Shape

Finally, we come to the last criteria for analyzing a graph, or this novel, which is the shape. In order to really understand Wuthering Heights, the reader has to appreciate it for what it was as a feminist novel. Overall, that’s a major theme within this book-- how women and men interact, and what that ultimately means about us as humans. However, I think that most of the feminist actions for Bronte occur outside of her book and in the context of when this piece was published.

Wuthering Heights was published in 1847, a time when women had little to no rights. Females in society were not valued: they were to cook, clean, and help the family. None of those jobs included writing novels. For Bronte to have written such an incredible book and garner such amazing feedback in her day and age was a fantastic feminist act.

It’s strange to think that a book so rooted in unhealthy relationships towards women would be rooted in an act of feminism. A ubiquitous motif in Wuthering Heights is Heathcliff using people, especially women, as pawns to gain more money or power. Similarly, the abusive relationships he has with the women he interacts with, as discussed in the previous blogpost, is not particularly sympathetic towards women. Finally, most of the women are not deeply respected-- Catherine (the daughter) is lazy and rude and Nelly (the maidservant) is painted as pretty dumb. In fact, the women heavily rely on the men for their survival. In Chapter 9, Catherine states, "My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He's always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being. So don't talk of our separation again: it is impracticable" (9.6). This deep-rooted need for a man is directly against all feminist values.

This feminist view is also negated by other facets of the book, as explored in earlier blog posts. Thinking back about the point of view and choice of narrator, it seems obvious that Bronte choice Lockwood for the major point of view because she didn’t trust that the reader would want to read a story told by a woman. Similarly, the nature vs. nurture argument would lend towards Heathcliff being instinctually drawn towards violence and abuse (as it is a man’s nature) and therefore giving him no blame for his unruly actions.

In any event, the mere act of writing such a book makes Bronte one of the greatest feminist writers in history. Along with other authors like Jane Austen, Bronte’s sister (Charlotte), Mary Shelley, and many others fought for women’s rights not by actually talking about them, but by showing that they were just as capable of making entertaining pieces of literature as the men they competed with. Although the female characters may be flimsy and involved with men in unhealthy ways, at least Bronte painted them out to be three-dimensional people like herself. She is regarded as a feminist writer. Although her text may lend away from painting women in a purely good light, I think I agree that she did a lot for women in literature.

Bronte’s Wuthering Heights is a masterpiece for a lot of reasons. The great use of language, the fantastic characters, the driving plot, and the overall message are important for understanding this time period and the inhabitants of it. However, Bronte is the real hero of her story. By breaking through gender stereotypes and writing a book just as well as a man could have, she proves that she is the true MVP.

As far as reading this book went, I think I did an okay job at close reading. This book was really difficult to understand. I did not explore any of the symbols in these blog posts because I didn’t really get them. The recurrence of ghosts did not make sense of me. I could not tell Bronte’s intentions for creating these characters. It seemed almost too forced to be metaphorical in a larger sense. Similarly, I’m not particularly sure what Bronte’s overall message was. I probably should have followed Nabokov’s directions more and reread to make better sense of the text, but I didn’t really have time to. The readings on Point of View were really what I thought was most helpful in understanding this book. Point of view was really important, and I wouldn’t have been able to comprehend most of the book without this textbook excerpt.

For these reasons, I wouldn’t really recommend Wuthering Heights. It was fine, but I don’t really understand what all the hype was about. As mentioned in my Unusual Points post, Bronte is a fantastic writer. However, if I had to read this book on my own and was not tacked to it by an assignment, I probably would not have finished it. I’m not sure where Gothic novels like this have in a place in the current literary work. Being a “classic” doesn’t seem like a good enough reason for this book to still be relevant, and still appear so frequently on the AP test.