Understanding Family in Wuthering Heights
Jerome Bump, author of "Family-Systems Theory, Addiction, and Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights", analyzes the relationships of the "closed family unit" to understand the relationships of the novel. A better understanding of Wuthering Heights can be seen in Bump's examples of the contagious nature of hostility, abuse and addiction upon the two generations. The only escape for the second generation from the negative impression from the first generation is through intervention from outside the closed family unit.
HOSTILITY
At the beginning of the novel, Lockwood pays a visit to Heathcliff. What Lockwood finds is the isolated, second generation of a closed family unit. Not only isolated from society, the family is hostile amongst themselves and towards outsiders. Lockwood immediately senses hostility, and is treated like an unwanted outsider, as opposed to being welcomed by a more open family unit.
HOSTILITY IS CONTAGIOUS
Hostility can be transferred from person to person, like a virus. The effects of hostility on Lockwood as Heathcliff's unwelcome guest represent how the family unit also reflects the same hostile nature. Lockwood imitates the hostility he senses in the family. In Lockwood's dream, a young girl's apparition appears to him at the widow. As the ghost bids Lockwood to " let me in," Lockwood replies " I'll never let you in" ( Bump citing Wuthering Heights). He then cut the ghost's wrist with broken glass. Not only has hostility affected Lockwood's actions through his subconscious, he rejects opening himself up to an outsider.
REPETITION OF NAMES
The repetition of names from generation to generation is a clue that other elements are repe...
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...eneration is able to pull out of repetition and turn the closed family unit into an open family unit. This is evident at the end of the novel when Lockwood returns to Wuthering Heights. Instead of an isolated, hostile family, Lockwood finds the door and lattice wide open for visitors to enter.
Work Cited
Bump, Jerome (Prof. Of English, Univ. of Texas-Austin). "Family-Systems Theory, Addiction, and Emily Wuthering Heights." Part 6 of The Family Dynamics of Victorian Fiction. [Rpt. Excerpts from "The Family Dynamics in the Reception of Art," Style 31.2 (1997): 328-350.]
http://landow.stg.brown.edu/victorian/bronte/ebronte/bump6.html
...From The Victorian Web: Literature, History, & Culture in the Victorian Age (George Landow, Prof. of English and Art History, Brown Univ.)
http://landow.stg.brown.edu/victorian/victov.html
Frye, Northrop. "The Koine of Myth: Myth as a Universally Intelligible Language." Northrop Frye Myth and Metaphor: Selected Essays, 1974-1988. Ed. Robert D. Denham. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1990. 3-17.
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Definitive criteria for judging the success or failure of a work of fiction are not easily agreed upon; individuals almost necessarily introduce bias into any such attempt. Only those who affect an exorbitantly refined artistic taste, however, would deny the importance of poignancy in literary pieces. To be sure, writings of dubious and fleeting merit frequently enchant the public, but there is too the occasional author who garners widespread acclaim and whose works remain deeply affecting despite the passage of time. The continued eminence of the fiction of Emily Bronte attests to her placement into such a category of authors: it is a recognition of her propensity to create poignant and, indeed, successful literature.
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Heathcliff is a character who was abused in his childhood by Catherine’s brother, Hindley, because of his heritage as a “gypsy”, and Hindley was jealous of the love that Heathcliff got from Mr. Earnshaw, Hindley’s father. This is also selfishness upon Hindley’s part since he only wanted his father’s love for his sister and himself. So to reprimand Heathcl...
Throughout Wuthering Heights, I attempted to learn from the characters misery that they had, in most cases, brought upon themselves. Catherine’s difficulty making her decision reiterated to me how important it is to follow your heart when in a relationship, even if there are ‘good reasons’ to do just the opposite. From Heathcliff, I was able to see how seeking revenge will only destroy your happiness as well as the one’s you love. Young Cathy was a perfect example of the power of positivity, and how to indulge in negative thoughts will only add to your burden and isolate you from friends and family. Whether Emily Bronte intentionally wrote the novel with moral lessons in mind or not, her characters are perfect examples of how not to live.
Emily Bronte, on the surface, appeared to be a very withdrawn woman and is said to be reclusive throughout her entire life. She was even incredibly embarrassed when her sister, Charlotte Bronte, found her book of poetry, even though Charlotte was incredibly impressed by it. Beneath the surface lies a woman full of passion and capable of powerful emotions, though she had never felt such emotions, to write a novel that is still discussed today and is regarded as a literary classic. Novels are often regarded as a window to the souls of the authors, and Wuthering Heights is no exception. Wuthering Heights is often seen as a type of construct of Emily’s life and personality, because of the similarity of characters to people in Emily’s life, and how the events that occur at Wuthering Heights are secluded in their own right, much like Emily’s own life.
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Identity is how we define ourselves, how we see ourselves within our communities and it is what we portray to others. In the novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë the eloquent use of language allows for the true portrayal of the identities of all the characters in the story. Emily uses anecdotes and metaphors to portray her characters in all their glory. Wuthering Heights is about the consecutive search for one’s true identity by two primary characters. This essay will specifically focus on Catherine and Heathcliff’s search for their identities. Heathcliff and Catherine both vary in social status as the book progresses, each of their respective sexes play a large role in their identities and the choices they make also influence their final identities; these three main factors are what create the identity problem for both Catherine and Heathcliff.
The ghost of Cathy is not a true spirit, for Lockwood in order to release himself, pulls Cathy's wrist down onto the broken glass causing blood to flow (negative imagery which creates a dark atmosphere),Lockwood's interaction with Catherine's spirit moves him from being an outside observer to an active participant in the plot. The ghost of Catherine acts as a symbol in chapter 3; other symbols in the novel are 'the moors' which of course resemble 'Heathcliff'. One of the most obvious things that some might notice when analysing 'Wuthering Heights' is that the dark descriptive language is used to create or darken the tone and atmosphere of the book, an example is during Lockwood's dream when the preacher shouts out, "Drag him down and crush him to atoms", that quote is no doubt negative and reflects the moods of the characters, such as Heathcliff. Furtherly a quote which shows negative and gothic imagery is when Lockwood describes cutting Catherine on the glass, he says, "I pulled its wrist on to the