As a novel written during the Victorian era, Emily Brontë's intensely class conscious novel Wuthering Heights is a story of defending and improving one's social and economic class. The houses of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange are separate entities in both geography and class. By showing the two as completely different, Brontë emphasizes their differences as well as the desire of those in lower positions to rise to a greater one. The effect of this desire to rise to a greater position results in an upward push from those at the bottom, like Heathcliff, and a desire to preserve this position against those who would attempt to attain it for themselves. As a vicious cycle of class plays out through the novel, the novel presents this self serving desire as negative. The vindictive actions of Heathcliff throughout the novel can be traced through all of the situations of his childhood that placed a focus on class and placed him beneath someone else. Because Heathcliff's struggles with class result in misery for nearly every character of the novel, Brontë presents the view that the cycle of capitalist improvement and preservation is ultimately detrimental to those who take part in it.
As the novel begins, the wealthy Mr. Lockwood rents Thrushcross Grange, an impressive estate that far surpasses in elegance that of his landlord's dwelling, Wuthering Heights. The servants Nelly, Zillah, and Joseph contrast with their masters the Earnshaws and the Lintons. Those who show signs of work, such as Hareton with his "ruddy countenance" (100), crude manners, and laborer's physique are contrasted against those who are pale, slender, and well-mannered. Heathcliff, as a young child, is brought to the Earnshow household as an orphan, dirty and malnourished from his time living in the streets. The novel's consistent establishment and comparison of these conditions of wealth and class is indicative of the opinions of the residents of both houses. These ideas are paramount in the minds of all who live on the moors.
The contrasts of wealth and high social class with that of the lower helps to identify society's opinion of class. Lighter features that denote a life filled with leisure are most desirable. Nelly notes that after Catherine's time spent at Thrushcross Grange, she has become more attractive as she observes how Catherine was "pulling off her gloves, and displaying fingers wonderfully whitened with doing nothing and staying indoors" (49). Similarly, Catherine notes her admiration for the "brightness of Isabella’s yellow hair and the whiteness of her skin, at her dainty elegance" (90). Heathcliff's own desire to better himself comes from this contrast, as Catherine notes "It was only that you looked odd. If you wash your face and brush your hair, it will be all right: but you are so dirty!" (50). To be accepted among these people he must cultivate an appearance that is agreeable to a person of their status. His desire to climb the social and economic ladder is rooted in a desire to level the socio-economic scales between himself and Catherine.
The actions that each character takes for the purpose of improving or preserving economic status almost always result in a negative scenario. Heathcliff's desire at the beginning of the novel is an unnecessary preservation of his wealth. Nelly remarks to Lockwood that Heathcliff "has nobody knows what money, and every year it increases. Yes, yes, he’s rich enough to live in a finer house than this: but he’s very near—close-handed . . . he could not have borne to miss the chance of getting a few hundreds more. It is strange people should be so greedy, when they are alone in the world!" (31). He is overly rich, and yet forces Hareton Earnshaw into ignorance and hard labor that is unnecessary. He does this in order to preserve his wealth by keeping Hareton from staking a claim to the property and wealth he has claimed.
Heathcliff's reasons for attaining wealth are rooted in his lower class beginnings. Not only does the contrast between himself and the upper class of the Lintons serve to turn him into a victim, but his motivation of revenge serves to turn others into victims as well. He seeks revenge for the times he has been excluded, including his forced work in the fields and the Lintons' denial of his entry into their home when Catherine is injured. His marriage to Isabella and his upward economic movement are a thinly veiled attempt at grasping further power upon the Linton and Earnshaw households. His reasons for doing so are rooted in revenge and economics, leaving the residents of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange to suffer his revenge and Isabella to suffer through a cruel marriage devoid of happiness.
Heathcliff's upward mobility is cause for problems for everyone in the novel, and his revenge is triggered by the same class he seeks to obtain. His origins growing up at Wuthering Heights are wrought with rejection based upon his birth as Mrs. Earnshaw asks "how he could fashion to bring that gipsy brat into the house, when they had their own bairns to feed and fend for?" (34). She is ready to turn the boy away. Hindley, too, is consumed with jealousy and treats Heathcliff cruelly based on his birth. Those around him, aside from Mr. Earnshaw, take great pains to separate Heathcliff from the rest of the Earnshaws and position him as an other. While he is rejected by many, it is Hindley who plays the greatest part in triggering Heathcliff's revenge.
Hindley's jealousy is stoked by Heathcliff's social status. Class plays a major role in Hindley's treatment and ultimately his injury and demise at the hands of Heathcliff. As one who believes he is entitled to his position by birth, he believes Heathcliff to be an outsider who threatens to take what rightfully belongs to him. He treats him badly because he sees him as a poor vagabond who has no place within the family and has no entitlement to their luxuries. Hindley regards Heathcliff as a "usurper of his parent’s affections and his privileges; and he grew bitter with brooding over these injuries" (36). Keeping Heathcliff down, and forcing him into labor as he later does to Hareton, is not simply an act of jealousy, but an act of preservation. This desire to maintain the status quo eventually causes him great injury both mentally and physically.
As soon as Wuthering Heights is left in the hands of Hindley, he takes steps to reduce Heathcliff's place: "He drove him from their company to the servants, deprived him of the instructions of the curate, and insisted that he should labour out of doors instead; compelling him to do so as hard as any other lad on the farm." (42). Catherine expresses her disapproval of Hindley's actions as she says "Poor Heathcliff! Hindley calls him a vagabond, and won’t let him sit with us, nor eat with us any more; and, he says, he and I must not play together, and threatens to turn him out of the house if we break his orders" (21). Hindley "swears he will reduce him to his right place" (21), determined to turn him back into the lower class that he was born into.
While Hindley may be overtly cruel to Heathcliff, Catherine is perhaps the most sympathetic. Catherine, however, is consumed by the same need to preserve and improve her economic status as the rest of the characters, and plays a vital role in Heathcliff's motivation for revenge. Catherine's feelings for Heathcliff are complicated by class. She loves him but does not believe he can give her a life comparable to what Edgar Linton is capable of giving her. She claims "I’ve no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in heaven; and if the wicked man in there had not brought Heathcliff so low, I shouldn’t have thought of it. It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love him" (73-74). Catherine refuses to marry Heathcliff, and instead opts to marry Edgar Linton in order to position herself in a wealthy and upper class home. Her refusal of Heathcliff is indicative of her desire to preserve and improve her socio-economic status, but has the side effect of forcing her to choose a man she does not love. This mostly economic choice has a detrimental effect upon both Catherine and Heathcliff.
The Linton family plays an equally negative part in Heathcliff's childhood by treating him as a person of lower class and awakening his class consciousness. As the Linton children visit Wuthering Heights, they see fit to exclude Heathcliff. They demonstrate their desire to preserve their class by allowing Catherine into their home after her injury, but not Heathcliff. Isabella immediately attempts to paint him as different and repulsive by claiming "Frightful thing! Put him in the cellar, papa. He’s exactly like the son of the fortune-teller that stole my tame pheasant. Isn’t he, Edgar?” (46). Avoiding association with the lower classes, for the Lintons, becomes a form of protecting your own status. The Lintons see Heathcliff as a de-civilizing force. Mrs. Linton sees the young boy's coarse language as a deep concern that threatens to corrupt her family. She calls him "A wicked boy, at all events" (47). For this reason, she denies him entry into their home, but shows a class separation by allowing Catherine in. In doing so, they contribute to Heathcliff's rage and the ultimate effects of his revenge upon their progeny. Upon bringing her into the house, Mrs. Linton notes her disdain for Catherine mingling with one such as Heathcliff: “Miss Earnshaw scouring the country with a gipsy! And yet, my dear, the child is in mourning—surely it is—and she may be lamed for life!” (46).
Heathcliff's entire life is filled with tragedy as a result of his birth. His birth is a direct cause of his treatment by the inhabitants of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange and causes Heathcliff to grow into a bitter and resentful man. The complications of class cause Heathcliff to act out the tragedy of his life upon those around him. His awareness of class issues becomes increasingly more acute with each episode that separates him from those around him. It is common for those characters who maintain the status quo to ignore subtlety and bluntly put down those below them. When Heathcliff is reminded of his station in life, it is often done in an angry or offensive manner. The Linton children, their parents, Hindley, and Catherine set in motion a string of extremely unpleasant events. Hindley's attempt to keep Heathcliff ignorant (and Heathcliff's later similar treatment of Hareton), is a byproduct of trying to preserve status. Keeping him in a low position is an attempt to keep him ignorant and prevent him from becoming anything more than a laborer, but also teaches him how to treat the future generation in the same way. Treating Heathcliff poorly as a child creates a monster that returns in adulthood as a harbinger of the unpleasant effects of the spurning of the lower class.
Works Cited
Brontë, Emily. Wuthering Heights. Longman, 2007. Print.
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