Heathcliff as Female

Gilbert and Gubar’s seminal feminist work argues that Heathcliff is female due to his lack of property,
place, and title, deeming him to portray society’s view upon the female role. Upon reflection, Emily
Bronte wrote in a time whereby women were the lesser gender to the male superiority, demonstrating
that such a definition of female is of a woman in a man’s world. Yet, I feel that throughout the novel
Heathcliff breaks conformity of title, he is simply Heathcliff, not “master,” as such a title would
reduce him to a similarity of Linton. Heathcliff is no female; he is Heathcliff.

In evaluating how Heathcliff could be read as female, Gilbert and Gubar focus upon the distinction
between physical appearances and the underlying primate instinct that is continuing one’s gene pool.
This battle is shown when Heathcliff admits, “But, Nelly, if I knocked him down twenty times, that
wouldn’t make him less handsome, or me more so. I wish I had light hair and a fair skin, and was
dressed, and behaved as well, and had a chance of being as rich as he will be!” It is claimed that this
shows the connection between physical and material wealth, concentrating upon that fact that whilst
Edgar Linton’s weak, effeminate appearance is point of ridicule, Catherine still chooses him due to
the “breeding” status and wealth that he has to his name unlike Heathcliff. The quotation shows a
longing, buried in everyone, to make oneself better by society’s expectations and such a vulnerability
could deem it female yet there is such a sense of physicality and desperation in his plea that eradicates
any label for such a confession. Here, he wills himself to heighten his social status through the
pursuit, and eventual gain, of wealth. This act is out of the realms of a woman in this time,
demonstrating that he opposes social restrictions to gender, thus making Heathcliff primarily male.

The distinction between Edgar Linton and Heathcliff is marked further, in conjunction to Catherine,
as Heathcliff states, “If he loved with all the powers of his puny being, he couldn’t as much in eighty
years, as I could a day.” Here we are shown that Heathcliff loves without restraint and maybe the
conflict between the two suitors was the death of Catherine but if loving too much is a sin, one can’t
restrict that to be a feature of a specific gender. If anything, this conveys Heathcliff as an ‘other,’ as
his characteristics do not follow a suitable pattern, he lives by his heart thus twisting every action to
mirror his inner turmoil. There is something far more that love tying the characters of Heathcliff and
Catherine as we learn throughout the novel, they have been created from the elements so as their souls
are entwined. This is conveyed when Heathcliff tells, “I cannot look down to this floor, but her
features are shaped on the flags! In every cloud, in every tree- filling the air at night, and caught by
glimpses in every object, by day I am surrounded with her image! The most ordinary faces of men,
and women- my own features- mock me with a resemblance.” This conveys that her being is formed
through nature, thus the tangible world posts a resemblance to her, haunting Heathcliff. From this, we
learn that both characters oppose social restrictions as Catherine is borne to wealth and status, yet
such superficiality brings her nothing but emptiness. Her identity mirrors the battle between Linton
and Heathcliff, as the former chooses wealth as a matter of status and lifestyle, ironic as socially that
owes him the upper hand yet Catherine cannot reconcile with such insipidity and lack of passion
which Heathcliff offers. For Heathcliff to continue to fight against a world which condemns him
proves that despite being a “monster,” he has a raw power. He is Catherine and thus they are gender-
free, living contained within their own desires.

Throughout the novel, there is a constant discussion of creation, fulfilling the nature versus nurture
argument, entwined in the lives of the Lintons, Catherine, Heathcliff and residing in Hareton. This is
conveyed through Heathcliff exclaiming, “Now, my bonny lad, you are mine! And we’ll see if one
tree won’t grow as crooked as another, with the same wind to twist it!” The wind acting as the history
that binds them. Here, Heathcliff dismisses any paternal instinct due to Hareton being Hindley’s son
of whom he burdens deep loathing and thus the ultimate revenge would be to draw likeness between
Hareton to Heathcliff. It also demonstrates that Heathcliff would be better critiqued as a son of
circumstance and all physical references to his being as the representation of his past as such isn’t
tangible or understandable. We cannot pray to understand all of him as, like nature, it is far more
powerful and immense than society deems to be and therefore there can never be a label to
sufficiently apply to Heathcliff.