Wuthering Heights & Me

2018 marks the bicentenary of the birth of Emily Brontë and this publication was produced by the Brontë Society as part of their celebrations for the year. It contains responses to Emily’s only novel, Wuthering Heights, by some of her many fans – including myself.

Below is the article I wrote in early 2018 which was published in September 2018.

Wuthering Heights & Me

My first reading of Wuthering Heights, as a teenager, left me somewhat perplexed. It took me several attempts to get past the first page. Despite my difficulty in grasping the novel, I generally enjoyed it and knew I would return to reread it. My relationship with the novel developed during my A-level English course. The guidance and knowledge my tutor provided enabled me to understand the narrative framework, character relationships and appreciate the themes explored. It was during this time that my love of the novel and fascination with the Brontës began to bloom.

Moving ahead a few years to the present day, I am now a third-year undergraduate writing my dissertation on the Brontë sisters with my first chapter focussing on Wuthering Heights. The numerous readings of the novel for both pleasure and academic study have increased my interest. I discover something knew with each read. Wuthering Heights is a novel that keeps on giving and I cannot see myself tiring of it. The uncanny, the Gothic and the macabre are themes I find fascinating and are presented in extreme ways through the characters. The contrasts of social conventions; class, gender and education create explosive dynamics. The number of layers to this text are vastly rich and intriguing.

The Gothic traits prevalent throughout the novel are of great interest to me. The famed narrative exhibits unreliability. The contrast of the tale being manipulated through Mr Lockwood, a gentleman of middle class whose own awareness skills appear lacking, never truly understands the significance of the events told to him by Nelly Dean, the servant at the Heights. On the final page of the novel, which contains my favourite quotation, shows his ignorance. The final line, ‘[…] wondered how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth’, for me, this ultimately demonstrates the ideas of taking situations at their surface value. The peace and calm of the graves of Catherine, Edgar and Heathcliff completely contrasts the torment between them whilst they lived. On the topic of graves and the Gothic, Heathcliff’s attempts to dig up Catherine’s grave explore incredibly dark and powerful emotions. This scene I can imagine so vividly, the desperation exerted by Heathcliff to see Catherine again. I wonder if Emily herself pictured the scene in the graveyard visible from the dining room window of the Parsonage.

The contrast of freedom and confinement is incredibly significant in the novel. The confinement of Cathy by Heathcliff, following her forced marriage to Linton screams of the Gothic heroine. Emily’s presentation of the moors, freedom and wilderness is striking. I find her opposing portrayals of freedom and constraints of social conventions to be very powerful. The restrictions on the female characters particularly, who are subjected to patriarchal forces and ending with untimely deaths. The mother figures are all removed, once again I find this fascinating from a Gothic perspective as their removal through death leaves their children vulnerable to dangers, primarily dangers from Heathcliff. The fates of the female characters places Nelly Dean as an anomaly. My own interpretation of her survival is due to her lack of childbearing. This suggests that conforming to social expectations of childbearing leads to the downfall of the mother. It is thought provoking ideas such as these which maintain my avid interest in the novel. Each character and theme allow for different interpretations and analytical readings. From the perspective of academic study, I never run out of ideas to delve into and investigate further.

I am captivated by all of the Brontës works for different reasons as they display fascinating ideas and views of their worlds. For me Wuthering Heights is a particularly enthralling novel, I am yet to discover another literary work with such innovative characters and captivating themes. This novel will always be special to me, for it opened the door to all the Brontës works and other Nineteenth-Century writers.