Critical Analysis of Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

 

Wuthering Heights (1847), the only novel by Emily Brontë, defies the conventions of Victorian novels, by exploring the darker aspects of human psyche such as passion, obsession and instinct etc. the novel is brimming with symbolisms and striking imageries. At a glance the two households Wuthering heights and Thrushcross grange represents the two contradictory nature of human kind. Wuthering heights is a metaphor for human instinct and the nature while Thrushcross grange is a metaphor for refined culture and civilisation.

 

Wuthering Heights employs a multi-layered narrative structure, where the story is told through the perspectives of several narrators. Its polyphonic in nature also he employs china- box technique to unravel the central plot. The primary narrative is framed by Lockwood, an outsider, who encounters the tale of Wuthering Heights through the accounts of Nelly Dean, the housekeeper. This frame narrative perhaps complicates the reader's understanding, as we rely on secondary interpretations of the events. The unreliable nature of these narrators adds layers of ambiguity and complexity to the events described. The use of embedded narrative (a story within a story) mirrors the Gothic convention of revealing secrets gradually and from fragmented perspectives. Nelly’s account is central to this, though she is not a neutral observer, as her judgments and biases influences Lockwood.

 

Emily Bronte brilliantly fuses Gothic elements in the novel to bring novelty. The desolate, storm-laden setting, intense emotions, violence, and supernatural elements constitute a special aura of gothic.  Wuthering Heights, the house itself functions as a Gothic character, symbolizing all the human instinct and untamed passions. It stands in stark contrast to Thrushcross Grange, which represents civilization, order, and gentility. This opposition between Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange is often interpreted as a conflict between nature and culture, wild passion and refined restraint.

 

   The novel's dark, brooding atmosphere is heightened by Brontë's use of storm imagery and the isolation of the moorland setting. Heathcliff’s obsession with Catherine and his subsequent acts of revenge embody the Gothic archetype of the Byronic hero, he is a figure both terrifying and tragically romantic, driven by raw emotion and vengeance.The novel also incorporates the supernatural through the haunting of Wuthering Heights by Catherine’s ghost. Heathcliff’s desperate plea to be united with Catherine in death underscores the Gothic fascination with death and the life after death.

 

   Through the lens of psychoanalysis, Wuthering Heights can be explored as a representation of repressed desires and the unconscious mind. Heathcliff’s obsessive attachment to Catherine has been interpreted as a manifestation of the id his primal instincts and desires dominate his actions. Catherine’s own conflicting desires, her love for Heathcliff and her social ambition in marrying Edgar Linton could be seen as a battle between the id (her passionate connection with Heathcliff) and the superego (the social norms that dictate her marriage to Edgar).

 

From a feminist perspective, Wuthering Heights explores the limitations imposed on women in Victorian society. Catherine Earnshaw is caught between her desire for freedom and self-expression (symbolized by Heathcliff) and the constraints of social propriety and class expectations (symbolized by Edgar Linton). Her decision to marry Edgar reflects the limited options available to women of her time, where marriage was often a means of securing financial and social stability rather than emotional fulfillment. Catherine’s split identity, wild and free-spirited with Heathcliff, yet constrained and proper with Edgar, reveals the conflict between individual desires and social expectations for women. Her eventual mental and physical decline can be seen as the result of this inner conflict and the repression of her true nature.

 

Isabella Linton, too, suffers under the patriarchy, first as the naïve victim of Heathcliff’s manipulation and then as a neglected wife. Her eventual escape to the South with her son represents a defiance of Victorian norms, although her life remains defined by her earlier victimization.

 

   Through a Marxist lens, Wuthering Heights can be viewed as a commentary on class struggle and economic power. Heathcliff’s rise from an orphan of unknown origins to a powerful, land-owning figure mirrors the instability of class boundaries in the novel. His desire to own both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange symbolizes not just his thirst for revenge but also his attempt to assert dominance over the social structures that once oppressed him.

 

   The novel portrays the impact of wealth and property on relationships and identities. Catherine’s decision to marry Edgar is motivated by her recognition of the need for economic stability, highlighting how social class and wealth shape personal choices. Heathcliff’s exploitation of Hindley’s gambling debts to take control of Wuthering Heights further underscores the power dynamics rooted in economic domination.

 

   The isolation of the two estates also serves as a metaphor for the class divisions that dominate the novel. The Grange, with its refined and controlled environment, represents the upper class, while Wuthering Heights, with its wild, untamed surroundings, embodies the working class. The tension between these two worlds plays out in the relationships between the characters.

 

 

Heathcliff’s racial ambiguity has also led to post-colonial readings of Wuthering Heights. His description as a “dark-skinned gypsy” has prompted critics to consider him as a symbol of the racial other, an outsider whose presence disrupts the social order of the Earnshaws and Lintons. His treatment by Hindley and others can be seen as indicative of the racial prejudices of the time, while his eventual rise to power challenges the social hierarchy. Heathcliff’s alienation and desire for revenge can also be interpreted as a reaction to colonial exploitation.

 

 

 

Critical commentaries:

 

E. M. Forster praised Wuthering Heights for its powerful depiction of human instinct, passion and obsession. He viewed the novel as transcending conventional realism and exploring real human psyche by blending supernatural elements. He praised Emily Brontë’s ability to create characters like Heathcliff and Catherine who symbolize primitive forces.

 

Virginia Woolf praised Wuthering Heights as a "brilliant, brooding novel," and acknowledged Emily Brontë’s originality. Woolf described the novel as possessing a "wild power" that set it apart from the more genteel works of other Victorian writers. Woolf noted that the novel’s genius lay in its ability to break with traditional forms of narrative and character. She made the story a psychological exploration of passion, love, and cruelty.

 

 Harold Bloom, in The Western Canon (1994), placed Wuthering Heights within his list of great Western literary works. Bloom was fascinated by the novel’s mythic elements, particularly the character of Heathcliff, whom he described as a "Promethean hero." He saw Heathcliff as embodying the destructive power of passion and revenge, likening him to Shakespeare’s Iago or Milton’s Satan. Bloom viewed the novel as a reflection of the darker forces of human nature, particularly the struggle between love and vengeance, chaos and order.

 

 J. Hillis Miller, a key figure in deconstructive criticism, analyzed Wuthering Heights as a text that defies stable interpretations. In his view, the novel’s multiple narrators, fragmented time structure, and ambiguous character motivations create a narrative that resists closure. Miller saw Wuthering Heights as a novel full of contradictions and uncertainties, where the boundary between life and death, love and hatred, civilization and savagery is constantly blurred. He argued that the novel destabilizes traditional binaries and challenges the reader to question the nature of identity and morality.