Conflict is the basic foundation for Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. Much of this conflict results from a distinct division of classes and is portrayed through personal relationships, for example the unfriendly relationship between the higher-class Lintons and the lower-class Heathcliff. Conflict is also portrayed by the appearance of characters the setting. The division of classes is based on cultural, economic, and social differences, and it greatly affects the general behaviour and actions of each character.
The setting of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange provides a clear example of social contrast. While the Heights is depicted as simply typical and "domestic," the Grange is described as a "scene of unprecedented richness". Each house is associated with behaviour fitting the description. For example, when Catherine is taken into the Grange, she experiences drastic changes, thus going from a "savage" to a "lady". While at this house, she rises in status, learns manners, and receives great privileges such as not having to work. Heathcliff, on the other hand, learns to classify himself as a member of the lower class, as he does not possess the qualities of those at the Grange.
Catherine's decision to marry Edgar Linton rather than Heathcliff widens the gap between social classes because Edgar Linton is a wealthy man of high status, and Heathcliff is poor and possesses no assets. Catherine does not consider personal feelings, but instead, she focuses on her outward appearance to society. This is shown when she says, "Edgar Linton will be rich and I shall like to be the greatest woman of the neighbourhood whereas if Heathcliff and I married, we should be beggars.” In Wuthering Heights wealth signifies social class because Catherine strives to achieve high status by marrying the rich man over the poor man.
The story concludes in "resolution and reconciliation".
Crooks also feels a great deal of loneliness, as he is an outcast on the ranch. He lives in his own room where hardly anybody ever bothers him. He is never invited to play cards or do anything fun with the other guys. One day a curious Lenny asked, “Why ain’t you wanted?” Crooks replies “Cause I’m black. They play cards in there, but I can’t play because I’m black. They think I stink. Well I tell you, you all stink to me” (pg. ). Crooks’ attitude towards this is shown when he saw Lennie playing with his puppy outside of Crooks’ quarters. Crooks states that “if me, as a black man, is not allowed in the white quarters, then white men are not allowed in mine” (pg. ). However this is merely a front as the more open side of Crooks is shown later on in the book.
The complicated nature surrounding Heathcliff’s motives again adds an additional degree of ambiguity to his character. This motivation is primarily driven by Catherine’s marriage to Edgar and past rejection of Heathcliff, since he was a servant whom Hindley disapproved of. Prior to storming out of Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff overhears Catherine say, “It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now…” (Brontë 87). The obstacles that ultimately prevent Heathcliff from marrying Catherine provide insight into Heathcliff’s desire to bring harm to Edgar and Hindley. The two men play prominent roles in the debacle, Edgar as the new husband and Hindley as the head figure who refused Heathcliff access to Catherine. Following this incident, Catherine says, “Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same…” (Brontë 87). Catherine’s sentiment indicates she truly would rather be with Heathcliff, but the actions of others have influenced her monumental decision to marry Edgar. Furthermore, Heathcliff is motivated to not only ruin Edgar’s livelihood, but also gain ownership of his estate, Thrushcross Grange. This becomes clear when Heathcliff attempts to use Isabella
Wuthering Heights is a classic in which Emily Bronte presents two opposite settings using the country setting. Country settings are often used as a place of virtue and peace or of ignorance and one of primitivism as believed by many city dwellers. But, in the novel Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte has used Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights to depict isolation and separation. Wuthering Heights setting is wild, passionate, and strong and Thrushcross Grange and its inhabitants are calm, harshly strict, and refined and these two opposite forces struggle throughout the novel.
Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange both represent several opposing properties which bring about all sorts of bad happenings when they clash. For example, the inhabitants of Wuthering Heights were that of the working class, while those of Thrushcross Grange were high up on the social ladder. The people of Wuthering Heights aspired to be on the same level as the Lintons. This is evident by Heathcliff and Catherine when the peek through their window. In addition, Wuthering Heights was always in a state of storminess while Thrushcross Grange always seemed calm.
Although both estates are wealthy, there is a definite difference in class between them and this bears greatly on the characters from both estates. ability to socialise with each other. The two different buildings have their own strengths and weaknesses. and the characters reflect their features. On the one hand there is Wuthering Heights with its stark and intimidating appearance.
Through self-centered and narcissistic characters, Emily Bronte’s classic novel, “Wuthering Heights” illustrates a deliberate and poetic understanding of what greed is. Encouraged by love, fear, and revenge, Catherine Earnshaw, Heathcliff, and Linton Heathcliff all commit a sin called selfishness.
The Lintons and Earnshaws are part of the Gentry class of Victorian England; they are both landowning families, fairly high up in the class hierarchy. But the genetic natures of the families are entirely different: the Lintons are well behaved, subdued, spoilt, steady, sensible and arrogant; in comparison, the Earnshaws are strong willed, moody, generous, free spirited, easily influenced, laid back and non-formal. The nurture of the characters is connected very strongly to social status: Heathcliff is denied social status initially by his birth and subsequently by Hindley, which creates great hatred in Heathcliff: this denial of status is perceived much more seriously than what we consider serious today. Catherine chooses Edgar over Heathcliff for reasons of social status, even though she and Heathcliff are so similar. Hareton is also denied social status, which turns his attitudes against the Gentry class and creates rifts between him and other characters: for example, it makes Cathy and Linton, who would be his equals, look down on him.
Catherine is trapped between her love of Heathcliff and her love for Edgar, setting the two men down a path of destruction, a whirlwind of anger and resentment that Catherine gets caught in the middle of. Catherine is drawn to Heathcliff because of his fiery personality, their raw attraction and one certainly gets the sense that they are drawn together on a deeper level, that perhaps they are soulmates. C. Day Lewis thought so, when he declared that Heathcliff and Catherine "represent the essential isolation of the soul...two halves of a single soul–forever sundered and struggling to unite." This certainly seems to be backed up in the novel when Catherine exclaims “Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He's always, always in my mind--not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being...” This shows clearly the struggle Catherine feels as she is drawn spiritually to Heathcliff, but also to Edgar for very different reasons. Edgar attracts Catherine predominantly because he is of the right social class. Catherine finds him "handsome, and pleasant to be with," but her feelings for him seem petty when compared to the ones she harbours...
The presentation of childhood is a theme that runs through two generations with the novel beginning to reveal the childhood of Catherine and Hindley Earnshaw, and with the arrival of the young Liverpudlian orphan, Heathcliff. In chapter four, Brontë presents Heathcliff’s bulling and abuse at the hands of Hindley as he grows increasingly jealous of Heathcliff for Mr. Earnshaw, his father, has favoured Heathcliff over his own son, “my arm, which is black to the shoulder” the pejorative modifier ‘black’ portrays dark and gothic associations but also shows the extent of the abuse that Heathcliff as a child suffered from his adopted brother. It is this abuse in childhood that shapes Heathcliff’s attitudes towards Hindley and his sadistic nature, as seen in chapter 17, “in rousing his rage a pitch above his malignity” there is hyperbole and melodrama as the cruelty that stemmed from his abuse in childhood has been passed onto Isabella in adulthood.
Crooks is known as the stable buck by others at the ranch who is discriminated because of his skin color. Although he is a very productive worker who gets his name because of his crooked back from the hard labour, he is heavily discriminated. He represented what every black man had to face throughout that period of time; his dreams were put down just because of his skin color. Not only was that time of the Great Depression bad but the racial discrimination made achieving his dreams impossible just because of his skin color. He’s the only African American character in the novel and is not treated equally compared to others at the ranch but ironically, he has the most permanent working spot at the farm. As a result of constant discrimination by others, he is extremely lonely.
(4) Wuthering Heights’s mood is melancholy and tumultuous. As a result, the book gives off a feeling of sorrow and chaos. For example, Catherine’s marriage with Edgar Linton made Heathcliff jealous and angry. In retaliation, Heathcliff married Edgar’s sister, Isabella, to provoke Catherine and Edgar. Heathcliff and Isabella’s marriage ignited a chaotic uproar with Edgar and Catherine because Linton disapproved of Heathcliff’s character, and Catherine loved Heathcliff in spite of being married to Edgar. Inside, Catherine wanted to selfishly keep Heathcliff to herself. Their relationships all had tragic endings because Catherine died giving birth to Edgar’s child. Isabella also died, leaving behind her young son. Heathcliff and Edgar resented each other because of misery they experienced together. The transition of the mood in the story is from chaotic to somber.
The famous saying that from a true love to a great hatred is only a
The theme of social standing seems to be very pertinent to the time both novels were written. In the nineteenth century, especially in England, there was almost nothing more significant in forming a marriage than the social standing of the partners involved. The aristocracy also seemed to perpetuate themselves by thinking of themselves often, as the Lady Bingley's did in Pride and Prejudice, that by "associating with people of rank, and were therefore in every respect entitled to think well of themselves, and meanly of others." (4. 11) However, the condescension coming from the upper classes to those lower seems to be reciprocated by the bitterness of the lower classes to those higher. As Nelly gives Heathcliff advice in Wuthering Heights, "Were I i...
Everyone goes through a time where they wish they were a different person. Many people believe that they can never change who they are. However, transformations occur every day. Emily Bronte proves this true in her novel Wuthering Heights. Throughout the entire plot, numerous characters changed, either in their appearance, their social status, or their personality. Bronte also proves that non-human things can change, such as the manner of Wuthering Heights. The idea that people and objects can transform is shown throughout the novel through many examples.
In Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, Bronte uses the issue of social class to focus in on how an outsider, Heathcliff, is treated when he enters in a new society with a changing class structure to show the idea that class is something that begins with ancestors and current members conform into it is present. At the time, the industrialization of England caused the levees in place to yield to allow for a new middle class. This rise of middle, working class stirs up conflict between the dominant upper class and the rising lower classes. This class conflict, the oppression against the lower classes serves as the basis for Heathcliff’s interactions, treatments, and future tyrannical actions in Wuthering Heights to show the class struggle placed on society by industrialization.