Outsiders and Outcasts in "Wuthering Heights"

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Geofrey Banzi

Explore the presentation of outsiders and outcasts in the novels. Use ‘’Orange are not the Only Fruit’’ to illuminate your understanding of the core text.

 “Wuthering Heights” is a Gothic novel written by Emily Bronte in 1847. The novel revolves around the story of a dark protagonist and outsider Heathcliff. As an outsider his presence is shown to have negative consequences resulting in the demise of various members of the Earnshaw Household, including that of his star crossed love, Catherine Earnshaw. The theme of outsiders and outcasts is seen to pervade the story, highlighting the prejudice and contempt that would have been shown towards members of a lower social class in essence making them social pariahs, as well as showing the deep rooted suspicion and contempt that were shown towards outsiders. The novel has a frame narrative which includes various narrators. The incorporation of so many narrative voices especially those of outsiders like Nelly and Lockwood shows how Bronte has given the outsider a voice in a society that would have them stifled. Similarly, “Oranges are not the only fruit” is a first-person narrative that gives the outsider Jeanette a voice, expressing the prejudice and discrimination she receives as an outsider because of her evangelical background. The text also explores the extent to which she was made an outcast, often accused of being “immoral” and “full of demons” because of her sexual orientation.

The isolated setting in which Emily Bronte situates her novel is important for her combination of realism and Gothic symbolism as well as the theme of outsiders and outcasts. Wuthering Heights is situated beyond the bounds of society in what the effete narrator Lockwood describes as a perfect “Misanthropist’s heaven”, The noun “Misanthropist” describes the location of Wuthering Heights as a place of seclusion existing beyond the bounds of society, and this means that the outsider, whoever it may be would naturally be regarded as a suspicious and threatening entity. The limited geographical world of the novel links with how Bronte herself did not enjoy the experience of travelling from home, and her limited experience of travel and her lack of desire to do so are then reflected in the way the outside world and its representatives are viewed with suspicion.

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The reader is first introduced to the hostile world of “Wuthering Heights” and the themes of outsider and outcasts through the treatment of the fallible narrator, Lockwood. From the very first, Bronte is seen to make explicit the deep suspicion that awaits strangers in Wuthering Heights, he is greeted with “Black” eyes that “withd[rew] suspiciously”  and fingers that “sheltered themselves.” This reception contrasts starkly to his optimistic presumption of his host being a “capital fellow”. Ironically, Lockwood misjudges the situation assuming himself to be a “suitable pair” with Heathcliff which, at face value shows him to be a poor judge ...

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