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Brutality In Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights

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Emily Bronte’s only novel, Wuthering Heights, is a complicated exploration of what happens when the traditional order of a community is thrown off balance (Peter). Wuthering Heights is a dynamic love story and fascinating tale of the unknown that offers an insightful observation on issues relating to family and principle. Throughout the novel Bronte employs great skill in making the scenery, climate, houses, and even animals reflect the opposing emotional states of the Linton and Earnshaw households. Wuthering Heights, the Earnshaw residence, is subject to extreme weather; heavy rain, snow, and thunder. Much differently, the Lintons home, Thrushcross Grange, is filled with a rich, shiny, attractive appearance. Even the climate seemed less …show more content…

" (Bronte 109)

Heathcliff's bitterness towards Hareton is felt throughout the novel. A theme that Brontë examines is the effect of abuse and brutality on human nature (Dunleavy). Throughout the novel there is minimal illustration of sustenance, and most instruction given to children is of the poor kind that Joseph, the lifelong servant at Wuthering Heights, provides with his instructions threatening damnation. The children suffer from a lack of emotion from their guardians, whose attention alternates between total neglect and physical abuse. Brutality is a common theme throughout the narrative. This is exemplified by the dreams that Lockwood has when he stays in Wuthering Heights (Cross). “...finding it useless to attempt shaking the creature off, I pulled its wrist on the broken pane, and rubbed it to and fro till the blood ran down” (Bronte 67). Lockwood’s dreams foreshadow further violence: Catherine’s bloody capture by the Lintons’ bulldog, Hindley’s drunken assaults on his son and animals, and Edgar’s blow to Heathcliff’s

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