Bronte addresses the theme of love in a revolutionary way that would have surprised critics. The love of Cathy and Heathcliff defies all, as Cathy explains, “If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and, if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the Universe would turn to a mighty stranger.” After Cathy dies, Heathcliff pleads for Cathy not to leave him “Be with me always - take any form - drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh God! it is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!” He later also claims to be haunted by her “She showed herself, as she often was in life, a devil to me!” His love for her turns to revenge when he cannot be with her and he acts against society. Heathcliff abuses his wife, tyrannizes his son to gain wealth and degrades Hareton Earnshaw. He lies in Cathy’s grave with her body, and says “I expected such a transformation on raising the lid, but I’m better pleased that it should not commence till I share it.” These events are disturbing as it is almost unbelievable that anyone would act in such a unseemly manner. At the end of the novel, Heathcliff grows weary and he gives up on revenge, “ But where is the use? I don’t care for striking, I can’t take the trouble to raise my hand.” It is because of this that he is able to see Catherine again. After both Cathy and Heathcliff have died, Ellen tells Lockward that “that old man by the kitchen fire affirms he has seen two on ‘em looking out of his chamber window, on every rainy night since his death”.
The appearance of ghosts and superstition may have also shocked the first critics of Wuthering Heights, because although people were beginning to stray from the Church, religion still played an important role in the lives of many Victorians. The moral judgments in Wuthering Heights are ambiguous, and the characters in Wuthering Heights appear to oppose the Church. The church is mainly criticised through Bronte’s character Joseph, who is the “wearisomest, self-righteous pharisee that ever ransacked a Bible” – a religious hypocrite. Similarly, the villain in Wuthering Heights – Heathcliff – is not stereotypical. Heathcliff is tortured by his love for Cathy and his evil acts are committed out of revenge. In chapter three, Lockwood has two dreams while staying at Wuthering Heights. Firstly, he dreams about being in Church and being punished for sinning, as he “moved to denounce Jabes Branderham [the Reverend] as the sinner of the sin that no Christian need pardon.” This dream is not only important for the fact that it is negative about religion, but is also confusing and unresolved. Lockwood’s second dream is of Cathy as a ghost. “My fingers closed on the fingers of a little, ice-cold hand! The intense horror of nightmare came over me…Terror made me cruel; and, finding it useless to attempt shaking the creature off, I pulled its wrist on to the broken pane, and rubbed it to and fro till the blood ran down and soaked the bed-clothes”. The dream is disturbing for the action of cutting Cathy’s hand is gruesome and, moreover, neither Lockwood nor Heathcliff believe that the event was actually a dream. This would have shocked readers and this depiction of ghosts and dreams would have been at odds with the religious views of many Victorian readers.
Cathy and Heathcliff also appear to renounce religion for nature. In chapter three, Lockwood reads Cathy’s diary, in which she speaks of her desire to escape from religious teachings and “have a scamper on the moors”. Nature is a key theme in the novel, primarily as the setting of the novel is on the moors. Moreover, the moors are symbolic of Cathy and Heathcliff’s love – they are vast, empty and dangerous, however they also represent freedom, due to the vast expanse of land. Wuthering Heights was written during the Industrial Revolution and many people left the countryside in favour of the city. The differences between the country and the city also play a role in Wuthering Heights, as they emphasize the loneliness of the moors and the struggles of the characters. The differences are also represented by the two houses; Wuthering Heights (as nature) and Thrushcross Grange (as culture). Both however are portrayed with negative and positive adjectives. The negative and positive attributes vary accordingly to the characters in control of the houses. After Nelly leaves Wuthering Heights, the warm, cosy house becomes neglected. However at the end of the novel, Nelly has returned to Wuthering Heights, and, as Lockwood notes, this “is an improvement! I thought. And I noticed another, by the aid of my nostrils; a fragrance of stocks and wall flowers, wafted on the air, from amongst the homely fruit trees.” Bronte therefore offends readers and critics who view the countryside or the city differently to her descriptions/indications. The moors can be seen as dangerous as people can get lost on them, however they also represent freedom, due to the vast expanse of land. Cathy and Heathcliff often run on the moors, going there to escape their childhood at Wuthering Heights. On the moors, they are free from moral obligations and can follow their desires instead of doing what society expects of them.
The themes of class and education are explored throughout Wuthering Heights. It might generally be perceived that wealth and status would provide greater liberty; it is therefore contradictory when the servants in Wuthering Heights appear to be freer than their masters. Servants (usually) have the ability to leave their occupations and find a new job, as they have a place in society. However, at the time of the book, society was hierarchical and it was crucial to be in good society to be respected. The masters in Wuthering Heights are therefore striving to become higher in class and they cannot escape the strain/pressures of society. The characters in Wuthering Height also do not conform to the usual expectations of society. Although Nelly and Joseph are servants, they are sometimes treated like family members. Both Cathy, and her daughter Catherine confide in Nelly and they trust her; “Cathy ran to me instead of Linton, and knelt down, and put her burning cheek on my lap, weeping aloud.” Nelly’s character is also unusual, for she is well educated for a servant, “You could not open a book in the library that I have not looked into, and got something out of it also”.
Heathcliff is also atypical where his place in society is concerned, for he is neither a servant, nor has money; he is an orphan. “He [Hindley] drove him [Heathcliff] from their company to the servants,” yet, later in the novel Heathcliff returns rich from a three-year absence. Heathcliff also inherits Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, later in the novel. However, the way in which he inherited these estates is reprehensible and this would have shocked readers. Such social mobility as Heathcliff’s would be at odds with the Victorian view that people should know their place in society. The accent and dialect of the characters is a method of showing the difference between social classes. Catherine does not believe that Hareton is her cousin, for he looks and speaks like a servant, and he has not been educated. “ ‘He my cousin!’ cried Cathy with a scornful laugh.”
Where appropriate, Bronte presents characters as using a Yorkshire dialect. The language and manners of the local characters in Wuthering Heights were criticised for being rough and coarse, for example Joseph. “yah’re a nowt, and it’s noa use talking – yah’ll niver mend uh yer ill ways; bud goa raight tuh t’ devil, like yer mother afore ye!” Such realistic dialogue was unusual in a novel written at this time.
The theme of education is displayed through Heathcliff as Hindley “deprived him of the instructions of the curate” and he had no education. Instead, Heathcliff took refuge on the moors and through this, Bronte explores nature versus nurture – whether ones life experiences influence ones behavior. Certainly, Heathcliff’s character is more rebellious than that of Edgar Linton, who grew up educated at home. Critics would also have found the idea of a woman educating a man preposterous; however at the end of Wuthering heights, Catherine is found tutoring Hareton. “He, poor man, was perfectly aghast at the spectacle of Catherine seated on the same bench with Hareton Earnshaw”.
The characters in Wuthering Heights were viewed by Victorian readers as passionate, but uncouth. They are atypical of characters expected to be found in a book, as the servants do not act like servants, and their masters act boorishly. Bronte’s sister, Charlotte Bronte stated in a preface to Wuthering Heights, “Whether it is right or advisable to create beings like Heathcliff, I do not know. I scarcely think it is.” The actions of characters would have shocked readers, particularly those of Heathcliff, who is both the villain and the hero in this novel – tortured by his love for Cathy. Catherine says to him, “ ‘you have taken all my land!...And my money…And Hareton’s land and his money”.
While readers may have been shocked by her novel, many were impressed by Bronte’s use of motifs, for example, doubles, boundaries, dreams and repetition. Bronte has written Wuthering Heights so that its structure and events that take place in the plot are arranged in pairs. For example, Bronte uses duel narration, the novel takes place between the two houses Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, and the novel features the Earnshaws and the Lintons until the two families eventually become one. Boundaries also appear throughout the novel in the form of windows, doors, social class, the mind, and love; they are both physical and mental. Bronte also employs the literary device repetition; the names of the characters being reused in each generation, Hindley’s degradation of Heathcliff being repeated by Heathcliff’s degradation of Hareton, and the love of Edgar and Cathy being repeated by Linton and Catherine. Bronte also uses powerful imagery to describe feelings that are passionate and use emotive language. The imagery often corresponds to nature, for example when Cathy compares Linton and Heathcliff, “as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire”. The descriptions relate to their personalities: Linton is the moonbeam, which provides useful light at night; however Heathcliff is the lightning, which is destructive like his character. Furthermore, the descriptions are also often sensual and invoke unrestrained feelings, whether good or bad. Bronte’s use of such description would have been found shocking, as it was not expected of a ‘weak’ woman to portray such provocative feelings.
To conclude, the first critics of Wuthering Heights found the novel shocking and subversive because Bronte crosses the boundaries of many Victorian ideals. She addressed the roles of gender, equality of the sexes, education, class, religion and love. Moreover, Bronte did so in a revolutionary way, using techniques such as duel narration, imagery and structure to explore the themes in the novel. Furthermore the first critics would have been shocked purely by the characters in Wuthering Heights and their uncivilised actions.
