Hybridity Flourishes and Genres Bloom
“Wuthering Heights” is a Gothic fiction novel that was first published in 1847.
The Gothic genre was evolving since the seventeenth century, it has been associated with the occurrences of the supernatural presence as well as actions of ruthless barbarous characters, like “Wuthering Heights” and other contemporary novels of its time, the Gothic genre flourished in the late eighteenth century. The Gothic had been transformed into a kind of psychological horror, with the extension of ideas of immortality and the focus on the psychological development of man and Romantic ideas influenced the Gothic genre, in the sense that is not merely horror (portrayal of ghosts and demons) However the genre had been taken as a tool for exploring the human psyche and human limitation. (Baldick 2004)
The Gothic mode is depicted in the dialogues of “Wuthering Heights”, it conveys a horrific feeling of mystery, strangeness and terror from the unknown. Through scientific progress in psychology people have found new means to fashion their Gothic modes. John Mullan (2014) conducted a research “The Origins of Gothic” in his article he illustrates the collaboration of the Gothic genre with other themes in the late eighteenth century. Many authors were influenced by the founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud, his studies of the uncanny experiences had been adopted under the term “Horror” and linked it with reasons of childhood trauma and the unfamiliarity in what is known and vice versa. Emily Bronte employed this aspect of horror in “Wuthering Heights”. Bronte and other contemporary authors published Gothic Fiction during the Victorian era.
The diction, mode, settings and atmosphere of the begging of the novel is primarily Gothic.
For instance, Lockwood’s text; ”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 till the blood ran down and soaked the bedclothes…" (Bronte, 2009)
The Gothic houses and settings of “Wuthering Heights”, the appearance of ghosts and the instruments of gloomy, windy and stormy weather, is revealed in Lockwood’s narration that prevails the haunting of the house and it is most adequately suited to be narrated by a newly visitor from abroad, who goes through a series of frightening events in a mysterious old house. The sense of mystery conveys Gothic feelings which shows the novel as a place of secrets and no matter how many rooms we open, the secrets are never revealed. (Nicola, et al, 2012)
Heathcliff’s character, along with the exposition of the parallelism of abroad, all fall under the Gothic umbrella. Nevertheless, every element in Bronte’s technique works towards collapsing the Gothic genre to fruit out a new concept and a perspective that challenges her readers. Heathcliff is a hybrid character, dynamic yet never develops, he may be familiar to the Bildungsroman character development, however his Gothic characteristics drifts him away from the development into a virtuous character.(Anonymous, 2009)
Readers are inclined in to believe that his viciousness will eventually turn into virtue, but he turns out to be an utter disappointment to the readers and characters among him. His absence from Wuthering Heights was seen as potential to transform, but Bronte deliberately puts him on the scale of gradable viciousness, ultimately representing the Gothic hero/villain, this hints to the fearful abroad, Heathcliff’s ambiguity is shaped from his childhood abroad, and the travel during his adulthood thus reshapes him again as finally and officially a villainous character. This in turn, brings back the novel under the Gothic genre with Heathcliff uncanny characteristics, exposing the unfamiliarity of abroad within the heart of home and vice versa. (Nicola, et al, 2012)
The relationship between the characters reveal them as Gothic heroes and heroines, they torment each other, there’s love and there’s also jealousy, vengeance, cruelty and prejudice. Inspite of Heathcliff’s sinister character, other characters seem to be as equally declined of compassion. Isabella Linton, Edgar Linton and young Cathy, lack any kind of sympathy for Heathcliff, but what is a shocking exposition to themselves, is that they lack sympathy with one another.
Although Isabella’s naivety to leave with Heathcliff may present her as ignorant of his evil intention, she betrays the Victorian domestic rules as well as her brother Linton. Yet she comes to an understanding of what Catherine had told her about Heathcliff.
“Nelly, help me to convince her of her madness. Tell her what Heathcliff is — an unreclaimed creature, without refinement— without cultivation; an arid of wilderness of furze and whinstone.” However Isabella witnesses the revenge Heathcliff takes on Hindley when she goes to Wuthering Heights. Isabella’s story turns into a Gothic novel.
In addition to Edgar’s over protective way of raising his daughter Cathy who runs away to Wuthering Heights may also have converted a wild experience into a Gothic one, she encounters Heathcliff that holds her captive in Wuthering Heights, the revelation of the brutality of characters within and outside of home to one another is subsequent to every action made. (Oda, 2010)
The cycle of torture and the grotesque characteristics that works as a revelation to their Gothic treatments to one another. One which may be originally birthed in Heathcliff by Hindley’s oppression. Where in the latter he seems to project their inner and most cruel, brutal and dark selves.
The Gothic often deals with the supernatural and is highly influenced by the horrors of the unknown, Romanticism then orbits the same concept, in the sense that it makes an effort into exploring these areas on a Romantic level. (Baldick 2004)
Romanticism and the Gothic collaborate together in Heathcliff’s character.
Similarly in the the novel, the example of grave yard poetry, or Heathcliff’s dramatic monologue, Heathcliff is prevailed as a Byronic hero, however he turns into a Romantic hero after Catherine’s death. Helen Small asserts in the novel’s introduction: “Wuthering Heights is pervaded by the diction and imagery of high Romanticism, especially the writings of Shelley, Byron and Scott, it is thoroughly infused with them that the prose seems occasionally to take the aspect of stylistic graveyard for that literary movement, even as it can lay claim to being the most vigorous continuation of Romanticism into Victorian fiction”. (Small, 2009) Small explains that Emily Bronte was inspired by Romantic poetry in her novel and it reflects in her characters and settings.
“Wuthering Heights” could be seen as a Gothic Romance, however its realism breaks boundaries of other themes to construct a debatable yet an ongoing argument about what women were ought to be in society. (Nicola, et al, 2012)
Bronte portrays all her female characters rebelling against the conventional idea of women loyal to the domestic sphere. For instance, she employs all her characters as a tool to deliver a message of injustice that was very alive during the Victorian era.
Catherine’s revolt and her love for nature and wilderness is indeed a message that draws Victorian readers to sympathize with her, and her decision to marry Edgar to pursue a Victorian like marriage. Bronte portrays Catherine as a torn soul that wants to serve society and be with Heathcliff, to show her Victorian readers the result of women’s deprivation of self expression and the conventional power that forces them to have a uniform conception of perfectionist Victorian ladies. Thus the controversiality shows the argument of disregard to the will and freedom of women. (Shultz, 2018)
In the light of Gilbert and Gubar’s reading of “Wuthering Heights” they highlight that Catherine’s own character and her fierce personality was existent before her encounter with Heathcliff. Catherine asked her father to bring her a whip as a present from his journey abroad, Gilbert and Gubar see Catherine here as a child representing her most natural and true self, telling her father what she honestly desires, her request indicates her wilderness and love for the untamed nature that domineers.
Catherine’s choice does not only portray her as a wild child, but also loving and accepting herself as loving the freedom that separates her from the class and gender restrictions that she only knew when she grew up and had to understand later.
However all the female characters in the novel are born idealistic Victorians then break away from the rules and rebel against their family’s will. However Gilbert and Gubar see Catherine unlike the rest of the female characters, as falling from hell into heaven, a woman who tried to transform herself into an angelic obedient wife in Thrushcross Grange, but due to suppression of her own deprivation of being wild she chose hell “Wuthering Heights” because it defines her. (Gilbert and Gubar, 2000, cited in Fabijanić, 2017, p.11)
In addition to the female subjugation in the Victorian era, there is also another slice of reality in the sequence of events. The context of the novel seems to adapt a stable current of realism, it may not be described as fully Gothic because it depicts many surprising realities. What is mostly brutal and cruel about the novel, which repulses its readers, that yet it is Gothic, it is also real.
The novel can not be described as fully Gothic because the sense of realism is depicted in the contextual organization of the novel.
The most famous Marxist analyst Terry Eagelton monitored Marxism as a center reality within the novel, he explain how the novel revolves around the race of power in “Myths of Power: A Marxists Study of the Brontes”. Beside Heathcliff’s travel abroad draws the connection of a travel to the lands of capitalism and exploitation of the empires to minor colonies and proletariats, Eagelton also sees that Catherine’s choice to marry Edgar as an abstract allusion of choosing financial and social security. Eagelton critically criticizes Catherine for her betrayal of the true passionate love with Heathcliff and asserts that it is a common capitalist notion to choose the strong over the weak, regardless of true love. In consequence it settles the context beneath an ideological spectrum that reshaped such minds in the Victorian era.
To conclude, the novel compels the reader by channeling a sense of displacement. However, Emily Bronte’s aim was to assign questionable and argumentative topics within the context of her novel, she was able to construct a world of themes that collaborate to influence her readers. The Gothic may be the most obvious mode but it also cooperates with other elements such as feminism, Romanticism or in a world far beyond the theme of home like Marxism. She is seen to dispose of all the rules of writing within the Gothic genre, by revealing her characters in their natural state, at the same time she delivers the brutal truths and dramatic endings in the novel that contribute to realism.
References:
Anonymous. (2009) To What Extent do Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre Conform to the idea of the bildungsroman? https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-extent-do-wuthering-heights-jane-eyre-81169. Accessed 20 Nov. 2019.
Bronte, E. Jack,I. Small,H. (2009) Wuthering Heights. New York. Oxford University Press. Baldick, C. 2004. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Second edition. NewYork. Oxford University Press.
Eagelton,T. (2015). Myth of Power: A Marxist Study of the Brontes. London. PALGRAVE Macmillan. Fabijanić,K. (2017). Two Catherines as Feminist Role Models in Wuthering Heights. UNIVERSITY OF RIJEKA. PDF https://repository.ffri.uniri.hr/islandora/object/ffri%3A1458/datastream/PDF/view. Accessed:14 November 2019.
Mullan, J. 2014. The origins of gothic. British library https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-origins-of-the-gothic. Accessed: 10 November 2019.
Nicola,W. Towheed,S.(2012) Romantics and Victorians. London, Bloomsbury Academic. Oda,Y. (2010).
Emily Brontë and the Gothic: Female Characters in Wuthering Heights. Revue LISA/LISA e-journal [En ligne]. https://journals.openedition.org/lisa/3496 Accessed: 21/11/2019.
Shultz, J. 2018. Feminism and Familiarity: Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights. ResearchGate. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329103710_Feminism_and_Familiarity_Emily_Bronte's_Wuthering_Heights. Accessed: 14 November 2019.
Research by Maha Helmy
