Examples in literature:
Dr Frankenstein
(Frankenstein)
Edward Cullen (Twilight)
Severus Snape (Harry Potter)
Jay Gatsby (The Great Gatsby)
Mr Rochester (Jane Eyre)
Rhett Butler (Gone With the Wind)
And of course…
HEATHCLIFF (WUTHERING HEIGHTS)
(Although he takes on
a more Anti-Hero role)
WUTHERING HEIGHTS
Critics
FEMINIST CRITICISM
Feminist critics would focus on the importance of Wuthering Heights having a
female author, and would examine issues of equality and motherhood. Lyn
Pykett, for example, traces the various models of family through until Cathy
and Hareton provide ‘the modern nuclear family’ at the end, having turned
Wuthering Heights into ‘a domain of feminine values’.
Some critics have identified the term Female Gothic. This perspective might
examine how men dominate and women are trapped, reflecting the sense of
isolation and entrapment which women increasingly felt in typical domestic
arrangements of the time. Despite attempts at restraint by Hindley, Catherine
exerts her freedom, until ‘civilised’ by her sojourn at the Grange, after which
she is never truly free. Although she chooses a socially advantageous marriage,
she still resists the conventional strictures of class and marriage, but is not
allowed by Brontë to flourish.
Perhaps to compensate for the dangers her mother faced, Cathy is initially
over-protected in a way that no male was likely to be. She then becomes the
chattel of her husband and father-in-law. A feminist critic would note that
part of the plot of Wuthering Heights centres around the fact that married
women could not own property at the time. However, Cathy arises to become
the only character in the second half of the novel who overcomes her intrinsic
fear of Heathcliff.
POST-COLONIAL CRITICISM
Since Heathcliff is often described as ‘dark’ and a ’gypsy’, some
critics have taken him to be black. Mr Earnshaw finds him in
Liverpool, a major slave-trading port at the time, so perhaps
Heathcliff is the son of a slave or of some foreign blood. Old Mr
Linton refers to his possible mixed race by describing him as ‘a little
Lascar, or an American or Spanish castaway.’ His incomprehensible
‘gibberish’ might also reflect the large influx of starving Irish
immigrants in Liverpool when Bramwell visited there in 1845, who
spoke no English.
On this basis, the treatment of Heathcliff as ‘other’ becomes a
metaphor for racism generally. A typically colonial attitude would
anticipate Heathcliff’s inability to control his savagery, since he is a
‘lesser’ person compared to ‘civilised’ whites (although Hindley
rather belies that description!). There is certainly evidence in the
text for this view, but the student might wonder why Emily Brontë
never actually states Heathcliff’s race explicitly.
PSYCHOANALYTIC OR FREUDIAN
CRITICISM
Critics may also see the relationship of
Catherine and Heathcliff as like that
between mother and child. The
assumption is that, since Emily Brontë lost
her mother when very young, she was
therefore concerned with the separation
of mother and child.
SYNDY MCMILLEN
CONGER
Taking a feminist view, states that
the novel demonstrates women’s
right to be respected as human
beings in the convention of the
Gothic.
Gothic Romance
Features of gothic romance
• In England, gothic romances were mysteries, often involving
the supernatural and heavily tinged with horror, and they
were usually set against dark backgrounds of medieval ruins
and haunted castles.
• Stereotypically, novels usually concerned spirited young
woman, either governesses or new brides, who go to live in
large gloomy mansions populated by peculiar servants and
precious children and presided over by darkly handsome men
with mysterious pasts.
Gothic romance in Wuthering Heights
• Wuthering Heights has plenty of spooky Gothic features, like
imprisonment, dark stairways, stormy weather, nightmares, extreme
landscapes, melancholy figures, moonlight and candles, torture and
excessive cruelty, necrophilia, a supernatural presence, madness, maniacal
behaviour, communication between the living and the dead—you get the
point.
• Gothic novels typically take the setting of a dark castle, dungeon or
laboratory; in Wuthering Heights the foreboding environment created by
the title location is just as potent in inciting terror.
•
In the Gothic tradition, Brontë features tyrannical fathers and a troubled
family line. In this case, the threat comes from Heathcliff, the outsider,
who causes havoc by usurping the family line and taking all of its property.
Themes of gothic romance in Wuthering Heights
• Some of the darkest themes of the Gothic novel emerge with the
implications of incest (through the romantic love of Heathcliff and
Catherine, who may be half-brother and sister; the marriage of
cousins like Cathy and Linton would not have been seen as
scandalous) and the suggestion of necrophilia (through Heathcliff's
perverse interactions with Catherine's corpse).
•
The Gothic genre often reveals larger societal anxieties. Wuthering
Heights may help to reveal contemporary fears about a foreign
presence in the house, threats to patrimony, or an influx of
immigration (through places like Liverpool, England) in the form of
the so-called "gypsy." It's important to note that Wuthering Heights
was published well after the trend in Gothic novels had petered out,
so several critics saw the genre—and the novel—as tired and
overdone.
Quotes of gothic romance in Wuthering Heights
•
•
•
•
The weather-wracked estate of Wuthering Heights offers an untamed, dangerous and sinister atmosphere.
“I paused to admire a quantity of grotesque carving lavished over the front, and especially about the
principal door, above which, among a wilderness of crumbling griffins, and shameless little boys, I
detected the date ‘1500’.” (p. 2)
This imagery bestows upon the mansion an atmosphere akin to that of a haunted manor or castle as is typical of
Gothic fiction. The sense that the Heights is a sinister place is most saliently seen when compared with the other
location of the narrative, Thrushcross Grange, which serves to provide a stark contrast as a polar opposite in
feeling and in what is represents; civility and the genteel. Bronte makes the contrast so clear in order to hone the
sense of morbidity of the Heights.
The title of the estate is telling here in that, based on the oft described conditions, it was very aptly named after
the roaring winds which beset the house.
“Pure, bracing ventilation they must have up there, at all times, indeed: one may guess of the power of
the north wind, ... by a range of gaunt thorns all stretching their limbs one way, as if craving alms of the
sun.” (p. 2)
The weather mirrors the passion and wildness of the inhabitants of the Heights. The moorlands which surround
Wuthering Heights add to the sense of untameable danger associated with the property. The estate of Wuthering
Heights, the wild weather and the dangerous moors which surround it combine to create a truly Gothic setting.
•
•
•
•
Heathcliff shows no qualms in destroying those for whom he does not care, however undeserving of his wrath
they may be. Isabella Linton falls in love with Heathcliff and is abused so heartlessly that she is forced to leave
him, a social taboo for the period, this can be seen in this excerpt from her epistolary confession to Ellen Dean.
“I assure you, a tiger, or a venomous serpent could not rouse terror in me equal to that which he
wakens... I hate him - I am wretched - I have been a fool.” (p. 153)
He shows no remorse as to the fate of Isabella, nor even their son Linton whom he neglects to seek medical care
for when he has fulfilled his purpose in usurping for Heathcliff Thrushcross Grange. Heathcliff’s unwarranted
acts of violence against defenceless victims show his utter disregard for human suffering. Heathcliff’s relentless
sadism manifests itself in his use of torture and imprisonment; classic Gothic features.
Heathcliff’s unwarranted acts of violence against defenceless victims show his utter disregard for human
suffering. Heathcliff’s relentless sadism manifests itself in his use of torture and imprisonment; classic Gothic
features. When he imprisons young Cathy at Wuthering Heights he does so to emotionally torture Edgar Linton,
the man who took Catherine from him, but it is equally tortuous to poor Cathy:
“If papa thought I had left him, on purpose, and if he died before I returned, could I bear to live?” (p.
290)
Heathcliff’s use of cold-blooded emotional and psychological torture elevates him beyond the mere scorned
man of passion to the disturbed and cruel monster that he becomes. Like any other Gothic anti-hero, or in many
cases the antagonist, Heathcliff is bent on vengeance and does not care who must suffer from his cruelty in
order for him to achieve it. In this way Heathcliff is a prime example of a Gothic protagonist.