Niall Cronin

‘Gothic Texts are often accused of disempowering female characters.

How far is this true of Wuthering Heights?’

In Wuthering Heights, female characters are disempowered in femininity yet are strengthened by
their adoption of masculine behaviour. Each female character experiences rites of passage in the
novel resulting in their becoming more feminine or more masculine, strengthening or weakening the
character respectively. In Emily Brontë’s novel, the extent of disempowerment is severe, resulting in
total degradation of a character or even, as with the case of Catherine, death.

Emily Brontë herself grew up in the Yorkshire Dales in the isolated village of Haworth surrounded by
the sublimity of the countryside. As evidenced by her novels, she developed a strong appreciation of
the beauty nature yet also the ferocity of the wilderness. Sanitary and living conditions were so poor
in her little village that the life expectancy was only 25 years old with a 41% mortality rate for new-
born children. Therefore, death was not something that Emily Brontë was unaware of; she
understood the necessity of strength to survive in such climates and, in the 19th century, strength
was represented by males.

Women in the 18th and 19th century lived in a patriarchal society dominated entirely by the word of
men. It is important to understand the extent of the oppression of women to truly appreciate
various readings of the disempowerment of female characters in Wuthering Heights. Women’s
rights barely existed and although men claimed to treat them with ‘lenity and indulgence’, they were
excluded absolutely from any domestic authority. Simply, women were condemned from birth to
conform to a male chauvinistic mould. Women, in the 18th and 19th century were ‘there’ to manage
the household, bear children, be nurses, mothers, wives, lovers (virginal pre-marriage), neighbours,
friends and teachers. According to Rousseau, the author of the ‘History of Sexuality’ series, ‘it was
the order of nature for women to obey’.

Legally, a woman’s position was of no worth. A court case in 1782 saw judge Buller Claim that it was
‘perfectly legal for a man to beat his wife, as long as he used a stick no thicker than his thumb’.
Marriage was a lifetime binding for the female who exceedingly rarely gained divorce. The terms of
marriage were so legally firm that, until 1891, if captured in the process of running from their
husband, the law took responsibility in tracking down the woman and issuing punishment.

William Blackstone, an 18th century jurist, stated in a legal document that "By marriage, the very
being or legal existence of a woman is suspended, or at least incorporated or consolidated into that
of the husband, under whose wing, protection, or cover she performs everything."

Inheritance law represents a specific example of the maltreatment of women. Upon marriage
women basically offered the husband all that she had (property, wages, dowries, inheritance,
possessions and various assets) for him to keep, permanently. Financial conduct was always
managed by the husband, except with the allowance of a ‘deputy husband’. With this system
women became disempowered by being dispossessed; thus severing any social influence and status
that a woman could possibly gain.
Niall Cronin

Education was a further aspect of social life denied to the women of Britain. Education for girls was
seen as considerably less important as it was for boys and, with girls being denied entrance to
universities, females only ever managed to gain low-paid employment. Men feared education would
‘corrupt their minds’; they were taking precautions contra the development de feminism.

Nevertheless, by the end of the 18th century, proto-feminism was beginning to form in the literary
circles, primarily with the work of Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
(1792). Wollstonecraft, whose thoughts took inspiration from the French Revolution, argues that the
deficiency of education for women resulted in their ‘lower’ image. She attacked Rousseau’s
evaluation of women as inferior to men and battled for the ‘equality of the sexes’ and ‘justice’.

Legally, the mid 19th century eventually saw the passing of numerous acts supporting women’s
rights. Property and wage possession was dramatically altered with the 1857 and 1870 acts before
the 1882 Marriage Property Act changed the woman’s position in marriage significantly.

With relevance to Wuthering Heights, the woman’s position in society is represented by Brontë in
her female, and even male, characters. The rites-of-passage experienced by every character can be
read as symbolic of the views Brontë held of a woman’s ‘place’ during her life and earlier. Whether it
is masculine to feminine or the contrary, the sexual paths of life take by the characters either lead to
weakness or to strength.

Catherine Earnshaw is a prime example of transformation from strength to weakness. During her
childhood, Catherine was notoriously boyish, spurred on by her play-mate Heathcliff. She was called
‘mischievous and wayward’ by Nelly, and possessed all the traits of masculinity of the 18th century
as a ‘wild, wicked slip. Nevertheless, although Catherine is not here conforming to society’s norms
and subverting the tradition of the ‘proper’ girl, she is at her strongest. She is never ill, unlike some
weaker characters (like Frances), and passion pumps from her charismatic and wild character.

Catherine’s fall, it could be argued, occurred when she became stranded at Thrushcross Grange.
During her period of recovery in the civilised surrounding of the Linton household, Catherine was
initiated into her period of ‘sexual’ transformation which became solidified with her marriage to the
‘sweet, blue eye[d]’ Edgar. After a six month period of which Nelly claims that ‘I may assert that they
were really in possession of deep and growing happiness’, Heathcliff returned to disrupt Catherine’s
smooth transition to femininity and, such an effect this had on her, she took gravely ill. In this time
of ill health, flaws previously shadowed by her strong masculinity are now exaggerated allowing
Brontë to deal with her character contemptuously. Her illness, consequently, resulted in her death;
thus displaying the futility of the feminine being in society.

The scene where Nelly and Catherine are held by force by Heathcliff at Wuthering Heights in order
for Catherine Linton to marry Linton could be representative of the female position in marital and
inheritance laws. The plan, masterminded by Heathcliff, was for the two to marry resulting in his
inheritance of Edgar’s lands and money and, arguably, to obtain control over Catherine. This forced
marriage can be read as a metaphor reflecting how 18th century marriage was a legal and physical

entrapment which exploits females and treats them as mere tools of business or sexuality.
Niall Cronin

Psychoanalytical interpretation of Wuthering Heights is commonly based upon Freud’s work,

especially concerning childhood and relationships. One example of such criticism is Linda Gold’s
reading of Wuthering Heights concerning the characters correlation with the separate parts of
Freud’s Tripartite Theory. In her analysis, Catherine represents the Ego, Heathcliff the id and Edgar
the Superego. She argues that Catherine ‘relates to other people and society, tests the impulses of
the id against reality, and controls the energetic id (Heathcliff) until there is a reasonable chance of
its urges being fulfilled’.

Freud argued that the Ego must be male in order to ‘survive’ so to achieve this Catherine
incorporates both the id (Heathcliff) and the Superego (Edgar) into her character in an attempt to
assimilate the three parts to create a unified personality – this is represented in the shared grave of
her, Edgar and Heathcliff. According to this Freudian interpretation, Catherine’s death derives not
just from her mental illness but from the agony of her fragmented personality; the incompatibility of
the id with the Superego.

Furthermore, Gold suggests a ‘second generation’ tripartite characterisation in Catherine Linton.

Brontë creates Catherine as an effective Ego, marrying both Linton and Hareton thus consolidating
the id and Superego. In the finish of the novel, her character is emotionally content, reaching
psychological integration in her becoming Catherine Linton Heathcliff Earnshaw.

Another Freudian idea is that could be applied to Wuthering Heights is that of ‘Das Ding’. Freud
proposed that ‘Das Ding’, or ‘the thing’, represents the ‘lost object that is searched and which is
ruled by the pleasure principle’. Modern critic, David Cecil, suggests that ‘Brontë’s world…is where
an entire existence could concentrate itself with fanatical frenzy upon a single object’. In Wuthering
Heights, this ‘single object’ becomes either a woman, Cathy, or her love, Heathcliff with Cathy being
the catalyst of the pleasure principle.

As a result of the turbulent relationships focused around her, the characters seek pleasure rather
than rationale in their behaviour and actions. For Heathcliff and Cathy alike the loss of their ‘thing’,
each other, causes hysteria, crying and obsessive neurosism in an effort to return to that ‘lost’ object
which is ‘unforgettable, but never attainable. Cathy displays these ‘symptoms’ whilst ill in apparent
grievance for her loss of Heathcliff through death. ‘It is the last time!...Heathcliff, I shall die! I shall
die!’

The Formation of Girls is another key Freudian concept that can be applied to women in Wuthering
Heights, Catherine in particular. In his work on psychosexual development, Freud proposed that, for
women, the absence of a “real” castration complex, along with an unresolved Oedipus complex,
interfere with the development of the Superego in Women. Freud’s Tripartite Personality Theory
states that the Superego’s function is to control the id’s impulses, especially those which society
forbids, such as sex and aggression. Freud further argued that men’s and women’s natural psycho-
sexual development justifies the social roles they should play in life.

It is possible to apply this concept to the character of Catherine Earnshaw. As a young child, as Freud
states, the ‘little girl is a little man’, Catherine was ‘bold’ and ‘saucy’ and acted in a manner not
befitting her position in society or her sexuality. Catherine’s rather masculine childhood, one not
Niall Cronin

suited to a young girl at that point in society, of which much was spent with Heathcliff, could have
been the source of the development of her ‘penis envy’, another Freudian concept.

The introduction of this envy could have been the ‘gift’ of Heathcliff from her father; the arrival of a
penis and a strong character sparking her jealousy. This is the first stage of the female Castration
complex, and probably the source of the female’s sexual repression which is displayed by Catherine’s
lack of physical lust throughout the novel. Catherine’s ‘self-love is mortified’ at the stage of her
introduction to the Linton household when her masculine demeanour is violated with feminine
niceties. At this point she is 15 years old and experiencing a crucial part of female puberty where her
sexual direction is in limbo – the sudden influence of the Linton household results in her
feminisation. Catherine’s later development in life, her aggression and her death on the birth of a
daughter rather than a son (thus not the ‘baby is a little boy [bringing] the longed-for penis with
him’) displays her failure to accomplish a castration complex.

Philosophical ideas, such as Plato’s Symposium, can also be applied to events within Brontë’s novel.
A Symposium was a Greek dinner party, with its aim being to conduct intellectual conversations and
debates amongst the greatest contemporary thinkers about moral, religious and scientific issues.
Plato’s symposium, described by Plato but actually attended by his teacher, Socrates, discussed the
issue of Love. Present at the Symposium were Apollodorus, Aristophanes, Phaedrus, Pausanias,
Eryximachus, Agathon, and Socrates, presenting their speech of praise to the God of Love.

Of all of the ideas suggested at Plato’s Symposium, Aristophanes’ concept is most relevant to the
events within Wuthering Heights. Aristophanes, a poet, recalled a myth proposing that the Greek
God Zeus felt threatened by the growing power of Human Beings so cut them all in two. Ever since,
people have wandered the Earth searching for their other half, just so they could rejoin with that
other person and become “whole” again.

From Wuthering Heights, it is obvious that the two characters that the two characters who fit neatly
into this concept of Love are Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw. Numerous aspects of their
relationship correspond with Aristophanes theory from Heathcliff’s random appearance from an
unknown origin picked from the streets of Liverpool to Catherine’s exclamation ‘I am Heathcliff!’ The
idea that these two protagonists’ lives are destined to be intertwined seems fitting with the absolute
fascination they share of each other’s lives and the undying love that rests between them until the
end of the novel; even after both their deaths in the form of ghosts.

Marxism suggests that human actions and institutions are economically determined, class struggle is
needed to create historical change and that capitalism will ultimately be superseded by communism.
Viewing the literature of Brontë in a Marxist light, it is necessary to understand and incorporate the
social setting of the novel. According to Arnold Kettle, in the case of Wuthering Heights it would be a
novel about people in England in 1847 in the Yorkshire Dales. Living people, property ownership,
social comforts, marriage, education, religion and the relations of the rich and poor are all relevant
to what the novel is supposedly trying to represent. Kettle argues that the novel is directly
representative of 18th century society with relationships exaggerated in order to clearly depict
civilization, such as Heathcliff’s patriarchal success in manipulating inheritance law.
Niall Cronin

Terry Eagleton also argues that Wuthering Heights is focused upon class conflict highlighting the
immense differences between the aristocrats (Edgar) and the lower classes (Heathcliff). The
representation of this idea is presented through the seduction of Cathy by the bourgeois glamour of
Thrushcross Grange; this shows the defeat of the lower orders, of Heathcliff, by the upper classes,
being Edgar. Heathcliff rejects such a society in his abandonment of Cathy and Wuthering Heights
upon defeat. Heathcliff reflects the revolution of the people of the 18th and 19th century, the birth of
feminism and women’s equality, by returning wealthy and cultured. The means by which Heathcliff
earns his money is not stated and pondered upon by Lockwood (‘Did he…earn honours by drawing
blood from his foster country or make a fortune more promptly, on the English highways?’) This
association with violence mirrors another of Eagleton’s proposals that Heathcliff develops
knowledge of culture to use as a weapon of oppression; his use of the inheritance laws of the 18th
century showing the readers this. Heathcliff is an opposite of capitalism, or a Marxist personalisation
of ‘communism superseding capitalism’ through Heathcliff’s success with his desires.

If these ideas are read in conjunction with a feminist reading by Gilbert and Gubar, Heathcliff’s
characterisation and representation of changing society suggests an ambivalence of his gender.
Reading Heathcliff as female has many obvious contradictions; his address as male, his baring
Isabella a son, his place in the household and his stereotypical male behaviour yet there are many
possible suggestive inclinations of femininity by Brontë. Heathcliff, as representative of communism
means the equality of all, women and men alike, which would be born from his rebellious nature and
rejection of conventions thus disrupting patriarchal interests. Heathcliff has no status, no social
standing, no property and no family name or male title; ‘Heath’ from Heathcliff being a female and
male name also.

To conclude, female characters in Wuthering Heights are frequently disempowered, fitting with the
Gothic genre, but only when they adopt a feminine demeanour. It can be argued that Brontë does
this for numerous different reasons; as a reflection of a woman’s in the 18th century, as an
exploration of psychoanalytical, Marxist or philosophical ideas or perhaps, like Mary Wollstonecraft
as a demonstration of proto-feminism.