Editing Wuthering Heights (section)

== Influences ==

Brontë possessed an exceptional education of classical culture for a woman of the time. She was familiar with [[Greek tragedy|Greek tragedies]] and was a good Latinist.<ref>{{cite book |first=Edward |last=Chitham |title=The Genesis of Wuthering Heights: Emily Brontë at Work |publisher=Macmillan |location=London |year=1998 }}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Hagan|Wells|2008|p=84}}</ref> In addition she was especially influenced by the poets [[John Milton]] and [[William Shakespeare]].<ref>{{harvnb|Allott|1995|p=446}}</ref> There are echoes of and allusions to Shakespeare's tragedies, ''[[King Lear]]'', ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'', ''[[Macbeth]]'' and ''[[Hamlet]]'' in ''Wuthering Heights''.<ref>{{harvnb|Hagan|Wells|2008|p=82}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Reeve |first=Katherine|url=https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/explore-shakespeare/blogs/burying-madness-wuthering-heights-and-hamlet/ |title=Burying the Madness: Wuthering Heights and Hamlet|website=[[Shakespeare Birthplace Trust]]|date=2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Goldstone|first=Herbert |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/808342 |title=Wuthering Heights Revisited |journal=The English Journal |date=1959|volume=48 |issue=4 |publisher= National Council of Teachers of English |page=185|doi=10.2307/808342 |jstor=808342 }}</ref>

Another major source of information for the [[Brontë family|Brontës]] was the periodicals that their father read, the ''[[Leeds Intelligencer]]'' and ''Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine''.<ref>{{harvnb|Drabble|1996|p=136}}</ref> ''[[Blackwood's Magazine]]'' provided knowledge of world affairs and was a source of material for the Brontës' early writing.<ref>{{cite journal|first=James |last=Macqueen|title= Geography of Central Africa. Denham and Clapperton's Journals |journal=Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine |volume= 19 |date=June 1826 |issue=113 |pages=687–709}}</ref> Emily Brontë was probably aware of the debate on [[Evolution (biology)|evolution]]. This debate had been launched in 1844 by [[Robert Chambers (publisher, born 1802)|Robert Chambers]]. It raised questions of divine providence and the violence which underlies the universe and relationships between living things.<ref>An excellent analysis of this aspect is offered in Davies, Stevie, ''Emily Brontë: Heretic''. London: The Women's Press, 1994, {{ISBN|978-0704344013}}.</ref>

[[Romanticism]] was also a major influence, which included the [[Gothic novel]], the novels of [[Walter Scott]]<ref>[[Elizabeth Gaskell]] ''[[The Life of Charlotte Brontë]]'', London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1857, p.104.</ref> and the poetry of [[Byron]]. The Brontës' fiction is seen by some feminist critics as prime examples of [[Female Gothic]]. It explores the domestic entrapment and subjection of women to [[patriarchal authority]], and the attempts to subvert and escape such restriction. Emily Brontë's Cathy Earnshaw and Charlotte Brontë's [[Jane Eyre (character)|Jane Eyre]] are both examples of female protagonists in such a role.<ref>{{cite book |first=Rosemary |last=Jackson |title=Fantasy: The Literature of Subversion |year=1981 |pages=123–29 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0415025621}}</ref>

According to [[Juliet Barker]], Walter Scott's novel ''[[Rob Roy (novel)|Rob Roy]]'' (1817) had a significant influence on ''Wuthering Heights'', which, though "regarded as the archetypal Yorkshire novel{{nbsp}}... owed as much, if not more, to Walter Scott's Border country". ''Rob Roy'' is set "in the wilds of [[Northumberland]], among the uncouth and quarrelsome squirearchical Osbaldistones", while Cathy Earnshaw "has strong similarities with Diana Vernon, who is equally out of place among her boorish relations".<ref>Ian Brinton. ''Bronte's Wuthering Heights Reader's Guides''. London : Continuum. 2010, p. 14. Quoting Barker, ''The Brontes''. London: Weidenfeld and Nicholas, 1994.</ref>

From 1833 Charlotte and Branwell's [[Brontë family#Literary evolution|Angrian tales]] began to feature [[Byronic hero]]es. Such heroes had a strong sexual magnetism and passionate spirit, and demonstrated arrogance and black-heartedness. The Brontës had discovered Byron in an article in ''Blackwood's Magazine'' from August 1825. Byron had died the previous year. Byron became synonymous with the prohibited and audacious.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Gérin |first=Winifred |year=1966 |title=Byron's influence on the Brontës |journal=Keats-Shelley Memorial Bulletin |volume=17}}</ref>

=== Romance tradition ===

Emily Brontë wrote in the [[Romance (literary fiction)|romance tradition of the novel]].<ref>{{harvnb|Doody|1997|page=1}}</ref> Walter Scott defined this as "a fictitious narrative in prose or verse; the interest of which turns upon marvellous and uncommon incidents".<ref name=ScottRomance1834p129>{{harvnb|Scott|1834|page=129}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Manning|1992|p=xxv}}</ref> Scott distinguished the ''romance'' from the ''novel'', where (as he saw it) "events are accommodated to the ordinary train of human events and the modern state of society".<ref>{{harvnb|Scott|1834|p=129}}</ref> Scott describes romance as a "kindred term" to novel. However, romances such as ''Wuthering Heights'' and Scott's own [[Historical novel|historical romances]] and [[Herman Melville]]'s ''[[Moby Dick]]'' are often referred to as novels.<ref name=Moers1978>{{harvnb|Moers|1978}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Manning|1992|pp=xxv–xxvii}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jan/13/100-best-novels-observer-moby-dick |first=Robert |last=McCrum |title=The Hundred best novels: Moby Dick |newspaper=The Observer |date=12 January 2014 }}</ref> Other European languages do not distinguish between romance and novel: "a novel is {{lang|fr|le roman}}, {{lang|de|der Roman}}, {{lang|it|il romanzo}}, {{lang|nl|en roman}}".<ref>{{harvnb|Doody|1997|p=15}}</ref> This sort of romance is different from the [[genre fiction]] love romance or [[romance novel]], with its "emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending".<ref>[https://www.rwa.org/Online/Romance_Genre/About_Romance_Genre.aspx#The Basics "About the Romance: The Basics".] [[Romance Writers of America]]</ref> Emily Brontë's approach to the novel form was influenced by the gothic novel.

==== Gothic novel ====
[[File:Heathcliff Under the Tree by Fritz Eichenberg (1943).jpg|thumb|upright|''Heathcliff Under the Tree'', wood engraving by [[Fritz Eichenberg]] from a 1943 edition]]
[[Horace Walpole]]'s ''[[The Castle of Otranto]]'' (1764) is usually considered the first gothic novel. Walpole's declared aim was to combine elements of the [[medieval romance]], which he deemed too fanciful, and the modern novel, which he considered to be too confined to strict [[Realism (arts)|realism]].<ref>{{cite book |first=David |last=Punter |year=2004 |title=The Gothic |location=London |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |page=178}}</ref>

More recently [[Ellen Moers]], in ''Literary Women'', developed a feminist theory that connects female writers such as Emily Brontë with [[gothic fiction]].<ref name=Moers1978 /> Catherine Earnshaw has been identified by some critics as a type of gothic demon because she "[[shape-shifts]]" in order to marry Edgar Linton, assuming a domesticity that is contrary to her true nature.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Beauvais |first=Jennifer |url=https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/ron/2006-n44-ron1433/013999ar/ |title=Domesticity and the Female Demon in Charlotte Dacre's Zofloya and Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights |journal=Romanticism on the Net |number=44 |date=November 2006  |doi=10.7202/013999ar}}</ref> It has also been suggested that Catherine's relationship with Heathcliff conforms to the "dynamics of the Gothic romance, in that the woman falls prey to the more or less demonic instincts of her lover, suffers from the violence of his feelings, and at the end is entangled by his thwarted passion".<ref>{{cite journal |first=Cristina |last=Ceron |url=http://lisa.revues.org/3504 |title=Emily and Charlotte Brontë's Re-reading of the Byronic hero |journal=Revue LISA/LISA e-journal, Writers, writings, Literary studies, document 2 |date=9 March 2010 |pages=1–14 |doi=10.4000/lisa.3504  |s2cid=164623107 |language=fr|doi-access=free }}</ref> See also the discussion of the daemonic below, under "Religion".

At one point in the novel Heathcliff is thought a vampire. It has been suggested that both he and Catherine are in fact meant to be seen as vampire-like personalities.<ref>{{cite book|last=Reed|first=Toni|url=https://archive.org/details/demonloverstheir00reed|title=Demon-lovers and Their Victims in British Fiction|date=30 July 1988|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|isbn=0813116635|page=[https://archive.org/details/demonloverstheir00reed/page/70 70]|quote=Wuthering Heights vampire.|access-date=30 July 2018|url-access=registration|via=Internet Archive}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Senf|first=Carol A |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RdqOAb5NA5wC&pg=PA78 |title=The Vampire in Nineteenth Century English Literature|date=1 February 2013|publisher=University of Wisconsin Pres |isbn=978-0-299-26383-6 |access-date=30 July 2018 |via=Google Books}}</ref>