Editing Wuthering Heights (section)

==Themes==

=== Morality ===

Some early [[Victorian era|Victorian]] reviewers complained about how ''Wuthering Heights'' dealt with violence and immorality. One called it "a compound of vulgar depravity and unnatural horrors".<ref name="Publication Stir"/>

Brontë was supposedly unaware of "the limits on polite expression" expected of Victorian novelists. Her characters use vulgar language, "cursing and swearing".<ref>Helen Small, "Introduction" to ''Wuthering Heights''. p. vii.</ref> Though the daughter of a curate, Brontë shows little respect for religion in the novel; the only strongly religious character in ''Wuthering Heights'' is Joseph, who is usually seen as satirizing "the joyless version of [[Methodism]] that the Brontë children were exposed to through their Aunt Branwell".<ref>Helen Small, "Introduction" to ''Wuthering Heights''. Edited by Ian Jack and Introduction and notes by Helen Small. Oxford University Press, 2009, p. vii.</ref> A major influence on how Brontë depicts amoral characters was the stories her father Patrick Brontë told, about "the doings" of people around Haworth that his parishioners told him, "stories which 'made one shiver and shrink from hearing' (Charlotte's friend Ellen Nussey reported)", which were "full of grim humour" and violence, stories Emily Brontë took "as a truth".<ref>Quoted in Winifred Gérin, ''Emily Brontë: A Biography'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1871), p. 37. Helen Small, "Introduction" to ''Wuthering Heights'', p. ix.</ref>

Shortly after Emily Brontë's death [[G.H. Lewes]] wrote in ''[[Leader Magazine]]'':

{{blockquote|Curious enough is to read ''Wuthering Heights'' and ''[[The Tenant of Wildfell Hall]]'', and remember that the writers were two retiring, solitary, consumptive girls! Books, coarse even for men, coarse in language and coarse in conception, the coarseness apparently of violence and uncultivated men – turn out to be the productions of two girls living almost alone, filling their loneliness with quiet studies, and writing their books from a sense of duty, hating the pictures they drew, yet drawing them with austere conscientiousness! There is matter here for the moralist or critic to speculate on.<ref>{{harvnb|Allott|1995|p=292}}</ref>}}

=== Religion ===

Emily Brontë attended church regularly and came from a religious family.<ref>{{cite web |last=Backholer |first=Paul |date=18 April 2022 |title=''Wuthering Heights'', Heathcliff, the Brontë Sisters, and their Faith in the Bible and Christianity |url=https://byfaith.org/2022/04/18/wuthering-heights-heathcliff-the-bronte-sisters-and-their-faith-in-the-bible-and-christianity/ |website=By Faith}}</ref> Emily "never as far as we know, wrote anything which overtly criticised conventional religion. But she also has the reputation of being a rebel and iconoclast, driven by a spirit more pagan than orthodox Christian."<ref>[https://www.bronte.org.uk/bronte-200/events/659/a-god-of-her-own-emily-bronte-and-the-religious-imagination/662 "Brontë 200 – A God of her Own: Emily Brontë and the Religious"]. Brontë Society</ref> [[Derek A. Traversi|Derek Traversi]], for example, sees in ''Wuthering Heights'' "a thirst for religious experience, 'which is not Christian'. It is this spirit which moves Catherine to exclaim, 'surely you and everybody have a notion that there is, or should be, an existence of yours beyond you. What were the use of my creation if I were entirely contained here?{{'"}} (Ch. IX).<ref name=RMM>[http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/novel_19c/wuthering/mystic.html "Emily Brontë – Religion, Metaphysic, and Mysticism"], [[City University of New York|cuny.edu]]</ref><ref>See also, Derek Traversi, "''Wuthering Heights'' after a Hundred Years". ''[[The Dublin Review]]''. 223 (445): 154ff. Spring 1949.</ref>

Thomas John Winnifrith, author of ''The Brontes and Their Background: Romance and Reality'' (Macmillan, 1977), argues that the allusions to Heaven and Hell are more than metaphors, and have a religious significance, because "for Heathcliff, the loss of Catherine is literally Hell{{nbsp}}... 'existence after losing her would be Hell' (Ch. xiv, p. 117)." Likewise, in the final scene between them, Heathcliff writhes "in the torments of Hell (XV)".<ref name=RMM />

==== Daemonic ====
The eminent German Lutheran theologian and philosopher [[Rudolph Otto]], author of ''[[The Idea of the Holy]]'', saw in ''Wuthering Heights'' "a supreme example of 'the [[Daimonic|daemonic]]' in literature".<ref>John W. Harvey, [https://books.google.com/books?id=saTUsMrBTUEC&pg=PR13 "Translator's Preface"] to ''The Idea of the Holy'' by [[Rudolph Otto]], Oxford University Press USA, 1958, p. xiii</ref> Otto links the "daemonic" with "a genuine religious experience".<ref>[https://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/gothic/numinous.html#gothic "Otto on the Numinous: The Connection of the Numinous and the Gothic"], [[City University of New York|cuny.edu]]</ref> Lisa Wang argues that in both ''Wuthering Heights'', and in her poetry, Emily Brontë concentrates on "the non-conceptual", or what Rudolf Otto<ref>See [[Rudolph Otto|R. Otto]], ''The Idea of the Holy'' (1923); 2nd ed., trans. J. W. Harvey (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1950) p. 5.</ref> has called 'the non-rational' aspect of religion{{nbsp}}... the primal nature of religious experience over and above its doctrinal formulations".<ref>{{cite journal|page=162|jstor=23924880 |title=The Holy Spirit in Emily Brontë's ''Wuthering Heights'' and Poetry |last1=Wang |first1=Lisa |journal=[[Literature and Theology]]|year=2000 |volume=14 |issue=2 |doi=10.1093/litthe/14.2.160 }}</ref> This corresponds with the dictionary meaning: "of or relating to an inner or attendant spirit, esp. as a source of creative inspiration or genius".<ref>''OED''{{full citation needed|date=September 2023}}</ref> This meaning was important to the [[Romanticism|Romantic]] movement.<ref>{{cite journal|pages=31–39 [31]|jstor=23240548 |title=Uses of the Daemon in Selected Works of Edgar Allan Poe |last1=Ljungquist |first1=Kent |journal=Interpretations |year=1980 |volume=12 |issue=1 }}</ref><ref>Nicholls, A. (2006). ''Goethe's Concept of the Daemonic: After the Ancients''. Boydell & Brewer.</ref>

However, the word ''daemon'' can also mean "a demon or devil", and that is equally relevant to Heathcliff,<ref>''OED''.</ref> whom Peter McInerney describes as "a Satanic [[Don Juan]]".<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1080/08905498008583178| title=Satanic conceits in ''Frankenstein'' and ''Wuthering Heights''| year=1980 | last1=McInerney | first1=Peter | journal=Milton and the Romantics | volume=4 | pages=1–15 }}</ref> Heathcliff is also "dark-skinned",<ref name="Onanuga">{{cite news|last=Onanuga|first=Tola|date=21 October 2011|title=Wuthering Heights realises Brontë's vision with its dark-skinned Heathcliff|newspaper=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2011/oct/21/wuthering-heights-film-heathcliff#maincontent|access-date=30 May 2020}}</ref> "as dark almost as if it came from the devil".<ref name="Brontë Chapter 4">{{cite book|last=Brontë|first=Emily|url=https://www.wuthering-heights.co.uk/wh/novel/html/chapter_04|title=Wuthering Heights|page=40|access-date=30 May 2020}}</ref> Likewise Charlotte Brontë described him "'a man's shape animated by demon life – a Ghoul – an Afreet'".<ref>[https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/who-is-heathcliff# John Bowen, "Who is Heathcliff?" (The novel 1832–1880) British Library online]</ref> In Arabian mythology an "afreet", or [[ifrit]], is a powerful jinn or demon.<ref>''OED''</ref> However, John Bowen believes that "this is too simple a view", because the novel presents an alternative explanation of Heathcliff's cruel and sadistic behaviour; that is, that he has suffered terribly: "is an orphan;{{nbsp}}... is brutalised by Hindley;{{nbsp}}... relegated to the status of a servant; Catherine marries Edgar".<ref>John Bowen, "Who is Heathcliff?"</ref>

=== Love ===

One 2007 British poll presented ''Wuthering Heights'' as the greatest love story of all time.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/aug/10/books.booksnews Marin Wainwright, "Emily hits heights in poll to find greatest love story". ''The Guardian'', 10 August 2007.]</ref> However, "some of the novel's admirers consider it not a love story at all but an exploration of evil and abuse".<ref name=Young/> [[Helen Small]] sees ''Wuthering Heights'' as being both "one of the greatest love stories in the English language" and at the same time one of the "most brutal revenge narratives".<ref>"Introduction" to ''Wuthering Heights''. Edited by Ian Jack and Introduction and notes by Helen Small. Oxford University Press, 2009, p. vii.</ref> Some critics suggest that reading ''Wuthering Heights'' as a love story not only "romanticizes abusive men and toxic relationships but goes against Brontë's clear intent".<ref name=Young/> Moreover, while a "passionate, doomed, death-transcending relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw Linton forms the core of the novel",<ref name=Young/> ''Wuthering Heights'':

{{blockquote|... consistently subverts the romantic narrative. Our first encounter with Heathcliff shows him to be a nasty bully. Later, Brontë puts in Heathcliff's mouth an explicit warning not to turn him into a Byronic hero: After{{nbsp}}... Isabella elop[es] with him, he sneers that she did so "under a delusion{{nbsp}}... picturing in me a hero of romance".<ref name=Young/>}}

"I am Heathcliff" is a frequently quoted phrase from the novel, and "the idea of{{nbsp}}... perfect unity between the self and the other is age-old", so that Catherine says that she loves Heathcliff "because he's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same" (Chapter IX).<ref>Helen Smart, "Introduction" to Wuthering Heights. Edited by Ian Jack and Introduction and notes by Helen Small. Oxford University Press, 2009, p. xiii.</ref> Likewise Lord David Cecil suggests that "the deepest attachments are based on characters' similarity or affinity",<ref>[http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/novel_19c/wuthering/iamheath.html "I am Heathcliff"], [[City University of New York|cuny.edu]]</ref> However [[Simone de Beauvoir]], in her famous feminist work ''[[The Second Sex]]'' (1949), suggests that when Catherine says "I am Heathcliff": "her own world collapse(s) in contingence, for she really lives in his."<ref>Beauvoir, 1952, p.&nbsp;725{{incomplete short citation|date=September 2023|reason=Is this from The Second Sex? Publisher needed.}}</ref> Beauvoir sees this as "the fatal mirage of the ideal of romantic love{{nbsp}}... transcendence{{nbsp}}... in the superior male who is perceived as free".<ref>Kathryn Pauly Morgan, "Romantic Love, Altruism, and Self-Respect: An Analysis of Simone De Beauvoir". ''[[Hypatia (journal)|Hypatia]]'', Spring 1986, vol. 1, no. 1, p. 129. {{JSTOR|3810066}}</ref>

Despite all the passion between Catherine and Heathcliff, critics have from early on drawn attention to the absence of sex. In 1850 the poet and critic [[Sydney Dobell]] suggests that "we dare not doubt [Catherine's] purity",<ref>"Currer Bell," ''Palladium, September'', 1850. Reprinted in ''Life and Letters of Sydney Dobell'', ed. E. Jolly (London, i878), I, 163–186.</ref> and the Victorian poet [[Swinburne]] concurs, referring to their "passionate and ardent chastity".<ref>A. C. Swinburne, "Emily BrontE," in ''Miscellanies'', 2d ed. (London, I895), pp. 260–270 (first appeared in the Athenaeum for 1883).</ref><ref>[http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/novel_19c/wuthering/sex.html "Sex in ''Wuthering Heights''"], [[City University of New York|cuny.edu]]</ref> More recently [[Terry Eagleton]] suggests their relationship is sexless, "because the two, unknown to themselves, are half-siblings, with an unconscious fear of incest".<ref>[https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v32/n21/terry-eagleton/nothing-nice-about-them "Nothing Nice about Them"] by [[Terry Eagleton]], ''[[London Review of Books]]'', vol. 32, no. 21, 4 November 2010.</ref>

=== Childhood ===
Childhood is a central theme of ''Wuthering Heights''.<ref>Richard Chase, "The Brontes: A Centennial Observance", in ''The Brontes: A Collection of Critical Essays'', ed. by Ian Gregor (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1970; repro 1986), pp. 19–33 (p. 32).</ref> Emily Brontë "understands that 'The Child is 'Father of the Man' (Wordsworth, 'My heart leaps up', 1. 7)". [[Wordsworth]], following [[philosophers of education]], such as [[Rousseau]], explored ideas about the way childhood shaped personality. One outcome of this was the German {{lang|de|bildungsroman}}, or "novel of education", such as Charlotte Brontë's ''[[Jane Eyre]]'' (1847), Eliot's ''[[The Mill on the Floss]]'' (1860), and Dickens's ''[[Great Expectations]]'' (1861).<ref>Melissa Fegan. ''Wuthering Heights: Character Studies''. London: Continuum, 2008, p. 4.</ref> Bronte's characters "are heavily influenced by their childhood experiences", though she is less optimistic than her contemporaries that suffering can lead to "change and renewal".<ref>Melissa Fegan, ''Wuthering Heights: Character Studies'', p. 5.</ref>

=== Class and money ===
Lockwood arrives at Thrushcross Grange in 1801, a time when, according to Q.D. Leavis, "the old rough farming culture, based on a naturally patriarchal family life, was to be challenged, tamed and routed by social and cultural changes". At this date the [[Industrial Revolution]] was well under way, and was by 1847 a dominant force in much of England, and especially in [[West Yorkshire]]. This caused a disruption in "the traditional relationship of social classes" with an expanding upwardly mobile middle-class, which created "a new standard for defining a gentleman", and challenged the traditional criteria of breeding and family and the more recent criterion of character.<ref name="cuny">{{cite web |date=13 October 2011 |title=Wuthering Heights as Socio-Economic Novel |url=http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/novel_19c/wuthering/economic.html |access-date=11 November 2024 |website=academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu}}</ref>

Marxist critic [[Arnold Kettle]] sees ''Wuthering Heights'' "as a symbolic representation of the class system of 19th-century England", with its concerns "with property-ownership, the attraction of social comforts", marriage, education, religion, and social status.<ref>Arnold Kettle, ''An Introduction to the English Novel'', vol. 1 London: Harpers, 1951, p. 110.</ref> Driven by a pathological hatred Heathcliff uses against his enemies "their own weapons of money and arranged marriages", as well as "the classic methods of the ruling class, expropriation and property deals".<ref>Arnold Kettle, ''An Introduction to the English Novel'', p. 110.</ref>

Later, another Marxist, [[Terry Eagleton]], in ''Myths of Power: A Marxist Study of the Brontës'' (London: McMillan, 1975), further explores the power relationships between "the landed gentry and aristocracy, the traditional power-holders, and the capitalist, industrial middle classes". Haworth in the [[West Riding]] of Yorkshire was especially affected by changes to society and its class structure "because of the concentration of large estates and industrial centers" there.<ref name= cuny />

==== Race ====
There has been debate about Heathcliff's race or ethnicity. In the novel Heathcliff is first described as a "dark-skinned gipsy" in appearance with "black eyes", as well as later being said to be "as white as the wall behind him"<ref name=Bronte/>{{rp|21}} and "pale...with an
expression of mortal hate.".<ref name=Bronte/>{{rp|243}} Mr Linton, the Earnshaws' neighbour, suggests that he might be "a little [[Lascar]] (a 19th-century term for Indian sailors;<ref name="Onanuga"/>), or an American or Spanish castaway".<ref name=Bronte>{{cite book|last=Brontë|first=Emily|author-link=Emily Brontë|title=Wuthering Heights|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780199209286|publisher=Oxford World's Classics|date=1998|orig-year=1847|editor-last=Jack|editor-first=Ian|isbn=978-0192833549}}</ref>{{rp|44}}  Mr Earnshaw calls him "as dark almost as if it came from the devil",<ref name="Brontë Chapter 4"/> and Nelly Dean speculates fancifully regarding his origins thus: "Who knows but your father was Emperor of China, and your mother an Indian queen?"<ref>{{cite book |last=Brontë |first=Emily |title=Wuthering Heights |url=https://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Emily_Bronte/Wuthering_Heights/Chapter_VII_p4.html |page=chapter VII, p 4 |access-date=30 May 2020}}</ref> Novelist [[Caryl Phillips]] suggests that Heathcliff may have been an escaped slave, noting the similarities between the way Heathcliff is treated and the way slaves were treated at the time: he is referred to as "it", his name "served him" as both his "Christian and surname",<ref name="Brontë Chapter 4" /> and Mr Earnshaw is referred to as "his owner".<ref>Caryl Philips, A Regular Black: The Hidden Wuthering Heights, dir. by Adam Low (Lone Star Productions, 2010).</ref> Maja-Lisa von Sneidern states that "Heathcliff's racial otherness cannot be a matter of dispute; Brontë makes that explicit", further noting that "by 1804 Liverpool merchants were responsible for more than eighty-four percent of the British transatlantic slave trade."<ref>[[Lecturer]] Maja-Lisa von Sneidern, "''Wuthering Heights'' and the Liverpool Slave Trade". ''[[ELH]]'', vol. 62, no. 1 (Spring 1995), p. 172</ref> Michael Stewart sees Heathcliff's race as "ambiguous" and argues that Emily Brontë "deliberately gives us this missing hole in the narrative".<ref>{{cite journal|last1=O'Callaghan|first1=Claire|last2=Stewart|first2=Michael|date=2020|title=Heathcliff, Race and Adam Low's Documentary, A Regular Black: The Hidden Wuthering Heights (2010)|journal=Brontë Studies|volume=45|issue=2|pages=156–167|doi=10.1080/14748932.2020.1715045|s2cid=213118293|url=https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/11359529 |via=TandF Online}}</ref>

=== Storm and calm ===

Various critics have explored the various contrast between Thrushcross Grange and the Wuthering Heights farmhouse and their inhabitants. Lord David Cecil argued for "cosmic forces as the central impetus and controlling force in the novel" and suggested that there is a unifying structure underlying ''Wuthering Heights'': "two spiritual principles: the principle of the storm,{{nbsp}}... and the principle of calm", which he further argued were not, "in spite of their apparent opposition", in conflict.<ref>[http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/novel_19c/wuthering/critics.html "Later Critical Responses to ''Wuthering Heights''"]. [[City University of New York|cuny.edu]]</ref> Dorothy van Ghent, however, refers to "a tension between two kinds of reality" in the novel: "civilized manners" and "natural energies".<ref>van Ghent, Dorothy. "The Window Figure and the Two-Children Figure in ''Wuthering Heights''". ''[[Nineteenth-Century Fiction]]'', December 1952, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 189–197. {{JSTOR|3044358}}</ref>