Lecture Emily Bronte
This confused Victorian readers
Wuthering Heights 1848
For exam comparison with Jane Austen
Elements of realism and romanticism
Woman question the issue of femininity
Narrator
Critics
Reputation of the Bronte sisters
Mystique of the Yorkshire moors, lack of the clear moral message and the
Victorian readers
The Bronts were not, then, three weird sisters deposited upon
the Yorkshire moors from some metaphysical outer space. On the
contrary, their lives were shaped by some of the most typical
conflicts of early Victorian England conflicts between rural and
urban, colony and metropolis, commercial south and industrial
Victorian realist novel issues
north, female sensibility and male power. Eagleton
Cosmic battle of different forces, but still very realistic and firmly
on the ground this novel is between solid ground/ reality and
something above
Yorkshire moors very specific, climate is different, very cold,
mysterious and imaginative, cold, windy and people perceived it
like this, thought Brontes novels are like that, not about real
people
Critics expected moral standards, the readers to be led, but
Wuthering Heights confuses, no judgement (for Heathcliff), it is
up to you to judge, the writer does not influence your
understanding
It is not guiding you and giving moral lessons
In Jane Austen no violence, heated passion, not dramatic, no
physical and mental violence, that was thought to be distasteful,
so Victorians thought that there was no chance this was written
by a woman, a woman couldnt have such thoughts
Catherine a woman of strong passions, thought to be
unwomanly and unacceptable
Eagleton theyre not lonely and inexperienced sisters who lived
in the north of England
Madwoman in the attic locked up, seen as morally
unacceptable, symbol of keeping a woman locked up in the house
Fusion of romanticism and Victorian realism
Realism was still a dominant style, in the meantime there were
other movements Gothic novel,
Gothic novel is in between, influenced by both realism and
romanticism
Importance of class (Lockwood, Heathcliff, Lintons)
The beginning of the novel Lockwoods long sentences,
Heathcliffs are short and simple gentleman vs. Heathcliff
Class inequality and social mobility the rise of the
entrepreneur Heathcliff and the fall of the Lintons as
landowners
Arranged marriages to gain more wealth, lucrative business of
Heathcliff
Representation of the Victorian family
Heathcliff has money but hes not a gentleman
In a subtle way were reminded that that class matters
 Scene when Heathcliff and Catherine saw Linton children
fighting over a dog Lintons are nobility, rich, their house is
luxurious, upper class
Earnshaws have no aristocratic blood or status
Lockwood came from south, fits more in Jane Austens
novel, strange in Brontes
Chance of social mobility Heathcliff is marginalised,
displaced, his origin is speculated
Hes not classifiable
Catherines brother was jealous, because Heathcliff could get
his inheritance
Heathcliff was absent for 3 years and returned a changed man
speech, appearance, he has money now, he is new money
He wants revenge on those who socially degraded him not
romantic
We dont know what kind of business hes in, wants to buy
both houses
Lintons live of the profit of their land
New money vs. old money
He bought both houses and witnessed the fall of the Lintons
Revenge influenced socially and economically
Edgar and Catherine marriage of convenience
Earnshaws Hindley is abusive, gambler, distorted and
dysfunctional family, realistic portrait not suitable for
Victorian readership
Romantic elements, asocial behaviour, obscure parts of human psyche,
gothic elements, Romantic individualism, exploring the concept of
Other (Heathcliff)
Reaction to Victorian values and Realism Romanticism
Asocial behaviour does not fit into social norms, Catherines
tantrums, starving herself, Hindley, Heathcliff
Conventions are broken and discredited, in Austen conventions,
borders, rules are respected
Obscure parts of human psyche something Gothic novel also
has, hidden parts of human mind, changes in behaviour, madness,
alcoholism and abuse
Bronte explored all of these, even though she didnt have similar
experience
Gothic elements atmosphere and landscape, housing
Lockwoods dream of Catherines ghost Gothic element
Violence committed by a woman Catherine in real life and after
death ready to be violent
Her first appearance is violent (she is a ghost in Lockwoods
dream), past haunts the house, refuses to let go
Concept of the Other Heathcliffs skin, family name and ethnic
origin cant fit into the dominant norm of white middle class
Spirit of Romanticism
Social borders in Jane Austen, characters are kept within these
borders, conventional behaviour, here borders are transcendent,
love is not a financial contract, transcends the norms, Catherine
expresses her feelings, theyre entrenched, discredited
conventional norms of love
Romantic individualism impulse to transcend the borders,
explore the margins of society
Construction of femininity / woman question
I have to live, perhaps, till seventy years. As far as I know, I
have good health. Half a century of existence may lie before me.
How am I to occupy it? What am I to do to fill the interval of
 time which spreads between me and the grave? Charlotte Heathcliffs son just a means to an end, economic jargon,
Bronte, Shirley down to earth, blunt, nothing romantic, Heathcliff also seduced
This is not how Victorians understood a woman, this was Isabella and ruined her
unconventional Legal position of a woman she is her husbands property,
What should a woman do, does not have any options needs his approval for everything (especially Isabella because
Woman's sphere domestic and nurturing duties to their Heathcliff proclaimed that she is mad)
families, disinterested kindness and The Angel in the House
Expect nothing in return, be kind, nurturing not a natural but Form and content:
a constructed idea
Two narrators one limited and unreliable and the other
Virginia Woolf said We need to kill the Angel in the House
manipulating
Catherine Earnshaw and Catherine Linton, Nelly Dean and the
Flowed chronology of the novel
Victorian ideal of femininity
Reader is in uncomfortable position, cant trust the narrator
Emily Bronte disregards the contemporary views of
Coherent text and characters in Jane Austen vs. threatening
womanliness in Wuthering Heights, offering neither positive
asocial energies and obscure parts of human psyche
nor negative role models
Lockwood suffered from love, fell in love in Bath, nothing
Catherine developed a double character without exactly
happened between him and the girl, no reason to be
intending to deceive anyone
unhappy
She was around 15, not mature to make serious choice, she was
If he doesnt want company why he introduced himself, hes
fascinated with Lintons, she had a split character and lived with
contradictory, cant understand people in Wuthering
it in her mind
Heights, unable to process the strong passions because hes
Women were seen as simple creatures, but she is complex
from south, hes a filter and a dull man
loves two men, two kinds of love, that was thought impossible
Nelly Dean a servant, multiple purposes, she was a
Fascination with Edgar and love for Heathcliff led to her mental
mother to them, she influences the story, not just tell it,
breakdown
breaks the rule of narrator
Unexplored parts of female personality
Servants dont read but she is not a typical servant,
Heathcliff blackmailed Hindley, he became his creditor and
intelligent
Hindley depended on Heathcliff
She tells a story, manipulates and influences characters,
Lockwood tells the story in the second part in her own way
 Story begins in the middle
Challenged form of the novel
Tension between romantic individualism and realist
socialisation remains unresolved
Austen everything is in order in the end, not here
Subversion in both form and content
She keeps the tension, nothing resolves
Subversion an act of breaking the norm and questioning it