the BYRONIC HERO

In Gothic Fiction

cunningcynical

rebelliousdangerous

self-destructive

an outcast

emotionallyconflicted

brooding

passionate

Examples in literature:

Dr Frankenstein(Frankenstein)

Jay Gatsby (The Great Gatsby)

Mr Rochester (Jane Eyre)

Edward Cullen (Twilight)

Severus Snape (Harry Potter)

Rhett Butler (Gone With the Wind)

And of course…HEATHCLIFF (WUTHERING HEIGHTS)

(Although he takes ona more Anti-Hero role)

Critics WUTHERING HEIGHTS

Feminist critics would focus on the importance of Wuthering Heights having a female author, and would examine issues of equality and

motherhood. Lyn Pykett, for example, traces the various models of family through until Cathy and Hareton provide ‘the modern nuclear family’ at the end, having turned Wuthering Heights into ‘a domain of feminine values’.

Some critics have identified the term Female Gothic. This perspective might examine how men dominate and women are trapped, reflecting the sense of isolation and entrapment which women increasingly felt in typical

domestic arrangements of the time. Despite attempts at restraint by Hindley, Catherine exerts her freedom, until ‘civilised’ by her sojourn at the Grange, after which she is never truly free. Although she chooses a socially advantageous marriage, she still resists the conventional strictures of class

and marriage, but is not allowed by Brontë to flourish.

Perhaps to compensate for the dangers her mother faced, Cathy is initially over-protected in a way that no male was likely to be. She then becomes the chattel of her husband and father-in-law. A feminist critic would note that part of the plot of Wuthering Heights centres around the fact that

married women could not own property at the time. However, Cathy arises to become the only character in the second half of the novel who

overcomes her intrinsic fear of Heathcliff.

FEMINIST CRITICISM

Since Heathcliff is often described as ‘dark’ and a ’gypsy’, some critics have taken him to be black. Mr Earnshaw finds him in Liverpool, a major slave-trading port at the time, so perhaps

Heathcliff is the son of a slave or of some foreign blood. Old Mr Linton refers to his possible mixed race by describing him as ‘a

little Lascar, or an American or Spanish castaway.’ His incomprehensible ‘gibberish’ might also reflect the large influx of starving Irish immigrants in Liverpool when Bramwell visited

there in 1845, who spoke no English.On this basis, the treatment of Heathcliff as ‘other’ becomes a

metaphor for racism generally. A typically colonial attitude would anticipate Heathcliff’s inability to control his savagery,

since he is a ‘lesser’ person compared to ‘civilised’ whites (although Hindley rather belies that description!). There is certainly evidence in the text for this view, but the student

might wonder why Emily Brontë never actually states Heathcliff’s race explicitly.

POST-COLONIAL CRITICISM

Critics may also see the relationship of Catherine and Heathcliff as like

that between mother and child. The assumption is that, since Emily

Brontë lost her mother when very young, she was therefore concerned with the separation of mother and

child.

PSYCHOANALYTIC OR FREUDIAN CRITICISM

Taking a feminist view, states that the novel

demonstrates women’s right to be respected as

human beings in the convention of the Gothic.

SYNDY MCMILLEN CONGER

Gothic Romance

Features of gothic romance

• In England, gothic romances were mysteries, often involving the supernatural and heavily tinged with horror, and they were usually set against dark backgrounds of medieval ruins and haunted castles.

• Stereotypically, novels usually concerned spirited young woman, either governesses or new brides, who go to live in large gloomy mansions populated by peculiar servants and precious children and presided over by darkly handsome men with mysterious pasts.

Gothic romance in Wuthering Heights

• Wuthering Heights has plenty of spooky Gothic features, like imprisonment, dark stairways, stormy weather, nightmares, extreme landscapes, melancholy figures, moonlight and candles, torture and excessive cruelty, necrophilia, a supernatural presence, madness, maniacal behaviour, communication between the living and the dead—you get the point.

• Gothic novels typically take the setting of a dark castle, dungeon or laboratory; in Wuthering Heights the foreboding environment created by the title location is just as potent in inciting terror.

• In the Gothic tradition, Brontë features tyrannical fathers and a troubled family line. In this case, the threat comes from Heathcliff, the outsider, who causes havoc by usurping the family line and taking all of its property.

Themes of gothic romance in Wuthering Heights• Some of the darkest themes of the Gothic novel emerge with the

implications of incest (through the romantic love of Heathcliff and Catherine, who may be half-brother and sister; the marriage of cousins like Cathy and Linton would not have been seen as scandalous) and the suggestion of necrophilia (through Heathcliff's perverse interactions with Catherine's corpse).

• The Gothic genre often reveals larger societal anxieties. Wuthering Heights may help to reveal contemporary fears about a foreign presence in the house, threats to patrimony, or an influx of immigration (through places like Liverpool, England) in the form of the so-called "gypsy." It's important to note that Wuthering Heights was published well after the trend in Gothic novels had petered out, so several critics saw the genre—and the novel—as tired and overdone.

Quotes of gothic romance in Wuthering Heights

• The weather-wracked estate of Wuthering Heights offers an untamed, dangerous and sinister atmosphere.“I paused to admire a quantity of grotesque carving lavished over the front, and especially about the

principal door, above which, among a wilderness of crumbling griffins, and shameless little boys, I detected the date ‘1500’.” (p. 2)• This imagery bestows upon the mansion an atmosphere akin to that of a haunted manor or castle as is typical of

Gothic fiction. The sense that the Heights is a sinister place is most saliently seen when compared with the other location of the narrative, Thrushcross Grange, which serves to provide a stark contrast as a polar opposite in feeling and in what is represents; civility and the genteel. Bronte makes the contrast so clear in order to hone the sense of morbidity of the Heights.

• The title of the estate is telling here in that, based on the oft described conditions, it was very aptly named after the roaring winds which beset the house.

“Pure, bracing ventilation they must have up there, at all times, indeed: one may guess of the power of the north wind, ... by a range of gaunt thorns all stretching their limbs one way, as if craving alms of the sun.” (p. 2)

• The weather mirrors the passion and wildness of the inhabitants of the Heights. The moorlands which surround Wuthering Heights add to the sense of untameable danger associated with the property. The estate of Wuthering Heights, the wild weather and the dangerous moors which surround it combine to create a truly Gothic setting.

• Heathcliff shows no qualms in destroying those for whom he does not care, however undeserving of his wrath they may be. Isabella Linton falls in love with Heathcliff and is abused so heartlessly that she is forced to leave him, a social taboo for the period, this can be seen in this excerpt from her epistolary confession to Ellen Dean.

“I assure you, a tiger, or a venomous serpent could not rouse terror in me equal to that which he wakens... I hate him - I am wretched - I have been a fool.” (p. 153)• He shows no remorse as to the fate of Isabella, nor even their son Linton whom he neglects to seek medical care

for when he has fulfilled his purpose in usurping for Heathcliff Thrushcross Grange. Heathcliff’s unwarranted acts of violence against defenceless victims show his utter disregard for human suffering. Heathcliff’s relentless sadism manifests itself in his use of torture and imprisonment; classic Gothic features.

• Heathcliff’s unwarranted acts of violence against defenceless victims show his utter disregard for human suffering. Heathcliff’s relentless sadism manifests itself in his use of torture and imprisonment; classic Gothic features. When he imprisons young Cathy at Wuthering Heights he does so to emotionally torture Edgar Linton, the man who took Catherine from him, but it is equally tortuous to poor Cathy:

“If papa thought I had left him, on purpose, and if he died before I returned, could I bear to live?” (p. 290)• Heathcliff’s use of cold-blooded emotional and psychological torture elevates him beyond the mere scorned

man of passion to the disturbed and cruel monster that he becomes. Like any other Gothic anti-hero, or in many cases the antagonist, Heathcliff is bent on vengeance and does not care who must suffer from his cruelty in order for him to achieve it. In this way Heathcliff is a prime example of a Gothic protagonist.