Essay on Gender Studies in Emily Brontes Wuthering Heights

Gender Studies in Emily Brontes Wuthering Heights Gender played an important role in the style of writing known as Gothic. Traditional stereotypes were often broken. Men were not always portrayed as dominant, strong, rational or masculine. Likewise, women were not always portrayed as weak, submissive, irrational, or feminine. This essay will take a look at the relationship between Catherine and Edgar Linton in Emily Brà ¶ntes Wuthering Heights. We will take a look at how their characters are portrayed, how this affected their marriage, and how each character retained some of the traits attributed to their gender. Catherines character will be examined first, since she is one of the main characters in the book. Catherine was†¦show more content†¦On our first glimpse of Edgar, we see him and his sister, Isabella, crying over some ridiculous issue. Ellen describes him as a mamas boy and a wimp, but he is also quite frank, as we see on page 45 when he buts in on someone elses conversation. To get to the point, Edgar was a very sensitive, emotional, frail child, not at all portrayed as masculine. After Catherine and Edgar meet, it is obvious they will be married. One incident in particular seemed to set the tone of their marriage. On page 55, we see an example of Catherines horrible temper and how it manifested itself through physical violence. Edgar, shocked at seeing his idol(p.55) commit such a deed, became very emotional and decided to leave. As we all know, he did not get very far before he came back. In this scene, Catherine became physically dominant, as shown by her use of force on everyone around her. Her use of manipulation to get Edgar back showed a very rational and intelligent mind at work, but the fact that she truly cried over the situation shows emotion, even if it was embarrassment. While Edgar was emotional during this scene, he was determined to leave, at first. He ultimately proved to be submissive by coming back and giving in to her. Catherine and Edgars relationship mirrored the future relationship between Heathcliff and Isabella. Catherine was no longer physically abusive to Edgar, but emotionally and mentally abusive. We see a glimpse of this when she blackmailedShow MoreRelatedEmily Brontes Wuthering Heights: Mental Illness and Feminism915 Words   |  4 Pages Psychoanalytical View of Wuthering Heights Mental illness was viewed as being a self-inflicted disease during the time period Wuthering Heights was written in (Bloomfield 298). Many of the characters suffer from a form of mental illness, but not all of them can be seen as self-inflicted. Most of the illnesses are inflicted by the death of other characters. After Hindley’s wife dies in his arms, he becomes an alcoholic and foreshadows his own death due to his destructive behavior (Bloomfield 291)Read MoreEmily Brontes Wuthering Heights: Mental Illness and Feminism1663 Words   |  7 Pagesliterary work. 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