Female Stereotypes in Gothic Period in Bronte's Wuthering Heights 

Though Wuthering Heights does not strictly adhere to the constraints of any genre, it is most commonly associated with the Gothic. The Gothic presents the reader with a reality which does not coincide with traditional social and moral norms. The Gothic was curious because of its exclusion of any typical literary conventions, and its defiance of accepted moral and social codes. In addition, the Gothic often includes many tropes commonly accepted as curiosities, such as ghosts, vampires and madness. The Gothic is characterized by sentiments of naturalism, wildness, boldness, yearning, wonder, mystery, sensual, supernaturalism, sadism and Satanism. The Gothic often has a setting which is slowly collapsing; a castle in ruins or a house in decay, such as the estate of Wuthering Heights itself.

Perhaps the most famous feature of the Gothic is the presence of supernatural elements, such as ghosts and apparitions. Ghosts are a classic example of curiosity: ontological transgressions which defy nature by being alive and dead at the same time. Ghosts reject the laws of the universe by inhabiting the world of the living when they should have passed to the world of the dead. Ghosts and other forms of the “undead” refuse physical, temporal and spatial limitations. Furthermore, the Gothic is unique in the way it presents the supernatural. By novelizing the supernatural, the monstrous and the unspeakable, the gothic attempts to inscribe the passions of fear and terror. Gothic authors provided rational, empirical explanations and solutions for the supernatural occurrences within the s. Gothic literature became popular while the print culture was thriving in England, and while the gothic was praised by the common reader, many intellectuals and conservative thinkers harshly criticized the genre (Wilson, 2018). In its moral ambiguity, the Gothic was considered by some to be dangerous; “One anonymous critic argued that if the story is to be ‘useful’, it ‘ought to be a representation of human life and manners, with a view to direct the conduct in the important duties of life, and to correct its follies’.” This idea of the hazard of anything not “useful” to society connects strongly to the condemnation of curiosity in early modern England. A major criticism of curious men was that their inquiries and discoveries were merely self-fulfilling, and did not produce any benefit for society (Alcott, 1994).

The Gothic genre was threatening in its redefinition of the story and its position as something which was not able to be regulated. Some critics believed that s ought to be an outlet for moral lessons to be taught, but rather than conveying moral lessons which would be useful in reality, the Gothic creates an entirely new reality. The gothic was considered particularly subversive because it created an “intimate and insidious relationship between text and reader, by making the reader identify with what he or she read.” Since the characters of Gothic s were often rude or immoral (imagine Catherine and Heathcliff of Wuthering Heights), it was feared that impressionable readers would lose grip of what is appropriate in their own reality. However, the Gothic was not intended to cause readers to detach from reality, but rather aimed to reassert values of the past which had become diluted in modern society. In a modern, increasingly secular world, the gothic advocated the need for the spiritual and the transcendent. In a world which based all knowledge on reason and empiricism, the gothic genre insisted on the use of the imagination. In a society of strict order and regulation, the gothic portrayed barbarism and disarray. During a time when scientific rationalism “sought to banish the fantastic by explaining it physically, sociologically, and psychologically,” the gothic presented a world of ghosts, apparitions and unexplainable occurrences. Given that women are natural curiosities, it is unsurprising that Gothic literature has an important relationship to feminism and a unique representation of the female. Examples of Gothic fiction which are written by women, depict female heroines, and discuss questions of gender, sexuality and the body are often referred to as the “female Gothic.” (Wyler, 2009).

Women in the female Gothic outwardly conformed to society’s expectations and carried out their designated roles as daughters, wives and mothers, while subtly undermining the patriarchal structure. Gothic heroines were commonly portrayed as innocent, morally pure, and blameless. Such a heroine represents a curiosity because she embodies a subversive ambition, which leads her to violate her prescribed role in society and seek greater power. In order to suggest the power of the domestic sphere of the female, the female Gothic “ironically inverted the ‘separate spheres’ ideology by valorizing the private female world of the home while they fictively destroyed the public/juridical masculine world.” This aspect of the female Gothic can be seen quite clearly in Wuthering Heights. The entire story takes place within the domestic sphere and the action is split between two estates, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. While the atmosphere of these homes is not particularly bright or hopeful, they are stable environments. However, the introduction of anything from the foreign, public sphere is always the source of tumult and conflict. First, Heathcliff is introduced to the nuclear family of the Earnshaw's as a “dirty, ragged, black-haired child” found “in the streets of Liverpool.” Heathcliff and his untamed ways disrupt the calm household with a turbulent relationship with Catherine and arouse intense hatred and resentment from Hindley. Heathcliff’s foreignness is the source of all the conflict in the story. Bronte never describes any of the scenes that happen in the public sphere, but leaves all to the reader’s imagination. For example, Heathcliff’s forays into the city to make his fortune are left as blank spaces in the story, with not even an indication as to what may have taken place during the unexplained time period. Only the events of the domestic sphere, no matter how monotonous and quotidian, are included. In this way, Emily Bronte emphasizes the consequence and power of the home and familial relationships, and thus the power of women (ABBEY, 2013).

Bronte's domestic model does not have to do with familial love, kindness, or selflessness, but rather it represents a place of intense spirituality and freedom. The antithesis, represented by Thrushcross Grange, is a place of stifled passion, material possessions and conformity. While Bronte valorizes the domestic sphere in Wuthering Heights (although in a manner distinct from most other female Gothics), a technique in keeping with the female Gothic tradition, the story in other aspects shuns the characteristics of the female Gothic, and more importantly, conventions of the wider Gothic genre (RONTE, 1996). This unique digression from the rule is most evident in Bronte's characterization of the older Catherine, the heroine of Wuthering Heights. Bronte “reorders the Gothic experience in order to speak to women about themselves in a new way.” Catherine is a strong, passionate and deeply flawed character. She is a curiosity in her defiance of the role society has prescribed for her, her secret, alluring sexuality, and her uncontrollable ambition. It is significant that the first appearance of Catherine in the story is in the form of a ghost. Just as ghosts reject temporal and spatial limitations, Catherine rejects every kind of limitation and boundaries throughout the story. She feels isolated in the confines of the house walls, and thrives on running free outside in the moors. When her brother instructs her to stay within the house as punishment, Catherine writes in her diary: “we should appropriate the dairy woman’s cloak, and have a scamper on the moors, under its shelter (Alcott, 1994). A pleasant suggestion.”

As a child, Catherine is described as “a wild, wicked little slip” that was “never so happy as when we were all scolding her at once, and she defying us with her cold, saucy look, and her ready words.” At a time when girls were expected to submit to the will of their fathers and brothers, Catherine challenged all and went about her life in a way that felt natural. As her father is upon his deathbed, he asks his daughter, “‘why canst thou not always be a good lass, Cathy?’ And she turned her face up to his, and laughed, and answered, ‘Why cannot you always be a good man, father?’” Catherine won’t allow herself to be controlled by the patriarchal constraints her father tries to impose, and implies her awareness that the patriarchy itself is an unjust and hypocritical system. Catherine is the antithesis of the traditional “Gothic heroine,” that is typically defined by submissiveness, passivity, dependence, and a small physical presence. Conger notes that Catherine’s “list of imperfections is so long one wonders that she is a heroine at all.” Bronte characterizes Catherine with such descriptions as “angry animation,” having “a maniac’s fury,” and being in a “tempest of passion.” Heroines in Gothic s are often intellectually inferior and prone to emotional breakdowns and intense anxieties. However, since a heroine must still be portrayed as a powerful figure, the Gothic endows the heroine with moral superiority to every other character. She never has a vindictive thought, even in the wake of abuses. She never dreams an unacceptable dream. Her innocence is so thorough in some cases that she has virtually no knowledge at all of evil (Arnold, 2007).

In Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte refuses to fulfill either one of the contrasting Gothic stereotypes used to characterize women. Rather, her female protagonist is a combination of characteristics. Catherine the “heroine” of Wuthering Heights embodies the independent spirit and flawed morality of the femme fatale, yet also represents the physical beauty and emotional volatility of the Gothic heroine. Catherine is intelligent and is capable of self-reflection, qualities which are traditionally absent from Gothic heroines. She does not merely relate her story, but she reveals her innermost feelings, thoughts and dreams. Catherine scolds Nelly, “... Oh, I’m burning! I wish I were out of doors! I wish I were a girl again, half savage and hard, and free.” Catherine’s speech would never have been spoken by a traditional Gothic heroine. She is overly harsh and demanding, even in her sickness she remains authoritarian and unforgiving. Catherine’s desire to be in nature and return to her youth shows her refusal to conform to the norms society laid out for her as a wife and mother. She even recognizes herself as “savage” and “hard.” Through the complex emotions of Catherine, A heroine’s mind, Bronte is insisting here, need not be a blank tablet. It may sometimes be plagued by contradictory or self-defeating desires.