The role of the outsider should not be overlooked because the setting of Wuthering Heights is one of complete isolation. The moors connecting Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange serve a double purpose — linking the two households while still separating them from the village and all others. This isolated setting is important for Bronte’s combination of realism and gothic symbolism. Living beyond the bounds of society means that the outsider, whoever it may be is seen as a suspicious and threatening entity, someone who has to be excluded or isolated for the good of the society at .this is an example of how the outsider has now become the enemy and a threat to society and yet still occupies a position of vulnerability.
Isolation is a concept of utter importance in all gothic novels and is closely linked to the idea of the outsider. This is very easy to see in novels such as Dracula with the secluded castle on the mountain tops or Frankenstein in the far end of the arctic. And so Bronte is actually forced to use this symbolism and create a desolate world for her characters .This is also an indication of how Bronte was brought up, in Emily’s whole life the only places she favoured to go to were her the moors and her home, Emily’s isolation and unsociability also affected her story. The setting of the novel is only limited to two dwellings Wuthering heights and Thrushcross grange and moors around them and the only nearby village is gimmerton which is rather far from both dwellings. Lockwood’s first impression of the place is “in all England, I do not believe that I could have fixed on a situation so completely removed from the stir of society” this indicates the extent to which Wuthering heights stands alone and isolated this is somewhat symbolic for it distances the cruel, barbarous and bizarrely excessive events from everyday life. It also shows the helplessness of the victims of these events and their defenselessness since it is very difficult to get help.
One of the most outspoken and clearly proving-its-existence quotes is “we don’t in general take to foreigners here, Mr. Lockwood, unless they take to us first” this shows that outsiders are definitely unwelcomed guests and are only to be approved of after they can be trusted and even after they have been taken into guardianship (for example young Heathcliff, Hareton and Linton) they can still be prejudiced and treated “infernally”.
The second example of an outsider in Wuthering heights (after Heathcliff) is of course Isabella linton she has been taken out of her home at thrushcross grange and moved to the outsider status in Wuthering heights she writes (to nelly dean) “you’ll not be surprised ,Ellen, at my feeling particularly cheerless, seated in worse than solitude, on that inhospitable hearth…”.Isabella also becomes an outsider to her own brother, Edgar as soon as she elopes with Heathcliff and bears his child. She is left homeless since the residents of her new home treat her as an unwelcomed guest and her brother won’t take to her either “Hereafter she is only my sister in name; not because I disown her, but because she has disowned me.” . This can be seen from another point of view, Isabella has become an outsider simpy because she has married one.
The third and final example is of course, Hareton linton he has been born into a house lacking of love or any feeling to nurture him into growing up into a healthy young man, but he is then introduced to Catherine who rather “tames” him in a way and bringing his illiterate, ignorant self to an end. He is turned into an outsider ever since he was taken under Heathcliff’s care, or in this case lack of it. Heathcliff degrades hareton and puts him into the same treatment he has been through (which led him to become an outsider in the past). Hareton lacked education and gentleness and in one instance Heathcliff had to remind him how to act when catherine first visited “Don’t use any bad words; and don’t stare, when the young lady is not looking at you, and be ready to turn your face when she is”.
The theme of outsiders is also existant in the color purple in many characters. First and foremost Celie she is an outsider in every aspect. When she is at home with her “pa” being raped and enslaved into working hard and still keeping quite and not fight back whatever happens to her. She is also an outsider to her own self she does not know who she is (“I am”) and does not understand her body, she becomes an outsider to her 2 children and does not get to know them and hence they become outsiders. Mr____ tries to define her being “you black, you pore, you ugly, you a woman. Goddam, you nothing at all” but fails since his description is merely superficial but still has a big affect on celie’s development.
Another social outsider in the color purple is of course Shug Avery, in the beginning of the novel she was discriminated against for being well, a “slut, hussy, heifer and street cleaner” of course people did not consider that as a life choice because of the platitude people at that time had for the role of women...especially black women. When Shug Avery became sick “nobody in this town wants to take the Queen Honeybee in.” Everyone is afraid of her because they believe that Shug has the “nasty woman disease”.
The olinka people are made to be outsiders to the whites that own the land, but have very different lifestyle which cause them to be unwanted. Tashi did not want to marry Adam because she feared she would be discriminated against in America because of the different way she looks and because she is an outsider again both metaphorically and literally.
