Wuthering Heights Research Paper

“second birth”, so she had no understanding of what it feels like to become her own person and separate from her mother. Bronte subconsciously exhibited this in Wuthering Heights, as all mother figures die young or have unrealistic relationships with their children. Cathy, Catherine Linton’s mother, dies in childbirth. Isabella Linton, Heathcliff’s wife, runs away to give birth to their son, Linton, and eventually leaves Linton with Heathcliff. The only real mother-figure in the novel is Nelly Dean, the nanny who practically raises Catherine Linton. Bronte couldn’t write about realistic mother-daughter relationships because she never had one, so the fact that she lost her mother at a young age is very obvious in the novel. The third aspect …show more content…
For him, providing for four children was difficult because reverends made a very small salary. Bronte’s family had very little money and material possessions, which was hard on her not only for the simple lack of material goods, but because she was forced to grow up in a society that looked down on her. During the Victorian era, social class was a much greater divide than it is in today’s world. Upper class people tended to not even associate with the lower class, as they often felt superior. Since Emily grew up in the lower class, she felt the discrimination from the upper class first-hand and was able to accurately depict the frustrations of the lower class. Through the character’s of Catherine and Heathcliff, the two protagonists of the story, Bronte exhibits how the societal class structure separates people. In the novel, Catherine and Heathcliff grow up best friends and maintain a loving relationship throughout their lives. When Catherine meets the rich Edgar Linton, she decides that the only way for her to live a happy life is to marry him. Although Catherine really loves Heathcliff, she feels trapped by societal expectations to marry rich and become a classic “Victorian …show more content…
Their loss of self to fit into society is heartbreaking and Bronte uses the characters of Catherine and Heathcliff to show how society changes and shapes people. In Emily Bronte: Wuthering Heights, Patsy Stoneman deconstructs the “I am Heathcliff” scene, stating that the oneness of Catherine and Heathcliff is ruined when the two begin to become separate people: “The lovers’ union seems to exist in the present; but if we look more closely, we discover that in fact it occurred in the past, and only in the past, for even as Catherine proclaims her oneness with Heathcliff she and her lover have begun to be two.” (Stoneman p. 100). Bronte’s feelings toward the separation of classes are evident through her portrayal of Catherine and Heathcliff’s failed love story; the only thing keeping the two of them apart was the class system. By using psychoanalytic criticism, it is clear that most of the central themes in Wuthering Heights are based on Bronte’s real life. In a way, Bronte used the novel to create a place for herself in the world and allow people to understand the way that she felt during her

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