Examine the way Emily Bront fulfils the expectations of the 'gothic' genre in her novel Wuthering Heights.

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Examine the way Emily Brontë fulfils the expectations of the ‘gothic’ genre in her novel Wuthering Heights.

Within this essay I will examine the social and historical background of Emily Brontë’s upbringing, and the way her only novel, wuthering height, is related to the gothic genre.

Emily Brontë was brought up in a time very different from our own; she lived on secluded moors and without many of our modern day privileges, and became very close to her family. Many of her close family members died within her lifetime, affecting her deeply and leaving her emotionally scarred. The tragedy and misfortune of Emily Brontë’s life is shown through her novel ‘Wuthering Heights’. The many dark, sad and misfortunate parts of this novel which represent Emily Brontë’s life are the same parts which can be categorised it in to the gothic genre.

Cathy represents Emily Brontë; they both suffered the loss of a parent and lived on secluded moors. The semi-autobiographical nature is also shown through Hindely, Cathy’s brother, and his similarities to Emily Brontë’s brother, both go through a spiral downfall into alcoholism and drink themselves into early graves.

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        Emily Brontë lived in a male dominated Georgian society. It was this male dominance and the idea of female inadequacy that forced her to publish her only novel Wuthering Heights under the male pseudonym Ellis Bell.

         Brontë’s novel contains many of the elements that can be seen in the gothic genre. The setting is true to the gothic style; it is in a secluded place that often represents something that happened there. ‘On that bleak hill top the earth was hard with a black frost.’ In my opinion it represents the dark and gloomy past of Wuthering Heights, the death ...

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