English lit Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

English lit - Essay Example inning to break down as common men were able to make fortunes in industry and landowners found it more and more difficult to keep the idyllic life they’d constructed alive. Women, too, were beginning to question their allotted place in society as more and more opportunities opened for them in the urban centers of the country, providing them with a means of supporting themselves and freeing themselves from the yoke of male domination. Wuthering Heights, written by Emily Bronte during this period, is a novel that deals with both class and gender. When Catherine says â€Å"I am Heathcliff† (101), she is making a claim about herself which challenges gender and class positions. Because of his birth status, in which Heathcliff is introduced as â€Å"a dirty, ragged, black-haired child; big enough both to walk and talk; †¦, yet, when it was set on its feet, it only stared round, and repeated over and over again some gibberish, that nobody could understand† (54-55), as well as his upbringing, in which Hindley â€Å"drove him [Heathcliff] from their company to the servants, deprived him of the instructions of the curate, and insisted that he should labour out of doors instead† (64), Heathcliff is seen as base-born as a person can get. He is both an orphan of unknown origin as well as an unlettered oaf untaught in the strict mannerisms of the gentleman class. His status is so low in the social structure that when Isabella determines she is infatuated with him, Edgar considers â€Å"leaving aside the degrad ation of an alliance with a nameless man, and the possible fact that his property, in default of heirs male, might pass into such a one’s power †¦Ã¢â‚¬  (120). By contrast, Catherine is born into an old family, with a highly respected name, making her automatically accepted in the high society of Gimmerton. She is given a decent education until the family, under Hindley, finally drives the curate away through sheer lack of manners and her five week experience in the