Civilisation vs wilderness in “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Brontë Student Moise Bianca Roxana Group English German,second year Course English Literature Ovidius University of Constanta January 2015 Em[.] Civilisation vs wilderness in “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Brontë Student: Moise Bianca-Roxana Group: English-German,second year Course: English Literature Ovidius University of Constanta January 2015 Emily Jane Brontë was a British novelist and poet, now best remembered for her only novel “Wuthering Heights”, a classic of English literature Emily was the second eldest of the three surviving Brontë sisters, being younger than Charlotte Brontë and older than Anne Brontë As the author of “Wuthering Heights”, Emily Brontë is one of the most celebrated female novelists in the English literature Many, however, not realize that this quintessential English novel was originally written under a male pen name Emily Brontë published her work under the name Ellis Bell This name represented the male identity necessary to succeed during the time in which Brontë was actively writing She wished to separate herself from the negative association that female writers had at the time so the masculine pseudonym allowed Emily’s work to be taken seriously in an era when authoresses were looked on with severe prejudice Emily Brontë’s health (like her sisters’) was poor throughout most of her life She died at the young age of 30 in the year 1948 She first published her work in the year 1847 under the male pseudonym but it aroused a firestorm of protest and it was considered, at that time, as one of the most repellent books, the reading public was shocked and the critics demanded that the book be burned In 1950, Charlotte Brontë later edited Emily’s novel and re-published it under Emily’s true name, but the storm of the protest only got louder and the work of art was still seen as a treat to civilised society This reaction is understandable based on the expectations of that time’s reading public Emily Brontë portrayed, instead of perfect, byronic heroes and proper Victorian housewives heroines, an ant-hero driven by unresolved sexual passion and obsessive vengeance, Heathcliff and, respectively, Catherine, a married woman who runs around in the moors in her nightgown having trysts with her childhood lover Nonetheless ,today, “Wuthering Heights “(along with her sisters’ “Jane Eyre”) is extremely appreciated and also considered one of the most important English novels in history According to the study “Myths of Power: A Marxist Study of the Brontës”, Charlotte Brontë mentioned on her sister’s Wuthering Heights: ”…She did not know what she had done;” creative artists “work passively under dictates [they] neither delivered nor could question.” However, I tend to think that Emily Brontë knew way too well what she was doing when approaching the issues of the Wuthering Heights The antagonic play between wilderness (or the nature) and civilisation (or the culture) in Brontë’s vision were of great impact and I could say that this is a reason why her one and only work has been considered a valuable literary masterpiece “Wuthering Heights” is a story full of symbols, themes and motifs among which we can also encounter the binary opposition between civilisation and wilderness The setting used by Brontë throughout the novel helps to set the mood to describe the characters and the entire situation In order to approve this opposition as being essential in the novel, there have to be taken intro consideration analysis from two points of view: the main characters’ personalities and the arhitecture of the buildings Emily somehow manages to make us, readers, aware of the fact that “Wuthering Heights” is actually structured on this specifically contrast between the civilised and the wild entities wandering around the whole scene of the play So we find two households separated by the cold, muddy, and desolate moors, one by the name of Wuthering Heights, and the other by the name of Thrushcross Grange Each house stands alone and the atmosphere creates a mood of isolation.These are the two places where virtually all of the action takes place However, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, differ greatly from each other in appearance and atmosphere These differences reflect the universal conflict between the storm and calm that Emily Brontë develops as the theme in the novel The household are, in fact, representative of their respective owners: Heathcliff on one side, and on the other side, the Lintons Although both estates are wealthy, there is a definite difference in class between them and this bears greatly on the characters from both estates ability to socialise with each other. In order to understand the conflict between nature and civilisation in Wuthering Heights, there must be taken into account the analysis of the main characters, which represent, in their own way, arranged by the hidden, symbolic hands of the author, the wilderness and the civilisation The two different buildings have their own strengths and weaknesses and the characters reflect their features. On the first glance on the lecture, it is clear to see that the Earnshaw family (who lives at Wuthering Heights) comes together with nature, with wilderness and simplicity,they are pure and simple when, in contrast, the Lintons(who live at Thrushcross Grange) are a visible symbol for the culture, they represent the civilised, pompous, noble families of those times A representative member of the Earnshaw family is Catherine She is beautiful and charming, but she is never as civilised and cultured as she pretends to be In her heart she is always a wild girl playing on the moors with Heathcliff, her love She regards it as her right to be loved by all, and has an unruly temper Heathcliff usually calls her Cathy and, a very interesting detail given to us by Brontë is that Edgar usually calls her Catherine, which sounds more civilised Heathcliff is another distinct member of the Earnshaw family Right in the first chapter there are signs observed by Lockwood(the man who discovers the story of the old house and arouses the flashbacks) signs that indicate Heathcliff’s personality Lockwood can tell that the houseowner doesn’t want him around and doesn''t seem very excited about renting his house Heathcliff is a very dark and stormy character of Gypsy blood, he is of unknown descent, he is an orphan and he seems to represent on the highest level in the novel the wild and natural forces which often seem amoral and dangerous for society His devotion, almost inhuman, to his sister Catherine is the moving force in his life He is mistreated in a horrible way by his new brother Hindley so all his life he will be driven by the dangerous lust of vengeance “Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living” He is cruel but magnificent in his consistency, and we, as readers, can never forget the fact that at the heart of the grown man lies the abandoned, persecuted child of the streets in Liverpool On the other hand we have the Lintons Edgar Linton, in contrast to Heathcliff, is a refined man, a patient husband and a loving father Charlotte Brontë, in her preface to the 1850 edition of Wuthering Heights, refers to Edgar as "an example of constancy and tenderness," and, as a true feminist, she goes on to suggest that her sister Emily was using Edgar to point out that such characteristics constitute true virtues in all human beings, and not just in women, as society tended to believe Edgar''s inability to counter Heathcliff''s vengeance "Cathy, this lamb of yours threatens like a bull!", and his naive belief on his deathbed in his daughter''s safety and happiness, make him a weak, if sympathetic, character Although the gentry, or upper middle class, possessed servants and often large estates, they held a fragile social position He is civilised, yet sheltered and quite dull He has genuine feelings for Catherine but is easily manipulated by her and is too soft to control her heart and soul. Isabella is Edgar Linton''s sister and is a pleasant, well-educated person with the soft and civilised traits of Thrushcross Grange Considerations of class status often crucially inform the characters'' motivations in Wuthering Heights Catherine''s decision to marry Edgar even if she doesn’t love him “My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I''m well aware, as winter changes the trees” is only the most obvious example By that time she also confesses her immense love for Heatchliff to Nelly Dean, the woman who raised her and takes care of her “I am Heathcliff ''He''s more myself than I am” but that will not influence her decision on marrying Edgar simply because she will be "the greatest woman of the neighborhood" When Cathy and Heathcliff were little they would spy on the Lintons and mock their luxurious and pompous lifestyle but still, peering into the house, they see that it is everything Wuthering Heights is not: colorful, bright, and well-lit (and calm, of course, without Joseph,their old manservant yelling at them and telling them they are all going to hell) Both of the Grange children were exposed to the dark side of the Heights children Edgar married Catherine not realising she was only doing it for her own shallow reasons Isabella married Heathcliff thinking he had become a gentleman in the time he was away, without realising Heathcliff’s intentions, letting herself be taken in by his strength magnetism but instead he had planned his revenge and was focused on how to destroy both families and to succed with his overall plan to own both estates With the union of Cathy(Catherine and Edagr’s daughter) and Hareton(Hindley’s son, raised only by Heathcliff and Joseph), the barriers of class are finally broken and the two incompatible worlds of Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights, the civilisation and the wilderness blend together in harmony They achieve in life what Heathcliff and Catherine can only achieve in death. Decomposing the entire architecture of the two households and the buildings themselves, is also another way to understand the essential conflict between the wilderness and the civilisation in the writing These details make the readers aware not only of the visual details of the scenes or of the exact way the houses looked, but also of the environment in which the characters live On the one hand there is Wuthering Heights with its stiff, stark and intimidating appearance but strong magnetism representing savagery and Thrushcross Grange with its refinement and pleasant appearance representing civility. The features of the estates have a strong association with the people who live in them in terms of mood, emotion and appearance. As Lockwood observes from the first day he arrives at Wuthering Heights, it seems as if each details of the Heights household is in some way expressive of his master’s aggression Lockwood provides a brief description of Heathcliff''s house in chapter The word "wuthering," he tells us, comes from the stormy conditions that characterize the region Thankfully, the house looks strong It also has all sorts of elaborate designs around the front door – gothic-looking details, the date 1500 We know that the date is now 1801, so the house is 300 years old The fabric and layout of the building is described in terms of “attack” and “defence”: corners are “defended” , while “the kitchen is forced to retreat”, so he inside of the house is not much more inviting than the outside It''s far from warm and cozy. Instead, there are, among other random items, some "sundry villainous old guns, and a couple of horse pistols" So, Wuthering heights has the characteristics of being a very strong, prominent structure and is described by Mr Lockwood as being a misanthropists heaven It is a very desolate and lonely place up on a hill exposed to stormy weather with no real beauty and can be seen as an uncivilised place to live. Just as Heathcliff is obscurely a source of danger, so this farmhouse itself is imbued with a sense of mystery, of something hidden When the dogs have “issued form hidden dens” to attack the newcomer, it is as if to compensate for the natural violence that Heatchliff must hold in He contents himself by growling “in unison” with the dogs However, in chapter there is a detailed description of the other household Thrushcross Grange,because Hindley comes home from college for the funeral of his father, which is bad news, because now he''s master of the house and everything changes when Heathcliff comes home late one night without Catherine They were both spying the Lintons but they get caught They try to make a run for it and a dog, Skulker, bites her Heathcliff is locked out and sent on his way Catherine remains behind while her wound heals and she is spoiled and treated like a princess by the Linton family Thrushcross Grange is a very classy, civilised estate and living in a place like this would bring a lot of status with it It is quite a sheltered place down in the valley and this is something that is common with its children - they tend to be sheltered and spoilt. Thrushcross Grange is comfortable and decorative whereas Wuthering Heights is basic and down to earth Whilst Wuthering Heights has great power in its commanding position up on the hill, it will never be in the same class as the Grange. Thrushcross Grange is a very classy, civilised estate and living in a place like this would bring a lot of status with it It is quite a sheltered place down in the valley and this is something that is common with its children - they tend to be sheltered and spoilt. The image of the two civilised children inside the beautiful room, and the two wild children outside both boy and girl of similar ages makes the glass of the window take on the role of a kind of mirror However, the "mirror" shows the complete opposite rather than the true images of those who look into it In conclusion, Brontë manages to present her story in such a way as to prevent our interest and sympathy from straying too far from the wilder characters or, per contra, too close to the cultured ones, that why she actually portrays the more civilised characters as despicably weak and silly In that way, the readers are aware of the fact that the entire literary masterpiece is, in fact, based on the obvious binary opposition the civilisation vs the wilderness and how she portrays every character in such a way to match its household Bibliography Harley, James (1958). "The Villain in Wuthering Heights" Robert Barnard (2000) Emily Brontë ——. Myths of Power: A Marxist Study of the Brontës London: Macmillan, 1975 97-121 Armstrong, Nancy "Emily Brontë In and Out of Her Time." Genre 15 (1982): 24364 Rpt in Norton edition Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë, vol.1 Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë, vol.2 http://www.wuthering-heights.co.uk/reviews.php http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/wutheringheights/ ... the entire literary masterpiece is, in fact, based on the obvious binary opposition the civilisation vs the wilderness and how she portrays every character in such a way to match its household Bibliography... symbols, themes and motifs among which we can also encounter the binary opposition between civilisation and wilderness The setting used by Brontë throughout the novel helps to set the mood to describe... represent, in their own way, arranged by the hidden, symbolic hands of the author, the wilderness and the civilisation The two different buildings have their own strengths and weaknesses and
Civilisation vs wilderness in “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Brontë Student: Moise Bianca-Roxana Group: English-German,second year Course: English Literature Ovidius University of Constanta January 2015 Emily Jane Brontë was a British novelist and poet, now best remembered for her only novel “Wuthering Heights”, a classic of English literature Emily was the second eldest of the three surviving Brontë sisters, being younger than Charlotte Brontë and older than Anne Brontë As the author of “Wuthering Heights”, Emily Brontë is one of the most celebrated female novelists in the English literature Many, however, not realize that this quintessential English novel was originally written under a male pen name Emily Brontë published her work under the name Ellis Bell This name represented the male identity necessary to succeed during the time in which Brontë was actively writing She wished to separate herself from the negative association that female writers had at the time so the masculine pseudonym allowed Emily’s work to be taken seriously in an era when authoresses were looked on with severe prejudice Emily Brontë’s health (like her sisters’) was poor throughout most of her life She died at the young age of 30 in the year 1948 She first published her work in the year 1847 under the male pseudonym but it aroused a firestorm of protest and it was considered, at that time, as one of the most repellent books, the reading public was shocked and the critics demanded that the book be burned In 1950, Charlotte Brontë later edited Emily’s novel and re-published it under Emily’s true name, but the storm of the protest only got louder and the work of art was still seen as a treat to civilised society This reaction is understandable based on the expectations of that time’s reading public Emily Brontë portrayed, instead of perfect, byronic heroes and proper Victorian housewives heroines, an ant-hero driven by unresolved sexual passion and obsessive vengeance, Heathcliff and, respectively, Catherine, a married woman who runs around in the moors in her nightgown having trysts with her childhood lover Nonetheless ,today, “Wuthering Heights “(along with her sisters’ “Jane Eyre”) is extremely appreciated and also considered one of the most important English novels in history According to the study “Myths of Power: A Marxist Study of the Brontës”, Charlotte Brontë mentioned on her sister’s Wuthering Heights: ”…She did not know what she had done;” creative artists “work passively under dictates [they] neither delivered nor could question.” However, I tend to think that Emily Brontë knew way too well what she was doing when approaching the issues of the Wuthering Heights The antagonic play between wilderness (or the nature) and civilisation (or the culture) in Brontë’s vision were of great impact and I could say that this is a reason why her one and only work has been considered a valuable literary masterpiece “Wuthering Heights” is a story full of symbols, themes and motifs among which we can also encounter the binary opposition between civilisation and wilderness The setting used by Brontë throughout the novel helps to set the mood to describe the characters and the entire situation In order to approve this opposition as being essential in the novel, there have to be taken intro consideration analysis from two points of view: the main characters’ personalities and the arhitecture of the buildings Emily somehow manages to make us, readers, aware of the fact that “Wuthering Heights” is actually structured on this specifically contrast between the civilised and the wild entities wandering around the whole scene of the play So we find two households separated by the cold, muddy, and desolate moors, one by the name of Wuthering Heights, and the other by the name of Thrushcross Grange Each house stands alone and the atmosphere creates a mood of isolation.These are the two places where virtually all of the action takes place However, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, differ greatly from each other in appearance and atmosphere These differences reflect the universal conflict between the storm and calm that Emily Brontë develops as the theme in the novel The household are, in fact, representative of their respective owners: Heathcliff on one side, and on the other side, the Lintons Although both estates are wealthy, there is a definite difference in class between them and this bears greatly on the characters from both estates ability to socialise with each other. In order to understand the conflict between nature and civilisation in Wuthering Heights, there must be taken into account the analysis of the main characters, which represent, in their own way, arranged by the hidden, symbolic hands of the author, the wilderness and the civilisation The two different buildings have their own strengths and weaknesses and the characters reflect their features. On the first glance on the lecture, it is clear to see that the Earnshaw family (who lives at Wuthering Heights) comes together with nature, with wilderness and simplicity,they are pure and simple when, in contrast, the Lintons(who live at Thrushcross Grange) are a visible symbol for the culture, they represent the civilised, pompous, noble families of those times A representative member of the Earnshaw family is Catherine She is beautiful and charming, but she is never as civilised and cultured as she pretends to be In her heart she is always a wild girl playing on the moors with Heathcliff, her love She regards it as her right to be loved by all, and has an unruly temper Heathcliff usually calls her Cathy and, a very interesting detail given to us by Brontë is that Edgar usually calls her Catherine, which sounds more civilised Heathcliff is another distinct member of the Earnshaw family Right in the first chapter there are signs observed by Lockwood(the man who discovers the story of the old house and arouses the flashbacks) signs that indicate Heathcliff’s personality Lockwood can tell that the houseowner doesn’t want him around and doesn't seem very excited about renting his house Heathcliff is a very dark and stormy character of Gypsy blood, he is of unknown descent, he is an orphan and he seems to represent on the highest level in the novel the wild and natural forces which often seem amoral and dangerous for society His devotion, almost inhuman, to his sister Catherine is the moving force in his life He is mistreated in a horrible way by his new brother Hindley so all his life he will be driven by the dangerous lust of vengeance “Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living” He is cruel but magnificent in his consistency, and we, as readers, can never forget the fact that at the heart of the grown man lies the abandoned, persecuted child of the streets in Liverpool On the other hand we have the Lintons Edgar Linton, in contrast to Heathcliff, is a refined man, a patient husband and a loving father Charlotte Brontë, in her preface to the 1850 edition of Wuthering Heights, refers to Edgar as "an example of constancy and tenderness," and, as a true feminist, she goes on to suggest that her sister Emily was using Edgar to point out that such characteristics constitute true virtues in all human beings, and not just in women, as society tended to believe Edgar's inability to counter Heathcliff's vengeance "Cathy, this lamb of yours threatens like a bull!", and his naive belief on his deathbed in his daughter's safety and happiness, make him a weak, if sympathetic, character Although the gentry, or upper middle class, possessed servants and often large estates, they held a fragile social position He is civilised, yet sheltered and quite dull He has genuine feelings for Catherine but is easily manipulated by her and is too soft to control her heart and soul. Isabella is Edgar Linton's sister and is a pleasant, well-educated person with the soft and civilised traits of Thrushcross Grange Considerations of class status often crucially inform the characters' motivations in Wuthering Heights Catherine's decision to marry Edgar even if she doesn’t love him “My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees” is only the most obvious example By that time she also confesses her immense love for Heatchliff to Nelly Dean, the woman who raised her and takes care of her “I am Heathcliff 'He's more myself than I am” but that will not influence her decision on marrying Edgar simply because she will be "the greatest woman of the neighborhood" When Cathy and Heathcliff were little they would spy on the Lintons and mock their luxurious and pompous lifestyle but still, peering into the house, they see that it is everything Wuthering Heights is not: colorful, bright, and well-lit (and calm, of course, without Joseph,their old manservant yelling at them and telling them they are all going to hell) Both of the Grange children were exposed to the dark side of the Heights children Edgar married Catherine not realising she was only doing it for her own shallow reasons Isabella married Heathcliff thinking he had become a gentleman in the time he was away, without realising Heathcliff’s intentions, letting herself be taken in by his strength magnetism but instead he had planned his revenge and was focused on how to destroy both families and to succed with his overall plan to own both estates With the union of Cathy(Catherine and Edagr’s daughter) and Hareton(Hindley’s son, raised only by Heathcliff and Joseph), the barriers of class are finally broken and the two incompatible worlds of Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights, the civilisation and the wilderness blend together in harmony They achieve in life what Heathcliff and Catherine can only achieve in death. Decomposing the entire architecture of the two households and the buildings themselves, is also another way to understand the essential conflict between the wilderness and the civilisation in the writing These details make the readers aware not only of the visual details of the scenes or of the exact way the houses looked, but also of the environment in which the characters live On the one hand there is Wuthering Heights with its stiff, stark and intimidating appearance but strong magnetism representing savagery and Thrushcross Grange with its refinement and pleasant appearance representing civility. The features of the estates have a strong association with the people who live in them in terms of mood, emotion and appearance. As Lockwood observes from the first day he arrives at Wuthering Heights, it seems as if each details of the Heights household is in some way expressive of his master’s aggression Lockwood provides a brief description of Heathcliff's house in chapter The word "wuthering," he tells us, comes from the stormy conditions that characterize the region Thankfully, the house looks strong It also has all sorts of elaborate designs around the front door – gothic-looking details, the date 1500 We know that the date is now 1801, so the house is 300 years old The fabric and layout of the building is described in terms of “attack” and “defence”: corners are “defended” , while “the kitchen is forced to retreat”, so he inside of the house is not much more inviting than the outside It's far from warm and cozy. Instead, there are, among other random items, some "sundry villainous old guns, and a couple of horse pistols" So, Wuthering heights has the characteristics of being a very strong, prominent structure and is described by Mr Lockwood as being a misanthropists heaven It is a very desolate and lonely place up on a hill exposed to stormy weather with no real beauty and can be seen as an uncivilised place to live. Just as Heathcliff is obscurely a source of danger, so this farmhouse itself is imbued with a sense of mystery, of something hidden When the dogs have “issued form hidden dens” to attack the newcomer, it is as if to compensate for the natural violence that Heatchliff must hold in He contents himself by growling “in unison” with the dogs However, in chapter there is a detailed description of the other household Thrushcross Grange,because Hindley comes home from college for the funeral of his father, which is bad news, because now he's master of the house and everything changes when Heathcliff comes home late one night without Catherine They were both spying the Lintons but they get caught They try to make a run for it and a dog, Skulker, bites her Heathcliff is locked out and sent on his way Catherine remains behind while her wound heals and she is spoiled and treated like a princess by the Linton family Thrushcross Grange is a very classy, civilised estate and living in a place like this would bring a lot of status with it It is quite a sheltered place down in the valley and this is something that is common with its children - they tend to be sheltered and spoilt. Thrushcross Grange is comfortable and decorative whereas Wuthering Heights is basic and down to earth Whilst Wuthering Heights has great power in its commanding position up on the hill, it will never be in the same class as the Grange. Thrushcross Grange is a very classy, civilised estate and living in a place like this would bring a lot of status with it It is quite a sheltered place down in the valley and this is something that is common with its children - they tend to be sheltered and spoilt. The image of the two civilised children inside the beautiful room, and the two wild children outside both boy and girl of similar ages makes the glass of the window take on the role of a kind of mirror However, the "mirror" shows the complete opposite rather than the true images of those who look into it In conclusion, Brontë manages to present her story in such a way as to prevent our interest and sympathy from straying too far from the wilder characters or, per contra, too close to the cultured ones, that why she actually portrays the more civilised characters as despicably weak and silly In that way, the readers are aware of the fact that the entire literary masterpiece is, in fact, based on the obvious binary opposition the civilisation vs the wilderness and how she portrays every character in such a way to match its household Bibliography Harley, James (1958). "The Villain in Wuthering Heights" Robert Barnard (2000) Emily Brontë ——. Myths of Power: A Marxist Study of the Brontës London: Macmillan, 1975 97-121 Armstrong, Nancy "Emily Brontë In and Out of Her Time." Genre 15 (1982): 24364 Rpt in Norton edition Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë, vol.1 Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë, vol.2 http://www.wuthering-heights.co.uk/reviews.php http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/wutheringheights/ ... the entire literary masterpiece is, in fact, based on the obvious binary opposition the civilisation vs the wilderness and how she portrays every character in such a way to match its household Bibliography... symbols, themes and motifs among which we can also encounter the binary opposition between civilisation and wilderness The setting used by Brontë throughout the novel helps to set the mood to describe... represent, in their own way, arranged by the hidden, symbolic hands of the author, the wilderness and the civilisation The two different buildings have their own strengths and weaknesses and