Wuthering Heights Heritage Analysis

Wuthering Heights, the only novel written by Emily Brontë, was published in 1847. Emily Brontë’s father worked as a church rector and he was a deeply religious person. Emily Brontë had two sisters, Charlotte Brontë and Anne Brontë. All of them started writing at a very young age. They were particularly influenced by Romanticism and medieval tales. Even though Wuthering Heights is now considered as one of the most famous novel in English literature, it was not so well received when it was published in 1847. Its themes were considered shocking for the readers of the Victorian society, especially the instability of social classes and gender inequality. In Wuthering Heights, the notion of Heritage is omnipresent. In this paper, I will explore the

To understand the notion of Heritage in Wuthering Heights, we first need to look at its features from a literary point of view. The notion of Heritage is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as ‘the money, property, etc. that you receive from somebody when they die’ or ‘something from the past or from your family that affects the way you behave, look.’ The question of heritage is central in the novel and it first appears in chapter V, when Mr Earnshaw dies, and his son Hindley inherits Wuthering Heights. Mr Earnshaw and his wife have two children: Hindley, born in 1757 and Catherine, born in 1765. One day, Mr Earnshaw goes to Liverpool and returns home with a dark-skinned boy

But Heathcliff, knowing that Catherine and Edgar will marry, runs away for three years. By the time he comes back to Wuthering Heights, they are already married and Mr and Mrs Linton have died from an infection, leaving Catherine and Edgar at Thrushcross Grange. In Chapter XVI, Catherine gives birth to Cathy and dies shortly after. Cathy is described in Chapter XVIII as a beautiful young girl who has inherited her mother’s spirit. But she also inherited some of her father’s attributes ‘She was the most winning thing that ever brought sunshine into a desolate house: a real beauty in face, with the Earnshaws’ handsome dark eyes, but the Lintons’ fair skin and small features, and yellow curling hair. Her spirit was high, though not rough, and qualified by a heart sensitive and lively to excess in its affections. That capacity for intense attachments reminded me of her mother: still she did not resemble her: for she could be soft and mild as a dove, and she had a gentle voice and pensive expression: her anger was never furious; her love never fierce: it was deep and