Seat No.

33

Representations of gender in Wuthering Heights.

An analysis of Masculinity and femininity and women as the abject

Seminar Submitted to

The Department of English

University School of Languages

For M.A. Sem-3

Course No. 506

By

Preshita Marvania

Guided by

Prof. (Dr.) Darshana Bhatt

Department of English

School of Language

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Abstract:

The aim of this essay is to analyse gender representations in Wuthering Heights. For female authors to be
published, or have any kind of recognition for their work, they would therefore use male pseudonyms, as
was the case with Emily Brontë who was initially published as Ellis Bell. Hélène Cixous added to the
literary criticism by noting that the constructed language at the time depended on binary oppositions such
as, passive/active, weak/strong, and intuitive/theoretical, amongst others. She suggested that these
oppositions were applied to represent femininity and masculinity where feminine attributes were negative
and the masculine attributes being positive. In effect, the characters in literature having feminine
attributes, although some belonging to the male gender, would automatically mark them as the weaker sex
and put them in the negative category. This, she suggested, determined the outcome from the onset, as
those characteristics that was deemed negative would eventually be eliminated, as the binary opposition
were not able to co-exist. Kristeva who has theorised the notion of “abject” in her thesis Power of Horror,
describes abject as something foul and grotesque which is always applied to the feminine maternal figure,
that also gives credit to Cixous’s theory about the feminine being seen as the negative.

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 Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................4
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ........................................................................... 5
Portrayal of Femininity and Masculinity...……….…………………….....5
Representations of Gender……………..…………...…………..…………7
The abject and the feminine…………………...…………………………10
DISCUSSION…………………………………………………………………..……...12
Gender representations in Wuthering Heights…………………………..12
Catherine as the abject…………………………………………………...15
CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………..20
BIBLIOGRPHY……………………………………………………………………....21

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 Introduction
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë depicts the dolorous romantic relationships between various
characters with the main protagonists being Heathcliff and Catherine. The story is set at the end of 18th
century’s England, more specifically in the solitary landscape of the Yorkshire moors. The novel begins
with the arrival of Heathcliff to the Earnshaw estate, brought there by Catherine’s father who has found
him wandering on the streets of Liverpool. Although he tries to find a home where he belongs, he does
not succeed, which is why he decides to bring him back home to the moors where Catherine and
Heathcliff grow up as siblings. With time however, their relationship grows closer romantically, which is
the overt story of the novel. Although they never enter a physical relationship, their heightened romance
nevertheless is the main object of the novel and of significance for all the other characters that are
affected by it.

Having been published in the first half of the 19th century, the novel portrays not only strong
individuals and their relationships to each other, but it also depicts the gender roles prescribed to the
characters in terms of masculine and feminine attributes. Skinner notes “written when gender roles were
far more rigid and defined than they are now, Wuthering Heights examines stereotypes of masculinity and
femininity”. She continues to note that the novel “constantly contrasts masculinity and femininity, but not
all of the comparisons are simple; sometimes boys act like girls and girls act like boys”. Peter Barry also
remarks that in “nineteenth-century fiction very few women work for a living, unless they are driven to it
by dire necessity”. He observes that women, especially those from a wealthier background, instead focus
on a suitable marriage partner “which will decide her ultimate social position and exclusively determine
her happiness and fulfilment in life, or her lack of these”. Catherine, being from a middle class
background and in love with Heathcliff, nevertheless marries Edgar as he is from a prominent family and
has better financial prospects, which is in accordance with Barry’s observation of what was afforded to
women at the time. Catherine’s choice of marriage partner is also the cause of her and Heathcliff’s
ultimate separation which gives rise to the story in the novel.

According to Barry, feminism in literary criticism includes highlighting the “role of theory”,
meaning examination of literature from various theoretical approaches such as the nature of the language
in the text, where French feminist critics were at the forefront, and the value of psychoanalysis in
analysing the contents . French feminist critics suggested literature to have a “masculine” tone in general,
thus semantic features of the novel will be analysed.

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 Wuthering Heights is categorized not only as romantic and realist novel, as it portrays the reality of
the characters by describing the physical, political and social environment as close to the reality as
possible at the time, but it is also considered a gothic novel, because of its dark tone and its portrayal of a
ghostly presence, which is the ghost of Catherine. The purpose of this essay is to analyse the gender roles
represented in Wuthering Heights at the time it was written, with close attention to the novel’s main
protagonist Catherine and her relationship with the other characters. Furthermore, to explore how she may
have been presented as an “abject” and a “monstrous” figure, as defined by Creed and Kristeva
respectively. As the novel portrays three different personas in the description of the protagonist Catherine,
in order to make the thesis coherent, the main protagonist will be referred to as “Catherine”, her offspring
as “Cathy” and Catherine’s ghost will simply be referred to as the “ghost of Catherine”

Theoretical Background
Victorian writing has been criticized for being male-centred and privileging male writers, which is
perhaps why there are various female authors who have published work under a male pseudonym, Emily
Brontë being one of them. Marginalization of female authors during the time period Wuthering Heights
was penned and published will serve as an explanation for the literary language used. In order to realize
the thesis for the essay, definitions of femininity and masculinity will be outlined and applied using
French literary criticism. The notion of “abject”, as theorised by Julia Kristeva, will form the base for the
portrayals of the Catherine(s).

Portrayal of Femininity and Masculinity

Wuthering Heights recounts the unattainable romantic relationship of the novel’s two protagonists
Heathcliff and Catherine in the backdrop of the Yorkshire moors. Brontë’s choice for the setting in the
moors with its barren landscape and continuous, strong and unpredictable wind seems to serve as a
signifier for the turbulent relationship between the characters and their inner feelings. Thus, the natural
elements semantically signify the tumultuous love that is constant and strong but also cold and painful.
The strong wind is ever more present around the Wuthering Height estate, which is the initial setting of
the novel where both Catherine and Heathcliff grow up and kindle their relationship. Nasrullah Mambrol,
a research scholar of English studies, notes in his analyses of the novel that the “society is divided
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between two opposing worlds: Wuthering Heights, the ancestral home of the Earnshaws, and Thrushcross
Grange, the Linton estate”. The description of the two estates and surroundings are in stark contrast,
which emphasises their inherent differences. Mambrol argues that this is because the two houses are 5
symbols for femininity and masculinity where Wuthering Heights with its wild, rustic and strong
construction represents masculinity and Thrushcross Grange with its large welcoming and warm
atmosphere represents femininity.

According to Julia Kristeva “the belief that ‘one is a woman’ is almost as absurd and obscurantist as
the belief that ‘one is a man’”. She suggests that apart from the reproductive capabilities, there should not
be such divide between sexes, as that divide aids the discrimination. Toril Moi adds to this notion of
discrimination by summarizing the French philosopher Hélène Cixous’s concept of opposing “patriarchal
binary thought” (Eagleton, Working with Feminist Criticism, 147). She means that opposite binaries are
used to create a divide between the sexes and appoint certain characteristics to them such as “activity/
passivity, sun/moon, culture/nature, day/night, father/mother, head/emotions, intelligible/sensible and
logos/pathos”. She suggests that the underlying meaning they represent in defining man and woman in the
“patriarchal value system” involves portraying “the male section” to be in hierarchy, and the feminine
component to be seen as the “negative, powerless instance”. In western culture, this hierarchal binary
opposition of male and female has influenced all aspects of art, including literature. Thus, the positive and
negative aspects presented in art, including literature, portrays the masculine/male as the positive force as
it has the ability to survive seeing as it holds the power, whereas the feminine/female is represented with
the opposite as it lacks those attributes. Cixous also emphasises the importance of death as a prerequisite
for survival in the patriarchal value system; she argues that one thought must destroy the other in order to
survive. Thus, either the masculine or the feminine can survive, as “the couple cannot be left intact”, and
as passivity is equated with defeat, the patriarchy and “the male is always the victor”.

Most of the binary opposites represented in the text are comparatively obvious, such as the actual
name of the characters personifying the male and the female, as in Heathcliff, Edgar and Hareton,
amongst others, that are easily identifiable as male and Catherine, Isabella and Nelly, that are typical
names for females. It is therefore understood that the two protagonists, Heathcliff and Catherine are the
binary opposites, Heathcliff being the man and Catherine being the woman. The actual definition of the
main protagonist’s names is also an indication of the character’s gender. According to online etymology
dictionary, Catherine originally deriving from Greek means “pure” “clean” and also “clear of shame or

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guilt”. Heathcliff’s name however consists of two nouns, Heath meaning “a tract of wasteland” and Cliff
meaning “a very steep, vertical, or overhanging face of rock, earth, or ice”.

In Wuthering Heights, Brontë seems to examine and illustrate the opposing binary notions of
femininity and masculinity in various ways. Apart from the obvious choice of names for the characters as
noted above, Brontë also describes the characters with opposing characteristics that are deemed typically
male or female. Skinner notes that although Edgar and Linton are men, they are nevertheless frequently
described with feminine looks and attributes. Skinner also notes that Catherine has “many masculine
characteristics; even though she is outrageously beautiful, she loves rough, outdoor play and can hold her
own in any fight. She is a complex mix of hyper-feminine grace and loveliness and ultra-masculine anger
and recklessness” (Ibid.). Heathcliff however is described with less ambiguity where his physical and
mental toughness is exaggerated and ever present which is typical for the description of the male
attributes.

Hindley, the hierarchal brother of Catherine who inherits Earnshaw estate, as he is the legitimate son
to the former patriarch, is described as a temperamental figure that 7 “utters loudly into the room,
marking his domination”. Hindley asserts his dictatorship also by reminding the household “You forget
you have a master here”, … “I’ll demolish the first who puts me out of temper!”. The fact that he
emphasises that he is the “master”, affirms his masculinity, and the way he warns those in the room from
disturbing him creates a divide between him and others, putting him at the top of the hierarchal ladder.

Representations of Gender
According to Mary Eagleton, women are significantly marginalised when it comes to being
recognised for their literary work. She argues that when it comes to content that is regarded as more
valuable or more esteemed, it is more often than not associated to male authors. She notes, “we all know
from media reports and from general observation that women are under-represented in science and
particularly underrepresented in physics”. This she means is not because women are not capable, they are
and indeed there are many esteemed scholars in all fields, but that they don’t have a fair playing field.
And when it comes to actual content, women are more associated to traditional roles such as “birth,
children, the domestic” as those are considered to equate to female along with subjects concerning

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emotions. Men on the other hand are automatically associated with “science, technology, the public” and
rationality and theoretical thinking.

John Bowen, a professor of 19th century literature at the University of York, notes that Emily Brontë
was fascinated by the moors and “their austere beauty and by the destructive and consoling powers of the
natural world that they embodied”. Bowen suggests that Wuthering Heights portrays natural elements that
are in contradiction that “constantly binds 8 together the deadly and regenerative qualities of nature”,
much like the fate of the characters in the novel that are bound to their societal conditions. The natural
background and its significance are relevant when it comes to describing the genre of the novel.

The novel is generally categorised as a romantic novel, not just because it was penned during the
Romantic period (1785-1832), but also because of its obvious subject concerning the romantic
relationship of the protagonists and the way Brontë lets nature have a voice instead of having the
characters “tell its tale” (“The Romantic Period”), as per tradition of Romanticism. According to Bowen
however, the novel is also a combination of realist and gothic fiction. Bowen notes the recurring theme of
“the ecstatic, eerie and mad” where humans are haunted by ghosts and driven to their limits by strong
compulsive behaviour which categorises the Gothic genre. Bowen also observes the realist attributes by
remarking the care Brontë has taken in describing the landscape and the material world of the characters
and their “extraordinary actions in a vividly realised family history”.

The Romantic period saw several political debates concerning civil rights such as the proposal of
1785 bill giving middle class and working class men the right to vote, but only if they owned certain
amount of land. Nevertheless, the political debate never included women who remained the property of
their husbands and anything that they may have inherited would be automatically passed on to their male
spouse. This meant that any women marrying without any financial security was left to fend for
themselves if anything happened to their husbands. Romantic period was followed by Victorian era
(1830-1901), which is when the novel was published. Women in Victorian era were expected to have
feminine qualities such as “softness, warm-hearted and so on” and they were also habituated to
“belonging at 9 home” and to their husbands. In accordance, the protagonist Catherine does possess those
feminine characteristics as she is described as beautiful and caring who marries Edgar Linton, marking
her domestic belonging.

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 The monopoly of literature by the male population has been criticized by many prominent figures
within feminist literary criticism such as Mary Wollstonecraft who noted the discrimination towards
women in her A Vindication of the Rights of Women highlighting the inequality between sexes in
receiving an education and Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own also noting the bias towards male
authorship. Woolf highlights that women “could hardly read, could scarcely spell, and was the property of
her husband” (Woolf, “From A Room of One’s Own”) and that while male writers were privileged as their
profession was taken seriously, hence their need of a room for themselves being a necessity in performing
their work, the same courtesy was not extended to women. Mary Anstell, another prominent feminist
literary critic, has noted that men resented the notion of female authors being invited to “taste of the Tree
of Knowledge” which they so long had dominated. The bias towards male authors and the lack of
encouragement for women were noticeable in the way female authors had to find work in other
professions, as Emily Brontë and her sister Charlotte did, who were educated as teachers.

Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar note that Gerard Manley Hopkins who is regarded as one of the
“greatest poets of the Victorian era” (Reid, “Gerard Manley Hopkins: British Poet”) has regarded the
literary pen to be a symbol for “ a metaphorical penis” meaning that men, having been able to express
their thoughts by penning them down, exercise their talent which “marks off men from women”.
Furthermore, Hopkins has also argued that “the artist’s most essential quality” relies in their “masterly
execution, which is a kind of male gift”. Here he 10 sets men apart from women not only because of men
having the privilege to write, but because according to him, men are “better” than women when it comes
to writing. French feminist critics brought this bias into the light as recognised by Ann Rosalind Jones
who noted that French feminist’s common ground is “an analysis of western culture as fundamentally
oppressive and, as phallogocentric”. Jones also notes that “Symbolic discourse is another means through
which man objectifies the world, reduces it to his terms, speaks in place of everything and everyone else –
including women”. Hopkin’s beliefs befit this tilted notion of men seeing themselves at the centre of all
creativity, which is the main objection by the feminist literary critics. The “unified, selfcontrolled” man at
the “center of universe”, namely European white man from the ruling class, who defines all other beings
as “other”, having meaning only in relation to him “as man/father, possessor of the phallus” leaves little
room for anyone that does not fit that description as pointed out by Jones. This belief being the norm at
the time the novel was penned limits the verbal language and appropriates the world by appointing it to
male “mastery” and requires the female language to exist only in relation to the male.

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 In a society where popular belief credited male writers, it is not surprising then that many female
writers were pushed to publish their work under male pseudonyms, as is the case with Wuthering Heights.
The novel was published under the pseudonym of Ellis Bell, marking the first initials from first and the
last name of Emily Brontë. Emily’s sister Charlotte has written an explanation on the choice of male
pseudonyms they used when releasing novels; “We did not like to declare ourselves women, because –
without at the time suspecting that our mode of writing and thinking was not what is called “feminine” –
we had a vague impression that authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice”. Although it has
been 11 proven countless times that Emily is the one penning the novel, critics have tried to discredit her
even to this day by trying to credit her brother Branwell with the novel. McCarthy and O’Sullivan note in
their article in the Irish Times that Emily tried to avoid public scrutiny by using a pseudonym but also
“give her novel a chance of fair critical reception at a time when female authors weren’t taken seriously”.
Emily who was well educated and well travelled could perhaps note the discrimination towards women,
which McCarthy and O’Sullivan regards to be justified, as “many commentators would eventually go on
to express doubt that she, as a woman, could have penned such a dark and savage story”.

The abject and the feminine

Kristeva notes, “The abject is not an object facing me, which I name or imagine. Nor is it an ob-
jest, an otherness ceaselessly fleeing in a systematic quest of desire. The abject has only one quality of the
object—that of being opposed to I”. According to this, the abject is what threatens the “I”, the notion that
may harm the “self” in some way, that which cannot “assimilate” with it. This thought requires the abject
to be separate from the “I”, but Kristeva also notes that abject can, and does exist, within oneself but
makes its presence known if acknowledged at which point the challenge of elimination starts.

Barbra Creed, a professor specialising in the portrayal of femininity in the arts, notes in her analysis
of The Monstrous Feminine that “all human societies have a conception of the monstrous-feminine, of
what it is about woman that is shocking, terrifying, horrific, abject”. Thus, attributes associated to women
are noted to be the real cause of the horrific actions by the characters. Creed notes Kristeva’s notion of the
abject being linked to the image of woman’s body because of its maternal functions “acknowledges its
debt to nature and consequently is more likely to signify 12 the abject”. Creed further elaborates on
Kristeva’s notion of abjection as something negative that does not respect borders and boundaries, that
which does not acknowledge positions and rules and through its rejection “disturbs identity, system,
order”.
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 Creed suggests that religion has a lot to account for when it comes to the notion of abjection. She
notes that Kristeva’s “definitions of the monstrous as constructed in the modern horror text are grounded
in ancient religious and historical notions of abjection”. Creed elaborates that religious abominations
include sexual immorality, such as marriage before sex; perversion of various kind including same sex
relationships and incest; corporal alteration where physical appearance alters, including decay and death
but also the way a woman’s body alters when expecting. Creed however notes that “the feminine” itself is
an abjection according to religion.

According to Kristeva, abject threatens life and therefore must be radically excluded and separated
from that of the living subject by depositing it in an “imaginary border”. In this view, excrement, along
with pus and other vile abnormalities are part of what is defined as abject, but the excluding of that which
threatens normality includes also attributes related to the feminine body such as menstruation. The baby
releasing its grip from the mother can also be seen as abject, in accordance with Kristeva who argues “all
individuals experience abjection at the time of their earliest attempts to break away from the mother”. But
here, both the mother and the offspring can signify the abject as they are both rejecting each other. This
creates a conflict between the mother and the child, as this ambiguity itself is a form of abjection.

Kristeva suggests that, “abjection is above all ambiguity. Because, while releasing a hold, it does not
radically cut off the subject from what threatens it – on the contrary, abjection acknowledges it to be in
perpetual danger”. This notion however also includes the paranormal where the soul leaves the body
behind but lingers 13 in the atmosphere as a reminder of its existence. In a way it ejects the body that is
associated with death and decay, whereby ejecting the abject, but in another way it becomes the abject
through its ambiguous existence.

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 Gender representations in Wuthering Heights
The novel was initially published in the first half of the 19th century and it portrays not only strong
individuals and their relationships to each other, but it also depicts the gender roles prescribed to the
characters. As noted earlier, Skinner suggests that gender roles were far more rigid during the time period
of the novel. She notes however that the portrayal of masculinity and femininity are sometimes reversed
where boys act like girls and vice versa. Catherine, who grows up with mainly male relatives, apart from
Heathcliff, is portrayed with both feminine and masculine attributes and is the central link between all the
characters. Her actions therefore have great impact on everyone around her and contribute to their
impending unhappiness as her decision to marry Edgar means that she deserts Heathcliff who then enters
a loveless marriage with Edgar’s sister Isabella as a substitute. Heathcliff being deserted by Catherine
seems to take his revenge on Isabella instead by being cruel and treating her with contempt. This is
especially manifested in the way he cruelly hangs her dog with a handkerchief almost killing it. Also
when Nelly, the housekeeper, suggest that he should be taking care of his new bride whereby he tells her,
“She degenerates into a mere slut”. He does this in front of Isabella herself, not acknowledging her
presence as if she was just part of the furniture, marking her degradation and insignificance. That is one
of the reasons why Nelly describes Heathcliff with less favourable characteristics to Lockwood, the
tenant, calling him “rough as a saw-edge, and hard as whinstone”.

Heathcliff being described short of a monster can however be seen as an extension of Catherine as
she herself has treated Heathcliff with disregard in marking his insignificance by marrying Edgar.
Heathcliff even hears her confess to it, “It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff ”, which is also the main
reason he is forever trying to mark his stamp on the world in an attempt to “prove” himself to Catherine.
Catherine and Heathcliff’s similarities are also verbalised by Catherine: “he shall never know how I love
him; not because he's handsome, Nelly, but because he's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are
made of, his and mine are the same”. This can mean that Catherine is in fact in love with herself as
Heathcliff and she are thus alike. Kristeva suggests that this is related to the underlying “ego”. Graybeal
conceptualizes Kristeva:

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 For Kristeva the “semiotic” and “symbolic” dispositions within language are two radically distinct
forces at work in the discourse of the subject in process. They are most distinctly perceptible in poetic
language, the discourses of religion and art, and those of schizophrenic or borderline patients. In these
discourses the status of the speaking subject is called into question; something other, heterogeneous,
threatening to the unitary conception of the ego is at work, undermining and disrupting the “thetic” or
predicative, judgment-based discourse. This “something other” Kristeva calls the “semiotic.”

In accordance with the semiotic and the symbolic notion as described by Kristeva, Catherine’s
motives become questionable as she represents the ego that is disruptive, ultimately marking her as the
one disturbing force. This is also manifested where Catherine confesses to Nelly “I have no more business
to marry Edgar Linton than I 15 have to be in heaven”. Heathcliff who then confesses to being
Catherine’s pupil “you teach me now how cruel you’ve been – cruel and false” thus marks Catherine as
the ultimate villain, and the “monster”.

The female characters and femininity are portrayed with attributes, such as being indecisive, egoistic,
fickle, gossiping, nosy and whimsical, whereas men and masculinity are portrayed with the opposite
qualities, such as strong and decisive but also rough and reckless. This is perhaps due to the tradition of
“language” at the time, as noted by the French feminists, that suggested that the language mainly
belonged to the men and therefore appeared “phallic”, as in it had a masculine tone as literature in general
was populated with male writers. Dale Spender theorises in Man Made Language that “the semantic
structure of the English language reveals a great deal about what it means to be female in a patriarchal
order”. Thus the female attributes, as described by Brontë, inadvertently shows the deeper rooted view on
femininity and the restrictions put upon them. Spender continues to say that “The semantic rule which has
been responsible for the manifestation of sexism in the language can be simply stated; there are two
fundamental categories, male and minus male”. He argues that “To be linked with male is to be linked to
a range of meanings which are positive and good; to be linked with this minus male is to be linked to the
absence of those qualities. Thus portrayal of Catherine as the ultimate monster can also be seen as
symbolic of the linguistic style of the time, which favoured men.

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 Edwin Whipple, a reviewer from The North American Review, has implied that Jane Eyre must have
had two authors, one male and one female, suggesting that the female author had written the “female
peculiarities” such as the superficial accounts of description of dresses, the sick chamber and “various
superficial refinements of feeling in regard to the externals of the sex”. He has also suggested that “it is
true 16 that the noblest and best representations of female character have been produced by men” but that
women have “niceties of thought and emotion” which is superior to men. When reviewing Wuthering
Heights, he has concentrated on the representation of Heathcliff as “quintessentially bestial, brutal, indeed
monstrous” scoring the author for “coarseness and being a spendthrift of malice and profanity”, thus
concluding that no women could have written it. And that the same male hand that had penned parts of
Jane Eyre, must also have written Wuthering Heights.

As noted earlier in this essay under the section detailing femininity and masculinity in literature,
western culture uses hierocracy binary oppositions of male and female in all aspects of art and that the
positive and negative descriptions of the opposing binary genders are preconceived. In this sense
Catherine signifies the passive feminine, as she is “pure and clean” and Heathcliff represents the active
masculine, as he is “vast, strong and hard” which entitles him more power. Cixous suggest also that in the
patriarchal value system builds on the elimination of the weak and the survival of the strong where weak
equals feminine and strong equals masculine. In accordance, Heathcliff survives Catherine, at least in
physical form, as he represents the potent patriarchal figure in accordance with Cixous. Catherine, being
unable to own anything of financial value is also per definition inferior to the male characters, marking
her ultimately as the weaker sex that is being eliminated and making room for the “superior” to survive.
This is in accordance with Cixous who argues that one thought must destroy the other in order to survive,
meaning that either the masculine or the feminine can survive as they cannot exist harmoniously. This
theory can however also be applied to Catherine as she does possess those male characteristics, as
described by Skinner, which enables her to survive her “weaker” self by leaving the physical form and
becoming a ghost.

Brontë describes Hindley, Catherine’s brother as a temperamental, rude and angry patriarchal figure
who continuously emphases that he is the “master” of the house. Hindley also makes sure to remind
Heathcliff how charitable the Earnshaw’s have been towards him, as he does not have any wealth of his
own and no other family relations. Here, one can notice a hint of ridicule where Brontë refers to Hindley
as “the tyrant” and questioning the masculine ascendency. Once Heathcliff becomes the “master” of the
estate, he acts with the same undesirable characteristics as Hindley. This can be seen in the way he treats
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Cathy by subjecting her to the same degrading treatment as he himself received from Hindley by calling
her “worthless” and a burden. He suggests that Cathy should make herself useful and not “live off” his
charity by noting: “Put your trash away, and find something to do. You shall pay me for the plague of
having you eternally in my sight – do you hear, damnable jade?”. By pointing to the similarities between
the two men, Brontë is also marking the men as harsh hierarchs and as “monsters” in binary opposition to
“angels” that are typically prescribed to women.

Brontë’s criticism of gender inequality of the Victorian era that she herself was part of can be noted as
she does not portray the female protagonist with attributes related to women of the time. Catherine on the
contrary is the stark opposite of these notions as she is strong-willed and passionate. She is however still
conditioned to the roles prescribed to her gender as she is a housewife who has married into wealth and
social position, fearing social castration if she had not. This is also the parallel story of the novel, where
Brontë subtly highlights gender and social divide whereby allowing Heathcliff to use the laws to his
advantage by marrying to gain status and financial advancement. He also marries off his sick son for the
same purpose, thus showing how the laws do not protect the rich and the noble, and not to mention, the
women. Brontë 18 inadvertently shows that women are used as a bargaining tool or even as “cattle” as
they are only worth what they bring to the marriage without owning anything themselves.

Catherine as the abject

The semantic language that favours male attributes, as described earlier, and the portrayal of female
characters are in contradiction to each other. On the one hand they long for love and passion, inevitably
being punished for acting on their desires, while on the other hand they are portrayed as the cause of great
misery, including their own, because of their behaviour. Thus, through their actions, they inevitably
become the cause of all evil. This is in accordance with Creed’s notion of “monstrous-feminine”
suggesting that feminine attributes create an association with “terrifying, horrific, abject” that is the real
cause of the horrific actions committed by the characters. Kristeva elaborates that women through their
ability to give birth signify the abject. Thus Catherine, being a woman with the ability to give birth,
automatically becomes the abject as per Kristeva’s definition. Creed notices that Kristeva is using the
term “abjection” when referring to portrayal of women in terms of their physical maternal figure.
Although the novel does not portray any relationship with Catherine and her offspring Cathy as she dies
in child-labour, the one person she does inadvertently give birth to is Heathcliff, as she helps shape him
and what he eventually becomes. Thus, Catherine can be seen as the signifier for a maternal figure. Their
strong relationship can be noticed in the conversation where Heathcliff and tells Catherine “Do I want to
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live? What kind of living will it be when you – oh God! would you like to live with your soul in the
grave?” (Brontë 163). This conversation also manifests that Catherine is the one with real power as
Heathcliff declares that he does not want to live on without her. The opposing positions, in terms of
active/passive, 19 weak strong is visible where normally the woman would be the passive and weak one,
which is not the case here, reversing the hierarchal binary roles as theorised by Cixous.

Kristeva’s notion of the “abject” that does not respect set rules and boundaries can be seen in the way
Catherine is constantly challenging those around her by not fully committing to one lover. This is visible
in the way Nelly tries to reason with Catherine to choose one partner and stick to him but that Heathcliff
would feel deserted if Catherine marries Edgar. Catherine reassures Nelly that she is not planning on
deserting Heathcliff, on the contrary, she will try to use her “influence to raise him up” (Brontë 82), to
which Nelly points out that Edgar might not be pleased. Catherine, who is determined then replies,
“Every Linton on the face of the earth might melt into nothing, before I could consent to forsake
Heathcliff!” (Ibid.).

The same refusal to conform to set rules and boundaries can also be seen in the portrayal of Cathy, as
she is not being loyal to either house that are at war with each other. Cathy also follows her mother
Catherine’s footsteps by moving form one lover to another, namely Linton and Hareton. Both mother’s
and daughter’s actions are against religious beliefs with its rigid guidelines on what marriage should be,
as noted by Creed, suggesting that the woman as an abject monster has its roots in the same historical
faith (Creed 9). This, Creed notes is ever present in most portrayal of the monstrous feminine in texts,
which is also the case in Wuthering Heights.

Religious beliefs are present throughout the novel, which is mainly portrayed through the elderly
illiterate servant Joseph, but also through other symbolisms considered as “abomination”. Creed suggests
that it is not only sexual immorality that is seen as religious abomination, but also perversion and corporal
alteration; meaning altering of the body which is often associated to women as they are the ones that
usually have to endure this alteration when they are carrying another being inside their body. In
accordance, several of the themes in the novel fit this religious notion of abjection, such 20 as sexual
immorality that is portrayed not only through the depiction of Catherine loving two men but also
Heathcliff who is in love with Catherine but marries Isabella as he cannot have Catherine. Corporal
alteration in physical form where Catherine and Isabella becomes mothers whereby their body alters, is

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not explored fully more than just as a mention in passing. Nevertheless, because of them giving birth,
they are associated to the religious notion of abjection.

Death surrounds the characters constantly; first Catherine’s mother, than her father, than Edgars
parents, then Hindley’s wife and various other characters, until eventually Catherine herself dies but
returns as a ghost to haunt the living. But before she is buried, the corps is put onto display at Thrushcross
Grange estate to decay openly. Nelly, who is the partial narrator in the novel, describes the scene she find
Catherine’s corpse in after Heathcliff’s visit: “I shouldn’t have discovered that he had been there, except
for the disarrangement of the drapery about the corpse’s face” (Brontë 170). This suggests a sexual
contact between Heathcliff and the corpse of Catherine, which is in line with the religious notion of
abomination. As Catherine and Heathcliff are brought up as brother and sister, this implied sexual act
suggests an incestuous relationship, which is also described as abject, in line with Creed’s description.

When looking closer at the text and analysing the various themes, it could be noticed that Brontë is
ridiculing the position of the church and its influence as the main religious character in the novel is
Joseph, the servant who is constantly making remarks on others and passing judgement while quoting
from the bible. This is clearly seen in the way Nelly describes Joseph “He was, and is yet most likely, the
wearisomest selfrighteous Pharisee that ever ransacked a Bible to rake the promises to himself and fling
the curses to his neighbours” (Brontë 42). And also in the way Catherine has drawn Joseph as depicted by
Lockwood “I was greatly amused to behold an excellent 21 caricature of my friend Joseph, rudely yet
powerfully sketched” (20). According to Gray, Brontë’s depiction of Joseph as someone using the bible to
cast judgment on others rather than showing mercy or love, symbolizes her rejection of the church (Gray
“Joseph in Wuthering Heights”). Brontë’s dislike of the interfering narrow-mindedness of the church can
also be deciphered in the way she has created an illiterate character that has never left the vicinity of the
place he was born and probably died in. Joseph, unlike the other characters from the same area, talks with
a broad local accent, which also emphasises the close-mindedness of the church (ibid.).

As described earlier, Creed suggests that “abject threatens life” and that it must be “radically
excluded from the place of the living subject” (Creed 9). Catherine, who is seen as abject, as per
definition of religious beliefs, is separated from her body through death, symbolising a separation from
that which is abject and cleansing herself from it. This separation however puts her in an “imaginary
border” where the self is separated from the abject, which is symbolised by the body with its deadly
attributes, in a way to cleanse itself from it. This can be seen in the way Nelly, the housekeeper describing
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the death of Catherine “Far better that she should be dead, than lingering a burden and a misery-maker to
all about her” (Brontë 164). Nelly means that Catherine’s death, seen as a final end, both in physical and
psychological terms, would bring peace to the surviving characters affected by her actions. But
Catherine’s transformation into an ambiguous figure in becoming the ghost of Catherine, whereby
continuing her grip on the living, does not bring about the change Nelly was hoping for. This is in line
with Kristeva who suggest that abjection includes ambiguity where releasing the hold of the body does
not radically cut off the subject from what threatens it, in this case, Catherine’s body (Creed 8). Thus the
symbolic separation of the abject Catherine and the ghost of Catherine creates an ambiguous space where
abject is still present. Perhaps this is why the ghost of Catherine is still haunting the living, as she has not
achieved 22 what she aimed to do in life, which is to possess Heathcliff, but also Edgar, who she marries
to gain position in society, thus she is still tormenting the living from beyond the grave, manifesting her
“monstrous” nature.

Although she does marry Edgar for a better position in society, as Heathcliff does not have the same
respected position, as he lacks both a good family name and fortune, Catherine nevertheless does love
Edgar as he is sweet and kind. Her indecisiveness can be noted early on in the novel where Lockwood,
who is a tenant at Thruscross Grange, discovers Catherine’s diaries that are titled “Catherine Earnshaw –
Heathcliff – Linton” (Brontë 20). And as Lockwood notices the ghost of Cathrine trying to communicate
with him:

my eyes closed; but they had not rested five minutes when a glare of white letters started from the dark, as
vivid as spectres – the air swarmed with Catherine’s; and rousing myself to dispel the obtrusive name, I
discovered my candle wick reclining on one of the antique volumes, and perfuming the place with an
odour of roasted calf-skin.

This passage suggests that Catherine, although having left the earth, is still an inhabitant of it,
supporting Kristeva’s theory about the abject being inseparable from its core. Creed continues on this
theme by noting that “although the subject must exclude the abject, the abject must, nevertheless, be
tolerated for that which threatens to destroy life also help to define life”. Catherine, having been defined
as the abject, nevertheless is necessary in order to give life to a new form, which in the novel comes in the
form of her offspring Cathy. When Creed continuous to argue that “the ultimate in abjection is the
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corpse”, she means that the body rejects what is alien or gruesome that the subject finds “loathsome”, in
the hope that it may continue to live. When 23 considering this logic, it could mean that Catherine, who is
in the brink of death by child-labour, is rejecting what she finds “abominable”, as in Cathy, her offspring.
Since the child threatens her life, she is in a way trying to purify herself before her imminent death. This
could however also mean that Catherine is rejecting the child that is creating a larger gap between her and
Heathcliff as the offspring belongs to Edgar, which is another form of abjection as it could be seen to
signify the mother rejecting her child, which is against the notion of “mother”. This is also noted by
Kristeva who suggests that “such waste drop so that I might live, until, from loss to loss, nothing remains
in me and my entire body falls beyond the limit – cadere, cadaver”. Creed however summarises that “the
body ejects these substances, at the same time extricating itself from them and from the place where they
fall, so that it might continue to live”. Catherine ejecting Cathy, the foetus that signifies the abject as she
is equalled to “waste”, then ejecting her own body, which symbolises the “cadaver” as it is weak, allows
her to eliminate the abject in order to continue her existence. However, as the ghost itself is an ambiguous
form, which in itself is an abject as it does not really exists, continues to mark her as the abject, thus her
inability to escape being the abject.

According to Kristeva “all individuals experience abjection at the time of their earliest attempts to
break away from the mother”. Cathy, having left he maternal body, thus can be seen as another form of
abject. This could however also refer to Heathcliff as he marries Edgar’s sister in an attempt to break free
from Catherine, but does not succeed, as her grasp over him is far stronger than his desire to break free.
This is in accordance with Kristeva who “sees the mother-child relation as one marked by conflict: the
child struggles to break free but the mother is reluctant to release it”.

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 Conclusion
Freud’s notion of “penis-envy” comes to mind when analysing Brontë’s novel with feminist literary
criticism. Gilbert and Gubar note that “the poet’s pen is in some sense (even more than figuratively) a
penis”, which they suggest signifies power. The common attitude amongst literary critics and authors
showing bias towards male penmanship left little scope for women to divulge in such creativity. Brontë,
amongst other female authors, being critical of the 19th century’s discriminating society, nevertheless
used “the pen” to show that even women could write creative works, alas fooling them all by publishing it
under a male pseudonym.

Although Brontë is a woman, she is however conditioned to the same male literary language as
pointed out by the French feminist literary critics. Hence portrayal of the characters may be recognisable
with the same semantic form where femininity and masculinity are represented through binary opposites.
Masculinity being portrayed as strong, rough, cruel and powerful whereas femininity as frail, weak, soft
and with beautiful physical attributes. However, in contrast to traditional portraits of women, Brontë
portrays various male characters with feminine attributes and the protagonist Catherine with male
characteristics.

Gender roles in Wuthering Heights is typical of the era where women were expected to belong in the
confinement of their homes once they had acquired a favourable marriage in terms of wealth and social
position. The portrayal of Catherine is however not what is common for that era as she is portrayed as
strong-willed and tough but also somewhat promiscuous as she is in love with two men. This notion of
sexual promiscuity being against religion is noted as she is cast off to die and decay after having given
birth and fulfilling her maternal obligations on earth, as per the phallocentric literary tradition of the time.

The notion of abject is born out of religion where anything related to women and femininity is
deemed abominable. Kristeva elaborates that femininity itself is “the abject” since it threatens the
equilibrium as defined by historical religious belief. The bible being the original phallocentric script in
this sense may also have influenced the male centred semiotic language of the time Brontë penned
Wuthering Heights.

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