Joseph has a ‘relentlessly sour’ attitude to those around him. He is strictly a religious fanatic whose brand of religion is unforgiving for others and self serving for himself. In my opinion Emily Bronte uses Joseph’s religiousness to try and put a point across to society, which in those days everything you did was based heavily on a misinterpreted strict Christian faith. Having a father who was a reverend I think influenced
her description and creation of Joseph thus secluding the character from the others.
The heavy Yorkshire accent also helped in the process of isolating Joseph from the other characters. You can sometimes almost hear him bellow as you read. ‘By making Joseph speaks in a strong Yorkshire dialect, Emily Bronte suggests the remoteness of the Heights from civilisation, and makes her story seem more authentic, rooted in a traditional way of life’ according to the York Notes on Wuthering Heights. At times the broad dialect also makes Joseph seem rather an absurd figure, as in his outrage at Catherine and Heathcliffs treatment of his religious views “miss Cathy’s rive th’ back off ‘The Helmet uh salvation’ um’ Heathcliffs pawsed his fit intuh t’ first part uh “T” Brooad Way to Destruction!””. This absurdity rubs off on to his rigid views on sin and damnation, underlining the limitations of his judgemental attitudes to other characters. Josephs strong accent helps establish a contrast between the locals at the Heights and the civilised world of Lockwood and the Grange, thus in my opinion balancing the book in the sense of not lacking anything.
Since its release, 156 years ago, Wuthering Heights has had two editions printed, first being Emily Brontes Original masterpiece and the second of which was Wuthering Heights edited by Emily Brontes sister Charlotte. Charlotte modified the rendering of Joseph’s strong Yorkshire dialect in order to make it more easily understood and to also silence harsh critics of the novel. A lot of the criticism which Emily Bronte received at the time Wuthering Heights was released was due to the violence and ‘coarse’ language that was used. To ones surprise much of this violence and rough literature centred on Joseph. One might ask why did Emily Bronte use such language or in fact create such a minor character that both degraded the Christian religion and also her own novel. However in a broader perspective Bronte had every right in adding the character Joseph, since the novel would be lacking exciting flavour and texture if he was to be eliminated.
“Evil”, “Wicked”, “Hell”, ‘Hatred’, and ‘Superstition’ are words that you would mostly associate with Joseph. His cantankerousness and obsequity “ Maister, maister, he’s staling t’ lantern” shouts Joseph, his lack of charm, and his cruelty “… Hey dog! Hey wolf, hold him, holld him!” His narrow mindedness, lack of generosity e.g. when Lockwood asks Joseph to tell Nelly Dean who he is, Joseph replies “Nor-ne-me! Awill hae nou hend wit”, him being a hypocrite “ you scandalous old hypocrite!” says Cathy, would probably best summarise the character Joseph from what one gathers from the first three chapters however our view of Joseph we must remember is influenced a great deal by Lockwoods dream and narration, Catherine’s diary and also Nelly Deans narration but in a less aggressive manner, thus one must interpret all of these views to ones own understanding of the novel, and in my opinion Josephs character should be left a mystery as Lockwood did and to not go into further depth and detail because after all something’s are best to be left a mystery but unlike the main characters which have to be analysed accurately.
