers her mistake. She escapes to London, where she gives birth. She may not have the head-strong characteristics of Catherine (and her niece, Catherine), but she is the only tortured female character to escape the brutal realities of the moors and its inhabitants.

Nelly Dean (Ellen Dean)

A storyteller, she's the observer/sage who is also a participant. She grew up with Catherine and Hindley, so she knows the whole story. But, she also puts her own slant on the plotline (she's considered by many critics to be an unreliable eye-witness, and we can only guess the true intent of her gossipy tale). In The Villain in Wuthering Heights , James Hafle argues that Nelly is the true villain of the novel.

• 'Wuthering Heights' Quotes
• 'Wuthering Heights' Overview
• 'Wuthering Heights' Characters
• 'Wuthering Heights' Summary
• What's Important About The Title of 'Wuthering Heights'?
• 'Wuthering Heights' Themes, Symbols, Literary Devices
• Biography of Emily Brontë, English Novelist
• Must-Read Books If You Like Romeo and Juliet
• Biography of Catherine of Siena, Saint, Mystic, and Theologian
• Summary and Review of Proof by David Auburn
• Alice Freeman Palmer, Wellesley College President
• Biography of Lucy Stone, Abolitionist and Women's Rights Reformer
• Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford
• Top 100 Women of History
• Catherine of Aragon: The King's Great Matter
• Women in the Tudor Dynasty

Literary Theory and Criticism

Home › Literature › Analysis of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights

Analysis of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on March 25, 2019 • ( 3 )

Wuthering Heights is constructed around a series of dialectic motifs that interconnect and unify the elements of setting, character, and plot. An examination of these motifs will give the reader the clearest insight into the central meaning of the novel. Although Wuthering Heights is a “classic,” as Frank Kermode has noted, precisely because it is open to many different critical methods and conducive to many levels of interpretation, the novel grows from a coherent imaginative vision that underlies all the motifs. That vision demonstrates that all human perception is limited and failed. The fullest approach to Emily Brontë’s novel is through the basic patterns that support this vision.

Wuthering Heights concerns the interactions of two families, the Earnshaws and Lintons, over three generations. The novel is set in the desolate moors of Yorkshire and covers the years from 1771 to 1803. The Earnshaws and Lintons are in harmony with their environment, but their lives are disrupted by an outsider and catalyst of change, the orphan Heathcliff. Heathcliff is, first of all, an emblem of the social problems of a nation entering the age of industrial expansion and urban growth. Although Brontë sets the action of the novel entirely within the locale familiar to her, she reminds the reader continually of the contrast between that world and the larger world outside.

Aside from Heathcliff’s background as a child of the streets and the description of urban Liverpool, from which he is brought, the novel contains other reminders that Yorkshire, long insulated from change and susceptible only to the forces of nature, is no longer as remote as it once was. The servant Joseph’s religious cant, the class distinctions obvious in the treatment of Nelly Dean as well as of Heathcliff, and Lockwood’s pseudosophisticated urban values are all reminders that Wuthering Heights cannot remain as it has been, that religious, social, and economic change is rampant. Brontë clearly signifies in the courtship and marriage of young Cathy and Hareton that progress and enlightenment will come and the wilderness will be tamed. Heathcliff is both an embodiment of the force of this change and its victim. He brings about a change but cannot change himself. What he leaves behind, as Lockwood attests and the relationship of Cathy and Hareton verifies, is a new society, at peace with itself and its environment.

It is not necessary, however, to examine in depth the Victorian context of Wuthering Height s to sense the dialectic contrast of environments. Within the limited setting that the novel itself describes, society is divided between two opposing worlds: Wuthering Heights, ancestral home of the Earnshaws, and Thrushcross Grange, the Linton estate. Wuthering Heights is rustic and wild; it is open to the elements of nature and takes its name from “atmospheric tumult.” The house is strong, built with narrow windows and jutting cornerstones, fortified to withstand the battering of external forces. It is identified with the outdoors and nature and with strong, “masculine” values. Its appearance, both inside and out, is wild, untamed, disordered, and hard. The Grange expresses a more civilized, controlled atmosphere. The house is neat and orderly, and there is always an abundance of light—to Brontë’s mind, “feminine” values. It is not surprising that Lockwood is more comfortable at the Grange, since he takes pleasure in “feminine” behavior (gossip, vanity of appearance, adherence to social decorum, romantic self-delusion), while Heathcliff, entirely “masculine,” is always out of place there.

Even Cathy’s passionate cry for Heathcliff, “Nelly, I am Heathcliff,” is less love for him as an individual than the deepest form of self-love. Cathy cannot exist without him, but a meaningful relationship is not possible because Cathy sees Heathcliff only as a reflection of herself. Heathcliff, too, has denied an important aspect of his personality. Archetypally masculine, Heathcliff acts out only the aggressive, violent parts of himself.

The settings and the characters are patterned against each other, and explosions are the only possible results. Only Hareton and young Cathy, each of whom embodies the psychological characteristics of both Heights and Grange, can successfully sustain a mutual relationship.

This dialectic structure extends into the roles of the narrators as well. The story is reflected through the words of Nelly Dean—an inmate of both houses, a participant in the events of the narrative, and a confidant of the major characters—and Lockwood, an outsider who witnesses only the results of the characters’ interactions. Nelly is a companion and servant in the Earnshaw and Linton households, and she shares many of the values and perceptions of the families. Lockwood, an urban sophisticate on retreat, misunderstands his own character as well as the characters of others. His brief romantic “adventure” in Bath and his awkwardness when he arrives at the Heights (he thinks Cathy will fall in love with him; he mistakes the dead rabbits for puppies) exemplify his obtuseness. His perceptions are always to be questioned. Occasionally, however, even a denizen of the conventional world may gain a glimpse of the forces at work beneath the surface of reality. Lockwood’s dream of the dead Cathy, which sets off his curiosity and Heathcliff’s final plans, is a reminder that even the placid, normal world may be disrupted by the psychic violence of a willful personality.

The presentation of two family units and parallel brother-sister, husband-wife relationships in each also emphasizes the dialectic. That two such opposing modes of behavior could arise in the same environment prevents the reader from easy condemnation of either pair. The use of flashback for the major part of the narration—it begins in medias res—reminds the reader that he or she is seeing events out of their natural order, recounted by two individuals whose reliability must be questioned. The working out of the plot over three generations further suggests that no one group, much less one individual, can perceive the complexity of the human personality.

Taken together, the setting, plot, characters, and structure combine into a whole when they are seen as parts of the dialectic nature of existence. In a world where opposing forces are continually arrayed against each other in the environment, in society, in families, and in relationships, as well as within the individual, there can be no easy route to perception of another human soul. Wuthering Heights convincingly demonstrates the complexity of this dialectic and portrays the limitations of human perception.

Bibliography Barnard, Robert. Emily Brontë. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Benvenuto, Richard. Emily Brontë. Boston: Twayne, 1982. Berg, Maggie. “Wuthering Heights”: The Writing in the Margin. New York: Twayne, 1996. Davies, Stevie. Emily Brontë: Heretic. London: Women’s Press, 1994. Frank, Katherine. A Chainless Soul: A Life of Emily Brontë. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990. Glen, Heather, ed. The Cambridge Companion to the Brontës. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Liddell, Robert. Twin Spirits: The Novels of Emily and Anne Brontë. London: Peter Owen, 1990. Miller, Lucasta. The Brontë Myth. London: Jonathan Cape, 2001. Pykett, Lyn. Emily Brontë. Savage, Md.: Barnes & Noble, 1989. Rollyson, Carl, and Lisa Paddock. The Brontës A to Z: The Essential Reference to Their Lives and Work. New York: Facts On File, 2003. Vine, Steve. Emily Brontë. New York: Twayne, 1998. Winnifrith, Tom, ed. Critical Essays on Emily Brontë. NewYork: G. K. Hall, 1997.

Major works Poetry: Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, 1846 (with Charlotte Brontë and Anne Brontë); The Complete Poems of Emily Jane Brontë, 1941 (C. W. Hatfield, editor); Gondal’s Queen: A Novel in Verse by Emily Jane Brontë, 1955 (Fannie E. Ratchford, editor). Nonfiction : Five Essays Written in French, 1948 (Lorine White Nagel, translator); The Brontë Letters, 1954 (Muriel Spark, editor).

Share this:

Categories: Literature , Novel Analysis

Tags: Analysis of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights , Character Study of Catherine Earnshaw , Character Study of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights , Character Study of Heathcliff , Character Study of Lockwood , Character Study of Nelly Dean , Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights , Frank Kermode , Gothic Literature , Literary Criticism , Literary Theory , Motifs in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights , Nelly Dean , Study Guide of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights , Summary of Analysis of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights , Summary of Wuthering Heights , Themes of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights , Victorian Literature , Wuthering Heights , Wuthering Heights as a Gothic Novel

Related Articles

I found it very informative. Representation of the two worlds is amazing. Thanks a lot.

VERY NICE;I LIKED THE WAY OF ANALYSIS OF WHOLE NOVEL AND DESCRIBE EVERY THING,

• Wuthering Heights: A Journey from the Novel to the Movie - Different Truths

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Home Essay Examples Literature Wuthering Heights

Feminism Within Wuthering Heights

• Category Literature
• Subcategory English Literature
• Topic Wuthering Heights

Set in the Romantic period, an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century, Wuthering Heights, written by Emily Bronte in 1847, broke boundaries for females worldwide. During this time and many years before that, many people rejected the way women were characterized in this novel, especially the main protagonist Catherine, because they had a will and voice of their own which was unthought of considering it went against many social norms and the common misconception of women being less than equal when compared to men at this time. It was so often rejected by the public that people didn’t start accepting the book until almost half a century later when real groundbreaking feminist studies were made over the novel. Wuthering Heights, written by Emily Bronte, exposed the overlooked and “secretive” side of women that took away from their femininity in a sense, making it one of the largest turning points in feminism, and literature as a whole.

Writers during this time did their best to make it their mission to educate people about social issues that were not well talked about. Authors like the Brontë sisters, Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde, and Jane Austen sought social justice within their writing in efforts to call attention to these injustices.

Our writers can write you a new plagiarism-free essay on any topic

With their convincing works, we increase a superior comprehension of how issues were introduced during this period. Emily Brontë depicts her thoughts regarding gender issues during this time period by the means of her novel Wuthering Heights. A lot of what Brontë decides to incorporate is extremely intentional. She was generally centered around ‘primary aspects of life’ and gives a degree of her individual vision that is unparalleled by her sisters (Bhattacharyya 1). She invests heavily on incorporating explicit characters, views, and language. Brontë exhibited ‘profound knowledge on human emotion’ which is evoked inside Wuthering Heights (Bhattacharyya 1). She analyzes each character cautiously and gives them their own frames of mind and sentiments, especially the women. What Brontë is attempting to pass on to her perusers ‘scope of danger’ of these feelings (Bhattacharyya 3). Peck and Coyle note that the novel is by all accounts ‘got between an old lifestyle and the new universe of the Victorians’ (Peck and Coyle 178). The book describes how the Victorians ‘withdrew into themselves or detached themselves from other people’ (Peck and Coyle 178). On the off chance that the characters straightforwardly speak to the cultural sex standards, at that point we can unmistakably relate the confusion in the novel to the turmoil in society Bronte’s direct intent with Wuthering Heights is to provide insight into society- including male dominant roles which, like in most literature, examines the “masculine point of view that is oppressive to women” (Homans 9). For Brontë, she needed to call attention to out. ‘Emily Brontë never allows the reader to forget that the rulers of the house are male’ (Abraham 94). Setting a male at the leader of the family would have been standard. On the off chance that she had decided to make the ladies have dominant roles in society, it would have made the story considerably less conceivable. Abraham composes that we see ‘male dominance in the female sphere’ (Abraham 94). In any event, when everything happens in what is considered customarily ‘domestic,’ a ‘female realm,’ it is still devoured by male-centric predominance (Abraham 94). Catherine initially picks Heathcliff as her suitor. Be that as it may, Catherine, in the long run, decreases Heathcliff’s relationship drive due to his cultural status in contrast with Linton’s. Eagleton noticed that she ‘rejects Heathcliff as a suitor because he is socially inferior to Linton’ (Eagleton 101). In doing this, ‘Catherine trades her authentic selfhood for social privilege’ (Eagleton 101). This is pulverizing for Heathcliff and he censures Catherine for doing as such, taking note of that she genuinely loves him. He realizes that she is just dismissing him with the goal that she may propel her own status in the public eye. Heathcliff yells at Catherine, squashed and discouraged by her surrender. For Catherine, her association with Heathcliff, concerning cultural models, would be inconceivable. During this time period, she had to follow the standards set for women, being suited to the man with high social class and wealth, and since that was Linton, she had no other “reasonable” option other than Linton. Choosing Heathcliff would have been absurd in the eyes of society. As a lady, she required an appropriate spouse – and this was not Heathcliff. For Catherine, picking Heathcliff would have been cultural suicide. Impacted by Victorian benchmarks for her sexual orientation, Catherine decries Heathcliff and seeks after Linton, considering this to be the main adequate way in her brain.

For some, Victorians, misuse and viciousness towards ladies was indorsed ‘solely to yokels and ruffians.’ (Jacobs 205). Be that as it may, numerous students of history note that ladies of every single social class endured misuse. The relationships in the novel investigate the “extreme alternate the new social discipline that” which embodies the Victorian era (Peck and Coyle 178). There was next to no equity for manhandled ladies, and strength inside connections among people was regarded common. Brontë notes “about the difficulties of being a woman” and the way she was treated by others (Homans 165). Women were not to be trusted, nor taken seriously. It was accepted that ladies should have been constrained by men since they were not able to control themselves. They were viewed as excessively passionate and unintelligent creatures. Brontë voices how frightening it would be for men to envision a reality where angry ladies were productive and delivered posterity who emulated their example. The idea that a woman would have a captivation with something that men had not deemed suitable was preposterous. Victorians felt that women needed stability in their lives and that only men could provide it. For Brontë, the goal of the novel was to write “to overcome the impediments encountered” within her world that was dominated by “masculine tradition” (Homans 9). Women were to be dutiful and provide faithful servitude to the men around them.

N.M. Jacobs identifies that the men in the novel “evaluate women almost entirely according to their willingness to flatter and conciliate” the male characters ( Jacobs 208-209). This would have been standard for Brontë’s time frame, as ladies were relied upon to wed, settle down with their spouses, produce kids, and bring up those youngsters at the same time performing family unit obligations. Ladies were relied upon to be charming, dazzling, and satisfying to men. In the event that a suitor was accommodated them, females were relied upon to be forgiving and thankful for the chance to go through their lives with that suitor, birthing and raising his children.

Catherine is solid in certain territories, yet she battles while standing up to her dad. Catherine’s trades with her dad are the place Brontë truly shows the profundities of female abuse. Catherine, subsequent to feeling oppressed about her collaborations with her dad, is reprimanded for feeling pitiful. Catherine is harassed diligently all through the story. As Bhattacharyya notes, she is considered a “damsel” (Jacobs 31). Brontë needs her group of spectators to sympathize with Catherine’s agony, just as to increase a superior comprehension of how ladies were abused by society, their families, and even close associates. The tale speaks to the philosophy of encompassing ladies being abused by everyone around them since they are not seen as esteemed individuals from society. By putting ladies down and manhandling them, this example of man-centric disregard, misuse, and predominance can be continued.Depicted throughout the entirety of this novel, feminist movements were present as a means to emphasize the importance of equality between the two sexes, something revolutionary during this time, something well overdue and well needed.

All throughout Wuthering Heights, feminist ideas were evidently expressed, even before feminism was created. This made it one of the most groundbreaking pieces in literature, although it was before it’s time. Being set in the Romantic period in history, paved the way for this new perspective of women, not being dependent on men and being their own person, although it took around half a century because the idea was so unheard of, ultimately adding onto the reputation and legacy it created many years ago.

Works Cited

• Abraham, Andrew. “Emily Brontë’s Gendered Response to Law and Patriarchy.” Brontë Studies: The Journal of the Brontë Society, vol. 29, no. 2, July 2004, pp. 93-103.
• Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights. Yorkshire, Thomas Cautley Newby, 1847. Bhattacharyya, Jibesh. The Atlantic Critical Studies: Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. Atlantic, 2007.
• Eagleton, T. Myths of Power: A Marxist Study of the Brontës. Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2005.
• Homans, Margaret. Women Writers and Poetic Identity: Dorothy Wordsworth, Emily Brontë, Emily Dickinson. Princeton University Press, 1980.
• Jacobs, N. M. “Gender and Layered Narrative in ‘Wuthering Heights’ and ‘The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.’” The Journal of Narrative Technique, vol. 16, no. 3, 1986, pp. 204–219. JSTOR [JSTOR].
• Peck, John, and Martin Coyle. A Brief History of English Literature. Second ed., Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.     

We have 98 writers available online to start working on your essay just NOW!

Related Topics

Related essays.

By clicking "Send essay" you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

By clicking "Receive essay" you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

We can edit this one and make it plagiarism-free in no time

We use cookies to give you the best experience possible. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Wuthering Heights — The Exploration of the Gender Question in Wuthering Heights

The Exploration of The Gender Question in Wuthering Heights

• Categories: Wuthering Heights

About this sample

Words: 1212 |

Pages: 2.5 |

Published: Jun 29, 2018

Words: 1212 | Pages: 2.5 | 7 min read

Works Cited

• Brontë, Emily. Wuthering Heights. 1847. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover, 1996.
• Goodman, Charlotte. “The Lost Brother, the Twin: Women Novelists and the Male-Female Double Bildungsroman.” NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction. 17: 1 (1983): 28-43.
• Kennard, Jean E. “Lesbianism and the Censoring of Wuthering Heights.” NWSA Journal. 8: 2 (1996): 17-36.
• Thompson, Nicola. “The Unveiling of Ellis Bell: Gender and the Reception of Wuthering Heights.” Women’s Studies. 24: 4 (1995): 341-367

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Prof Ernest (PhD)

Verified writer

• Expert in: Literature

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

2.5 pages / 1192 words

3.5 pages / 1511 words

6.5 pages / 3030 words

2 pages / 887 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on Wuthering Heights

Heathcliff, the central character in Emily Brontë's novel Wuthering Heights, has been a subject of fascination and analysis for literary scholars and enthusiasts alike. His enigmatic and complex nature has led many to [...]

Emily Brontë's classic novel, "Wuthering Heights," is a masterpiece of Gothic literature, known for its turbulent and darkly passionate narrative. At its heart, the novel explores the destructive power of love, revenge, and the [...]

Emily Bronte's novel, Wuthering Heights, is a complex and dark tale that explores the depths of human cruelty. The theme of cruelty is prevalent throughout the novel, depicted through the actions and interactions of the [...]

“The Wuthering Heights is one of the best novels in English literature and has been presented in many works of art. This remarkable novel was written by the writer Emily Brontë in 1847. The author wonderfully presented several [...]

In Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë employs a complicated narrative structure where characters’ stories are passed down a chain of narrators until they are finally recorded in a diary through an outsider’s perspective. This [...]

In the literary work Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë, there is clear conflict within the issues of social class, race and love among the characters. In a society where money and power are necessary for success, Heathcliff, a [...]

Related Topics

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Where do you want us to send this sample?

By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Be careful. This essay is not unique

This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

Download this Sample

Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

Please check your inbox.

We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• We're Hiring!
• Help Center

Two Catherines as Feminist Role Models in " Wuthering Heights

This thesis discusses on the main female characters of Wuthering Heights, Catherine I and Catherine II, as well as Isabella Linton, why they are consi

Related Papers

Women Empowerment through Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights"

Rebeca Perdones Cañas

a biannual , peer-reviewed, full-text, and open-access Graduate Student Journal of the Universidad Complutense Madrid that publishes interdisciplinary research on literary studies, critical theory, applied linguistics and semiotics, and educational issues. The journal also publishes original contributions in artistic creation in order to promote these works. Volume 7 Issue 2 (December 2019) Article 5 Rebeca Perdones Cañas "Women Empowerment through Emily Brontë"s Wuthering Heights" Recommended Citation Perdones Cañas, Rebeca. "Women Empowerment through Emily Brontë"s Wuthering Heights" Abstract: In this paper I analyse how Emily Brontë challenges in her novel Wuthering Heights the female stereotypes to which women of the Victorian Era were submitted. In order to accomplish this analysis, I take into account the social aspects in which women had to meet expectations. For the purpose of finding answers to this issue, I have organised this study into different parts that show the pressure to which women of the Victorian age were subjected. Firstly, I start analysing the age in which this novel takes place and how the situation of women in that time was. Secondly, I continue describing one of the most important social aspects that kept women submitted in that age: marriage. I analyse the clout that it had in Victorian society and how it was a social imposition and nobody had a different choice. Thirdly, I focus on women education and how it was something almost forbidden for them and a way to control and submit them. Fourthly, my study comes to the most important issue which is the female stereotypes challenged by the characters of Wuthering Heights. Then, I explore superficially how the defiance of these stereotypes lead to tragic consequences in the case of the main female characters. Finally, I conclude that Emily defies the imposed gender roles and female stereotypes of the Victorian Era through her work although it was not a simple task.

Fathu Rahman

The aim of this research is to describe middle class women role in the 19 th century in Bronte’s novel, Wuthering Heights , and induce a deeper understanding of effect each role on two characters in society. This research is a qualitative descriptive method using sociological approach. By using sociology of literature, a literary work is seen as a document of social. The data of this research collected from the descriptions and utterances of the characters and narrator in the novel. The result in this research shows that the role of women from the middle class were represented by the characters of the novel known as Catherine Earnshaw Linton, the main female protagonist and the motherless child and also Catherine (Cathy) Linton, daughter of Catherine Earnshaw Linton.

Edupedia Publications

Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights (1847) is considered one of the most enigmatic novels of the Nineteenth century. Despite its centrality to the canon of Victorian literature and women’s writing in the nineteenth century, it paradoxically embodies both an anti-Victorian universe in its refusal to adhere to the moral and sexual codes of the time as well as upholds some of its major traits, especially with regard to the disappearance of the sexual body while violence keeps on reappearing. Despite this dearth of a moral universe was criticized by its earliest commentators, there was a predominantly patriarchal logic at work which led them to simultaneously grudgingly appreciate the male author, since Bronte was using a male pseudonym, who had, 'at once gone fearlessly into the moors and desolate places for his heroes' and discovered the deeper recesses of the mind.

Ishanthi Dissanayake

Salma Haque

Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights is one of the greatest love stories of all time. The novel published a year before her death in 1848, is a complex piece of work. The book contains so many troubled , tumultuous, and rebellious elements of romanticism. It is the story of two opposing families, the Earnshaws and the Lintons and an outsider called Heathcliff. The Earnshaw family consists of Mr. and Mrs. Earnshaw and their children, Catherine and Hindley, and the Linton family consists of Mr, and Mrs. Linton and their two children Isabella and Edgar. In the course of the novel Heathcliff elopes with Isabella and later on marries her. She is a naïve girl when she first comes in contact with Heathcliff. After the elopement she undergoes a radical change. Heathcliff's brutality and mockery of love for her transform her into a brave woman. Though she is not a major character, she is a recognizable individual. Despite her appearance in eight chapters in a novel of thirty-four chapter...

Mohaddeseh Kharazmi , Sohrab Mosahebi

Feminism as a socio-political concept is an important movement related to the trial of women for breaking the gender gap in every aspects of life. This study aims at portraying the feminine attitudes and emotions that cause hopefulness in women's life and creation of their own literature through surveying the selected novel of the famous female novelist, Emily Bronte. This novel signifies the internal problems of women, namely, love, muliebrity, passion, and feelings of women toward living in the world of patriarchy as minor members of society. Eighteenth century is always considered as an era of restricted rules and laws for women who were not able to liberate themselves from dogmatic world of men. This article manifests emancipation of socalled forbidden emotions of women by focusing upon the feminization of the eighteenth century characters of Wuthering Heights and creation of a new framework for next generations of female novelists and writers with no limitation in portraying their femininity. Feminism as a proper solution and universal issue investigates the controversial problems of women in creating and expressing their feelings by examine Bronte's masterpiece.

sandeep kumar

International Journal of Comparative Literature and Translation Studies [IJCLTS]

Natka J A N K O V A Alagjozovska

This paper covers the very common theme of conflict between power and passion in both mentioned novels introduced by two pairs who seek their balance in order to achieve happiness. We are aware that there are certain differences in the two main relationships presented in the two novels. Power is central in both novels and a balance of power is needed in both relationships to reach the love heaven. Jane Eyre and Rochester reach their balance and a happy ending, whereas in Wuthering Heights the unapproachable balance leads to destruction of both Cathy and Heathcliff.The conflicts depicted in these novels lead to happiness and power is often replaced by love, but the balance is different in each case. Jane Eyre has a happy ending while Wuthering Heights ends with the death of Heathcliff. The sisters, apparently, did not share the same reaction to Byronism. Gender was also an important domain in the Victorian age and in the novels of Emily and Charlotte Brontё. Their heroes and heroines kept the conventions and norms of their time but in Jane Eyre this adherence led to happiness, while in Wuthering Heights it resulted in destruction. In neither novel marriage is for the sake of status and wealth. It is described as conducive to love and happiness. Key Word: power, passion, conflict, Victorian age, gender.

Kaitlyn Abrams

RELATED PAPERS

Saranjit Singh

International urology and nephrology

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms

Aimo Hautojärvi

Journal of Education and Practice

Emmanuel Amankwah

Prosiding Kommit

farhan mubarak

Rosildo Paiva

Manuel Madeira

Journal of Islamic Finance and Accounting

Ade Setiawan

Revista Crioula

Elidio Nhamona

Journal of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering

Yousef Mortazavi , Maryam Mazarei

Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth

Irina M. Artemieva

Stephen Sterling

Reproduction Nutrition Development

Frédérique Thomas

Rohanah Hussain

Bilkent University

Guita Farivarsadri

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)

tika kurniawati

Jurnal geosains dan teknologi

FX Anjar Tri Laksono

Springer eBooks

Diego Andina

Pakistan Armed Forces Medical Journal

Dr Imran Memon

（本科/硕士毕业证书、成绩单） 大学Offer录取通知书、

Donnell J Creel

Biotechnology for Biofuels

Marcell Nikolausz

Women health care and issues

lianora Manyange

RELATED TOPICS

•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024