Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights

Social Class Leads to Troubled Relationships

Heathcliff has a hard life and his social status in no way helps him out. His looks, where he comes from, and the way in which he is treated does not make his life any better. The perception of a victorian women in history restrains even who Catherine wants to be. In Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë uses the tortured relationship of Heathcliff and Catherine to reveal that society not only shapes our individual lives, but constricts our love.

A character in this novel who is continually suppressed because of where he comes from is Heathcliff. When he is young, he wishes for, “ light hair and a fair skin, and was dressed and behaved as well” (Brontë 56). He feels as though if he had those things then he would be more accepted by especially Catherine who felt like it would “degrade [her] to marry Heathcliff” because she

As shown above Catherine was never the victorian age women she is supposed to be until she comes back from the Linton’s house. She even calls Heathcliff “dirty” agreeing with others (Brontë 42). As Catherine changes into a snotty victorian women like the rest of society wants her to be, Heathcliff tries to follow suite switching to something he is not. Heathcliff comes back from his three years of absence rich and very different: “[he is] tall, athletic, well-formed man […with] upright carriage”( Brontë 98). Both Catherine and Heathcliff pretend to be someone other than themselves because of society, and this is why they never end up together. Heathcliff never truly gets his chance until after he dies. While he is still alive he begs for Catherine to , “haunt [him],” but it is not satisfactory(Brontë 152). The shaping of their lives and contradictions of the love Catherine and Heathcliff have are both results of