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 of Cathy and the tormented life of Heathcliff.
Also the mystery and suspense that is often present in gothic novels is present in Wuthering Heights. ‘Opening his coat which he had bundled up in his arms.’ ‘A dirty black haired child.’ This is when Heathcliff is brought into the story, we don’t know where he came from, what life he had been living and who are his parents.
Supernatural events are a common feature of a gothic novel. Wuthering Heights show this feature through the appearance of Cathy many years after her demise. ‘Stretching an arm out to seize the importunate branch instead of which, my fingers crossed on the fingers of an ice cold hand.’ I believe that the appearance of Cathy’s ghost keeps the readers interested and makes them wonder, as many people do not know what to think or believe when they hear of supernatural events as there is no prove that supernatural beings do or do not exist.
The gothic genre that Emily Brontë has used within Wuthering Heights is also portrayed through the overwrought emotion many of the characters have. Heathcliff shows a lot of raw and overwrought emotion throughout the novel. Through most of the novel he shows a loathing towards Hindley, because of the heartlessness Hindley showed him.
When Cathy starts to show her feelings for Edgar, Heathcliff begins to despise Edgar and show jealously towards him as he has the love of Cathy. Like most gothic novels, most of the emotions in Wuthering Heights tend to be fear, terror, jealousy, sadness and hatred. Happy emotions in gothic novels tend to come to an end causing massive amounts of distress and pain. In Wuthering Heights this is shown through the relationship between Cathy and Heathcliff, the end of this relationship brings out a dark and vengeful side of Heathcliff.
The novel represents the time of which Emily Brontë lived; its representation of the class system shows what the society of the time was like. Cathy has a choice between Heathcliff and Edgar, and she makes her choice based entirely on their status in society. ‘It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now so he will never know how I love him.’ She picks Edgar over Heathcliff because he is of a higher class. This shows the shallowness of society at the time and that society was male dominated. Women were forced to be dependent on men and had to marry men they didn’t love to secure them a financial future and to gain a better social status.
The novel raises issues that can been seen in societies of all times, including the modern society in which we live. It shows how people are judge on material things, most commonly in this novel it shows how people are judged on social status.
The novel is told through two narrations, Nelly Dean and Lockwood. The parts of the novel that Nelly Dean narrates are informal, This shows Nelly is a servant, and is considered to be lower class in society. However when Lockwood narrates, the language is more formal, and like that of a highly educated person showing he is of higher class than Nelly Dean is.
