The Literature Book

135

Wuthering Heights did not enjoy

immediate success when it was

published in 1847, perhaps because

Victorian sensibilities could not

cope with its unbridled passion

and cruelty. But the tide of public

opinion turned when later critics

championed the novel. An essay on

the work by English writer Virginia

Woolf in 1916 marked a shift in how

the text was interpreted. Woolf

describes the book as being like a

fairy tale or myth that is timeless

in nature. This perspective on

the novel became popular and is

current today; however, it tends to

ignore or diminish the significance

of Brontë’s use of gothic literary

conventions in her narrative, and

her work’s own relationship with

the literature and issues of its time.

Gothic themes

What is particularly striking about

Wuthering Heights is the way that

it adapts Victorian gothic themes.

Other contemporary writers, such

as Charles Dickens, used gothic

elements within realist novels,

thus deepening the themes, style,

and meanings associated with

earlier gothic literature. Instead

of the crumbling medieval castle,

for example, Dickens portrayed

teetering urban landscapes, rife

with poverty and exploitation. In

place of the terrifying manor house,

with its victimized inhabitants

within, Dickens presented the

horrifying abuse that occurred

in the gloomy London streets

outside the home.

Brontë took things further than

Dickens, expanding on gothic

literary traditions through the

character of Heathcliff, who is

brought to the house of Wuthering

Heights as a boy. When he arrives

in the household, and indeed

throughout the story, he is referred

to as a “gypsy.” For the Victorians,

the word “gypsy” had several

connotations: it indicated someone

of a different race, and it was also

used as an insult for someone who

was homeless, a wanderer, and

therefore to be feared.

Brontë’s more complex take on

the gothic is also evident in her

portrayal of the conflicts within

her characters’ minds. Catherine,

for example, when forced to choose

between Heathcliff and Linton,

does not sleep for three days and

is unable to distinguish between

imagination and reality.

Victorian respectability

Racial difference and working-

class poverty were significant

concerns for the Victorians.

They fashioned their ideas of

respectability and of English

national identity through the

idealized domestic space of the

middle-class home. For example,

Dickens himself often depicted

clichéd domestic scenes where the

respectability of the bourgeois ❯❯

See also: Jane Eyre 128–31 ■ Bleak House 14 6 – 49 ■ Oliver Twist 151 ■ Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque 152 ■

Great Expectations 198

ROMANTICISM AND THE RISE OF THE NOVEL

The house in Wuthering Heights is symbolic of the tumult of the story,

and of the emotional turmoil of its protagonists. Rather than functioning as a

place of refuge from the outside, the home is transformed into a gothic site of

abuse, fear, claustrophobia, exploitation, and oppression.

Terror made me cruel; and

finding it useless to attempt

shaking the creature off, I

pulled its wrist on to the broken

pane, and rubbed it to and fro

until the blood ran down and

soaked the bed-clothes.

Wuthering Heights

Familial

abuse

Patriarchal

oppression

Class

victimization

Confinement povertyFear of

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