David Vermeulen
Literary Theory
Dr. Kim DeVries
17 November 2009
Heathcliff’s Control of Wuthering Heights
Psychoanalytic literary criticism involves the author’s personal life, the audience’s connection to the content, and a character represented in the text. I will examine the aspect of control in the novel Wuthering Heights exercised by the main character Heathcliff. His character is unwavering in its cruel desire to control everything and everyone around him. I will first examine the life of the author Emily Bronte and argue that her use of control in the novel is a means of confronting the repression of women and sexuality in a male-dominated patriarchal society. She was not able to protest the control placed upon her by society and expressed her angst through Heathcliff.
Emily Bronte was raised in a very strict, controlled environment, the daughter of a clergyman. She was reclusive with few, if any friends except for the acquaintances she met through her family (Liukkonen). In the Victorian period, sexuality was suppressed in order to discourage premarital sex. In an age before birth control, premarital pregnancies brought shame to the family. Emily lived in a male dominated society that further diminished sexual freedom and expression for women. If women were allowed to have liberal thoughts, they may lead to liberal actions that may lead to immoral acts. Representative of the patriarchal society she grew up in, the character of Heathcliff stemmed from this repression of women and sexuality.
“The lonely purple moors became one of the most important shaping forces in the life of the Bronte sisters” (Liukkonen 1). The isolated region in which the Brontes lived left them socially deprived. The children growing up resorted to their imaginations for idle diversion. “After their mother died in 1821, the children spent most of their time in reading and composition. To escape their unhappy childhood…[they] created imaginary worlds” (Liukkonen). Creativity flowed in the Bronte household. Emily’s exposure to the literary arts educated her well and became a pastime that fed her intellectual needs in a socially anemic household. “Her father’s bookshelf offered a variety of reading: the Bible, Homer, Virgil, Shakespeare, Milton, Byron, Scott and many others” (Liukkonen). Emily’s life reflected the landscape in which she was raised and lived; lonely and isolated. The landscape in which Bronte lived is the setting for Wuthering Heights. She used this familiar environment to convey different themes in the novel. She uses the setting as a literary device that gives her freedom to control the introduction and departure of characters.
The introduction of Heathcliff in the novel adds a foreign element to the mix. “Heathcliff comes from outside… introducing instability into the world that precariously incorporates him” (341, Vine) He is “an agent of disruption” (341) who is accepted into the family by Mr. Earnshaw but rejected by everyone else. His appearance, manner of speech, and humble, deprived beginnings represent the part of society who would have been unwelcome in the Bronte household. His “dark-skinned” appearance sets him apart as well as his inability to communicate in an articulate fashion. When he arrives at Wuthering Heights he speaks only “gibberish that nobody could understand” (39, Bronte). The children immediately dismiss Heathcliff as an unwelcome gypsy. Nelly, the servant, goes so far as to set him on the landing of the stairs hoping he will be gone in the morning. He remains an object of persecution to the children until the daughter Catherine befriends him. Old Mr. Earnshaw is the only person who takes to him without hesitation, naming him after a child who died.
Mr. Earnshaw is drawn “strangely” to him and he soon usurps the other children into the position of favorite child. His position at once disrupts the family and patriarchy of the older brother Hindley. Upon the death of Mr. Earnshaw, Hindley returns with a new wife. On his return he treats Heathcliff with humiliation and cruelty in retaliation for usurping his father’s affection. The remainder of Heathcliff’s childhood is “an experience of neglect, abuse, and rejection” (159, Levy). Hindley forces him to be a common laborer and takes away his lessons; raising him in ignorance.
Heathcliff’s desire for control is derived from this childhood oppression. This childhood oppression reflects Bronte’s childhood of sexual repression. He enacts this desire for control of people, places, and things under the belief that in so doing, his life will be better. He uses retaliation and resentment in misplaced anger acted out. The revenge he seeks upon those who have wronged him possesses his being.
Upon hearing Catherine say “[it] would degrade me to marry Heathcliff” (106, Bronte), he disappears “noiselessly” into a storm in the night. She wants “to be the greatest woman of the neighborhood” (104) and that future is not possible with Heathcliff. His disappearance is the result of his loss of control over her future with him. He returns after a three-year absence and finds that Catherine has married Edgar Linton, the master of Thrushcross Grange. Upon his return, his desire for control and quest for vengeance against Hindley and the Lintons become his sole motives in life. He is reintroduced as “the mode of the novel’s deconstruction of its own world” (343, Levy).
Heathcliff takes residence at Wuthering Heights with Hindley, his former oppressor. Now in a downward spiral of alcoholism, Hindley is encouraged by Heathcliff to maintain his destructive behavior. Through gambling, Hindley loses his property to Heathcliff. Through the acquisition of land, Heathcliff promotes himself from an orphan to the position of master. This is the second instance of Heathcliff attaining a better position in life. He establishes control over the property and the inhabitants within. Upon Hindley’s death, Nelly sees “something like exultation in [Heathcliff’s] aspect” (230,Bronte). “The reason for this is obvious: triumphant revenge against the pain and humiliation that Hindley made him suffer in childhood” (163, Levy). Heathcliff’s desire for control of Wuthering heights is finally achieved and sealed in the casket of Hindley. After his death, Heathcliff treats Hindley’s son, Hareton Earnshaw, with the same cruelty shown to him growing up. He stops his lessons and forces him to grow up a servant, uneducated, and living in ignorance, under his control.
The next objective for Heathcliff is to control Catherine and Edgar Linton. He frequents Thrushcross Grange to visit Catherine under the premise of friendship while undermining the patriarchal role of Edgar. He views Heathcliff as “a moral poison that would contaminate the most virtuous” (142, Bronte). Isabella Linton, Edgar’s sister, falls in love with Heathcliff and they elope. Heathcliff does not marry her for love; he hates her. Through marriage, he can acquire Thrushcross Grange upon the death of Edgar. Heathcliff uses these family ties to manipulate for material gain, control, and the ability to dictate another’s existence. Bronte uses Heathcliff’s attempt to control everything to reflect the control and sexual repression exercised on her. These exercises give rise to resentment, hatred, and destruction of the families involved. Although Edgar denounces him, he persists in the pursuit of Catherine.
In the final stages before Catherine’s death, Heathcliff attempts to retain control over her. He is “so inadequate [in] gentleness to the requirements of [Catherine’s] condition, that on letting go, [Nelly] saw four distinct impressions left blue in the colourless skin” (188, Bronte). He refuses to release the physical control he has over her even in death. He will not let go, because in doing so he loses control over his destiny with her. (DeRosa) Catherine is aware of the control Heathcliff holds over her in telling Nelly just before she dies, “The thing that irks me most is this shattered prison, after all” (189, Bronte). The “shattered prison” refers to the state in which she is held. She is unable to find relief in true love because societal pressures forced her to marry Edgar, yet she is still controlled by her love for Heathcliff. Catherine continues:
“I’m tired of being enclosed here. I’m wearying to escape into that glorious world, and to be always there; not seeing it dimly through tears, and yearning for it through the walls of an aching heart; but really with it, and in it. Nelly, you think you are better and more fortunate than I; in full health and strength. You are sorry for me—very soon that will be altered. I shall be sorry for you. I shall be incomparably beyond and above you all” (189-190, Bronte).
In this passage, Catherine feels pity for Nelly because she is escaping Heathcliff’s control, yet Nelly will live to endure it.
Heathcliff’s desire for control over Catherine does not perish with her death. He attempts to “disinter Catherine’s corpse on the night after her burial” (161, Levy). He wants to catch a glimpse of her cold body so that he may have closure on her death yet stops when he senses her presence: “I relinquished my labour of agony, and turned consoled at once, unspeakably consoled” (350, Bronte). He senses her ghostly presence and realizes the only control he will have over Catherine is in death where they shall be reunited.
In death, Heathcliff attains the control he desired; eternally bound to his lover buried beside her grave. As Mr. Lockwood, the narrator, makes the final trip home from Wuthering Heights, he passes their graves, “I sought and soon discovered, the three head-stones on the slope next to the moor: the middle one grey, and half buried in heath; Edgar Linton’s only harmonized by turf, and moss creeping up its foot; Heathcliff’s still bare” (371, Bronte). Catherine’s grave is half buried in heath, symbolizing Heathcliff’s undying desire for control over her.
Heathcliff’s unwavering cruelty and desire for control drives the novel. He makes everyone miserable, including himself, in attempting to dictate others existence. His retaliation against others stems from his childhood oppression. For Emily Bronte, the only means of expressing her emotions is through writing. The characters in Wuthering Heights enabled her to remain detached, clean, and free from sin. Through Heathcliff, Bronte was able to exercise a degree of control over the characters and reflect the control exercised on her. The cruelty shown by Heathcliff is her subconscious desire to retain control of her life in a male dominated society. The methods used to control her were socially acceptable isolation, high morals, and repression of sexuality. The methods Heathcliff uses are mostly psychological with one event of confining others to achieve his desires. The methods used to control her most likely left her scarred. Through fiction, Emily Bronte was able to confront her repressed issues in a society that suppressed her fantasies and freedom.
Bibliography
Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights. New York: Books Inc, 1936.
DeRosa, Robin. “”To Save the Life of the Novel”:Sadomasochism and Representation in “Wuthering Heights”.” Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature (1998): 27-43.
Levy, Eric P. “The Psychology of loneliness in Wuthering Heights.” Studies in the Novel (1996): 258-278.
Liukkonen, Petri. http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/ebronte.htm. ? ? 2008. 17 11 2009 <http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/ebronte.htm>.
Vine, Steven. ” The Wuther of the Other in Wuthering Heights.” Nineteenth-Century Literature (1994): 339-359.
