Editing Wuthering Heights (section)

=== 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>