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Eric keefauver

Ms. Winter

British-Literature/Period 1

03 May 2017

Looking At The Treatment Of The Other In Wuthering Heights

Throughout Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte portrays characters that have morals and

show moral purity, however she also portrays characters that through manipulation in a sense

destroy others morals. The purpose of this paper is to show how gender in the victorian era

played the biggest role when deciphering ones morals. Also how the treatment of the other leads

up to certain characters deaths In the novel Wuthering Heights. However, when looking at

factual evidence from the text its very hard to determine who exactly the other is. When

looking at outside sources one can get a grip for who exactly falls under the category of the

other and why such horrible treatment of the other leads to the death of certain characters

and the strength of other characters. Wuthering Heights has a lot of different messages. The

overall meaning of the book is to show the reader how some people overcome horrible treatment

and how some people dont. Also it gives insight on how gender plays a key role when

overcoming this abuse in the victorian era. The overall meaning of this paper is to show how

characters in Wuthering Heights had to experience hardships to move on in life; to show how

death was an escape from the hardships experienced.

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In the novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte there is significant evidence to show

how the treatment of Heathcliff plays the biggest role in how he treats others. This is best seen in

Wuthering Heights when Catherine says Poor Heathcliff! Hindley calls him a vagabond, and

won't let him sit with us, nor eat with us any more; and, he says, he and I must not play together,

and he threatens to turn him out of the house if we break his orders(Bronte, 27). This shows

why Heathcliff is incredibly ruthless because in the victorian era to be successful meant to be

ruthless. Through abuse Heathcliff learned this at a young age. Being called a vagabond and

treated like a dog either will break you down or make you a ruthless person in this case it made

Heathcliff ruthless. The fact that Hindley showed such hatred towards Heathcliff and never any

affection made Heathcliff treat others the way he was treated. This is best portrayed when

Hindley became tyrannical. A few words from her, evincing a dislike to Heathcliff, were

enough to rouse in him all his old hatred of the boy(Bronte, 49). This foreshadows how

Heathcliff will become later in the novel because it shows how even though Hindley became

wiser with age he still had this hatred for Heathcliff. In the article The problem of Heathcliff

by Paul Cheetham Heathcliff's character is examined and with age Heathcliff becomes wiser but

he still entails the same hatred as his adversary Hindley. This is best seen when Paul Cheetham

says Admittedly, after Mr Earnshaw's death he experiences degrading treatment at the hands of

Hindley, but, like Iago in Othello, the revenge he subsequently takes seems out of all proportion

to the wrong he has suffered. He drives Hindley quite deliberately to an early death(Cheetham).

This goes to show the mindset of Heathcliff because Hindley who treated him with such

disregard and hatred is the one Heathcliff is becoming. Also Heathcliff drives several other

characters to their Dearth throughout the novel. Although Heathcliff does not intentionally do
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this in some cases he is ultimately responsible for the mishaps occurring at Wuthering Heights.

The horrible treatment of Heathcliff's friends and family by him is best seen when Paul

Cheetham says he treats his own son abominably and does nothing to save him from a highly

premature death; he probably would have ended up killing Isabella, had she not had the wit and

guts to run away, and he sets out to corrupt and degrade Hareton(Cheetham). Heathcliff doesn't

realize that the degrading acts he commits against his family are the same acts that were

committed against him by Hindley. Through the horrible treatment of the other Heathcliff finds

satisfactory because he feels empowered by the endeavoring acts of ultimately killing his family

members through a life of turmoil.

How Gender and the cultural embodiment of the victorian ideology by Catherine lead to

her relationship with Heathcliff being toxic. Catherine is in fact one who showed a sense of

moral purity early on in the novel. This is best seen in Wuthering Heights when Catherine says

Poor Heathcliff! Hindley calls him a vagabond, and won't let him sit with us, nor eat with us

any more(Bronte, 27). This shows that gender plays a key role when talking about one's morals

in the victorian age because Catherine shows a sense of sympathy for Heathcliff. Whereas

Hindley sees him as a person who wanders from place to place, with no sense of home. However

Catherine is quick to deteriorate because her lack of ruthlessness and because she has a sense of

morals. This is best portrayed when Lockwood says I require to be let alone! exclaimed

Catherine, furiously. I demand it! Don't you see I can scarcely stand(Bronte, 117). The way

Emily Bronte writes Wuthering Heights is very unique in portraying the victorian ideology. This

is best seen in the article Conflicting impulses in Wuthering Heights when Thomas Moser says

The two most distinctive features of the design of Wuthering Heights are its multiple narrators
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who cause the chronological involutions and its two generations of love triangles(Moser). This

is very interesting when looking at the Victorian era because giving Wuthering Heights multiple

narrators gives the reader insight on how gender has an affect on the way certain characters are

portrayed throughout the novel. However, Emily Bronte apparently tried to disguise the truth

from herself. The large body of evidence suggesting that Emily Bront felt Heathcliff to be pure

sexual force lies just beneath the surface, in a series of scenes involving Heathcliff, Cathy, and,

in most cases, an ineffectual male(Moser). This goes to show how Emily Bronte manipulated

certain characters fates because of her ideology during this time period. This gives insight on

why Hindley, Heathcliff, and Hareton are ruthless in their demeanor and why characters like

Nelly, Catherine, and little Cathy have a sense of moral purity. This is best portrayed in

Wuthering Heights when Catherine says If I were in heaven, Nelly, I should be extremely

miserable. All sinners would be miserable in Heaven(Bronte, 82). This shows that Catherine has

some sort of morals because she sees that she has committed sin and almost sounds eager to

repent. This embodies the ideology of the victorian era because it shows that want to be pure and

through the female character achieving this purity or maintaining it is vital to the survival of

females in this era.

The culture of the victorian era was very gender dominant. Through this dominance

Emily Bronte portrays how certain characters embody the beliefs of the victorian era while at the

same time revolt against it. This is best seen in the article The Myth and Reality in Wuthering

Heights when Joanne Blum Says The relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff, prior to

their co-optation by social forms, represents the double in pure form: an ideal image which,

because of its defiance of gender, is innately antithetical to patriarchal culture(Blum). This

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shows how when writing this novel Emily Bronte created this relationship between Catherine

and Heathcliff to express and embody the victorian ideology and at the same time defy this

ideology through the relations of Catherine and Heathcliff being complete gender opposites.

Joanne Blum also portrays the lack of physical interaction between Catherine and Heathcliff

showing that the characters never actually have a physical relationship. This is Best seen when

Joanne Blum says Their connection appears to be too intense to accommodate the limitations

of physical interaction(Blum). This is very significant because these two are suppose to be

madly in love but have no physical relationship. Emily Bronte created this relationship as a

message to the early generation of the victorian era. This is best portrayed in the article

Breeding the Human Animal in Wuthering Heights when Barbara Munson Goff says

Wuthering Heights became a responsible piece of work, once Bront began to see it as a way to

alert her own Early Victorian generation to the dangers of rapid social and ecological

change(Goff). This goes to show how gender and the roles each gender plays in the victorian

era. It also acted as propaganda during the victorian era teaching young females to follow the

ideology of the victorian era and not fall victim to the treatment of the other as seen when

looking at the character Heathcliff. Also Emily Bronte focuses on how the treatment of certain

characters brings out abnormal behavior in other characters. This is best seen in the article

Breeding the Human Animal in Wuthering Heights when Barbara Munson Goff says Edgar

Linton, for example, can only bring himself to confront Heathcliff with the accommodation of "a

brace of pistols" and a goon squad of peasants. Only the vicious taunting of his mate is sufficient

stimulus to bring out the "animal" in him, and a power beyond his control forces him to go for

Heathcliff's jugular(Goff). This shows how certain treatment leads to animalistic like acts such
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as going for ones jugular. Also it gives insight on how Edgar linton was ultimately trying to

protect his lover from a toxic relationship with Heathcliff and how his treatment of the other had

its toll on Catherine ultimately leading up to her death. Catherine was ultimately trapped living a

life of isolation she is easily comparable to the blessed Damozel. This is best seen in the

Blessed Damozel when Dante Gabriel Rossetti says She gazed and listened and then said, less

sad of speech than mild, She ceased. The light thrilled towards her, filld with angels in strong

level flight(Lines 133-38). Catherine is comparable because the blessed Damozel lives a life of

entrapment and through death finds escape and happiness just like Catherine in Wuthering

Heights. Also the Madwoman in the Attic by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar gives insight on

the female poet in the Victorian era which shows why Emily Bronte chose to portray Heathcliff

and Catherine as complete gender opposites with different moral standards who are in love. This

is best portrayed when Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar say In order to understand literature by

women the images of angel and Monster have been so ubiquitous throughout literature by men

that they have also pervaded womens writing to such an extent that few women have

definitively killed either figure(Gilbert, Gubar). This goes to show why Emily Bronte portrayed

Heathcliff as a character who through oppression overcame a harsh life and in turn made others

lifes harder based on his own hardships.

In conclusion Wuthering Heights has portrayed through multiple viewpoints the major

impact of gender when deciphering one's moral purity. The main focus of this paper is to show

the dominating effect of gender in the victorian era and how horrible treatment of the so called

other leads to the uprising and downfall of certain characters. However, many arguments can be

made about gender normality in the victorian era and how the treatment of the other played a key
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role in the establishing of these arguments. The main focus of this paper is to show the reader

from the perspective of myself how gender and treatment of certain characters shaped the novel

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.

The blessed Damozel is a very interesting painting with a lot of different meanings,

however one can connect the blessed damozel to catherine from wuthering heights because they

both live a life of isolation and through death find freedom. The blessed damozel also seems to

have influence on the moral purity of others in the poem and painting. This can also be

connected to Catherine because Catherine showed a sense of moral purity early on in the novel.
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1. Moser, Thomas. "What Is the Matter with Emily Jane? Conflicting Impulses in

Wuthering Heights." Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism, edited by Jessica

Bomarito and Russel Whitaker, vol. 165, Gale, 2006. Literature Resource Center,

go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=LitRC&sw=w&u=eldorado&v=2.1&id=GALE%7C

H1420071154&it=r&asid=bc6f8503b1087df16ed69abfd31e9632. Accessed 26

Apr. 2017. Originally published in Nineteenth-Century Fiction, vol. 17, no. 1,

June 1962, pp. 1-19.

2. Goff, Barbara Munson. "Between Natural Theology and Natural Selection:

Breeding the Human Animal in Wuthering Heights." Nineteenth-Century

Literature Criticism, edited by Jessica Bomarito and Russel Whitaker, vol. 165,

Gale, 2006. Literature Resource Center,

go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=LitRC&sw=w&u=eldorado&v=2.1&id=GALE%7C

H1420071160&it=r&asid=01f7ec54bc8922d7765b96d8b06e21a5. Accessed 26

Apr. 2017. Originally published in Victorian Studies, vol. 27, no. 4, Summer

1984, pp. 477-508.

3. Cheetham, Paul. "Wuthering heights: the problem of Heathcliff: Paul Cheetham

considers the hero at the heart of Emily Brontes novel." The English Review, vol.
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20, no. 1, 2009, p. 2+. Literature Resource Center,

go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=LitRC&sw=w&u=eldorado&v=2.1&id=GALE%7C

A208587499&it=r&asid=1d9a3de5fde6d5c9c6962e22a8da9e93. Accessed 27

Apr. 2017.

4. Blum, Joanne. "The Myth and the Reality in Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre."

Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism, edited by Russel Whitaker and Anna J.

Sheets, vol. 192, Gale, 2008. Literature Resource Center,

go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=LitRC&sw=w&u=eldorado&v=2.1&id=GALE%7C

H1420081369&it=r&asid=d59c8fa14fd295d330c10f17c5e83328. Accessed 28

Apr. 2017. Originally published in Transcending Gender: The Male/Female

Double in Women's Fiction, UMI Research Press, 1988, pp. 11-24.

5. Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar. The Madwoman in the Attic: the Woman

Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination. The Madwoman in the

Attic: the Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination, Yale

University Press, New Haven, 1984.

6. Rossetti, Dante Gabriel. The Blessed Damozel. PoemHunter.org, 31 Dec. 2002,

www.poemhunter.org/poem/the-blessed-damozel/. Accessed 10 May 2017.

7. Bront, Emily. Wuthering Heights .. London: n.p., 1847. Print.

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8. The Blessed Damozel. Brooklyn, 1886,

www.bing.org/cr?IG=13B2AAD6BD654D979EA48E6B337214B2&CID=398EB

3287361647039E1B95A72F165B7&rd=1&h=Q5gA7i3ZVWChpBDGpIqE9CBE

lOt8b6IW64jAhb1PYlU&v=1&r=https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollecti

on/objects/125615/The_Blessed_Damozel%3A_Signature&p=DevEx,5063.1.