Women in Wuthering Heights
‘Women are depicted as dangerous creatures that are set on destroying the masculine world they are trapped in’. Discuss.
In Emily Bronte’s classic novel ‘Wuthering Heights’, the lead female characters; Catherine and Isabella, are in many instances depicted as cruel, partially powerless prisoners to whomever’s company they’re amongst. However, we may argue that, due to such entrapment, Bronte presents these strong females as spiteful and ‘malevolent’ with the intention of demonstrating the strain women had for any kind of power in a male dominated era, causing them to perhaps create problems for the male characters and act atrociously, yet this may not be with the purpose of destroying ‘the masculine world’.
We as readers are foremost introduced to the females’ thrive for power and dominance early on in the novel when Catherine ‘chose a whip’ as a gift for her father to buy her in Liverpool – a symbol of power and control. In spite of this, her father returns not with a whip for young Catherine but a “motherless gypsy”, Heathcliff, whom may now be interpreted as having metaphorically taken the place of the whip, becoming a submissive object Catherine can sadistically manifest her repressive dominant nature into. Not only does this show Elizabethan women’s desperation to gain power, but also the Elizabethan social ladder – seeing as Heathcliff is regarded as ‘dark skinned’ expediting the suspicion he is a ‘bastard child’ to Mr Earnshaw, Catherine has a perhaps higher social status than Heathcliff, leading her to seize her only opportunity of delivering power.
The reader is further proffered with a challenge to the stereotypical woman in chapter 9 as Catherine appears to be aware of her only type of power – deciding whom to marry. After considering the social status of her beloved ‘soul’ Heathcliff, she informs Nelly ‘that if Heathcliff and I married, we should be beggars? Whereas if I marry Linton I can aid Heathcliff to rise, and place him out of my
In Emily Bronte’s classic novel ‘Wuthering Heights’, the lead female characters; Catherine and Isabella, are in many instances depicted as cruel, partially powerless prisoners to whomever’s company they’re amongst. However, we may argue that, due to such entrapment, Bronte presents these strong females as spiteful and ‘malevolent’ with the intention of demonstrating the strain women had for any kind of power in a male dominated era, causing them to perhaps create problems for the male characters and act atrociously, yet this may not be with the purpose of destroying ‘the masculine world’.
We as readers are foremost introduced to the females’ thrive for power and dominance early on in the novel when Catherine ‘chose a whip’ as a gift for her father to buy her in Liverpool – a symbol of power and control. In spite of this, her father returns not with a whip for young Catherine but a “motherless gypsy”, Heathcliff, whom may now be interpreted as having metaphorically taken the place of the whip, becoming a submissive object Catherine can sadistically manifest her repressive dominant nature into. Not only does this show Elizabethan women’s desperation to gain power, but also the Elizabethan social ladder – seeing as Heathcliff is regarded as ‘dark skinned’ expediting the suspicion he is a ‘bastard child’ to Mr Earnshaw, Catherine has a perhaps higher social status than Heathcliff, leading her to seize her only opportunity of delivering power.
The reader is further proffered with a challenge to the stereotypical woman in chapter 9 as Catherine appears to be aware of her only type of power – deciding whom to marry. After considering the social status of her beloved ‘soul’ Heathcliff, she informs Nelly ‘that if Heathcliff and I married, we should be beggars? Whereas if I marry Linton I can aid Heathcliff to rise, and place him out of my