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Unwelcomed Civilization: Emily Bronte's Symbolic Anti-Patriarchy in Wuthering Heights


Affiliations
1 English Language and Literature Department, Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran, Islamic Republic of
 

This study aims to show how Emily Bronte's opposing attitude to civilization in Wuthering Heights reveals to a certain degree her unconscious opposition to authority and accordingly her obsession with the notion of a world in which the father figure is finally slain. The research approach adopted in this study is what is referred to as psychobiography or the Freudian psychoanalytic criticism. Freud's ideas have been employed due to the increasing shift to him in the recent decades, particularly in the discipline of psychobiography. The findings of this research underline that in Wuthering Heights, through Catherine's symbolic fall, not into heaven, but into hell, and through her strong feelings of nostalgia for a lost freedom and happiness, Emily Bronte calls into question the values of patriarchal culture and its code of conduct. The main conclusion to be drawn from this article is that whatever the benefits of civilization - which is intrinsically and necessarily patriarchal in nature - may be, the limitations imposed on its citizens are not at all welcomed.

Keywords

Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights, Civilization, Patricide, Repression.
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  • Unwelcomed Civilization: Emily Bronte's Symbolic Anti-Patriarchy in Wuthering Heights

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Authors

Moussa Pourya Asl
English Language and Literature Department, Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran, Islamic Republic of
Ahad Mehrvand
English Language and Literature Department, Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran, Islamic Republic of

Abstract


This study aims to show how Emily Bronte's opposing attitude to civilization in Wuthering Heights reveals to a certain degree her unconscious opposition to authority and accordingly her obsession with the notion of a world in which the father figure is finally slain. The research approach adopted in this study is what is referred to as psychobiography or the Freudian psychoanalytic criticism. Freud's ideas have been employed due to the increasing shift to him in the recent decades, particularly in the discipline of psychobiography. The findings of this research underline that in Wuthering Heights, through Catherine's symbolic fall, not into heaven, but into hell, and through her strong feelings of nostalgia for a lost freedom and happiness, Emily Bronte calls into question the values of patriarchal culture and its code of conduct. The main conclusion to be drawn from this article is that whatever the benefits of civilization - which is intrinsically and necessarily patriarchal in nature - may be, the limitations imposed on its citizens are not at all welcomed.

Keywords


Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights, Civilization, Patricide, Repression.

References