Social Norms In Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights

Emily Bronte was born on July 30, 1818 to educated parents in Yorkshire, England. She grew up in the Victorian age in which women were oppressed and seen as objects. The Victorian age was prim and proper and was a patriarchal society. Emily Bronte’s surroundings and her family are heavily influenced in her works especially in Wuthering Heights. Bronte explores the issue of class and creates the character, Catherine who flies in the face of the social norms and Heathcliff who is shunned because of his lower class in her only novel Wuthering Heights. Catherine represents Emily’s hatred of women not having rights in society and could show how she wanted to break free of the norms. Emily’s family played a huge role in her writing. Losing a mother

Emily’s surroundings influenced her writing. She wrote, “My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary.”( Bronte 9) All she knows is the world right outside her window, the only love she has ever felt is towards the house she lives in and the surrounding area. To Emily, the only way to express love is to compare it to nature. When Catherine was getting sicker by being locked up she said, “Oh, I’m burning! I wish I were out of doors. I wish I were a girl again, half savage and hardy, and free, and laughing at injuries, no maddening under them! Why am I so changed? Why does my blood rush into a hell of tumult at a few words?”(Bronte 9) Both Emily and Catherine were not meant to be a “real girl” of that time because they needed to be out in nature however that would be un lady like. In Wuthering Heights Catherine and Heathcliff were most themselves when they were on the moors. This shows Emily’s feeling towards her real life. Heathcliff’s name means a hill and since he was representative of Emily it shows her more savage side. In the Victorian Age women needed to be proper and follow what their husbands said. Heathcliff was Emily’s way of showing how she wanted to break free

It is much like how Catherine and Heathcliff would rather be at the Heights away from society. Charlotte seemed to be telling Mrs. Gaskell that Emily enjoyed gossip, she loved to know about people, but she never wanted to talk to those people. In a sense, all of Wuthering Heights is actually gossip. Mr. Lockwood who narrates the story, has nothing to do with the Lintons or Earnshaws. On certain accounts Mr. Lockwood is proven wrong. He mistakes young Cathy for Heathcliff’s wife, Nelly Dean as a permeant member at Thrushcross Grange, and Heathcliff as a pleasant landlord. Obviously not a very reliable source, Emily drew on her love for gossip to create her novel, the reader doesn’t know what is fake and what isn’t. This is why the reader wants to find out more because of the gossip that fills the entire book. The reader wants to find out who to trust and who not to. Emily Bronte could arguably be the best writer out of her sisters. She kept to herself and just wanted to be apart of nature. She didn’t want the fame like her sisters did with their novels. Emily’s writing allowed the reader to understand where she was coming from, and also made the reader intrigued with the puzzling gossip. Her family was a major influence in her novel Wuthering Heights and it is very clear to the readers why. By writing Emily was able to pour her emotions into a wonderfully intellectual award winning novel. Battling with depression