MAJOR CRITICAL APPROACHES TO EMILY BRONTE’S WUTHERING HEIGHTS: A FOCUS ON FORMALISM AND FEMINISM AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

MAJOR CRITICAL APPROACHES TO EMILY BRONTE'S WUTHERING HEIGHTS: A FOCUS ON FORMALISM AND FEMINISM Introduction During the 1840s of the Victorian era, Emily Bronte as a female writer unde

CAN THO UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

B.A GRADUATION PROJECT

MAJOR CRITICAL APPROACHES TO EMILY BRONTE’S WUTHERING HEIGHTS: A FOCUS ON FORMALISM AND

FEMINISM

AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Trương Thị Kim Liên, M.A Student’s code: B1409745

Class: XH14V1A1 Cohort: 40

Major: English Studies

Can Tho – November, 2017

MAJOR CRITICAL APPROACHES TO EMILY BRONTE'S WUTHERING

HEIGHTS: A FOCUS ON FORMALISM AND FEMINISM Introduction

During the 1840s of the Victorian era, Emily Bronte as a female writer under masculine pseudonym successfully attracted the greatest attention of Victorian scholars and readers by her only one novel Wuthering Heights When the novel first came out, it experienced a great deal of disapproval of the society because of its unacceptable construction with nonconformity and psychological abnormality As the time goes by, the novel’s considerable values invites the majority of critics and scholars to literary criticism remarkably in terms of Freudian psychoanalysis and feminism In addition, the various themes and stylistic elements are officially analyzed as the crucial parts to the success of the novel as well as the reputation

of Emily Bronte later on More importantly, Wuthering Heights features the gothic complex not only as the most significant emphasis in Victorian literature but also the most successful inheritance and the wisest development of Emily Bronte As regards the formalist approach to Wuthering Heights, the Freudian theory, theme and stylistics are mainly discovered for the purpose of clarifying Emily’s talent and intelligence in forming character, plot, progress and language in connection with the reflection of the own author’s inner psychological issues and the professional application of writing style It is uncomplicated to recognize that the characters’ personalities through behavior, thinking and feeling are portrayed as apparent as Emily’s personal life in which she has to terribly suffer from parents’ love deprivation, deaths

of her dear ones and bad living condition As a result, she leaves herself alone in the inner and fantasy world As far as the novel is concerned, feminist consciousness is highly emphasized

as the great voice towards the inferior social position of women in the male-dominated society

at that time As the representative of the women’s rebellion, Emily strongly fights against the patriarchal authority and conformity through her fictional characters and their psyche Emily simultaneously speaks for her worthy rights in contemporary society where she is forced to struggle for happiness and freedom in spite of her powerlessness In every sense of the word, these research papers would give readers insight into Emily’s masterpiece Wuthering Heights

by means of literary criticism as well as its great influence on the world literature in all times

Summaries

Asl, M P (2014) The shadow of Freudian core issues on Wuthering Heights: A reenactment

of Emily Brontë’s early mother loss Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 5(2),

http://www.journals.aiac.org.au/index.php/alls/article/view/277/250

In this article, the researcher attempts to determine how Emily Bronte’s trauma of early mother death influences on her characters’ image in the novel Wuthering Heights Specifically, the Freudian psychoanalytic criticism is approached as the most undeniably appropriate tool in discovering deeply the psychological abnormalities that both Emily and her characters were undergoing This study importantly finds out that each of characters not only suffers from the process of unhappiness, mental illness caused by unnecessary fears, and shock, but also is badly caused by some Freudian core issues such as fear of intimacy, fear of abandonment, fear of betrayal, low self-esteem, insecure or unstable sense of self Undoubtedly, what Emily’s characters think and how they behave definitely reflected her traumatic experience of mother loss With regard to Emily’s psychological wounds, the result of abandonment and death were considered as the two main factors for her psychologically painful experience for the reason that the people most dear to her life indeed abandoned her or died The mother death initially left her the inflexible belief of unworthiness of love and fear of abandonment Her sisters were later sent away to school that drove her to increase her abandonment obsession and to keep emotional distance to avoid hurting, abandoning, and betraying These feelings spontaneously represented fear of intimacy and fear of betrayal in Freudian terms In addition, witnessing the death of two young siblings when Emily was seven inevitably extends her traumatic fears and painful memories in her own introverted world Lockwood, Catherine, Isabella, Frances, Hindley, young Linton and Heathcliff, one by one, revealed and reenacted their own trauma in certain manners and eventually ended up with physical pain as well emotional emptiness In brief, the readers had the profound knowledge of the pathetic and lonely Emily Bronte, who had some core psychological issues from the loss of early mother death, particularly exposed herself to her own imaginative world which is Wuthering Heights

Asl, M P., & Mehrvand, A (2014) Unwelcomed civilization: Emily Brontë’s symbolic

anti-patriarchy in Wuthering Heights International Journal of Comparative Literature

and Translation Studies, 2(2), 29-34 Retrieved June 19th, from http://www.journals.aiac.org.au/index.php/IJCLTS/article/view/276/249

The article aims to reveal how Emily Bronte fights against the patriarchal society and authority that unconsciously make no existence in her world Meanwhile, the Freudian psychoanalysis is approached so that readers can completely explore Catherine’s strong feelings of a lost autonomy and ecstasy from unwelcomed civilization and its value Importantly, the obsessional thought of anti-patriarchy and rejection of civilization is proved to be highly projected and transferred into the novel’s characters, plot and structure The writer comes up with the literature review of the three most remarkable works around certain concepts concentrated on Wuthering Heights such as repression, death, rebellion and religion The literature review briefly examine two distinct layers of nature in the novel that are the avoided primal version and the textual figurative one Furthermore, conflicts between the innate self and society are highly emphasized for the consequence of introverted personality, nonconformity towards the Victorian society and rejection of father figure as the anti-patriarchy symbol Neurotic life of Emily and her own obsessive compulsive disorder are ultimately mentioned as the most apparent influence on her novel The article subsequently explains the reason leading to Emily’s rebellion against male-dominated society Freudian theories observe both the female child’s affection to her mother and hostility to paternal authority that stem from the mutual relationship between women and civilization of father figure, and individual’s Oedipal impulses More significantly, symbolic anti-patriarchy in Wuthering Heights turns to Catherine’s thinking under Emily’s civilization viewpoint Emily portrays Catherine’s experience of a mannered and refined life in Thrushcross Grange as a civilized prison of dissatisfaction and conformity That Catherine soon desires a return

to her preceding life of free and wild creates a great struggle between social regulations and the intrinsically individual fulfillment in terms of Freudian psychoanalysis Briefly, this article gives readers an insight into the opposition between civilization and innate self as well as the Emily’s anti-patriarchy attitude towards civilization in Wuthering Heights

Ansari, S., Panhwar, A H., Sand, S D., & Ghaffar, F (2017) The themes of evil and

revenge in “Wuthering Heights” a novel by Emily Bronte International Journal of

English and Education, 6(2), 298-308 Retrieved July 2nd, from http://www.ijee.org/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/23.9724005.pdf

The study determines although the novel Wuthering Heights is well-known as a romantic love story, it is highly regarded as the society of evils and revenge which together play an important role in deeper understanding Additionally, both two main themes aid in answering two questions towards the content of this study The researcher applies textual analysis and thematic analysis to the study’s research methodology The article commences with brief explanation of social wickedness leading good-natured Heathcliff to cruel and vengeful one The literature review provides us with chaotic and complicated emotions of Heathcliff , together with the theme in which positive, innocence, and the living changed into negative, cruelty, and the dead For an in-depth analysis, the study initially endeavours to reveal what the social evils of the Victorian society have been drawn attention in Wuthering Heights Firstly, gender inequality definitely forces women into dependence and conformity, and simultaneously strengthens male-dominated authority Secondly, it is pretty uncomplicated to recognize Heathcliff’s madding revenge on Hindley and his son Hareton after Heathcliff’s long disappearance Thirdly, corruption to being rich and well-educated is generated as the kind of evils that totally lowers the whole society as well as an individual Fourthly, physical and mental violence represent the foremost kind of evils defined racism Heathcliff is quickly isolated and victimized because of his low social position Alcohol addiction is discovered as another aspect of social immorality, which ruins and tortures the life of Hindley and Hareton In Wuthering Heights, elements of physical abuse are uncovered during characters’ childhood and its long consequence terribly influences on personality in adulthood by seeking for a revenge Hatred, selfishness, betrayal, and lack

of trusting can be found as the rest of social evils resulting in Heathcliff’s vengeful impulse Although he achieves no peace and happiness through hurting others, he has to obey his impulsive instincts for a destructive and devilish punishment In short, Heathcliff is definitely a victim of a tortured love and physically violent abuse, but he additionally possesses the madding and evil revenge leading to death and self-hurt to himself, the whole society, and each individual

Dibavar, S S., & Ahmadzadeh, S (2014) Playing safe: The writer behind the text of

"Wuthering Heights" Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 5(3), 1-8 Retrieved

June 17th, from http://www.journals.aiac.org.au/index.php/alls/article/view/351/293 This article explores Emily’s success in expressing her ideas in Wuthering Heights, her desires through metaphors and her enjoyment from playing in such a terrible world created in the text From the outset of the study, the researcher provides the readers with

an introduction of two distinct orders in terms of postmodern psychology They are symbolic which represents an identity and semiotic which exemplifies drives These orders can be found in literature where the writing subject is produced by the language

of the text and the experience of the author In Wuthering Heights, the close relationship between Emily Bronte and her text is emphasized through comparing Emily and her writing subject – Catherine Catherine’s presence supports the role of the writer’s psyche play in the process of being such an excellent creator Furthermore, that Catherine is an obvious reflection of Emily’s thoughts drives the text to be a semiotic-dominant direction in which innate nature and attitude certainly holds superiority over indentity More importantly, Emily can produce different voices and different attitudes

of her own by using metaphors This article determines there are six key metaphors in total, namely gaze, image of nature, fire, confinement and Catherine’s submission All

of them are exposed and delineated one by one in order to be decisive elements for Emily’s polyphony of voices The metaphor of gaze is characterized by Nelly’s supervising presence which can watches, observes, judges and condemns while natural imagery takes the obvious representation of comparing characters with nature-like things The third symbol is the fire which definitely resembles Catherine’s love towards Heathcliff, and it additionally is expanded as the metaphor of the force of life of Lockwood, Isabella and Catherine Confinement becomes a symbolic rule of Catherine’s life from wishing towards the freedom of the moor to being remained and restricted in the Grange and ultimately escaping into death In summary, this article highlights the key metaphors and the author’s various voices and attitudes in Wuthering Heights which truthfully bring the readers to the sublimation occurring in Emily’s complicated mind

Fu, H (2013) An interpretation of Emily Bronte's gothic complex in Wuthering

Heights Studies in Literature and Language, 6(3), 53-59 Retrieved June 19th, from http://www.cscanada.net/index.php/sll/article/download/j.sll.1923156320130603.Z001/

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In this article, gothic criticism is employed for the purpose of interpreting Emily’s gothic complex in Wuthering Heights comprehensively with regard to the description of the natural circumstance and settings, the portrayals of the main characters, and the profound love between the two protagonists To begin with, the researcher provides the audiences with a brief introduction of Emily and her only one novel – Wuthering Heights during its existence from being criticized and unacceptable to being praised as one of hundred classics of world literature in all times Originally, gothic novel prevails

at the turn of eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in western literature, especially in England Its appearance is concerned with English society and cultural thought, the influences of the Bible and the literary tradition The gothic novel is specifically characterized by deserted castle on isolated areas and its constantly alternative secret, natural existence of super-natural things, woman as a main character or man as a gloomy character, and the miserable atmosphere In Wuthering Heights, Emily manifests the typical natural conditions included in many gothic novels which followed

by isolated, grotesque and mysterious castle and the rough and harsh weather Moreover, the signs of the dusky light in Catherine’s bedroom, the coffin-shaped of her bed, and the dark days when old Earnshaw and Heathcliff pass away add the novel’s atmosphere to the most depressing and horrible state The portrayals of Heathcliff as savage and destructive gothic villain hero, Catherine as a beautiful young lady with a wild spirit and a vanity heart, and Isabella as an innocent young lady suffering from physical and mental torture emphasize Emily’s complete reception from gothic complex Last but not least, Emily’s gothic complex in Wuthering Heights is strongly influenced by social background and her personal life She lives in a capitalist society where the enlarged gap between the rich and the poor leads her to the contradictory thought of perfect imagination and terrible reality Furthermore, Emily has to suffer from a great deal of psychological abnormalities resulted from the lack of parents’ love and the loss of her sisters’ deaths In short, that Emily inherits from the gothic novel and develops it basing on her own register, her awareness of reality and her life experience definitely marks her great peculiarity in the world literature

Madan, D (2016) Wuthering Heights: Stream of consciousness Research Journal of

Language, Literature and Humanities, 3(3), 18-21 Retrieved September 9th, from http://www.isca.in/LANGUAGE/Archive/v3/i3/3.ISCA-RJLLH-2016-006.pdf

The article aims to explore the key imaginative factors leading Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights to the separateness and uniqueness from traditional fiction of Victorian literature to the modern one Undoubtedly, Wuthering Heights is a masterpiece of elaborate metaphysics, together with miserable and profound love between Catherine and Heathcliff These attributes are successfully manifested by the plot construction and the mode of narration which are together considered as the first key element for the work’s peculiarity While Lockwood’s role as the representative of present events, Nelly is emphasized as a lively witness to the past tragedies and incidents through the most efficient factors of flashback narratives - dialogue and epistolary, which allows readers to experience more apparent interpretation forth the theme of the novel More importantly, the book’s title provides audiences with an in-depth indication of image and sensation which takes the second vital point among Emily’s implication “Wuthering” draws attention to the sense of the rough and unpredictable weather on the Yorkshire moors while “Heights” produces the image of

an isolated and ancient house set up on the moorland hillside In the world of Wuthering Heights, that the application of Shakespearean tragedies reflects Emily’s essential selection within knowledge of Shakespeare become another key element for the novel’s progress It is obvious that emotion can be destructive and explosive impulses that consequently release the expression of violence, love, hatred and revenge As a result, the story is driven towards terrible torments and tragic deaths Specially, Catherine and Heathcliff give for each other such a great violent and profound love that they are far beyond natural and moral regulations The metaphysics is once again employed to make

a clear description of different kinds of Catherine’s love for Heathcliff and Edgar For the last key point, geographical and historical setting in Wuthering Heights is considered as a highlight in Emily’s artistic achievement The life changed from the Heights to the new Victorian comforts of Thrushcross Grange is marked as the destruction of old society and the turn of the nineteenth century in terms of sociology In brief, as the time goes by, Wuthering Heights still remains an endless love story and the role of a psychological novel which become a unique synthesis of the art of fiction in modern literature

Mukherjee, S (2014) ‘In search of Bronte’: A (re)-reading of Wuthering Heights and

rethinking feminism Lapis Lazuli - An International Literary Journal (LLILJ), 4(1),

http://pintersociety.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Sunayan-Mukherjee-12.pdf

In this study, Emily’s opposition to patriarchal authority is discovered in terms of the indication of physical and emotional hunger The feminist criticism proved to be the most intensely powerful language of this article towards literary interpretation of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights In parallel with a romantic and tormented love of Catherine and Heathcliff, it is profoundly in connection with food, hunger and starvation According to a careful examination of Emily’s life of clinical psychologists, she severely undergoing a syndrome called anorexia nervosa which is considered as a fashionable manner in the Victorian period She not only gets preoccupation of food but refuses to communicate with the outside world and hides herself in her isolated and fantasy space As a result, the hunger for power, love, happiness, fortune is composed of the emotional hunger that is obviously noticeable in Emily’s life The lack of parents’ love and the negligence of her aunt make her early learn the helplessness and abandonment Likewise, the same motif is equivalent to a loss of a parental figure in Wuthering Heights when old Earnshaw pay a quite neglectful attention and love to Catherine and the tragedy turns out after his death In addition, Emily has to suffering from stomach and eating ailments during her childhood because of the simplest and smallest portions in morning meals The obsessive thoughts of regular food deprivation become her own individual belief which leads her to the strong struggle for power in order to conquer all her adversities Similarly, in her novel, when Catherine is tortured

by the marriage with Edgar and the yearning of a return to her past life with Heathcliff

at the Heights, hunger strike opens the path for her liberation Heathcliff also dies of starvation and the heartbroken suffering of Catherine’s disappearance Moreover, Emily’s anorexia nervosa is not particularly an eating disorder but an abnormal state of

an individual controlled by chaotic anxiety and obsessive state of order and authority

To sum up, from the viewpoint of feminism, the researcher allows readers to experience Emily’s application of her health issues to the stream of emotional and physical hunger

in her novel where Emily gains the power for her early helplessness and her characters find out the ended way for their torment

Shakury, S A (2015) The representation of love and violence as a tragedy of passion in

Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights American Research Journal of English and

Literature, 1(6), 7-10 Retrieved June 17th, from https://www.arjonline.org/papers/arjel/v1-i6/2.pdf

The article attempts to analyze the tragedy of passion in Emily’s Wuthering Heights by means of love and violence aspects Specifically, this study provides readers with the two most inevitable reasons for this tragedy that stem from both the difference in personalities between two main characters and the environmental reasons The researcher examines these contents from a psychological criticism which is mostly applied to interpreting Wuthering Heights From the outset of the novel, Catherine is described as a wild lady with strong character and resistance against patriarchal authority She also show a rebellious personality when she is neglectful of an inquiry from her father’s about being a graceful lady Nevertheless, Emily deliberately portrays the ironically selfish and sacrificed self in Catherine when she ultimately come to a decision about marrying Edgar after Heathcliff’s disappearance On the one hand, she is forced to choose the one that can afford her and her children a good living conditions in the future On the other hand, she insists on the profound love for Heathcliff on the night she confides in Nelly Unlike Catherine’s rebellion, Heathcliff is generally depicted as a waif orphan boy to a violent and vengeful man The gap between the rich and the poor establishes the great distance from Heathcliff to Catherine, Edgar and Hindley Consequently, although he terribly suffers from the jealousy and physical abuse from Catherine’s brother Hindley and the apparent contempt coming from all of surrounding people, he still remains his stoic endurance and vigorous love for Catherine As the time goes by, he grows up with the darkness and desire for taking revenge and struggles with the ambivalence towards his love and his hatred His ambiguity of these two different feelings can be demonstrated in the two most depressed periods of time in the story As regards the environmental factors of the tragedy of passion, Catherine’s ideal figure influenced by social principles and Emily’s intention towards to the tragedy of romance take the most notable reasons for Catherine’s and Heathcliff’s impossibility to overcome the tragic result In summary, Emily is successful in create such a tragic end for her only one novel during her life through this article’s analysis towards love and violence aspects