Emily Brontë's Confrontation with Power Structures in Wuthering Heights: Connections between Victorian Race, Class, and Gender

Abstract

This thesis seeks to analyze how Emily Brontë portrayed the power structures of class, race, and gender in Wuthering Heights as interconnected and cyclical. It is important to see these power structures in connection, as they may cause further oppression together for the already oppressed. I argue that Brontë mocks the Victorian societal structures and their cyclical nature, and I show this through an analysis of the characterization of five of the most prominent characters of the novel: the older Catherine, Heathcliff, the younger Catherine, Linton, and Hareton. The thesis opens a discussion on whether the treatment we are subjected to causes our behavior, and I argue that Brontë viewed people more as a result of their surroundings than a result of their ancestry. These five characters are governed by how they are being treated in connection with the power structures, which causes abuse to go in cycles. I further argue that towards the end of the novel, we see the second generation gaining awareness of the cyclical nature of the power structures and an understanding of how we are products of our surroundings, which seemingly help them end the cycles of abuse.