Emily Brontë
The Nightmare, Henry
Fuseli, 1781
Wuthering Heights, August Holland,
1960-69
Man Writing a
Letter, Gabriel
Metsu, 1664-66
 Published in 1847, Victorian readers found it difficult to
accept the violent characters and harsh realities of
Wuthering Heights.
 One critic wrote in 1848 that there was nothing else like it
that presented ‘such shocking pictures of the worst forms
of humanity.’
 Published initially under the pseudonym Ellis Bell, the
audience also found it impossible to accept that it could’ve
been written by a woman.
 Although a reflection of the society of the time, it endures
primarily because readers can relate to the central
relationship of Cathy and Heathcliff.
 Two ordered pairs, two households, two generations,
two pairs of children
 Some critics dismiss the second-generation characters
as simply being a re-telling of the first story, yet in
doing so they are dismissing the second half of the
book.
 Second half is equal in length and arguably is not a retelling at all, but a purposeful revision; a form of
renewal and rebirth.
 Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange
 Male and female ‘siblings’; through each other, they
recognise what the other is not or perhaps even, define
themselves by it.
 Frame narrative is paired between Lockwood and
Nelly. Within this, chapters are narrated by the other
characters, via Nelly. Instead of the author/reader
presiding over the action, we are almost eavesdropping
throughout.
 The moors both link and separate the two households.
 Good versus evil
 Crime and punishment
 Passion versus rationality
 Selfishness, division and reconciliation
 Chaos and order
 Nature and culture
 Health and sickness
 Rebellion and conformity
 The conflicting nature of love: it can destroy and
rebuild.
 Class mobility is fluid.
 Social class plays a large part in Catherine’s choice of
marriage to Edgar Linton; it is perhaps her undoing.
 For Isabella Linton, the opposite is arguably true; she is
drawn to Heathcliff’s wild mystery in spite of his lower
social standing.
 Revenge for Heathcliff equals domination and acting
‘Master’ as he ends up owning Thrushcross and
Wuthering Heights.
 Not so easily placed as Jane Eyre with its forward heroine and the




implications of the mad woman in the attic as being symptomatic of
female oppression of desire.
Emily Bronte herself was known as difficult and temperamental
individual and her female characters are full of intensity and violent
passion; arguably a ‘male’ view of female desire.
However, the depiction of Cathy’s desire and the polarised gender
differences in the novel continue to fascinate Feminist critics.
Gilbert and Gubar’s major work ‘The Madwoman in the Attic’, picks
upon Cathy’s lack of identity and the fact that she is the victim of a
patriarchal society; she must punish herself to gain power.
Nelly as the female narrator shapes our perceptions.
 The Gothic novel derives its name from the Gothic
architectural style popular in Europe between the 12th and
16th centuries. Gothic structures were suggestive of a
supernatural presence.
 Exhibits many characteristics of the Gothic novel, which
focuses on dark and mysterious events; particularly with
the arrival of Heathcliff early on the story, the violent
weather and exposed landscape.
 Novel is not overtly Gothic though as it has a grounding in
reality and some sense of credibility. Arguably it evolves
into its temperamental opposite; a parable of innocence
and loss, and childhood's necessary defeat.