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 of character. The two are in fact diametrical opposites — Heathcliff surly and vindictive; Lockwood a paragon of civility. Whereas we do not know Lockwood's first name, Heathcliff is without a last, a technique likely employed to emphasise their differences. However this can also be seen as sardonic humour in the way both characters do however share parallels in their mistreatment as a result of their outsider status.
Lockwood as an outsider to the environment of Wuthering Heights is portrayed as a bumbling intruder. As a narrator he is revealed to be extremely fallible, making countless mistakes most laughably calling young Catherine Heathcliff’s’ “amiable lady”. A feature undoubtedly employed by Bronte to stress how he is a stranger to the north and the ways of the Yorkshire moors, and this grievous mistake on his behalf leads the reader to then treat his later actions with a degree of suspicion. In his arrival, Gothic elements are employed by Bronte to further emphasise the inhospitality of his welcome. His description of the “stunted firs”, “gaunt thorns” and the “wilderness of crumbling griffins” in the first chapter create this unwelcoming environment, as well as Chapter 3 where he is led to a mysterious chamber which should have protected him from the “vigilance” of Heathcliff by a fellow outsider, Zillah but in instead subjects him to a terrifying encounter with Cathy’s ghost.
The recurring theme of outsiders being treated with suspicion is also echoed in Chapter Four with the arrival of Heathcliff as a young boy. Although he is likened to a “lamb” and “child of God”, much like Jeanette in “Oranges” the other children still “would not play with him”, choosing instead to subject the “dark boy” to an array of insults including “Gypsy Brat” and “darkly ragged black haired child”. He is even likened to something that “came from the devil” which echoes Blake’s “dark satanic mills” of the 19th century, a reference to the poor working conditions which led to rising tensions and conflicts between the upper and lower classes. This inhospitable welcome is paralleled in “Oranges” where because of her Evangelical background Jeanette is made an outcast by the children in her school who subject her to physical abuse “hitting” her and “screaming with laughter”, the verb “screaming” emphasising the brute savagery of their abuse.
The degree to which Heathcliff is discriminated against as an outsider is further shown in how Nelly Dean refers to the infant with the dehumanising pronoun “it” to emphasise how much Heathcliff is unwanted in the house (just like Jeanette is unwanted at the school). He is then later reduced to the status of a servant and “degrade[d]” as a social outcast when Mr Earnshaw dies and Wuthering Heights is passed on to Hindley. Hindley “drove him” from their company to the servants and insists that he should “labour out of doors instead”, thus emphasising how Heathcliff does not belong in the civilised environment of Wuthering Heights.
A Marxist critic would understand Heathcliff’s’ lack of defined place within the social and economic structure of Wuthering Heights makes him Cathy’s natural companion. She, as the daughter “who does not expect to inherit”, is the least economically integral person in the family thus creating parallels between the two characters as outsiders. Friendship with Heathcliff offers Cathy the relative freedom of being “outside” the social structure of her family much as lesbianism in “Oranges” allows Jeanette to step outside the stringent religious confines of her household, though consequently making her a sinner and outcast having “fallen foul of [her] lust”.
In Chapter 5, Nelly comments that though capable of sweetness, Cathy likes "to act the little mistress," and it is this awareness of the social differences between she and Heathcliff that lead her, to marry Edgar Linton who is "handsome” and “pleasant to be with." In Chapter 9 when Nelly implies that these reasons are superficial, Cathy tells of her plan to use Edgar's money to help Heathcliff “rise” from his outsider status, and how it would “degrade” her to marry Heathcliff, although she does say Heathcliff is “more myself than I am”: This viewpoint displays love where Freud says “the boundary between ego and object threatens to melt away. Against all the evidence of their senses, a man/woman who are in love declare ‘I' and 'you' are one, and is prepared to behave as if it were a fact." As a result Edgar Linton is an outsider to this love, and this ultimately leads to Cathy’s refusal to respond to his later request that she either “give up Heathcliff” or him, for it is “impossible for [her] to be [his] friend” and “[Heathcliff’s] at the same time. “
This battle between the two men to posses Cathy inevitably results in her death. Although Heathcliff has the appearance and manners of a gentleman, the revenge he plans is diabolical, and though she loves him, Cathy is not fooled, when she and Heathcliff meet for the last time she tells him, he has “broken [her] heart” and that she shall not be at peace." She dies two hours after midnight, having given birth to a "puny, seven months child”. The location of Cathy’s grave then indicates the extent to which she was separated from the rest of her family and from the society of Gimmerton, “Neither in the chapel under the monument of the Linton’s”, nor yet the tombs of her own relations, outside” It is a spot isolated within the churchyard and reclaimed by the wilderness of the moor as befits her nature. Heathcliff is later buried alongside her allowing the kindred souls to “merge” and dissolve into each other to achieve a unity, which transcends the petty struggles of social class and outsiders, ever present in the world of “Wuthering Heights”.
“Wuthering Heights” is often seen by critics to allude to ideas of The Fall, evident in the character of Isabella Linton who falls from the enviable position of being an insider, to an outsider. In spite of Cathy’s blunt warning that "He's a fierce, pitiless, wolfish man", Isabella still chooses to elope with Heathcliff under the delusion of him being a Byronic Hero. However in her failure to heed Cathie’s warning she finds herself measured against the standards of her legal overseer and turned into a “fugitive”. As a woman of the 19th century she would have been heavily dependent on her husband and Heathcliff sees this as an opportunity to literally incarcerate her in a marriage she describes as “worse than solitude.” In Chapter 13 when she decides to return home, the rift between brother and sister is evident as Edgar refuses to take her back claiming, “She is only [his] sister in name”, precipitating her departure to the south, where she remains an outsider and outcast until her death. Similarly in “Oranges” Jeanette’s return to the fold is ultimately problematic and unsatisfactory as nothing seems to have changed.
Word count: 1602