Class and Gender in Wuthering Heights - Essay Example

and Gender in Wuthering Heights The Victorian age is at once identified generally as a time of nostalgic perfection and rigid oppression. It is the age of change and social advances as well as the age of strict social structure and a severe regard for the customs of the past. Under the reign of Queen Victoria, the Industrial Revolution came of age, blossomed and brought sweeping change across the country and the world. In this switch, there was a great deal of social upheaval as people living in these changing times began to question the status quo. Social class structures were beginning to break down as common men were able to make fortunes in industry and landowners found it more and more difficult to keep the idyllic life they’d constructed alive. Women, too, were beginning to question their allotted place in society as more and more opportunities opened for them in the urban centers of the country, providing them with a means of supporting themselves and freeing themselves from the yoke of male domination. Wuthering Heights, written by Emily Bronte during this period, is a novel that deals with both class and gender. When Catherine says “I am Heathcliff” (101), she is making a claim about herself which challenges gender and class positions. Because of his birth status, in which Heathcliff is introduced as “a dirty, ragged, black-haired child; big enough both to walk and talk; …, yet, when it was set on its feet, it only stared round, and repeated over and over again some gibberish, that nobody could understand” (54-55), as well as his upbringing, in which Hindley “drove him [Heathcliff] from their company to the servants, deprived him of the instructions of the curate, and insisted that he should labour out of doors instead” (64), Heathcliff is seen as base-born as a person can get. He is both an orphan of unknown origin as well as an unlettered oaf untaught in the strict mannerisms of the gentleman class. His status is so low in the social structure that when Isabella determines she is infatuated with him, Edgar considers “leaving aside the degradation of an alliance with a nameless man, and the possible fact that his property, in default of heirs male, might pass into such a one’s power …” (120). By contrast, Catherine is born into an old family, with a highly respected name, making her automatically accepted in the high society of Gimmerton. She is given a decent education until the family, under Hindley, finally drives the curate away through sheer lack of manners and her five week experience in the Linton household after her ankle is injured further educates her in the proper etiquette expected of a young lady. Despite these differences, the above statement in which she equates herself to Heathcliff illustrates the depth of her conviction that there are no fundamental differences between herself and her childhood companion, regardless of any social qualifications. The fact that both she and Heathcliff seem to share similar sentiments regarding their ability to care for others and similar activities in their wild ramblings about Wuthering Heights as children also work to reduce any perception of difference between the girl and the boy. “Cathy taught him [Heathcliff] what she learnt and worked or played with him in the fields. They both promised fair to grow up as rude as savages; … it was one of their chief amusements to run away to the moors in the morning and remain there all day” (64). Anything Heathcliff can do, Catherine considers herself capable of doing. Even when she returned from the Lintons, thoroughly outwardly changed into a gentle young lady, she saw no difference between herself and Heathcliff. “Cathy, catching a glimpse of her friend in his concealment, flew to embrace him; she bestowed seven or eight kisses on his cheek within the second” (71). Upon Heathcliff’s withdrawal from her, she tells him “If you wash your face, and brush your hair, it will be all right” (71). Rather than seeing them as male and female, upper and servant class, it becomes easy to see Catherine and Heathcliff as two sides of the same entity that is neither male nor female and impossible to separate. Meanwhile, their comparison to the other characters in the novel serve to set them apart as a class of their own, that is neither better nor worse. On the one hand, Catherine and Heathcliff are wild and untamed, ferocious of spirit and entirely devoted to one another while still recognizing the faults of the other. This fierce streak in them both sets them up as stronger than those around them, who are seen as “spoiled children” who “fancy the world was made for their accommodation” (117) regarding Edgar and Isabella specifically. No one else even comes close to measuring even this condescending assessment by the pair. On the other hand, Heathcliff is destroyed by his own stubbornness and desire for revenge and Catherine is destroyed by her own histrionics at not being able to have her way. In this, both show themselves to be weaker than those around them who are able to carry on with their lives in some semblance of happiness, both being capable of giving and receiving love as Edgar enjoys a close relationship with his daughter Catherine and Isabella manages to escape Heathcliff’s hands to what enjoyment she can find for herself and her sickly son. However, this is not to say that Catherine or Heathcliff remain ignorant of the differences between classes. The pair first discerns this difference when they peek into the parlor of the Linton household. “… we saw – ah! It was beautiful – a splendid place carpeted with crimson, and crimson covered chairs and tables, and a pure white ceiling bordered by gold, a shower of glass-drops hanging in silver chains from the centre, and shimmering with little soft tapers” (66). Compared to the dismal and dusty atmosphere of Wuthering Heights, the room itself illustrates an entirely different class of luxury and living than either of them have encountered. In behavior, Heathcliff demonstrates the first reluctance to cross social barriers upon the return of Catherine from the Linton household. Upon seeing her return as “a very dignified person, with brown ringlets falling from the cover of a feathered beaver, and a long cloth habit, which she was obliged to hold up with both hands that she might sail in” (70), Heathcliff withdraws to a back corner to watch the homecoming proceedings. Catherine demonstrates her own awareness of the differences between the Linton household and the class represented there and the Wuthering Heights household and the separate social distinctions that hold in that home through her careful conduct in one versus the other. “She had no temptation to show her rough side in their [the Lintons] company, and had the sense to be ashamed of being rude where she experienced such invariable courtesy, … In the place where she heard Heathcliff termed a ‘vulgar young ruffian,’ and ‘worse than a brute,’ she took care not to act like him; but at home she had small inclination to practice politeness that would only be laughed at” (85). While Catherine runs off to marry Edgar, telling Nelly “It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now” (99) because together “we should be beggars” (100), Heathcliff runs off to make his fortune and bring his own social class closer to that of Catherine’s liking. His success in doing so is evidenced in his eventual success in obtaining ownership rights to both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, yet his failure is also demonstrated through his loss of Catherine, his less than honest dealings in order to obtain rights to the Linton home and his isolated, hateful existence following her death. In the end, the story works to both confirm and deny social class distinctions while refuting any gender distinctions. In the children of the story, Hareton and Catherine the younger, social class and gender are explicitly evident. Catherine is raised at Thrushcross Grange as a young lady of means, receiving an excellent education, proper breeding and instructed in proper behavior. Despite her high class, however, she falls under the control of Heathcliff through cunning trickery and is brought as low as any baseborn tenant of Wuthering Heights. Hareton is provided with no instruction, no love and no attention, being required to work in the fields all day and accustomed to disappearing on the moors in much the same wild fashion as Heathcliff had done in his own youth. In this respect, he is seen as a sort of Heathcliff junior, but his birthright is that of the ancient Earnshaw family, which is given as the reason for his caring heart despite his harsh surroundings. The eventual relationship that springs up between the younger Catherine and Hareton bridges this social gap for both, bringing them each closer to the middle and equal footing as they inherit by default the property that should have been theirs to begin with. At the same time, Hareton’s ability to learn and Catherine’s superior knowledge serve to render any gender differences null and void as it becomes the women of the household who manage the business transactions for both properties. While the classes are brought to the center and the genders are seen to have equal capabilities of thought and abstraction, the houses are nevertheless returned to the high station from which they originated, designating no long-term changes to the social order after all. Works Cited Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1942. Read More