as illustrated in Wuthering Heights

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B A C H E L O R T H E S I S

Criticism of Social Conventions and View of Nature and Civilization

as illustrated in Wuthering Heights

Anneli Wengelin

Luleå University of Technology Bachelor thesis

English

Department of Language and Culture

2005:150 - ISSN: 1402-1773 - ISRN: LTU-CUPP--05/150--SE

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Criticism of Social Conventions and

View of Nature and Civilization as illustrated in

Wuthering Heights

ANNELI WENGELIN

Department of Languages and Literature ENGLISH C

Supervisor: Billy Gray

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Anthony Burgess describes the era as “an age of conventional morality, of large families with the father as a godlike head, and the mother as a submissive creature like Milton’s Eve”.¹ Emily Brontë illustrates different difficulties that women had to deal with during these times by using her characters.

The first Catherine, who is born at Wuthering Heights, pictures the way a woman’s future will depend on what kind of man she marries. The second Catherine, born at Thrushcross Grange, is a woman whose personality has grown and whose self-esteem is leading her on her way. Catherine II becomes an independent owner of two estates even though she gets married.

Brontë pictures both these characters as individuals who are masters of their own future, which supports the idea of equality between the two sexes.

As well as being a novel about women’s situation in society, Wuthering Heights can be interpreted as a criticism against the social class system. Brontë describes two families that belong to the gentry, who have a constant struggle to keep their position. They did not have an important name, like the aristocratic families, which could assure them of being considered high class members of society. Brontë wants to show that a person’s character and behaviour do not depend on class.

A third theme in Brontë’s novel describes a conflict between nature and civilization. Emily Brontë lived her life on the Yorkshire moors which she loved with all her heart. Due to this,

1A. Burgess, English Literature (Essex: Pearson Education, 1974) 181

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the novel can be seen as a tribute to her home and its surroundings. On the other hand Brontë’s novel views a conflict between nature and civilization, which is illustrated by the two families and their homes.

This essay is going to examine, how Brontë describes the social situation for women in the middle of the 19^th century, her view of social classes and the conflict between nature and civilization which she pictures in her novel Wuthering Heights.

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1. Criticism of social conventions in the 19^th century.

By writing Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë attacked the social conventions that existed in her lifetime. She criticised both the social rules of how an ideal woman was supposed to be, and the importance of which class a person belonged to. These ideas were considered “the eccentricities of ‘woman’s fantasy’”² by critics of her own time. As a way of getting her ideas accepted she gives her male characters feminine features and the female characters have many male traits and therefore, both sexes often act in a rather unconventional way. Brontë even gives the two families female and male features. The marriage between Catherine Earnshaw and Edgar Linton gives the reader a hint of how devastating it can be to let social class be more important than love and happiness. By criticizing the Linton family, Brontë wanted to question the prevailing prejudices that existed about lower social class members being weaker and perhaps even more stupid and unfeeling people, than those belonging to a higher social class.

1.1 Gender

In this novel, Catherine Earnshaw is described in a manner that made her contemporaries raise objections to how she spoke and acted. Catherine was not the soft and tame woman she ought to be, if she was to be accepted by society. At the beginning of Ellen Dean’s story, it is known that Catherine, at the age of six, could “ride any horse in the stable, and she chose a whip”

(Brontë 44) when her father promised to bring her something from Liverpool. In the 18^th century this was unusual for a girl of Catherine’s age and it gives the reader a picture of a tomboy with her own ideas, and of a rather unusual father, who taught his daughter such things even if he had an older son. Throughout the story Catherine continues to be very eager

2E.Moers, Literary Women (London: The women’s P: 1986) 100

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to have her way. She is described by Ellen as a girl whose “spirits where always at high-water mark, her tongue always going – singing, laughing, and plaguing everybody who would not do the same. A wild wicket slip she was - …” (Brontë 49). When she was scolded she gave her opponent “a bold, saucy look and her ready words” (Brontë 49).

Edgar Linton, who marries Catherine Earnshaw, has some traits which in contemporary novels are usually connected with women. He is very constant and tender, especially to his daughter Catherine, and he is indulgent towards his nephew, Linton. In the editor’s preface to the novel it is explained that Brontë did not like the thought, that such feelings and qualities were typical of women, only. To her, every human, created by God All Mighty, had these features. Compared to Heathcliff, Linton’s manners appear to be even more pleasing.

Sometimes, the women are given features that place them in a higher position than the men. One example is Catherine Linton (Catherine II) and her cousin Linton Heathcliff. These two characters are described without any notice being taken of their sex at all. Catherine is a very healthy and active girl with a positive way of looking at things, while Linton is weak and dependent. The male cousin tries to get his way by crying and sulking, and he even acts like a lady when he has Catherine come to him. The housekeeper at Wuthering Heights describes him in the following way when she meets Ellen in Gimmerton:

“And I never knew such a faint-hearted creature,” added the woman; “nor one so careful of hisseln. He will go on, if I leave the window open a bit late in the evening. Oh! It’s killing! a breath of night air! And he must have a fire in the middle of summer; and Joseph’s bacca pipe is poison --- And if Hareton for pity comes to amuse him, --- they’re sure to part, one swearing and the other crying”. (Brontë 182)

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Linton is described as having feminine characteristics, and Brontë gives him delicate features with blond flaxen hair. Brontë uses colours as a sign of male or female character;

therefore Catherine has darker hair than Linton. The author gives the two families different gender. The Earnshaw’s are dark, strong and healthy, which in Bronte’s novel are male features, while the Linton’s are more delicate and more sensitive to illnesses, which on the other hand are feminine traits. This way of mixing the genders without following the norms of society made critics in the 19^th and the early 20^th century unmasks the prejudices that existed about women and their authorship. In Reviewing Sex, Nicola D Thompson cites Herbert Read, who 1903 wrote an essay on the three Brontë sisters:

In the case of Emily, the same causes [as Charlotte] produced a

‘masculine protest’ of a more complex kind, showing indeed, the typical features of what I think we must, with the psycho-analyst, call psychical hermaphroditism….In her childhood the villagers thought her more like a boy than a girl….much deeper and more powerful must have been the masculine assumptions of her mind.

These found their fit expression…in Wuthering Heights.³

Herbert Read’s words about Brontë is an example of the reception Wuthering Heights received after it was common knowledge that Ellis Bell was a woman.

1.2 The class issue.

In the 18^th century, land and manner were of great importance regarding what social class a person belonged to. A man had to own a lot of land and behave like a true gentleman to be considered a man of high class. A woman, on the other hand, had to marry such a man in order to get the favours of being a member of a high social class. Land was much more

3 N.D.Thompson, Reviewing Sex, Gender and the Reception of Victorian Novels (London: MacMillan: 1996) 60

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important than money; earning money from business was not ranked as an acceptable way to get a high position in society.

These rules and norms of class identification seem easy to understand and use, but in reality they were not. The aristocracy had their titles and names but this was not the case of the gentry which both the Earnshaws’ and the Lintons’ belonged to. Their everyday life contained a lot of struggle to maintain their positions, by doing and saying the right thing at the right time. In an article on the Internet George P Landow quotes J H C Newman when he describes a true gentleman. Newman writes that a gentleman:

carefully avoids whatever may cause a jar or a jolt in the minds of those with whom he is cast; -- all clashing of opinion, or collision of feeling, all restraint, or suspicion, or gloom, or resentment; his great concern being to make every one at their ease and at home.⁴

As a result of this, it was possible for them to be degraded at any moment. The decision of degradation was to a great extent taken by the neighbours, who were very harsh in their judgements.

1.3 Symbols for different classes

Emily Brontë uses symbols to show that the Lintons’ and the Earnshaws’ are not equal in society. In the beginning of Ellen’s story, the Earnshaw children visit Thrushcross Grange out of curiosity. They want to see how their neighbours are living their lives. The first symbol that marks their different social class is the window, through which Heathcliff and Catherine peek (Brontë 53). It functions as a barrier and makes it obvious that there are differences between the two sides of the window-pane. On the outside where Heathcliff and Catherine stand it is dark and it is raining and on the other side there are lights and a fire is burning. The next thing

4 G.P.Landow, http://www.victorianweb.org/vn/victor10.html

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that becomes a wall between the different classes is the dress, which Catherine wears when she returns from Thrushcross Grange after she has been bitten by the dog. This dress makes it impossible for her to act normally when she meets Heathcliff. She notices how dirty he is and she is afraid that he will ruin her dress if they hug each other.

1.4 The male class-trip

The struggle and the neighbours’ judgements, mentioned above, are things that the character Heathcliff, one of the protagonists, illustrates clearly. At the very beginning of the novel, Heathcliff is an orphan who has nowhere to live and is adopted by the Earnshaws’ to become a young gentleman, although this idea is questioned due to his dark skin. His life as a gentleman is not easy, even if he is favoured by his adoptive father. His new brother, Hindley, considers him a threat and does not like him. Hindley’s feelings spring from when he finds his fiddle crushed in his father’s great-coat, and Heathcliff seems to be the one to blame. During the time the two boys live under the same roof, Hindley never acknowledges Heathcliff to be something other than a “lower” individual. This is obvious when the boys quarrel about a horse:

Take my colt, gipsy, then! --- And I pray that he may break your neck: take him, and be damned, your beggar interloper! and wheedle my father out of all he has: only afterwards show him what you are, imp of Satan.-And take that, I hope he’ll kick out your brains! (Brontë 47)

Later, Hindley is sent to a boarding-school and when his father dies he returns to become the master of Wuthering Heights. The journey between social classes continues when Heathcliff is pushed off his high position to become a common worker at the farm. He is treated badly, which gives him the motivation to make the class trip once more. Heathcliff leaves the house

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and his family to return three years later. Now he is totally changed. From a common worker with a bad language and no money, he has turned into a well-mannered gentleman who radiates dignity and respect, though Lockwood says that he is only a “gentleman in dress and manners” (Brontë 21). The rules and norms of class distinction are noticeable several times, for example when Heathcliff and Edgar Linton interact. Heathcliff and Edgar’s sister run away and we get to know what Edgar thinks about it. The very fact that his sister has chosen to leave with a man “without name” is bearable, but he is much more concerned about Heathcliff being a villain disguised in nice clothes. He is certain of two things; Heathcliff is as bad a person as he was before his disappearance and, that he is not a real gentleman, in spite of his manners and money. This example illustrates the rules about social distinction; a man cannot be a gentleman unless society approves.

1.5 The female class-trip

Brontë thinks it is possible for a person to change class through career, and what is happening to Heathcliff reveals a male view of the phenomenon. Catherine Earnshaw’s tragic fate gives another picture of this struggle; the female way of making a career. She is deeply devoted to Heathcliff and the most natural thing would be that they shared their lives in marriage.

Catherine has however, a need to become someone else than a common housewife, serving her working husband. She wants to be “the greatest woman of the neighbourhood” (Brontë 78). In order to reach her goal she decides to marry Edgar. She wants to be a part of both worlds, which is a desire that totally ruins her world and brings unhappiness to the people at Thrushcross Grange. Catherine thinks it is possible to continue her friendship with Heathcliff to the same extent as usual, an idea which she discusses with Ellen:

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Every Linton on the face of the earth might melt into nothing, before I could consent to forsake Heathcliff. Oh, that’s not what I intend – that’s not what I mean! I shouldn’t be Mrs Linton were such a price demanded! He’ll be as much to me as he has been all his lifetime. Edgar must shake off his antipathy, and tolerate him, at least. (Brontë 81)

But surprisingly for her both Heathcliff and Edgar oppose this idea. She cannot fully understand the calm or almost cold way Edgar shows his feelings towards her. She feels that she is treated badly and judged unjustly. At the end of her life, she does not recognize herself in the mirror and says, “It’s behind there still!” she pursued anxiously. “And it stirred. Who is it? I hope it will not come out when you are gone! Oh, Nelly, the room is haunted! I’m afraid of being alone!”(Brontë 114) She cannot recognize herself as the lady of Thrushcross Grange.

In her confused mind she is still the little girl, running around on the moors, not longing for the status that a marriage to Edgar would give her. Earlier, when Catherine and Heathcliff stood outside the window, watching Edgar and Isabella, they laughed at those who were inside and thought they where spoiled and weak. The Earnshaw children valued their freedom higher than living in a beautiful house and wearing nice clothes. Lying in her bed, sick and weak, Catherine wants to return to the life she lived before she married Edgar and became

“the greatest woman of the neighbourhood”. By letting Catherine experience these difficulties, Brontë wants to show how hard it could be for a woman to move from one social class to another.

1.6 Criteria for class identification

As mentioned above, land and manners were of great importance if a man, who did not belong to the aristocracy, wanted to be considered as a gentleman. In Brontë’s novel both the

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Lintons’ and the Earnshaws’ have land, money and servants but in spite of that, they are defined in different ways. The Earnshaws’ are survivors, living on the harsh moors of Yorkshire with a kind of free atmosphere in the household. The children are allowed to run around almost as they please, and from the beginning the reader gets to know them as instigators who are very much led by their hearts. Heathcliff and Catherine spend almost every minute on the moors, playing. Ellen explains when they “run away to the moors in the morning and remain there all day, and the after punishment grew a mere thing to laugh at”

(Brontë 52). The Linton family live their life according to what is correct for people of their dignity. It is very important that everything seems to be perfect on the surface, which means that people tend to become rather cold in their relations. Edgar presents this quality when he totally rejects his sister the minute she runs away with Heathcliff. His pride forbids him to make any contact at all, firstly because Heathcliff is not considered as a real gentleman and secondly because he feels that Isabella has neglected his position as the head of the family:

“Are we to try any measures for overtaking and bringing her back?” I [Ellen] inquired, “How should we do?”

“She went of her own accord,” answered the master; “she had a right to go if she pleased. Trouble me no more about her.

Hereafter she is only my sister in name: not because I disown her, but because she has disowned me.”(Brontë 122)

Even when the first reaction of anger has subsided, Edgar cannot change his mind and forgive his sister, because the norms of the society force him to act against his heart. Isabella writes a letter to Ellen where she asks her to speak to Edgar. Her brother answers:

“Forgiveness!” said Linton. “I have nothing to forgive her, Ellen.

You may call at Wuthering Heights this afternoon, if you like, and say that I am not angry, but I’m sorry to have lost her; especially

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as I can never think she’ll be happy. It is out of the question my going to see her, however: we are eternally divided; and should she really wish to oblige me, let her persuade the villain she has married to leave the country”. (Brontë 132)

Edgar Linton’s reaction shows that feelings have no place, or at least very little place, in his world. Even if he knows that his sister probably is not happy, he cannot let go of the conventions that rule the lives in his social class. These examples present a view of class distinctions which places the real gentleman as something external, not on the inside. Edgar criticizes Heathcliff and says that he is gentlemanlike only in the sense that he has nice clothes, but despite this he acts according to superficial values in order to please society.

Heathcliff is a very cruel and mean person who is easy to dislike. Linton and several of the others in his family, act almost as badly as their opponent at Wuthering Heights when they are put in situations which are trying. Isabella Linton becomes nasty when she stays with her new family on the moors. They do not treat her as a lady and laugh at her foppish desires. When Ellen comes to visit her, Isabella’s spirits have sunk and her good upbringing cannot help her:

There never was such a dreary, dismal scene as the formerly cheerful house presented! I must confess that if I had been in the young lady’s place, I would at least, have swept the hearth, and wiped the tables with a duster. But she already partook of the pervading spirit of neglect which encompassed her. Her pretty face was wan and listless; her hair uncurled: some locks hanging lankly down, and some carelessly twisted round her head.

(Brontë 132)

Brontë depicts people as being both good and bad. It is not ones social affiliation which decides how you act in difficult situations, but your inner qualities. To show that a person’s

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social position is unimportant when defining a true gentleman Brontë has created the Hareton character. He is badly educated and his language is undeveloped. He acts as cruel as his master most of the time and it is just as easy to dislike him. As the story continues the reader can see another side of him. Although he is treated badly both by Heathcliff and Catherine Linton, he looks behind their outer personality and is able to value other things. Hareton is humble and genuine as a person. He wants to learn and change, and he does so without rejecting his past. Hareton still loves and honours his uncle Heathcliff even if he sometimes thinks he is acting wrongly:

He said he wouldn’t suffer a word to be uttered in his disparagement: if he were the devil, it didn’t signify: he would stand by him; and he’d rather she would abuse himself, as she used to, than begin on Mr. Heathcliff. Catherine was waxing cross at this; but he found means to make her hold her tongue, by asking how she would like him to speak ill of her father? (Brontë 266)

These words of Hareton’s show his ability to enter into other people’s feelings, which is very important if you want to act like a true gentleman. His humble and thoughtful personality makes him, in Brontë’s view, to a real gentleman.

1.7 Thoughts about the class system

Does Brontë like the class system she is describing in her novel? If the persons described are investigated the answer must be, no. The Lintons’, who are in a higher position than the Earnshaws’, show qualities that make them appear cold and scheming. Edgar Linton uses Catherine’s illness for his own purpose, when he forbids Heathcliff to visit her at Thrushcross Grange just because of his own jealousy; their communication “shall not exist”.(Brontë 132) When Heathcliff is informed of this, he criticizes Mr Linton’s narrow-mindedness and almost

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egoistical view of the friendship between him and his sister. He says to Ellen that Edgar has nothing to give to Catherine:

“That is quite possible,” remarked Heathcliff, forcing himself to seem calm: “quite possible that your master should have nothing but common humanity and a sense of duty to fall back upon. But do you imagine that I shall leave Catherine to his duty and humanity...” (Brontë 133)

Brontë presents a description of Edgar Linton as a person who is not very likable since he treats persons who do not belong to his family badly. The author shows that both of the families have faults. Heathcliff shows his feelings but nevertheless, he can be really cruel in order to take revenge. Edgar Linton acts politely in every situation, but both he and his family members are hurt by his behaviour. This supports the opinion about people that Brontë wants to put forward. A human being has both good and bad qualities and those are not distributed among people according to what social class they belong to.

Another thing that reveals Brontë’s view of the class society is how she describes Ellen Dean, who has been a servant with both the Earnshaws’ and the Lintons’ for all her life. She thinks for her self and does not allow other people to decide for her. Both Catherine I and Catherine II try to benefit from Ellen’s lower position but she retains her dignity through the novel. In chapter XI she does not agree with her mistress’s plans when Catherine wants to frighten Edgar because he has “startled and distressed her shockingly” (Brontë 109) Ellen receives Catherine’s instructions with a stolidity which vexes the intriguing lady very much.

Ellen tells Lockwood that “I did not wish to “frighten” her husband, as she said, and multiply his annoyance for the purpose of serving her selfishness”. (Brontë 110) She has the self- esteem that allows her to go against her employer and take sides with the one she thinks is weaker or unjustly treated.

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Throughout the novel Ellen sees the people in an objective way, which means that she can see both their positive and negative sides. This is something that neither Heathcliff nor Edgar manage to do; they see either the good or the bad in a person. This quality of Ellen’s has the function of showing the reader how badly the two other characters are acting in different situations. Brontë uses Ellen as a yardstick and the men are to be compared to her. Because of her social position and the fact that she is a woman, the author expresses her criticism of social conventions. Ellen is a “gentleman” inside, even though she is of a lower social class and a woman.

Emily Brontë’s opinion about the class society is also shown in Linton Heathcliff’s and Hareton Earnshaw’s characters. Linton, who is considered a gentleman and belongs to Thrushcross Grange from the beginning, is shown to be a weakling and a parasite, who takes advantage of people around him. He has these qualities even though he is a man of very extensive reading. Hareton, on the other hand, is an illiterate who has been taught to behave rudely and to act like a villain. His language is limited and most of the time he seems to be rather stupid. At the end of the novel, Brontë presents another picture of the man, in which he is a sensitive individual who learns to read and treats other people with respect. Although he knows that Heathcliff has been a cruel man during his lifetime, he does not want to talk badly of him when he is dead; in fact, he is the only person who mourns his uncle:

But poor Hareton, the most wronged, was the only one who really suffered much. He sat by the corpse all night, weeping in bitter earnest. He pressed its hand, and kissed the sarcastic savage face that every one else shrank from contemplating; and bemoaned him with that strong grief which springs naturally from a generous heart, though it be tough as tempered steel. (Brontë 278)

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Hareton gives the story a positive angle of approach. Through him the reader understands that people can change and that the good in a person does not depend on how much land he owns, or how educated he is.

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2. Nature – Civilization/Culture

Brontë has put the social classes in opposition to each other, in order to make a clear point.

She has used the same tool to put forward her thoughts about culture and nature as being parts of life. Brontë lived most of her life on the moors and she loved the barren and wild landscape which the infertile area offers its inhabitants. She lets the reader feel the sensation of freedom which a long walk over the heather entails. In the preface of Wuthering Heights it can be read that Brontë’s life as the daughter of a curate had given her experiences from a bleak childhood, being looked after by her very strict aunt, which could be a reason for her emotional descriptions of nature. The novel can be seen as a description of the two phenomena, nature and civilization, where the author gives both positive and negative criticism to both sides. There is a conflict going on between the two families. The Earnshaws’

symbolize Nature and the Lintons’ represent Culture and Civilization. This conflict can be seen as an evolution from nature to civilization. This development is characterized by Catherine I and Heathcliff on one side and Catherine II and Hareton on the other.

2.1 Brontë’s description of nature

In this text nature is described as harsh and dangerous. In the first chapter Lockwood becomes aware of this when the snow stops him from going back home after his visit to his landlord.

Though the people at Wuthering Heights are very mean and short in their tone towards him, they do not want him to leave because of the wild moor and the risks that come with walking across it at night. Nature seems to be something pure and straightforward. It makes no difference between rich or poor; everybody can be defeated by its force and it is important to consider its changeable mood. Even if the snow and the wind make the environment dangerous, Lockwood mentions it as being “certainly a beautiful country and very untouched by society”. (Brontë 19)

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The moors are very close to Emily Brontë’s heart and she describes them as dangerous but at the same time she depicts them with love. They are a place where Catherine and Heathcliff find freedom, and where the wind blows constantly. When Catherine experiences her saddest moments she longs for her old home on the moors and her own room, were she could breathe the wind coming from the desolate wide open spaces:

“Oh, if I were but in my own bed in the old house!” she went on bitterly, wringing her hands, “And that wind sounding in the firs by the lattice. Do let me feel it! – it comes straight down the moor – do let me have one breath!”

(Brontë 115)

Nature is both insensitive to its inhabitants and a force which inevitably punishes everyone that does not have the strength needed to manage it, or the intelligence to compromise. The power to endure nature’s force is visualized by Wuthering Heights, which is a stone building with very small windows to cope with the strong winds. The intelligence is personified by the few trees that grow on the moors. They are leaning in the same direction that the wind blows, because the wind cannot break something or someone that bends; they know how to compromise.

2.2 Brontë’s description of civilization

Civilization is pictured as a gentleman who is balanced and does not show his true feelings or fight with his bare hands. Everything, in this sort of environment is in order and well organized. The weather is good and inside a civilized house a fire is burning in order to warm a frozen soul. In the novel, The Lintons’ and their home, Thrushcross Grange, stand for culture and civilization. Their actions are not filled with passion and impulsiveness. They live in their world of politeness and etiquette and are disturbed by people who do not play their

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game. This becomes clear in the beginning of the novel when the family meets Heathcliff for the first time. He does not look like a gentleman and rather carries all the signs of being of a lower class according to the standards that where prevailing at the time. Mr Linton described him as follows:

---Don’t be afraid, it is but a boy - yet the villain scowls so plainly in his face; would it not be a kindness to the country to hang him at once, before he shows his nature in acts as well as features?

(Brontë 55)

Mr Linton remarks that he has heard that the children at Wuthering Heights are brought up in

“absolute heathenism” and he thinks that Catherine’s brother, Hindley, is very careless in his way of looking after his little sister. Mrs Linton is terrified at the thought of the girl being accompanied by “a gipsy” on the moors. Gipsies were looked upon as people who were close to being animals and not able to act properly. They could also be seen as closer to nature and intruders into the civilization of gentlemen. Scholars were totally sure that a man’s intelligence could be seen in the colour of his skin or in the shape of his chin.⁵ This event shows how prejudices concerning differences and poverty ruled the lives of people in higher social classes and the effect which this kind of thinking had on the working class and people with a darker skin than a native Englishman. Brontë pictures a civilization which condemns and is cold, in which a man’s skills in keeping his face in different situations, are of great importance for his future position in social life.

2.3 Is nature the same as freedom?

Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff consider nature to be the same as freedom. They do not want to abide by any rules concerning social life. Heathcliff explains to Ellen that the children

5A.S.Wohl, www.victorianweb.org/history/race/rc4.html

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at Thrushcross Grange seem to be spoiled and jealous of each other. When the children from the Heights were looking through the window, the children inside were arguing over a dog.

Heathcliff thought it a weakness to be too fond of material things, and to him love for Catherine was much more important. He did not have to consider any personal property in his actions, which to him was a great freedom. Before Linton’s dog bit Catherine, she and Heathcliff lived a free life and spent most of their time together. They shared the same bed and stood by each other.

When Catherine returned from The Grange everything was different. She dismounted a black horse like a “dignified person, with brown ringlets falling from the cover of a feathered beaver, and a long cloth habit, which she was obliged to hold up with both hands that she might sail in”. (Brontë 57) This new style made it impossible for her to treat her former best friend like she used to. She does not dare to hug either Ellen or Heathcliff because she is afraid to get dirt on her new dress. A reduction of freedom has occurred due to some curls in her hair and an elegant dress. Civilization makes it impossible for Catherine to follow her heart and marry Heathcliff. She has a wish to become “the greatest woman in the neighbourhood” (Brontë 78), which forces her to marry Edgar even if she does not love him.

This marriage makes her feel trapped and she longs for the moors and Heathcliff until she dies. Catherine’s actions make Heathcliff suffer too. He listens when she is having a conversation with Ellen about marrying Edgar, and it is a terrible truth which is disclosed.

Heathcliff leaves the Heights for three years and during that time he plans a monstrous revenge. His freedom disappears when he is bound to spend the remaining part of his life trying to punish everybody else for his misfortune. Described in this way, Heathcliff’s and Catherine’s view of life is not as free from following norms as they would like it to be.

Catherine marries Edgar due to the social conventions that are prevailing in society and Heathcliff is a victim of his own passion and of the fact that he has to save face. In

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consideration of the occurrences mentioned above, nature seems to be the same as freedom.

Brontë describes both Catherine and Heathcliff as being victims of social norms; Catherine marries against her heart and Heathcliff acts in order to save face.

2.4 The development from nature to civilization

The fiction writer and critic, Joyce Carol Oates has undertaken a study of Wuthering Heights and she mentions an inevitable development of Nature into Society.⁶ This development can be seen by making a comparison between Catherine Earnshaw and her daughter Catherine Linton. Catherine Earnshaw was brought up at Wuthering Heights, where she and her stepbrother could live out their passions running around in the wild landscape, which surrounded the farm. Throughout her lifetime, she sticks to her ideas about life and cannot identify herself with anyone else than the little girl who everybody has to love, and who explores the mysteries on the Yorkshire moors. During her last couple of days she is back in her room at Wuthering Heights and she is a little girl again. The weather is terrible, and she gives birth to a daughter who is named Catherine. This little girl was born when it was pouring down, the night was black as coal and the house which was to be her home was warm and filled with candles. This shows that she has both nature and civilization in her soul; she carries genes, both from her mother who symbolises nature, and father who signifies civilization and culture.

While growing up, Catherine Linton is as bad tempered as her mother could be, for example when she does not want to have anything to do with Hareton. In her eyes, he is just an ill-mannered bumpkin. Her experiences in life, her acquaintance with Heathcliff and Linton, change her as a person. She stops looking at the external things only, and begins to notice the inside of a human being too. Hareton becomes interesting to her, and by the end of

6J.C.Oates, http://storm.usfca.edu/~southerr/wuthering.html

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the novel the daughter of Catherine Earnshaw and Edgar Linton has moved into Wuthering Heights and created a total revolution in the household. Heathcliff is dead and buried.

Lockwood visits the farm and describes the situation:

I had neither to climb the gate not to knock – it yielded to my hand. --- a fragrance of stocks and wallflowers wafted on the air from amongst the homely fruit-trees. Both doors and lattices were open --- a fine, red fire illumined the chimney. (Brontë 255)

This sort of free, and at the same time organized, atmosphere was not the usual one. When Heathcliff, who signified nature during his lifetime, ruled at the Heights the situation was totally different. The doors were locked and there was no fire burning; darkness had power over the inhabitants. Book reading was prohibited and everything that was beautiful was forbidden too. It was ugly to show weakness and even politeness. Heathcliff was, like nature, harsh in his judgements; those who did not have the strength or the intelligence to stand against his force were doomed. His opinion of weak people comes forward when he is uttering, “I have no pity! I have no pity! The more the worms writhe, the more I yearn to crush out their entrails! It is moral teething; and I grind with greater energy in proportion to the increase of pain.” (Brontë 137) After this speech of Heathcliff, Ellen asks him if he knows what the word pity means and this is a question he will not answer. He does not even want to talk about it. Even though these forces of both Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff are strong, they cannot survive the new winds that begin to blow.

Both Catherine Linton and Hareton Earnshaw have a seed of culture and civilization in them which is allowed to grow. They learn to control their passion, and their will to grow as human beings is significant to the change of order at Wuthering Heights. As mentioned above, reading books was forbidden when Heathcliff was alive. That Brontë attach great value to literature is clear, when Hareton’s personality changes and his will to learn how to read is

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obvious to the reader. The development from nature to civilization is complete when Catherine Linton and Hareton Earnshaw plan to marry, which will result in a new, more civilized, Catherine Earnshaw. The couple are moving to Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights will be empty, except from Joseph who seems to be immortal.

2.5 Is nature better than civilization?

Emily Brontë was very found of the landscape that she lived in. She loved the open spaces and the wind that always blew like God’s hand over those who lived there. This might give us a hint that she favoured nature before culture and civilization. Wuthering Heights and the people who lived there personify nature. The house is very strongly built, of stone and with small windows, which make the inside dark and inhospitable. The surroundings are marked by the harsh treatment it gets from the wind and the rain. The inhabitants of Wuthering Heights have the same features as their home. They are as strong, healthy and passionate as the environment they are living in. Their temper can be as bad as the weather. A look at Thrushcross Grange gives the opposite impression. The garden which surrounds the wooden house is beautiful with trees and flowers. Brontë lets the weather be as beautiful as the estate when she writes about the Lintons’ who live in the house.

So far civilization seems to be much more attractive than nature. This feeling grows weaker with a closer examination of the family members. They seem to be weak and sickly and not as strong as the Earnshaws’ at the Heights. Due to social conventions they give a somewhat cold first impression because the norms advocate moderation when it comes to feelings. The pressure from society forces them to act against their heart on several occasions.

Even though Catherine loves nature and freedom, she falls into a trap when she thinks she has to marry Edgar to become someone:

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I’ve no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in heaven; and if the wicked man in there had not brought Heathcliff so low, I shouldn’t have thought of it. It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now. --- Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same; and Linton’s is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire. (Brontë 80)

Her action in this case is a result of several different things; Hindley’s treatment of Heathcliff and the encounter with Edgar Linton. Brontë makes the reader believe that Catherine is guided by pride and her wish to rise in rank, which puts her in a bad light. These actions are signs of civilization and culture and in the novel nothing good comes out of it. Catherine wishes for something else during the time she is at the Thrushcross Grange. The fact that she now is “the greatest woman in the neighbourhood” (Brontë 78) does not help her much.

When the two families meet, the Lintons’ seem to be too mawkish and patronizing. This is very clear when Heathcliff and the Lintons’ meet at Wuthering Heights to organize the return of Catherine from Thrushcross Grange. Catherine has changed and she laughs at Heathcliff and tells him that she thinks he looks “very black and cross --- and how funny and grim!”(Brontë 58) Heathcliff feels offended and defends himself by saying, “You needn’t have touched me! I shall be as dirty as I please; and I like to be dirty, and I will be dirty.”

(Brontë 58) After Heathcliff’s outburst Mrs Linton accepts an invitation to the Heights for Christmas dinner on the conditions that “her darlings might be kept apart from that naughty, swearing boy”.

From the beginning the author leads the story to a point where nature is portrayed positively. As the story develops an alteration of attitude is perceptible. Heathcliff’s appearance is never depicted in flattering terms. The author shows him to be evil. Catherine however, is changed. The first Catherine never stops dreaming of the moors and freedom but

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her daughter, Catherine Linton, has other features that are allowed to overtake the almost egoistical ones that fill her mother. She is, just like the second generation at Wuthering Heights, more humble and respectful to other people. In a way she is a perfect blending of both nature and civilization. She can be sulky if she is stopped in her actions, but at the same time she is burning with curiosity to learn about her neighbourhood and she wants other people to be happy and always makes it her responsibility to help her friends when they feel depressed. Her curiosity and her love of adventure, which she has inherited from her mother, force her to go on an excursion to the hills and to a cave she has heard of. Near the cave she happens to meet with Heathcliff and she becomes a frequent visitor to his home. This is an acquaintance which her father has tried to keep her away from since she was born. When Linton Heathcliff is sick and unhappy, lying at Wuthering Heights, Catherine II offers defiance to the prohibition her father has set up for her. She sneaks out when nobody watches her and rides to the Heights to talk and read to Linton. Her conscience makes her stand up against her father, who she loves and honours very much.

The change that has occurred in favour of civilization by the birth of Catherine Linton can be seen in this contact between the two elements, nature and civilization. When the first Catherine came to know the Lintons’ everything became chaotic; Edgar’s and Isabella’s parents died and Isabella’s life became a disaster when she ran off with Heathcliff. Even Catherine I died of a broken heart, as she put it herself. This time when the two families interact, a lot of things are different. When Catherine has married her cousin Linton and moved in at Wuthering Heights she is treated very badly. She is locked up in a room at Wuthering Heights to prevent her from seeing her father before he dies. She offers Linton everything she has to make him unlock the door, but he informs her that he already owns it since they are married. The very moment the change in direction occurs, is when she gets to know that Heathcliff has planned the marriage between the youths in order to be able to take

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over the Grange. Linton’s true personality is suddenly obvious to her. She pushes Linton so he hurts himself and shrieks, which frightens her and therefore she gives him a picture of her mother which she has in a gold box round her neck. This is the moment when she breaks with the past and begins to form a new life.

She gets to know Hareton and they start to make changes at the Heights. This is a real challenge for them because both Heathcliff and Joseph are against what they are doing.

Joseph becomes mad when they plant some flowers in his garden and Heathcliff does not approve when Hareton is taught how to read by Catherine. Heathcliff fades out and comes closer to death; he does not participate in the family life as he used to by yelling and ordering people to and fro. During his visits to the kitchen he just stares at the walls and talks to himself. Suddenly one night he dies and with him dies the last existing element of nature.

Hareton and Catherine, who are left at Wuthering Heights, let warmth and light come into the house again. This ending of the novel seems to favour civilization, but considering the fate of Heathcliff and Catherine I, other thoughts are brought to the surface. These two persons, who represent nature, also find happiness when they finally have their freedom together in death.

This makes it difficult to decide whether Brontë favours nature or civilization. A conclusion might be that she thought that both elements were needed in order for society to work.

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3. Conclusion

Emily Brontë’s novel Wuthering Heights is complex in the sense that it is possible to interpret it in several different ways. This essay has examined three themes which can be seen in the novel: the social class angle, the gender approach and nature versus civilization.

Brontë gives the characters features that makes the reader reflect on the contents of her story. The way she describes the characters without any thought of which sex he or she belongs to, signifies her opinion about men and women being equal, at least in regards to their feelings. Catherine II becomes the owner of two estates. As land was of great importance for a person’s social situation this inheritance of Catherine’s placed her at the same level as many men, which can show that Emily Brontë thought that a woman was capable to take on the same responsibilities as a man, and therefore had the right to be economically equal as well.

Her contribution to the discussion about class is illustrated by the Earnshaws and the Lintons. She discusses the matter from a human perspective more than from an economic one.

Her opinion is that a man’s or a woman’s actions are not the result of being born in the right social class; it is a matter of inner qualities which no clothes or buildings at all can have an influence on.

It is not easy to decide which of the elements triumphs; nature or civilization. Brontë does not avoid the things that are bad when she writes about either nature or civilization. Nature can be seen as beautiful but also too harsh and evil and civilization is beautiful too, but often cold and weak. In my opinion Brontë favours a mixture of the two elements, which is embodied in the characters of Catherine Linton and Hareton Earnshaw. Each of the two characters has developed; Catherine from being a prejudiced and bad mannered person, to becoming a kind and understanding woman. Hareton has dared to show his nice and caring personality. They are dependent on each other to make these changes which show that nature

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and civilization are both needed to build a functioning society or, for that matter, a good human being.

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References

Main source

Brontë, Emily, Wuthering Heights, (Berkshire: Penguin: 1994) ISBN 0-14-062012-5

Secondary sources

Burgess, Anthony, English Literature, Essex: Pearson Education, 1974 ISBN 0-582-55224-9 Fraiman, Susan, “Unbecoming Women, British women writers and the novel of

development”, Gender and Culture, New York: Colombia U P: 1993 ISBN 0-231-08001-8 Moers, Ellen, Literary Women, London: The women’s P: 1986 ISBN 0-7043-3825-4 Thompson, Nicola Diane, Reviewing Sex, Gender and the Reception of Victorian Novels, London: Macmillan P: 1996 ISBN 0-333-62217-0

The World Wide Web

Landow, George P, Newman on the Gentleman, http://www.victorianweb.org/vn/victor10.html

Oates, Joyce Carol, The Magnanimity of Wuthering Heights, http://storm.usfca.edu/~southerr/wuthering.html

Wohl, Anthony S, The Function of Racism in Victorian England, http://www.victorianweb.org/history/race/victor9.html

Wohl, Anthony S, Race and Class Prejudice and the Childlike;

http://www.victorianweb.org/history/race/rc4.html

Wohl, Anthony S, Victorian Racism, http://www.victorianweb.org/history/race/rc5.html

as illustrated in Wuthering Heights

B A C H E L O R T H E S I S

Criticism of Social Conventions and View of Nature and Civilization