Christian Salas

9/14/2009

Period 2

Status of women in Wuthering Heights

The novel, Wuthering Heights, Is based on the role of women in the early 18th

century. Women are portrayed as failures; they are unable to negotiate circumstance to

provide their own happiness in life. They are destined to always be victims of

circumstance, society and servitude. This is what some people refer to as the “Social

Hierarchy.” This is distinct from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, where classes

determine your behaviors and ways of communication. Although you can say that they

have some sort of power over men, but is no where near greater than the power of men,

they have their love.

The novel Wuthering Heights is about the status in women in the early 18th

century. Women are thought to be nothing better than men. In fact they were thought to

have no rights at all. In the story Catherine is woman who dies for love. She is caught

between two of her loves, Edgar and Heathcliff. Is it really for the love or is it something

else, there just might be another side to love.

This story is very close the story called, Pride and Prejudice. In Austen’s book she

writes that sometimes class has to do with everything. It can affect your behavior, attitude

and ways of communication. Lower classes tend to have no education compared to a

higher class that most likely will have education. Like I said these are all factors that

affect the way that you act and talk.

 “…by law virtually all of a women’s property became her husband’s upon

marriage…”, “Reader, I married Him” by Daniel Pool. Have you ever thought that there

is another side to love. Maybe, just maybe, all this time it has been about something else.

Does trading something in return for a service sound familiar? It’s as though all of this is

a sort of business. So is it really about the love or is it something else.

Love is not true, women are not free. Who has ever heard of a man who stays true

to his wife. Neither its nor our fault this is how we were born. We can change the way we

are. Women did not have the same rights as men. To day we still do not know why this is.

“…love is brutal…”, Gilbert B. Cross says. What Heathcliff do this for the love or was he

solely trying to ruin the Earnshaw’s and take control.

Maybe not all the time can this apply there are some who believe that women are

free. They have full control over their destiny. They can choose what they want and what

they do not. They are not dominated by men, they say. Class has nothing to do with this. I

say they are wrong. They do not see things in a realistic point of view. Even today we do

not see any equality with men and women. This is something that we have all been

struggling with for the past centuries. This does not guarantee your future things can

always change.