Social discrimination in Wuthering Heights

International Journal Of Literature And Languages

136

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VOLUME

Vol.05 Issue05 2025

PAGE NO.

136-154

DOI

10.37547/ijll/Volume05Issue05-34

Social discrimination in Wuthering Heights

Asst. Lect. Hamid Gaffer Mutib

Directorate of Education in Najaf Governorate Ministry of Education, Iraq, General Directorate of Education in Al-Najaf Province, Iraq

Received:

29 March 2025;

Accepted:

10 April 2025;

Published:

30 May 2025

Abstract: -

This thesis analyses the representation Social discrimination In Wuthering Heights. Emily Brontë, the

novel's protagonist, lived in the Victorian era. A rigid class hierarchy was set with societal expectations during
those periods that people with a higher social status should not be concerned with those with a lower standing.
The book published at the end of the Second Industrial Revolution, illustrates the shifting shape of society,
produced for the rich by new business opportunities and deteriorating working conditions for the poor. This
hierarchy is seen by the characters in this novel: Lintons are the most elite, Earnshaws is the middle class,
Heathchliff begins at a similar standing to Nelly as a lower class orphan, then Joseph and Zillah at the bottom.
Social class plays an important role in forming the Wuthering Heights plot. The social status of Heathcliff and that
of the other characters have a profound impact on their destiny. Catherine did not want him as her husband
because like the Lintons, he did not belong to the elite social class. He lived with his family, at the mercy of his
father and brother. So he is a classless orphan before he grows wealthy. He was born an orphan and there was no
social identity or class for orphans. Catherine's father brought him from Liverpool, a poor orphan whom he was
unable to abandon in the streets alone and powerless. When Heathcliff leaves and returns wealthier, however,
his class and his aura have changed with it.

Keywords: -

identity, Revolution, discrimination, Victorian.

Introduction: -

The aims of this study is to describe the

forms of discrimination in Wuthering Heights novel
(1847) written by Emily Bronte. The methodology of
this study is qualitative. Additionally, this research
focuses on Heathcliff as the main character
experiencing discrimination. The philosophy of study of
types of prejudice and Sociological critique to analyze
the social problem that occurs in the novel. The
narrator and the characters take data from the
sentences, phrases, and words. This has received too
much criticism since the book was published over two
hundred years ago, and literature review highlights the
critics' point of view regarding the book Wuthering
Heights. Then eventually it was attempted to prove
how this novel is full of the horrors of society and how
it reveals the urge to revenge.( Rinna,2018:p.4).
Discrimination is the act of separating a being from the
party, class or category to which it is considered to
belong. People can discriminate in terms of age, caste,
criminal record, height, disability, family status, gender
identity, gender orientation, generation, genetic
characteristics, marital status, nationality, colour, race
and ethnicity, religion, sex and gender, Sexual identity,
social status, temperament, species etc. Discrimination

consists of treating an person or community "in a way
that is worse than the way people are normally
handled," based on their real or perceived participation
of a certain community or social category.
Therefore, class bound social stratum has its trace in
Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights which gives us
enough space and scope to evaluate the novel from the
perspective of class-conflict. Our interpretation of the
novel is about class-conscious practice of seeing
beyond the age-old binary conflict between the rich
and the poor, the master and the slave, etc. in society.
Most specifically, the updated form of this conflict that
struck the Victorian society was between the
'bourgeois' and the 'proletariat' which caused society
to fall apart. Brontë's novel deals very relevantly with
this social construct, coated in fictional realism. Class
separation of culture can be traced back to the origins
of humanity, and its path has been revised to cope with
the passing of time. ( Uddin, 2011: p.81) Social
Discrimination in Wuthering Heights

Social discrimination has been a critical issue that is
deeply rooted in society and reflects the political

climate of an age. It arises from an individual’s attempt

to sop the whole experience of a group of people that

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possesses a characteristic of dissimilarity, and it is a
deeply imprinted thinking mode in the minds of every
single person in a society. Wuthering Heights clearly
depicts the social and ideological inequality, and the

characters’ automatic differentiation on the basis

of

class have been scrutinized by many scholars (Periš,

2017). Yet very few works have focused on the

discrimination on account of skin color. Heathcliff’s

journey from a socially inferior status to a wealthy
gentleman in Victorian England has sparked debates
over his failure to ascend the social ladder. In the same

category, Heathcliff’s color and class are illustrated in a

way that does not exist from the very beginning of the
novel and do not achieve the perfect closure till the
end.

Heathcliff is portrayed to be despised by others, and his
segregation from the rest of the family based on skin
color is apparently depicted. The social status gap
between the Earnshaws and the Lintons would not
have prevented them from being intimate friends,
whereas the color gap between Cathrine and Heathcliff
does prevent her. It is universally acknowledged that
this color gap is irreparable, i.e., Heathcliff is not only
born with black skin color, but also with everything that
bad can come along with it, the filthy, wild-looking and
dreadfully primitive, so he is socially disqualified.
Although there are two dramatic turning points in the
story, when Heathcliff returns to the Yorkshire Moors
as a newly rich gentleman and flouts the Lintons that
have looked down upon him for years, he is still
metaphorically referred to with base historical

reference such as a “kitchen,” and “ploughboy”. The

high social status after the acquisition of great wealth
is not the precondition to enter high society. Yet the
white skin combined with gentry is the precondition to
be treated humanely. The race problem dealt with
uniquely in Wuthering Heights is both an indicator of
the race discrimination modest operandi and a

reflection of the victims’ situations in the race

discrimination. Heathcli

ff’s stagnation on the social

scale indicates the social situation of Brontë’s time, and

even after the abolition of slavery, black people were
still downgraded according to color.

Historical Context of the Novel

The novel Wuthering Heights was written and

published by Emily Brontë in 1847. Although Brontë’s
writing was published as the work of “Ellis Bell,” in the
same fashion of anonymity shared by her sisters’

writing, Wuthering Heights has established itself as a
classic of British Literature. There are a number of

reasons for the novel’s prominence in the canon, but

one reason stands out. While it has been widely
acknowledged that, as the only published work by
Brontë, Wuthering Heights is both intensely original

and complex in its representation of humanity, perhaps

the novel’s most notable achievement is its portrayal of

the agony of separation experienced by Heathcliff.
Brontë represents the story of Wuthering Heights in a
circular fashion filled with flashbacks, so that
throughout the novel, there are returning references to

Heathcliff’s abolition from the Earnshaws, his

segregation from the family, and his later consummate
isolation at the end of the novel. These retrospective

references to Heathcliff’s arbitrary separation serve to

focus the novel on the impact of this separation on

Heathcliff,

but

the

sources

of

Heathcliff’s

relinquishment are often misunderstood.

Although the curtain is pulled back to reveal an
extensive historical context throughout the course of
Wuthering Heights, Brontë continues to address the

sources of Heathcliff’s gross injustice with mere

insinuation and suggestion. Thus, Brontë writes a novel
of historical context that leaves the central issue of

Heathcliff’s

abuse

unelucidated.

Heathcliff’s

segregation is defensively invested with a multifaceted
discourse of both social and sexual discrimination, and
as such fictional subjects, black people and woman
being domestic characters are doubly stratified.
Nonetheless, the poor purchase of this defense is
evidenced by the telling fact that the only character the
narration returns to for precise historical context is

Heathcliff (Periš, 2017). His initial subdivision is given

the fullest and most visceral elaboration, so that no
characters even come close to a similar tragedy. It is
included in the romantic tragedy sub-genre and similar
revenge tragedies that map resonant and distressing
historical contexts attended by masses onto a single
protagonist, incomplete in punishment, thus leaving
the order of the universe reestablished. Brontë sets
forth the cosmically monstrous isolation afflicted upon
Heathcliff

by

denaturalizing

the

geological,

embryological, and domestic narrative techniques, so
that by professions of natural place, natural being, and
natural love, this original and idyllic state located at

Wuthering Heights is grossly perverted. Brontë’s

uncharacteristic approach in attending to the

historicity of Heathcliff’s pain outlasts the genre of

tragic fiction and attacks the fundamental assumption
of the genre upon which the identity of Britons rests by
depicting historicity itself as torturous and monstrous.

Class Structure in Wuthering Heights

The view on social discrimination is unbiased,
legitimate and justifiable. Wuthering Heights, apart
from being a romantic novel, is also a strong social
critique. The more fortunate classes were constantly
required to adhere to strict rules of decorum and
mutual politeness, becoming victims of their own

civilization (Periš, 2017). On the other side of the coin,

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the lower classes were brutalized and reduced to
bestiality and ignorance or stupidity. Wuthering
Heights is an example of such a family, with the local
aristocrats represented, of course, by the Lintons and
Evermores, and the brutish side represented by the
Earnshaws, with their adopted son Heathcliff. The
prominent ideology in the Yorkshire Moors is based on
Calvinist Christianity, which believes that God has
chosen the wealthy and virtuous for salvation and
damned those who are poor and brutish. The novel

starts with Mr. Lockwood’s

visit to Heathcliff. The

reader learns about him and his environment through

the visitor’s eyes. The narrative mainly alternates
between Lockwood and Nelly’s perspective, whereas

Heathcliff is always depicted as an inaccessible
character. This isolation from the other characters
demonstrates that the problem is not the gap in social
status between him and the white characters, because
the gap in social status does not prevent the Lintons
and the Earnshaws from being friends. The problem lies
in the color of his skin, which could not be changed:

“From the very beginning of the novel Heathcliff is

constructed in a subtly racist discourse as belonging to
a filthy, wild-looking and dreadfully primitive class,
which later makes Catherine dreadfully and
bewilderingly unable to marry him though she is

irretrievably in love with him.” While still a boy,

Heathcliff is not allowed to be in the same room with
the white people because of negative assumptions
about people of color. Thus Hindley commands Joseph

to “keep th

e fellow out of the room

—

send him into the

garret till dinner is over”, because “he'll be cramming

his fingers in the tarts, and stealing the fruit, if left alone

with them a minute.” The same problem is noticeable

later on when Heathcliff returned to the Yorkshire

Moors as a newly rich, Edgar Linton still “suggested the
kitchen as a more suitable place for him” to eat, instead

of the parlor. High social status was not a prerequisite
to enter high society, but being white-skinned was a
prerequisite to being

treated humanely. Heathcliff’s

stagnation on the social scale symbolizes “the mid

-

century England where the problems of race and

slavery did not vanish with emancipation.” Hindley

misuses his power after the death of Mr. Earnshaw and
reduces Heathcliff to a slave-

like status: “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.” Even after the

years of his absence, Heathcliff is still referred to as

“the ploughboy.”

The Gentry: Earnshaw and Linton Families

The problem of social discrimination in Wuthering
Heights arises essentially from two different stations of
life, with the Earnshaw and Linton families representing

the gentry one. These families belong to the Second-
Class Society of the Squire, with the former owning
Wuthering Heights and the latter owning the
Thrushcross Grange estate. The two estates have one
of the same ruler

–

the gentry, who do not meddle in

the affairs of the first-class society workers. Heathcliff's
activities thus represent the so-called third-class
society in the matters of the gentry: the equality and
nobility in the view of class and status are only a pretext
to cover their own ignorance of race and color
superiority that exclude Heathcliff from the gentry

Society (Periš, 2017). However, the Wuthering Heights

characters quickly fall into the contradiction of social
discrimination based on class and color, with
Heathcliff's isolation from other characters denoting
that the problem is not the gap in social status but his
skin color, therefore a subtle discourse on racism.

The abuse of Heathcliff in the introductory chapters
demonstrates that it is constructed in a subtly racist
discourse

–

the abuse should not be taken account of

because child abuse illustrates the various ways of

misfortune that indicates Heathcliff’s otherness to

other characters, but because it is this childhood
misfortune that later drives forceful passions which
spring from despair. In contrast to all the characters

who speak of Heathcliff as “this” or “the,” Mr.
Earnshaw is first seen calling him “my dear Heathcliff”

in Chapter 3. This affirms the affinity between

Heathcliff and Mr. Earnshaw while denoting the others’

bewilderment at the sight of Heathcliff, a black boy who
had to wait for another black child as a friend at a trade
place. Upon arrival, Heathcliff is looked on with horror

and defensiveness, as Edgar’s shocked report of
Isabella’s bringing home the “little Blackamoor”

demonstrates. Shortly after Mr

. Earnshaw’s burial,

Hindley commands Joseph, “Keep it out of the room,”

referring to Heathcliff. This suggests that Heathcliff
must stay somewhere lower on the social scale than
Joseph, who is already the servant in the eyes of the
gentry.

The Working Class: Heathcliff's Origins

Wuthering Heights indicates class discrimination both

on social and financial levels. Although Heathcliff’s rise

from a slave to the richest man in the country gets rid
of the social shame, it does not enable him to become
part of high society. Moreover, at the beginning of this
period, even after he becomes master of both the
Heights and the Grange and has descendants,
Heathcliff is still subjected to contempt by his former
friends and told to accept his lower status. Despite a
change in financial situation, something that cannot be
altered

–

skin color

–

remains an obstacle. Brontë

intentionally indicated Heathcliff’s class through signs

that could not be altered, such as skin color and origins.

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Therefore, even with enlightenment and culture, the

depth of the race’s lack and the impossibility of
acculturation and assimilation stays untouched (Periš,

2017).

The case of Heathcliff’s segregation from the family is

based on his skin color. Catherine marries Edgar and
cannot be joined with Heathcliff, who presumably is of
an inferior class, a description unwanted by the Lintons
and the Earnshaws. Morally corrupt human beings like
Hindley or Joseph are disregarded and praised but
blamed only for the faults that could be changed

–

financial or social status. The isolation of Heathcliff
demonstrates that the gap in social status does not
prevent the Lintons and the Earnshaws from being
friends. High social status was not a prerequisite to
enter high society, but being white-skinned was
necessary for humane treatment. This is demonstrated
by the various ways in which Heathcliff, during his
childhood, is pushed out from the rooms where
Catherine and other children are playing. From the very
beginning, he is constructed in a subtly racist discourse
as belonging to a filthy, wild-looking and dreadfully
primitive class. He was found as a jobless beggar. His
black skin is another feature that makes him outcast.
Given all of these, Catherine feels her love for him to be
in contrast with her own social ambitions and is unable
to marry him.

While still a boy, Heathcliff “is not allowed to be in the
same room with the white people,” nor is he allowed
to taste “the lick of the wipes,” “the pass of the trough”

or the bread unless brought to him by Hareton because

of “the filthy mother” and “the scroggy curly head”.

Thus Hindley commands Joseph to keep him out of the
room where the little Lintons have come. The absurdity
of this segregation based on skin color is obvious. Mr.

Earnshaw, “a kind man,” adopts hi

m and treats him like

his own children, but it soon proves to be an insufficient
factor. Their mutual mother dies and Hindley returns
from College a tyrant. Uneducated and coarse as he
was like a ploughman, his social status does not
preclude him from trea

ting his brother’s anti

-

establishment son like a slave. Heathcliff’s stagnation

on the social scale symbolizes the social situation of

Brontë’s time. Even after the abolition of slavery, black

people were still downgraded to the rank of a human
being; stamped as sinful, filthy and uncivilized.

This same mechanism is still effective even after
Heathcliff returns rich, vague and civilized. Edgar Linton
is not one to lose caste but still suggests the kitchen as
a more suitable place for him to eat. These humiliating
remarks limit with the breakfast, but no matter how he
elaborately

removes

grounds

of

contempt,

contemptible things do not vanish but reinventedly
arise to obscure all confidence gained. Even as he

becomes a master of the Grange, addressees are still

obliged to remind the “beggar” that he is before “the
lady.” Heathcliff’s inability to climb the social ladder

symbolizes the mid-century England where the
problems of race and slavery did not vanish with

emancipation. Although Heathcliff’s life seems

different under Mr. Earnshaw, Hindley reduces him to
a slave-

like status after Mr. Earnshaw’s death. This is a

worst-

case reverse development: “It seems a cruel fate

to be such a passionate food and worthless toy of

others.” Even after his absence, Heathclif

f is still

referred to as “the ploughboy.”

Gender Roles and Discrimination

Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights” is not simply a tale

of doomed love, but also an unmasked examination of
social discrimination. Crime and retribution lie at the
very heart of the tale, yet the most interesting aspects
are how the families in the tale behaved before the
transgression, the transgressions themselves, and how

those regards assigned definitions to class. Heathcliff’s

construction comes from the detective aspect of a
my

stery, people’s genealogy; yet inherent in the

mystery is the social aspect, the growing importance of
social classification, entrance papers, and breeding.
Recognised by many as an exploration of social
discrimination, Wuthering Heights goes deeper and
br

oader than just juxtaposing man’s punishment for

returning the cruelty he received. Set in the Palaeolithic

of the Yorkshire moors, Brontë’s novel holds similar

regard to portraying the oppositions, contradictions,

and complexities of societies. Brontë’s v

iew of a world

split down the middle was mapped onto the moors in
the jaws of a beast of a house, mirroring the Beast in
the world of Urban Nineteenth Century England.
Opposing it is the city, with Thrushcross Grange and the
civilised family that resides there, named Linton. The
two women stand in their respective households,
Catherines Earnshaw of Wuthering Heights and
Heathcliff from the other side of the banners. Their
own individual families being quite prone to either fall
to the social side or become great social outcasts. To
have a name in that time was to have a superiority over
others, to be able to impose on the rest of the world
your own definitions of right and wrong. It sounds
tangled, and the tale itself becomes a tangle, at least
until the process of social classification reveals
themselves. It is into that circle of classification and
definition that Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff the
adopted boy enter, and once there their education into
solely human issues begins.

Catherine Earnshaw's Struggle

Catherine’s passion for Heathcliff and the limitations
imposed upon her social actions represent Brontë’s

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understanding of the pathos of racial discrimination. It
is the inconceivability of her marriage with a man of

Heathcliff’s color that destroys

her. Perhaps

instinctively, she chooses her own race, and with her
action, she inflicts the most intense suffering upon
herself. Heathcliff certainly aims at revenge upon Edgar
Linton in marrying Catherine. He gains the
contemplated revenge; but inevitably, he has to pay for
it by losing Catherine, which represents his greatest

loss. Heathcliff’s rage against human beings and the

social structure is recorded in his wild revolt. But it is
questionable if he is justly exonerated, with all the
other characters charged with guilt. However, by

designating Heathcliff as the, “the fiend,” tragedy lays

on him a more terrible responsibility, perhaps as

Brontë’s deep self

-reproach for her initial sympathy for

the character. Catherine’s inhumanity is condemned,

as is H

eathcliff’s, but only when the story of passion is

replaced by the fictive reconstruction of the narrative.

Nevertheless,

Brontë’s

representation

of

this

inhumanity renders empathic understanding of the
tragic conflict. To be called a social agent necessitates

the ability to make a choice, to control one’s fate, to

determine an action, and to take responsibility.
However, for the racially discriminated Heathcliff,
these qualities are all lost. He is treated as merely a
perfidious thing, rather than a human being. In this
sense, his inability to perform socially is not questioned
by the narrative; it is rather to be construed as an

implication of social discrimination (Periš, 2017). On

the contrary, by marrying Edgar Linton and entering
into a high social rank, Catherine Earnshaw displays a
full-fledged social agent. For all her undoubted racial
belongingness, she is by all estimation outside of
society at the beginning of the novel. Described as a
wild, temperamental, spoiled child, she is more animal
than human. However, she becomes the lady of
Thrushcross Grange, a refined representative of the
upper class, thanks to her marriage with Edgar. This

contrasts with Brontë’s tendency to come down against

the social structure. It is also questionable if this
process of becoming civil, ardently desired by the
motherless child from the very beginning of her
infancy, is really an achievement deserving our

empathy. The representation of Catherine’s marriage

with Edgar embodies the ambivalence. Before the
marriage, Catherine is in a crisis, wavering between
romantic feelings for Heathcliff and the practical
advantages of marrying Edgar. She anguishes between
two choices and decides to marry Edgar. After a ten-
week separation from Heathcliff, she becomes Mrs.
Linton, enjoying a prestigious social rank. Thereafter,
Brontë leaves this upper world of gentility and delves
into the heart of darkness of the household.

Isabella Linton's Experience

Wuthering Heights centers on isolation, social status
and discrimination. It is important to observe the
approach of social discrimination through an
untraditional perspective that implicitly involves race

—

a taboo subject during the Victorian Era. This paper will
examine how subtle racism against black people who
were brought to England from the colonies is pointed

out through Isabella Linton’s character, as well as

analyze the mechanism of the impact of oppression,
abuse and social discrimination on her. In both the
novel and the film adaptation, the whiteness of
characters at the highest social status is noticeably
portrayed to breed an aversion to the naturally black
Heathcliff. However, the discursive construction of

Isabella Linton’s experience of prejudice owing to the

color of her skin is more subtle, as if the text has made
sure to formulate it in a less obvious manner. It is often
not direct discrimination that drives a character to take
on an oppressed, abused and racialized status, but
social discrimination and control actions that respond

to other characters’ social status that

lead to

oppression. Therefore, when observing the social
discrimination of Isabella Linton, during which
Heathcliff took control of the Linton state and abused
her, the overlapping analysis of epistemic injustice is
hardly related to racism. Rather, the observation leads
to the question of how the timing and manner of
preparation and utilization of power be arranged. At
first glance, the unexplained violence makes Heathcliff
a simple and flat character, while the change of
treatment towards Isabella makes her a more
complicated character. However, both signify the lack
of humanity and actual ethicalness of Heathcliff and
created characters, which may be a powerful indication
of agential discrimination and prejudice through the
two aspects of racial supremacy and socially influenced
power and prejudice against black. Heathcliff, as a
reprobate character, takes on the discursive
construction of a non-human who falls outside of the
scale of humanity that is mainly pointed at blacks and
the viciousness of the Northern class.

Racial and Ethnic Discrimination

Race and ethnicity can be a weapon to discriminate
against others and even social ridicule. Realizing who

the Wutherings are, Heathcliff’s Gypsy background

isolates him from society. The Wutherings, particularly
Heathcliff, are often referred to as the Gypsies, as their
appearance, behavior, and lifestyles give them ethnic
code. Although contemporary critics present this ethnic
treatment as a negative weapon jingoism, it is seen as
social ridicule in a Marxist c

luster. Heathcliff’s social

code different from those of the gentry’s directs people

the way to ridicule him even though they do not realize

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they are ridiculed. Nelly Dean, the narrator, often

colors Heathcliff black. He is referred to as “like the
devil” or bloody, false, “a fiend,” and as a “soul black,”
along with the constantly dark language, “dark skinned
gypsy,” “black eyes,” “black hair,” and so forth. Thus,
his treatment is purposely influenced by the gentry’s

view of the other, the Gypsies, from the birth,

childhood, to maturity. The name “Gypsies” is the

ethnic name or the social label given by the gentry to

Heathcliff’s social ridicule, which is echoed and

expanded by the next generations, especially by
Hindley and Cathy II (Goodson, 2018). The piteous
almost certainly true Heathcliff is in a constant ridicule,
but the ridicule is an unseen weapon to isolate him, as
it cannot change among generations. Although
contemporary critics consider that Wuthering Heights
is a novel dealing with racism bitterly, yet there is no

clue in the narrative, dialogue, or even character’s mind

suggesting that there is racist determinant fixing

Heathcliff’s dehumanization. In a larger context of the

Victorian world, the name Gypsy gives Heathcliff not a
race or culture but a quality of brutality, passion,
violence, and emotionalism; the Gypsy in Heathcliff
both isolates him from society and predicts his
condemnation in society (Kasturi Rahayuningsih, 2018).

Heathcliff's Mixed Heritage

In the novel, Heathcliff’s mixed he

ritage is often

perceived as a bar to social acceptance. However, the
story suggests that Englishness is not strictly defined by
blood. Heathcliff is admired and esteemed as long as
his origin is unknown; once he becomes a heartless
avenger, the source of his ticket of admission to English
society is sought and seized. Thus, social discrimination
is a matter of censure and gossip rather than science; it
is a contagious disease contracted and released by
social actors. In the first circumstance, once seen
th

rough the involuntary eyes of the other, Heathcliff’s

so-called hideous faults become monstrous stains

inherent to and inseparable from his being (Periš,
2017). Brontë’s pen articulates society’s verdict of its
fallen darlings: “a black fiend,” “a demon,” “a
monster,” “a ghoul” and “a devil,” all spurting from

bitter tongues. On the other hand, there are those who
triumph over such prejudices; similarly haunted and
hunted, they embrace Heathcliff as the victim of gothic
ferocity.

The explicit disdain for species contamination is often
paralleled with a reproach to cowards who scapegoat
those othered due to their tragic life. In the opening
chapters of the novel, Heathcliff is depicted as an
object of pity. As a child, he is discovered wandering the
streets o

f Liverpool, “a dirty, ragged black urchin.” He

is then rescued and raised to the same social status as

the Earnshaws’ biological children, Catherine and

Hindley, by the benevolent Mr. Earnshaw. However,

Hindley’s mean disposition only worsens after the la

te

patriarch’s passing. Acting on impulse, he removes

Heathcliff from the social group and confines him to the

servants. In the same breath, he instructs Joseph: “Take
him here, and take him there; he’s never used to
blood.” Even after three years in Londo

n, Heathcliff is

referred to as “the ploughboy,” whose allotment is a

starving wage. A number of characters imbue his return

with a dim sense of danger, alluding to “eyeing the
barren moor” by means of a quarrelsome dog.

However, the arrival of Heathcliff at Thrushcross
Grange becomes a feast, a joyous celebration of family
reunion.

Societal Reactions to Heathcliff

The isolation of Heathcliff from all other characters,
regardless of the divisions determined by the level of
wealth, prestige, strength, etc. in Wuthering Heights
helps to conclude that it is not the gap in social status
that the problem relates to but the difference in the

color of Heathcliff’s skin. All persons of lighter skin color

do their utmost to make him disadvantaged in life.

Immediately after Mr. Earnshaw’s death, while still a

very young boy, Heathcliff is not allowed to be in the
same room with the white people. Hindley commands

Joseph, “keep the fellow out of the room.” There is a

very similar example a few pages after, when Mr.

Linton’s sister, Edgar Linton, who will soon become a

character of extreme importance for the development
of the plot, arrives in Wuthering Heights. When
Heathcliff attempts to emerge from the darkness in
which he previously stood, Edgar suggestively talking in

order to express shame for Heathcliff’s different skin

color, ignore him and address Catherine, asks her to go

with him to the drawing room, where “there was[–

] the

most agreeable company.” Heathcliff overhears their

talk, and as actively interested participant nods,
accidentally interrupting it by moving the great dog to

one side. This event provokes Edgar’s unwil

lingness,

who while staring back at uninvited Heathcliff, feigns
the eating of a biscuit, making audible munching noises
which make Heathcliff realize that he is uninvited guest

and rush off to the kitchen. The color of Heathcliff’s skin

causes the very same problem later, when after

Catherine’s marriage to Edgar Linton, Edgar Linton
suggests “that it would be as well to consult something
more reasonable,” that “the kitchen” might be “better
adapted for a place of torment” than “the parlor.” In

this respect, Wuthering Heights testifies that high social
status was not a prerequisite to enter high society, but
that being white-skinned was a prerequisite to enjoy

being treated humanely. Heathcliff’s stagnation on the

social scale until the adulthood, as well as the situation
among the characters in the book, symbolize the social

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situation of the time and of the author herself. In
courtesy deeds, the status of black people was still
downgraded during the long period after the abolition
of slavery in England; the same situation is mirrored in

the society of Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff’s life in

Wuthering Heights, as it seemed at first, was somehow
different ranging from the full slave status. Shortly after
Mr. Earnshaw had died, Hindley had enough power to
take revenge on him, and to discharge the hatred upon

Mr. Earnshaw’s son by making him as much as possible

the same way as he himself had been during the life of
Mr. Earnshaw, until Heathcliff too became a slave. The

text “the ploughboy” firmly suggests that eve

n after his

long absence Heathcliff is still referred to as “the
ploughboy.”

Social Mobility and Its Limitations

“There will no more business between us.” This phrase
adequately summarizes Heathcliff’s status in the
Wuthering Heights after Mr. Earnshaw’s d

eath. Two

types of discrimination are present in Brontë’s novel

-

the one based on social status and the one based on
skin color - and they both lead to isolation, alienation,
and social stagnation, either on the one or another
side. One that is basic against Heathcliff is the
discrimination on racial grounds. His ascent on the
social ladder for the period of several years could not
alter the assumption that shaped his childhood.
Although social status plays the role of a priority social
category, it is not the sole one. Skin color and related
prejudices determine social mobility in the case of
Heathcliff. On the other hand, the depth of social
distinctions in mid-century Anglican society is

described

through

Hindley’s

character.

His

discrimination against Heathcliff is based only on class
descent, and even when financially equitable, Hindley
and Heathcliff keep being enemies.

The case of Heathcliff’s segregation from the rest of the

family is not based on his social class, but on his skin
color. Heathcliff's isolation demonstrates that the gap
in social status does not prevent the Lintons and the
Earnshaws from being friends. The problem lies in the
color of his skin, a thing that could not be changed,
unlike financial or social status. While still a boy,
Heathcliff is not allowed to be in the same room with
the white people because of negative assumptions
about people of color. Hindley commands Joseph to

“keep the fellow out of the room,” because “he'll be

cramming his fingers in the tarts, and stealing the f

ruit”

(= the very first appearance of discrimination based on
skin color, but again referring only to Heathcliff). The
same problem is noticeable later on, when Heathcliff
returned to the Yorkshire Moors as a newly rich, Edgar

Linton still “suggested the k

itchen as a more suitable

place for him” to eat, instead of the parlor. High social

status was not a prerequisite to enter high society, but
being white-skinned was prerequisite to be treated
humanely.

Heathcliff’s stagnation on the social scale is

metapho

rical for the social situation of Brontë’s time. It

was incomparably easier for the Aurenshaws to

acknowledge the Lintons’ decayed aristocracy than for

the Lintons to admit Heathcliff into their orbit of social
and moral values. The alternative to being buried in the
graves of laborers, rented by other people, and being

referred to as “the ploughboy,” who was not

competent to utter the word of free people is being a

Renters, as moveable property. A “land owned as their
own,” not permissible even to protest

against.

Heathcliff’s inability to climb the social ladder signifies
“the mid

-century England where the problems of race

and slavery did not vanish with emancipation” (Periš,

2017).

Heathcliff's Rise to Power

Heathcliff is a foundling discovered among the gypsies
of Liverpool and brought back to Wuthering Heights by
Mr. Earnshaw. His skin is darker than those of the
family, a detail which strongly suggests African

ancestry. The matter of Heathcliff’s segregation from

the rest of the family is not based on social class, but on
skin color. The house of Wuthering Heights is a
parsonage, thus the family belongs to the bourgeoisie.
They own land, which surely means they must be
wealthier than the working class. In regards to this, the
family on the whole treats Heathcliff rather like a
member of their own household, but the negative
assumptions about people of color dominate the lives
of Heathcliff, especially as a boy. Immediately, on his
arrival, Catherine and Hindley assume the status of her
brother and father, whereas Heathcliff, being inferior,
is like an animal. Even before he is in the house, he is
described as a savage creature, but this cannot be
caused by low social class. Instead, it is proof of white
supremacy and negative stereotypes about people of
color. Hindley commands Joseph to keep Heathcliff out

of the room because “the lass is not afraid of you.” In a

similar vein, when Heathcliff returns from a self-
imposed exile, Edgar Linton assumes that the kitchen is
a suitable place for Heathcliff to eat:

“I’ll try the kitchen.

I’m not particular about the parlor.” High social status

is not a requirement to enter high society, but being
white-skinned is an important condition in order to be
treated humanely.

Heathcliff has risen to a social scale, and it is an ex-
colonial who rules the British empire. However,

Heathcliff’s stagnation on the social scale is a reflection

of the social situation in the time of Brontë. Although
the ruling class, white-skinned people, still treated

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blacks with prejudice, the formal abolition of slavery

was passed. Brontë’s early works demonstrate

sympathy for, or solidarity with, the plight of the
downtrodden, of the lower classes, of the exploited.
Even her great love for Wuthering Heights is wrapped
in hatred of Hindley, who represents the capitalist-born

race. Thus, Heathcliff’s tragic life story is a reflection of
the plight of black people. Although Heathcliff’s life in

Wuthering Heights seems different under Mr.
Earnshaw's patronage, the power relations in the
household remai

n very much the same (Periš, 2017).

After Mr. Earnshaw’s death, Hindley misuses his power

and reduces Heathcliff to the status of a slave; he
commands Joseph to dismiss his attendance to church
and he is not allowed to enter the drawing-room. Even
after ye

ars of absence, Heathcliff’s equivalent to 'the

ploughboy' shows how low he has returned to the
social class.

Catherine's Choices and Consequences

Social class does matter in the romance of Wuthering
Heights. Catherine is not some lovesick fool who yearns
for Heathcliff just because of what he does for her as a

child. She is made painfully aware of Heathcliff’s

inferior status, both for being a foundling and a

‘blackamoor’, long before she begins engaging in her

games of dressing him down. Perhaps, as Jane

Austen’s

Elizabeth Bennet does, she comes to feel that she
needs a gentleman, for how can someone from her
rank possibly marry someone of inferior class?

Archetypically, a gentleman shouldn’t even regard her,

much less try to court her or return her love. On the
other hand, her love for Heathcliff is presented as
incredibly intense and passionate. In much the same

manner that Elizabeth Bennet’s attraction for Mr.
Darcy, the ‘proud’ gentleman, is presented, Catherine
cannot help it. “He’s in the kitchen,” Ed

gar openly

mocks Heathcliff’s lower status, and “I’m a lady”. “Not
lately,” the Atkinsons retort. Although Heathcliff is not
of the Lintons’ class, indeed he is not of the Earnshaws’,

either

—Catherine’s father, Mr. Earnshaw, has taken

him in from the streets of Liverpool; he is merely an
adopted son, and that, it would seem, with the utmost

reluctance

on

Hindley’s

part

(Periš,

2017).

Nevertheless, although he might not enjoy the
advantages of gentility and wealth, he has an equal
right to this prosperity. In fact, he seems to appreciate
it better. The sublime beauty and grandeur of the wild

Yorkshire moors, openly appealing to Catharine’s

imagination, are completely ignored by Edgar.
Heathcliff understands it, or beginning to with
Catharine. Inspection of the elements of smart irony,

humour, and horror, which characterize Cathy’s story

of Thrushcross Grange, leaves nothing to be desired,
but, excepting the last scene, nothing good seems to be

said of marriages arranged out of vanity or coquetry.

Heathcliff, ‘the dry riddle’, then becomes the model of
reason. However he is taught in the seven years’

surcease of the storms, Catharine is playfully cruel and
mercilessly vindictive. Edgar becomes the embodiment
of a thorough gentleman, every way Catharine might
wish. In Catherine's version, some curious sophism is
presented, predicates of man; Shakespearean words
are said to women. Once Eden is lost, a wild
unmanageable beast is Elyan's spectacle, chance
castaway of a tropical storm, neither blessèd nor blest.
Sweeney is unquestioningly brutish and Heathcliff is a

slave. For him, the first is green (Fabijanić, 2017).

The Role of Land and Property

The circumstance regarding the issue at point is
portrayed at the very beginning of the novel, in a
conversation between Mr. Lockwood and Mr.
Heathcliff. The discrimination against Heathcliff and his
segregation from the rest of the family is based on his

skin color (Periš, 2017).

At the arrival to Wuthering Heights, Mr. Lockwood
observes, and feels surprised about, how all characters

are of the same origin, “white

-

skinned.” An interesting

aspect after pointed out is Mr. Heathcliff’s uncanny

visage because of his full black hair, dark skin, and wide
mouth. Although Mr. Lockwood is glad to praise the
white-skinned characters and find beautiful features in
their visages, the first meeting with Mr. Heathcliff
portraits a savage-looking, wild, and gloomy visage.

This

uncanniness

disproves

Mr.

Lockwood’s

contentment, and the view dominated by such
contentment renders inconsistency i

n Mr. Lockwood’s

attitude. The inconsistency can be an oeuvre’s signal,

representing and opening a discourse. In this case,

Heathcliff’s chastisement and isolation from the society

of white-skinned people are projected and display a
racially motivated foundation. With the retrospection
of the introduced aspect, it is found that, inter racially,
savage discard almost all whites, while pure races
embrace only the purest races, as in this case, barking
and growling are only reserved for colored characters,
thus Heathcliff is chastised for his touchy gesture
towards Mr. Lockwood. After the chastisement, he is
supposed to be punished, and his punishment is
abandonment in the kitchen. It is noted that the
punishment is supposed to be severe and not to be
reversed. After being punished, any touching
approaches would be regarded as taking indulgences
and deserving more severe punishment in the
following.

In addition to the assumption that high social status is
not a prerequisite to enter high society, but being
white-skinned is a necessity for being humane,

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Heathcliff’s stagnancy in the social scale is a metaphor
of Brontë’s county and the Welsh border context,

where, even after the abolition of slavery, the issues of
race were regarded as a norm and black people were

still being downgraded. Heathcliff’s inability to climb
the social ladder symbolizes “the mid

-century England,

where the problems of race and slavery did not vanish

with emancipation.” Instead of being treated as an
adopted son and brother, Heathcliff’s l

ot turned worse.

Inheritance and Legitimacy

After the death of Mr. Earnshaw, Heathcliff was
annexed most unmercifully. Hindley allowing him to

remain at Wuthering Heights, “adopted his treatment

in principle of trying to keep him accounted one of the

dogs.” He drove him from their company to the

servants, deprived him of the instructions of the curate,
and insisted that he should labor out of doors instead.

The case of Heathcliff’s segregation from the rest of the

family is not, however, based on Heath

cliff’s social

class. When Mr. Earnshaw brought Heathcliff into the
house, more questionably in what manner Heathcliff,

as an orphan, came into Mr. Earnshaw’s possession, it
is not so clear. “For all the beginnings of Heathcliff’s life

at Wuthering Heights

until being really ‘one of family’,

he is not accidentally brought like a tender ‘found
child’, but rather could be an unstable offspring of a
gypsy or a ‘little blackamoor’ who horrified Catherine’s

mother, hence the uncertain, savage pedigree would
justify preventing the children from social intercourse

with Heathcliff” (Periš, 2017). Although still a boy,

Heathcliff is not allowed to be in a same room with the
white people. This is visible in the words of Joseph:

“Keep the fellow out of the room—

send him into the

garret till dinner is over.” The same problem is

noticeable later on as being one indignity on

Heathcliff’s return to the Yorkshire Moors as a newly
rich: Edgar Linton still “suggested the kitchen as a more
suitable place for him” to eat. There

are different ways

of viewing this point: One way is to regard Heathcliff’s
situation as an illustration of ‘classless society.’ His high

social status was not satisfied to enter the high society,
and his low social status was not able to misplace him
from the top layer. This viewpoint answers all the
questions with wonderful ease; however, the basic
problem is to find out the particular thing in Heathcliff,
in other words, to clarify the necessity to wonder over

the heritage of Heathcliff’s situation. No a

ristocratic

status would grade the society, while just being colored

would ascertain the social treatment. Heathcliff’s

stagnation on the social scale is effective in

metaphorically implying the social situation of Brontë’s
time: “She was not in want of em

ancipation like the

slaves elsewhere of Britain. The abolition of British
slavery, ratified in 1833, could not erase from her world

the perpetual downgrading of colored people.”

The Impact of Land Ownership on Relationships

Class structure in the nineteenth century was a rigid
hierarchy based on the systems of land holding which
existed prior to the rise of industrialists and urban
workers. The land controlled by each family

determined their position in this hierarchy (Periš,

2017). The Earnshaws, having predated the Lintons in
Yorkshire, were of higher social class before the rise of
the latter that owned land in London, the hub of
culture. However, the relationships between the
characters in Wuthering Heights are not as simple nor
as clear-cut as motivations based solely on ownership
of land would imply. Since the Motifs vital to
storytelling are always innate and of a more personal
nature, that is what is examined below.

The first part of Wuthering Heights is written from the
perspective of Mr. Lockwood who visits his landlord,
Heathcliff. The reader is informed of Heathcliff's
apparent wealth, yet lacks grounding in such
assessments when it comes to what kind of wealth this
is or any grasp on what type of character Heathcliff is.
The isolated Heathcliff has relationships with other
characters fraught with bitterness and enmity. This
initial seclusion serves to show how wealth does not
positively

influence

character

and

emotional

dispositions. As the novel expands its character pool, it
becomes obvious that other characters have no chance
to shine in Heathcliff's all-consuming bitterness.
However, the last quarter of the novel marks a tonal
shift wherein the incapacity for a satisfying relationship
becomes the sole property of Heathcliff.

A particularly blunt assessment of his character
expresses that his mind and soul have developed with

“the growth of a mediocre intellect but an enormous
temperament” insatiable in its mourning of lost

affection. This incapacity is further examined through
relationships with his daughter Catherine and Hareton
who fail as substitutions both in maternal comfort and
romantic affection, respectively. The text reads that

“Heathcliff had a golden grey eye, or rather it was a

mixture of gold and giddy grey not altogether without
a ti

nge of black,” emphasizing a void through an

ambiguous and undefined mix of colours. Instead of
interrogating the pricing of character above
perceptions of property, it is that captures the
adolescent soul still in search of a nurturing ear on
which to unload pains and anxieties.

Social Discrimination and Personal Relationships

The distinction between Hindley and Heathcliff's social
classes is not the cause of Heathcliff's discrimination
but merely its effect. The separation of Heathcliff from
the rest of the family is no different than the separation

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of Joseph from the Earnshaws and the Lintons.
Heathcliff's segregation demonstrates that the
problem is not the gap in social status but in skin color.
The Lintons and the Earnshaws obviously belonged to a
higher social class, but there is no evidence to indicate
that social situation stood in the way of their friendship.
The complete lack of communication between
Heathcliff and anyone associated with the Earnshaws
or the Lintons is much more difficult to explai

n (Periš,

2017). Heathcliff could not come into the same room as
white people, not only because they had a significantly
better social standing but also because there were
negative assumptions regarding people of color. After
Heathcliff has been introduced to the family, Hindley

commands Joseph to “keep the fellow out of the room”
because “he'll be cramming his fingers in the tarts.”

Even later on, the assumption regarding Heathcliff's
character seems to have prevailed untouched; Edgar
Linton suggested that the kitchen would be a more
suitable place for him to eat.

High social status was not a prerequisite for high
society; it was also a matter of skin color. Heathcliff's
stagnation on the social scale is entirely symbolical of
the social situation of Brontë's time, which was
precisely why it had been made a little more extreme.
In Wuthering Heights, the setting of which takes place
in the West Yorkshire moorland, black people, even
with the abolition of slavery, were still downgraded and
denied any social status. Heathcliff, even after years of

absence, is still referred to as “the ploughboy,” and his

extraordinary wealth is disregarded. The only
difference from before is that holding onto a grudge
can be shown not to be a cure. By the nature of the race
issue, where there was no way to come to terms with
the past, Heathcliff's history is not so much the essence
of the character as a convenience. Brontë could not

simply write of a member of Heathcliff’s own race, who

cannot escape discrimination. It is not simply a matter
of class. Heathcliff portrayal may be an empty vessel,
partly porous, but also with a certain kind of quality.

Friendships Across Class Lines

Aside from the friends that have been made and the
relationships initiated, it is also important to highlight
the barriers of discrimination and social division
amongst characters in the text. Of interest are the
various characters that welcomed and who allowed
others to break through class lines and to establish a
friendship that overcame social obstacles and class
divisions. The characters that would be discussed are
Nelly Dean and Heathcliff. Nelly Dean, the servant to
Mr. Earnshaw and the Linton family, was directly
involved in the creation of social discrimination
amongst the families in the social setting. Despite the
high social status of the Linton family, she chose to

remain loyal to the Earnshaw family as a whole and to
treat Heathcliff as though he did not belong there

(Periš, 2017). With the lure of the Linton siblings, it

would have been easier and more rewarding for her to
just collapse into their level, which she, to some extent,
did, but she was adamant in her desire to take
Heathcliff down with her. So, as much as she played a
role in the establishment of social discrimination in the
social setting, one cannot place the blame entirely on
her, as she was a part of the disparaging social
discrimination.

However, her solitude is noted in that those who
mistreated Heathcliff were often met with punishment
for their prejudice. When he first arrived at the Heights,
it was she who was punished for allowing him to stay
for tea and when Isabella Linton was tossed out of the
home on her wedding night, Heathcliff ensured that
she was cast aside among the cold and destitute
outside until her dignity was stripped away from her.
The harsh treatment of those who discriminated
against the outsider, either through their actions or
relationship with the Wuthering Heights, is indicative of

an elongation of Hope’s discourse theory that extends

beyond the social space into the interactions of the
characters. There are, however, nuances present in the
construction of Heathcliff as an outsider that speak to

the more complicated points of Brontë’s writings on

ethnic and racial considerations.

Romantic Relationships and Class Barriers

The effects of social class differences on romantic
relationships during the mid-nineteenth century are
influenced by the aristocratic hierarchical social
stratification. Heathcliff is portrayed as a mischievous
orphan boy who is brought up to Wuthering Heights by
Mr. Earnshaw. After Mr. Earnshaw's death, Heathcliff is
terribly bullied by Hindley, the elder Earnshaw, who

usurps his father’s right. Hindley is contemptuous of

Heathcliff's status as a foundling without a family name
and equally abominates black people, with a deep-
seated conviction of his racial superiority. Heathcliff is
systematically ostracized from the main household by
Hindley. When the Linton family, of the aristocratic
class in the neighborhood, comes to Wuthering Heights
to spend the evening, a dreadful discourse of authority
decides the boundary of the social hierarchy of class
differences. Linton captures the height of arrogance
during this social gathering. The gathering sheds light
on how class differences shape social relationships. The
marriage between Cathy and Edgar underscores the
privileges of breeding a well-bred woman in the

aristocratic class (Periš, 2017). However, Cathy is forced

to relinquish her love for a poor man Heathcliff, which
profoundly conveys the class boundaries created by
blood which permeates family trees. The discourse of

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authority surrounding the choice of choosing the
suitability of social rank to marry Linton is woven into
the relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff,
reproducing the structure of gendered oppression that
occurs in her father and mother during her interview of
Edgar Linton. A mythico-historical fable is written to

narrate that a century after Nelly’s narrativization,

Heathcliff remains entrenched in the black brutishness.

The Role of Nature and Environment

Heathcliff does not die like Romeo

–

he is not able to

die. He can only become a ghost. The catastrophic
forces that he could emdiv are outside of culture, and
by that outside of understandability and narrativity.
The meaning of his life continues outside the narrative,

in the realm of the unsayable (Periš, 2017). Heathcliff

lives on the threshold of the world of Wuthering
Heights, bordering on evil, madness and death. In
connection to this other, he creates his own world
where recognizably human states conform to the
perception of the world different than what can be
named. Therefore, he dies like a ghost, because he is in
death as in life ungraspable and terrible. He can only

torment Catherine Linton’s

ghost from the outside

–

through a phantom touch. At the site of the Harrem
Barn, at the edge of Wuthering Heights, Cathy and
Heathcliff draw their borders, teaming against Hindley
and the whole world. The magnificent setting of
sexually charged freedom whispers echoes of the
uncontainable posible loving. The terrors apart from
Heathcliff rage, resulting in horror, madness, and
death. Heathcliff becomes imaginary, completely other
and outside of culture, and thus the narration of
Heathcliff is a struggle for comprehension

–

a struggle

that cannot be conquered without the breaking apart
of the fabric of narration. Heathcliff is too terrible to die
for him, and thus he is left as terribly unsayable as he
appears, creating a fracture in the narrativity, and the
fabric of the novel. Nature is the highest power of
Wuthering Heights. It rules the people who live on the
edges of civilization. For the Earnshaws, Lintons and
Heathcliffs being in nature means being free from
culture and vice versa. First darkness, storm, and wind

syncopate with Heathcliff’s and Cathy’s wild love. Then,

with their separation, the coupling of nature and
Heathcliff turns to curses, howlings, and later even to
plots against the rest of the world. Nevertheless, hatred
never wins against a pure and true union.

The Moors as a Reflection of Social Struggles

This landscape is akin to a figure-ground construction.
The moors can be understood as an extension of the
estate. While Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross
Grange are drawn as polar opposites, the Moors are
defined as a middle ground. They diffuse the rigid social

structures down to folkways, customs and beliefs. The
picture is also allegorical. The moors delineate a mental
state. Just as artificial social structures with their rules
and laws enable the perpetuation of social
discrimination, so also the mind is capable of
accommodating ancient animosities leading to blood

feuds. In Heathcliff’s dual nature as both a racial and
cultural ‘other’, Brontë’s tale of social discrimination

partakes of a critique of the Enlightenment and its
narrative of European nation states constructed on a
basis of equal access to opportunity in the modern

economy and in politics (Periš, 2017). This cultural

assimilation narrative of modernity has been violently
contested in the British Isles, where the Protestant
English nation has for centuries denied the humanity of

the Irish by casting them as “radioactive”, “savage” and
ultimately as “chthonic”. However, while pitched in the

tradition of natural rights, promise theory and
intellectual liberty criticisms of the Enlightenment,

Brontë’s tale offers a direct rebuke from the indictment

of the very excesses of the Enlightenment itself, self-

castration. This is what, in a critique of Hycain Slowey’s

slowness of mind in not seeing the madness lurking just
beneath the civility, Mr. Lockwood detects in

Heathcliff’s ‘barbarous’ house. Only in the imaginative

social construction of the Moors by their inhabitants is
it possible for wholly natural socio-spatial deliberations
on the failure of socio-spatial constructions of civility
with their attendant social discrimination to take place.
The hallucinatory nature of this landscape presents this
imaginative construction of the space in which folkways
prevail as a political structure of recognition to retake
the spaces of the past by immediate charges on
structures that carry imperial memory-scapes. In this
sense, the Moors are also kin to the wide open spaces
in which a humble democratic invention of the modern
politics appropriate to the Ellis Island of New York
imagined by Edgar Allen Poe in The Narrative of Arthur
Gordon Pym is juxtaposed with the vernacular public
spirit of the out-back mediating the social justice of the

Sun State of Hugh Murray’s satirical epic comedy The

Tale of the Western Ocean.

Isolation and Its Impact on Social Discrimination

Human beings are social creatures. It has never been
enough for them to live alone without contact or social
interaction with their fellows. The need of people for
other people makes them entities prone to social
discrimination, the necessity of which emerges from
language limitations among individuals. Hence,
individuals begin to erect a social hierarchy, that is, the
above level where geniuses and extraordinary
individuals are found compared to the bottom layer
where grotesque figures are situated. The classics of
English literature have also scrutinized this social

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discrimination

through

various means, which

insightfully affect the wider audiences. Emily Brontë’s

Wuthering Heights has extensively approached this

very issue. The case of Heathcliff’s segregation from the

rest of the family is based on his skin color. Although his
being an orphan and originally belonging to a lower
social class can explain some of the discrimination, they

are for the superficial consideration. Heathcliff’s

isolation demonstrates that the problem is not the gap
in social status but lies in the color of his skin.

From the very beginning of the novel, Heathcliff is
constructed in a subtly racist discourse as belonging to
a filthy, wild-looking and dreadfully primitive class. As if
he were not a human being but an animal from the
jungle, Heathcliff is not allowed to be in the same room
with white people because of negative assumptions
about people of color. Thus, Hindley commands Joseph

to “keep the fellow out of the room” despite Mr.
Earnshaw’s would

-be impartial love. Right now, Mr.

Earnshaw has left and Hindley has assumed the
managership of the estate. Heathcliff cannot
comprehend what this injustice would prosper because

he was raised to be akin with Hindley. However, “as

soon as Mr. Earnshaw had made a motion to go

upstairs, Hindley began the attack,” which accounts for

the structure of power on which the society is built
upon. The same problem is noticeable later on when
Heathcliff returned as newly rich, Edgar Linton
suggested the kitchen as a more suitable place for him

to eat. Thus, “the social stratification is designed upon
geographic, economic, ethnic and biological grounds;”
(Periš, 2017) therefore

, high social status was not a

prerequisite to enter high society, but being white-
skinned was a prerequisite to be treated humanely.
What Edgar Linton cannot stand about Heathcliff is his
being an adopted part in the family and being not
white-skinned. Co

nsequently, Heathcliff’s stagnation

on the social scale symbolizes the social situation of

Brontë’s time.

Narrative Structure and Perspective

Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights adheres to a fictional

mode signaled by a publishing history crowded with
censorship and concern over morality. The effort to
frame the unexplainable, the endless freedom to
choose whatever words and style suited. Contributions
from situated knowledge and historical accounts only
indicated reaction and unlike other novels, they were
unaccompanied by supporting songs, sonnets or

ballets. Charlotte’s positioning of Wuthering Heights

could have disrupted its unreasonability and allowed it
to become another outlawed romantic scandal or social
commentary: in a world concerned for the
representation of the hinterlands, caretakers and
validates its content. Tribal legends, border ballads,

epic elevation

—

the past reveals a unifying, theoretical

elsewhere. In Wuthering Heights, a native Orkney, an
outsider who likes to leisure. This concern cannot
simply be read as a critique of integrity

—

a calculated

move intended to protect Charlotte from a scandalous
sister

—

since it transforms the text and its reading into

something contrary to their literary modes. Instead of
moral advancement, Wuthering Heights fits its form a
series of bodings, visions, rebuffers and hauntings,
refusing its social power with a world where no
explanation or grounding exists.

The Northern novel’s speculative or epistolary form is

enabled by a refusal of unambiguous knowing; and

considering the historical context, Brontë’s prey could

have generated the sort of belief rather than the
penchant for beleaguering reports, layers of narrators
and horses either reticent or ardent. The rambunctious
property, drunken gaiety or insensate scenes, a
territory where even satiric or moral readings would
lack purchase. In Wuthering Heights, a non-narratorial
exit would have created a way out, a laterally theorized
world for the unexplainable. But then Heathcliff would
have remained conceived as a yet untamed tenth.
Spanning an Herculean twelve weeks

—

a common

amount of time for which stove-heated parlors were
devastatingly switched off, causing death

—Nelly’s

narration interprets, reports and invents tears,
delusions and aggrieved yawns, until the story of the
ancient family ends two decades later. Unbeknownst to
Nelly, remote polygamy

—

a belief outside imaginings

—

is probably the point in herself, Heathcliff and

Catherine’s hopscotching step up one another’s

natures, spurred by thankless entity who can ruin a

father’s estate simply by departing.

The Role of Nelly Dean

"Wuthering Heights," first published in 1847, is a story
of love, revenge, and ultimately, social discrimination.
This novel of first impressions by Emily Brontë has
frequently been dramatized, in both its novels and
including its sordid tale on stage and screen. However,
a significant number of its dramatic presentations rely
on inferior, wanting, clumsy dramatization of the
original. One of the keenest disappointments in
watching films adapted from "Wuthering Heights" is
how directors have scarcely grasped its booming
depths, deep Poes afterword, and pounding impact and

inequalities of societal power (Periš, 2017).

Senior characters in "Wuthering Heights" are generally
better studied than the younger ones, but this does not
mean they are well mastered. Nelly Dean and Heathcliff
are of utmost credibility and importance, yet
psychologically and motivationally leave a lot to be
desired. Nelly Dean who narrates, obliquely or pre-

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eminently, more than seventy-five percent of
"Wuthering Heights," is a baffling character. She serves
many roles: demeaned servant, wise confidant,
obnoxious busydiv, self-serving manipulator. While

she is not Harding’s or indeed Jane Eyre’s madams, it is

through her that "Wuthering Heights" develops great
ambiguity

regarding

moral

merit.

Heathcliff,

protagonist, antagonist, monster and victim, is equally
contradictory. The speech and actions of both Nelly and
Heathcliff are easily nor so. A compelling composite
image of Nelly emerges but cannot establish sufficient
strongly-backed

readings.

Representations

of

Heathcliff are less equivocal but suffer from somewhat
similar inadequacies.

The presentation and appropriation of Heathcliff,
particularly in film, is similarly serious to the overall
understanding of "Wuthering Heights." Questions of
fidelity and artistic interpretation abound. Each
filmmaker chooses ideas as works, often with the
spectators' mindedness of familiar airs. Some films
attempt to capture Brontë in all her encompassing
complexities, some distort or reduce her in less
agreeable ways, while others appropriate her while
irredeemably transforming her meaning. Whether
looking at Brontë's novel or its adaptations, questions
are raised regarding social class significance. The
differences between these imagined worlds and the
underlying historico-textual realities derive the
queries: Who is the target audience, and how are such
audiences to react to its depiction of class distinctions?

Multiple Narrators and Bias

The narrative structure of Wuthering Heights has often
tempted critics to focus on the issues at stake in Emily

Brontë’s narrative. Happily, contemporary critics have

built upon earlier theories while re-doubling their

efforts to take Emily Brontë’s wri

thing literary skills and

hypnotic imagination seriously. The text is especially
alert to the drawbacks of experience and the bias of
experience. Most critics adopt a dualist approach to
everything: e.g., good and evil are polarized, distorting

Brontë’s ar

tistic method in the nouveau roman sense.

They ignore bias, uncooperative voices, and
dislocations which do not deny reality, but generate it.
To make some criticisms less self-contaminating, it
might be informative to gloss over them. A tedious
summary would be almost noncontroversial: Brontë is
not a bore. She writes engrossingly because the world
is engaging, full of mysteries and surprises. That grasp
of reality calls for caution, of course. All narrative voices
are biased. Narrators became characters: first-person
points of view are construed via orality. Through biases,
personae decompose, spaces become hypertextual,
causation is unearthed or obliterated. Adaptations
grapple, prettifying or simplifying.

The prologue narrators, of necessity, must speechify.
Lockwood's bore-

offs dull his wit’s edge, misconstruing

his technique. Second and third-tier characters'
reactions do not condescend to him or Catherine.

Lockwood’s position in both sequences dampens the

opportunity to speak at length. The ghost story is a
moot point, suggesting the priority of drama over the

poet’s. Heathcliff’s idea of an adaptable story becomes
tainted. The prologue’s information load and the poet’s

censors' politeness sink the text, doomed to inglorious
banishment. Heathcliff's explanation cannot allay
apprehensions raised via humour, nor is it attributable
to rage as mere accident.

Symbolism of the House Settings

House settings in Wuthering Heights are depicted
according to the social class and the education of their
owners. In the novel, the emphasis is placed on two
houses: Wuthering Heights and the Grange. The grange
represents the refinement and gentility of the
landowning gentry, while Wuthering Heights is
depicted as rough, wild, threatening, and primitive,
serving the life of the farm laborers and artisans. The
names attached to the houses also reflect the
characters. Edgar and Isabella Linton, representing
gentility and wealth, are the owners of Thrushcross
Grange, named after the gentleness of this little bird.
Heathcliff, representing the class of land laborers, is the
owner of Wuthering Heights

—

a house built to last for

centuries, suited to case shields against the wind,
squash all weakness, and ferocity of nature, to match
the roughness of its owners (I Menchel, 2017). The
symbolism of house settings serves the class
distinction, i.e., the society constructed as hierarchical
thus determines the attitudes of characters toward
others as higher or lower, civilized or less civilized.

From the very beginning of the novel, Heathcliff is
represented as being from a lower social class,
answering the basic question explored in the novel:

“why is the man so ferocious”. Heathcliff’s isolation

from every character demonstrates that the problem
lies in the color of his skin, a question occurred to all
characters of the novel. And mysteriously black,

Heathcliff was brought in “by the Heathen.” Both Mr.

and Mrs. Earnshaw were shocked, but what shocked

them even more was his “blackness” and “wildness.”
The words “black,” “black like the devil,” or “black
eyes” were unbearably trembling out from every
mouth (Periš, 2017). Because of his blackness, he was

constructed in a subtly racist discourse as belonging to
a filthy, wild-looking, undesirable, senseless pariah
savage and dreadfully primitive class, something that
cannot even be thought worth talking of. His filthy
attire renders him utterly unsuited for participation in
the educated milieux of society. Hence, when

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questioned, he, because of his lack of ability to speak

“good English,” “derogate” and “depart” (in the words

of Edgar Linton) from the parlors meant for the gentry

who understand “mute” and “skarry.”

Wuthering Heights vs. Thrushcross Grange

Most of the action of Wuthering Heights takes place at
two abodes: Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross
Grange. The contrast between the two abodes is an
exercise in social discrimination and stratification.
Thrushcross

Grange

represents

a

high-bred,

embellished social milieu where the characters are
socially educated; their manners are acceptable. On the
other hand, Wuthering Heights stands for social
aberration; the conduct of its inhabitants is crude and
repulsive. What is more significant is that a single
character, Heathcliff, shows contrasting behavior due
to the milieu in which he is placed. The contrast

between Heathcliff’s behavior in Wuthering Heights

and in Thrushcross Grange is an exquisite illustration of
social discrimination.

Thrushcross Grange is the last outpost of normativity.
It is a warm, genteel, and well-governed house. It is a
p

lace where Catherine’s stay sees her manners much

improved. Yet it is just as much a callous place. It is here
that a child is swiftly evicted because of the color of his
skin. This is the place at which there is a social council
which decides to retrieve a runaway child; and, as
though the mortality of social nuance were

intransmissible, “young Hareton will, I daresay, feel it

one day, when it is too late,

–had it not been so,” his

“uncle” is “never suspicious, so long as compliments
flow.” Mr. Earnshaw ups

ets any hope of a traditional

class order at Wuthering Heights. Upon bringing
Heathcliff back from Liverpool, the patriarch takes to
Heathcliff strangely, believing all he says and petting
him up far above Cathy. He elevates Heathcliff above
his own children, prompting such rage within Hindley

that he gives Heathcliff thrashings. Hindley’s

degradation of Heathcliff is motivated less by an
ideology of mastery or economic opportunism than old

grievances. “The demon of a son!” Heathcliff draws

upon the archetype of the fallen ruler as the rebellious
castaway is at first more like a lost prince than the
dispossessed. It perhaps no longer matters even to
what brought Heathcliff from the other side of the
world: the mere fact of youth blends him with a
counterreading of cultural semiotics.

Symbolic Representations of Class

Social class can be represented not only through
property, clothing, bodily structure, and pronunciation
of

characters,

but

also

through

symbolic

representations embedded in social hierarchy and
dictated by received social rules. In the case of

Wuthering Heights, social classes are represented
through houses. As a bribe for social entry to high
society, Heathcliff is introduced into the family of Mr.
Earnshaw

—

one

of

the

higher

social

class.

Unfortunately, Mr. Earnshaw dies soon and Hindley
Earnshaw, as a member of the lower class, inherits
Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff immediately loses
everything. He is once again reduced to a pitiful boy
and treated as a servant, a class lower than his own.
Altho

ugh Heathcliff’s social status before Hindley’s

inheritance is equal to that of Hindley, it is depicted
that soon after Hindley takes possessorship of

Wuthering Heights, he resolves that “he’d [Heathcliff]
keep the fellow out of the room” ( (Periš, 2017) )

. The

word “fellow,” a highly derogatory and insulting
description for “boy/man,” demonstrates the clash of

social class instantly.

Moreover, although Heathcliff has roamed back to
Wuthering Heights with a sound fortune that equals or
even exceeds that of Edgar Linton, still Hindley thinks

that “he might come to recommend the kitchen as a
more suitable place” (). Aside from the reality of
Heathcliff’s richness, the insult of Hindley advises that

Hindley thinks that, in terms of social status, the
common usa

ge and understanding of “man” and

“slave” do not change. This attitude reproduces the

racist assumption of the privilege of the white-skinned
as having been made by God. So it is understood that

even after Heathcliff’s wealth and property become

equal to those of Mr. Earnshaw, the transference of
subjectiveness and the social mobility are still denied.
Social status of Bentley Manor and Wuthering Heights
resides in the exteriors of the characters rather than
the property owners emotionally, subjectively,
ethnically, or physically.

The Consequences of Discrimination

The consequences of social discrimination are
devastating and require time for the wounds to heal.
Brontë shows the consequences of racism in a highly
careful manner, in order to make the audience realize
that they are associated with the same paradigm, and
that it is therefore a problem that can apply to them,
too. Brontë puts Hindley in a morally absurd situation
in order to show the absurdity of the situation, and how
morality influences the treatment of people. If this
child could grow up to be what he is, after being adored
for years, then it is a conundrum how such a transition

could take place. Hindley’s assumption that Heathcliff
behaved so because he was called a “dark man” is

absurd. Bront

ë holds her audience’s moral high ground

and compares Hindley to a lamb, a child raised by the

only father in who’s care Heathcliff is later put. The

favor exercised for this creature, besides that it is a
lovely child whose heart wants to be good and right, is

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absurd, and Brontë must have assumed that the

outside world to existed because she found Hindley’s
degrading darker shades unfathomable (Periš, 2017).

Not finding the predisposition for such treatment in the
worst environments is trusting the bizarre and
extraordinary. It needed a farther distance, and a
different world for Brontë to discuss the treatment
Heathcliff hurts from at Wuthering Heights, and to
enable an ironic distance from the mob. This distance
is created by putting the delighted Wuthering Heights
in a harsh winter setting otherwise regarded as
heavenly, and the Lintons in their magical garden,
completely alone and secluded, out of any worldly

context. Next, Brontë shifts to writing Linton’s garden,

and using the delight expressed by Catherine in warm
terms that stays in stark contrast to the primeval
harshness and ceaseless snow, but on that
temperature and stillness laden ground Brontë holds
the uninitiated audience and controls their morals by
creating the stakes she envisions. Brontë needs both
the Wuthering Heights of current time and context, and

the Linton’s realm as enough of a heaven and earth of

difference in order to show the condemnation of
exclusivity.

Impact on Character Development

Social discrimination in Wuthering Heights is not often
treated as a problem. This is mainly due to the timing
of its narration, for at the time England was a colonial
power and a major slave owner. Thus, the poses of the
characters are seen as desirable or undesirable in
relation to a larger, socio-political practice,
consequently casting a shadow upon the text.
Moreover, as the topic has a global import, there is
difficulty in seeing the minutiae of the British scene
clearly. However, examining it solely within the context
of Wuthering Heights makes it possible to see how the
action gradually and logically unfolds as a consequence
of the prejudices operating between the existing
characters. These prejudices have ramifications on the
level of individual characters, elevating or degrading
their status and virtues. Thus, the character Heathcliff
represents negatively constructed blackness, whereas
Catherine, sharing a lineage with the Lintons,
represents positively constructed whiteness.

Heathcliff’s

isolation

from

other

characters

demonstrates that the problem lies in the color of his
skin. From the very beginning of the novel, Heathcliff is
constructed in a subtly racist discourse as belonging to
a filthy, wild-looking, and dreadfully primitive class,
which later makes Catherine bewilderingly unable to
marry him though she is irretrievably in love with him.
While still a boy, Heathcliff is not allowed to be in the
same room with the white people because of negative
assumptions about people of color. Hindley commands

Joseph to “keep the fellow o

ut of the room

—

send him

into the garret till dinner is over,” because “he'll be

cramming his fingers in the tarts and stealing the fruit,

if left alone with them a minute.” This problem is

noticeable later on, too, when Heathcliff returned as a
newly rich,

Edgar Linton still “suggested the kitchen as

a more suitable place for him” to eat. High social status

was not a prerequisite to enter high society, but being
white-skinned was prerequisite to acquire humane

treatment. Heathcliff’s stagnation on the socia

l scale

symbolizes mid-century England where the problems
of race and slavery did not vanish with emancipation.

Social Disintegration and Conflict

As with any other social class, people in the rural
working class have their own popular understanding of
how society operates, accepted norms and
expectations for social behavior. These popular beliefs
might differ from the world view of others social
classes. Some of the misunderstandings between the
middle and rural working classes in the novel deal
directly with the nature of respectability. Rejected from
the exclusive circles of upper and middle class society,
Catherine Earnshaw and Isabella Linton raise to the
status of respectable status in the rural working class
by marriage. Anger and general dismay in the middle
and upper class circles at such matrimonial unions is
cast as socially ignorant in the eyes of working class
gentry. Characters in the workhouses are a better and
more general representation of the rural working class
view of beasts. These classes are dismissed out of hand
as criminals, and in a few especially exaggerated cases
as beasts. Those characters that fall into such social
ostracism generally engage in socially unacceptable

activities, i.e. thievery, alcoholism, and gambling (Periš,

2017).

In Wuthering Heights, a subtle, comedic commentary
on certain behaviors that cross the thresholds of
respect is constructed. At first glance, a male premarital
sexual engagement with a servant girl might be viewed
as the height of respectability for all characters
involved. Yet it is exactly the sense of class superiority
and contempt for servants created in the proceeding
narrative that lend to its ridicule by the rural working
class members in attendance. Instead it puts Heathcliff,
who was born in a filthy booth in Liverpool and taken
to the moors and adopted by Mr. Earnshaw, on the
periphery of labor relations in the farm and the social

group in a misunderstanding of all’s operation of the
social sphere. The premise of Heathcliff’s methodical

revenge on the landowners and the traders of his
oppression is purely social in nature, zealous by no
other motive than the savage delight he experienced
from punishing a town mate where all else has failed
and evil had triumphed.

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Critical Reception and Analysis

The racial and social preconceptions of the major
characters lead to the exclusion of Heathcliff from
society, despite his wealth. Because he belongs to
another race, he cannot be socially accepted by others.
The inherent racism of the major characters is apparent
in this respect. The difference of race is treated as an

unbridgeable gap. This affects Heathcliff’s whole life. It
is the ultimate factor in Catherine’s rejection of
Heathcliff’s marriage proposal and thus the beginning

of his downfall. This is why Heathcliff is obsessed with
earning back their love, the need for which is
heightened because of his lost opportunity with
Catherine. This desire leads him further away from
social acceptance. Race is the ultimate and
unbridgeable problem in his social climbing; it draws
him away from the other characters and ultimately to

his social death (Periš, 2017).

Being a member of the didactic race, Nelly Dean is
mostly educated and civilised. Yet her understanding of

Heathcliff is more distorted than Edgar’s. Altho

ugh

Hector is more ill-mannered, he can be socially
accepted because of his whiteness. This is clearly

expressed in Heathcliff’s surprise at Edgar’s rejection of
Hector, saying “that the swine would abide by her” on
hearing Nelly’s complaints. All Nelly can “object” to

Heathcliff with is his so-

called “ferocity,” failing to

perceive it as a defence mechanism of the victim of

social discrimination and merely calling him “violent”

without knowing the reason behind it. She takes for
granted her superiority over him as a member of her
raca. Nelly plays the role of both a violent accuser and
a conciliating peacemaker in the abuse against
Heathcliff. She falsely believes that she plays a
beneficial role by not openly expressing her hate of
him.

Early Criticism and Feminist Readings

A survey of the earliest criticism of Wuthering Heights
reveals it to be an extremely problematic text. In broad
terms, the vociferous early criticism concentrated on
two issues: its failure to cohere strictly to didactic
fiction and an anti-social stance towards such
institutions as marriage. It occupied a liminal space
between respectability and the pedagogy appropriate
to submissive female authorship; a space at which it
had to be viewed as a threat. Moreover, alongside the
early negative criticism, feminist readings of the text
also flourished in an attempt to recuperate it from the
braying discouragements that threatened to render it

irreparably suspect. The two issues of the text’s

engagement with didacticism, and its anti-social
stance, are tied together, and result largely from

Brontë’s subversion of the romantic plots and

characters prescribed by didactic fictions of the time.

highlights most prominently Wuthering Heights’s

inadequacy as didactic fiction by lamenting its lack of
an engagement with the passing off as acceptable the
idea of marriage and domesticity.

The critique continues by noting that it is the women

who hurled these invectives. Catherine, who “moulds”

herself in the domesticity proper to her, shrinks from
marriage,

the most “delicate” of obligations. This faux

pas is “punished” by her physical exclusion from the

site of gentility, and her mental haywires. Heathcliff, by
contrast, who bends himself to the narrowness of the
gentility but shuns it, is left to brood impotently upon
his unrequitable revenge. have recently taken up
critique and expanded upon it by providing thorough
feminist readings of Wuthering Heights. They assert

that Brontë’s is not simply a terribly pro

-women text

but is, indeed, a terrifically and terrifyingly anti-women
one. Cathy is made to suffer at the hands of the men in
her life because she refuses to abide by gender
proprieties, and she lays siege to Heathcliff only to hurt
not only him, but also herself (I Menchel, 2017).

Modern Interpretations of Class and Race

Over time, Wuthering Heights has emerged as an
extensively studied and frequently adapted book in
literature, owing to its innovative form and complexity.
The entirety of the novel's text, which incorporates
informal materials such as letters, thoughts, and
conversations, is mostly narrated by Mr. Lockwood and
Mr. Nelly Dean. While the uncanny circumstance in
Wuthering Heights is clarified and revised through their
narration, this mode of presentation often raises
questions. Nevertheless, the open nature of the
narrative has opened multiple ways to interpret the

events and characters (Periš, 2017). Nineteenth

-

century objectivity and a modern worldview towards
colonialism prompt a distance from Wuthering Heights'
cruelty-heuristic impact by providing clues to its social
injustice. Primarily concerned with modern perception
of social injustice in Wuthering Heights through Brontë
and Phillips' accents, the representation of Hagar's
parental agony is approached from Brontë's
description of Heathcliff's dark side during childhood.
The first part of Wuthering Heights introduces the
uncanny setting and mainly focuses on the Earnshaw
family surviving the cruel winters of Yorkshire
moorland. Thrushcross Grange's failure to compensate
Wuthering Heights' coldness due to its unnaturalness
parallels Hagar's adult life in the Anglo-American world
where clear discriminative structure based on race and
class is still here. Colonisation meets industrialisation in
the mid-nineteenth century; while the indigenous
population in colonial territories is exploited as labour
class, the socio-economic distinction in British Isles with

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growing wealth is based on this hope of settlement.
The

muddy

breeding

grounds

of

capitalist

discrimination are traced back to Brontë's time in the
1840s Anglophone world.

Comparative Analysis with Other Works

No contemporary work of literature deals with the
issue of racism more severely than the one written by
Emily Brontë. She exposes the prevalent view of the
working class as polluted, vile, and bestial through

Heathcliff’s innate voice —

the narration told by

someone who has never encountered color-based
discrimination. Heathcliff is depicted in a crude

manner, considered to belong to an inferior race: “He

was a dark-

skinned gypsy” and “it was as dark as a

devil.” The issues with Heathcliff’s adoption

symbolically unveil the contempt towards the
colored/poor/working class, closely intertwined with

slavery: “he was a child of God, but the sun professedly

took no notice of him, some days were just so dull and
foggy that the tall, iconic black welsh hills and the

clouds met in a boundary of gloom.” Mr. Earnshaw

adopts a child from the streets, but he endures
hardship as the rustics of Yorkshire think that Heathcliff
should have been born nearby. The same logic is
presented by Brontë in her depiction of Hong Kong

symbolically, a ‘non

-

England’ which leads to an

impending demise of the Queen’s Realm.

Heathcliff’s isolation from the characters surrounding

him shows that the issue is not the gap in social status
existing between him and the white characters. The
issue lies in the color of his skin, a thing that could not

be changed or altered: “From the very beginning of the

novel Heathcliff (. . .) is constructed in a subtly racist
discourse as belonging to a filthy, wild-looking and
dreadfully primitive class, which later makes Catherine
dreadfully and bewilderingly unable to marry him

though she is irretrievably in love with him.” While still

a boy, Heathcliff is not allowed to be in the same room
with the white people. He is regarded as filthy and vile,

in need of distancing himself away: “Joseph, you idiot!

Keep the fellow out of the room

—

send him into the

garret till dinner is over!” Not merely Heathcliff himself,

but everything Ethiopian or Moorish is oil-stained and
odiously gloomy.

This problem is noticeable later on, when Heathcliff
returned to the Yorkshire Moors as a newly rich, Edgar
Linton still suggested a more suitable place for him to

eat instead of the parlor: “William, I’ll make

winter take

the better place, and ’m’nand waves will the road be.”

High social status was not a prerequisite to enter high
society, a birthright of elegance and beauty, accessible
only to the white-skinned range of the English gentry.

Heathcliff’s stagnat

ion on the social scale symbolizes

(Periš, 2017). Still, he was the best illiterate. Before the
“mysterious” departure, Heathcliff was simply misused

after the death of Mr. Earnshaw in detail. As if the

reference to “the ploughboy” was not enough, a naked

bound slave was not yet true. After an intense heart

failure, “he drove him from their company to the

servants, deprived him of the instructions of the curate,

and insisted that he should labour outdoors instead.”

Even after the years of absence and despite his new

lofty countenance, Heathcliff is still referred to as “the
ploughboy.”

Comparisons with Jane Eyre

Analysing Wuthering Heights, one can understand that
the problem is not that of Heathcliff's low birth and
social position, but of the circumstance of the colour of
his skin. With his elaboration of the character of
Heathcliff, Brontë entered territory that had never
been plumbed by authors before. Heathcliff is not only
poor, uneducated and baseborn, but he is also black, of
an ethnic and social otherness that exceeds even those
classifications used before. Discourse constructed an
other that differed from the European norm in a
number of physical and cultural characteristics that, by
implication, were labelled as 'filthy', 'wild-looking' and
'dreadfully primitive'. Such an other was ideal for use in
melodrama and for the investigation of contradictions
in European identity. It was the basis for both
narcissistic fantasies by authors of personal physical
difference and for narratives of exclusion, violence and
domination. In Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff is
presented initially as an adopted child. Indeed, it is the
family's behavioural response to his appearance and
arrival that is crucial to determining his status as villain.
In defining Heathcliff, Brontë is drawing on a
schematisation of colonial space and subjects that was
new to England - that of race and racism. Given
Brontë's use of ideas and assumptions about race in
developing the characterisation, situations and plot of
Wuthering Heights, it is not surprising that there is
difficulty in locating his class position. Having earlier
racialised him as belonging to a filthy, wild-looking and
dreadfully primitive class, Brontë presents him as newly
rich and attempting to rise, which again fit more
unambiguously into class schematisation at the time.
But class was never sufficient to explain the
construction of Heathcliff. Heathcliff becomes, on
return to Wuthering Heights, an embodiment of the
notion of the 'guilty race'. People of colour were
suspected of being too passionate for loving, and
Heathcliff's obsessive pursuit of revenge against such a
passionate being as Catherine Earnshaw both confirms
these assumptions and reinforces fears about the
passion, danger and wildness of people of colour.

Social Discrimination in Victorian Literature

International Journal Of Literature And Languages

153

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International Journal Of Literature And Languages (ISSN: 2771-2834)

In this epistolary novel, an orphan of unknown origin is
adopted into a family of a higher social status. That
orphan was a foundling picked up from the streets of
London, whom Mr. Earnshaw had taken in while visiting
Liverpool. This boy of darker complexion, Heathcliff,

becomes an object of Hindley’s jealousy as a son cast

out of society. The story is narrated through the eyes of
Mrs. Dean, who is the housekeeper of the last member

of the Earnshaw clan, Hindley’s se

cond son Hareton, in

the Acton family manor. It seems that she belongs to a

lower social cast, just like Heathcliff’s former

counterpart in the Earnshaw family. However, despite
her low status, Mrs. Dean is well-versed in the arts, in
things that enhance human life. She, together with
Heathcliff, encloses the warm-hearted hybrid prologue
having the function of making their tragedies more

poignant. Heathcliff’s isolation from other characters

demonstrates that the problem lies in the color of his

skin (Periš

, 2017). While still a boy, Heathcliff has not

been allowed to be in the same room with the white
people that demonstrate the negative assumptions
about the people of color. Heathcliff, as well as the
others, are sitting next to the fire in the left-hand
corner, in the company of Joseph, the old carlen
servant. When Mr. Earnshaw died and Hindley was
appointed as a guardian, he treated Heathcliff as
worthless and commanded Joseph to keep Heathcliff
out of the room: "Joseph let down the bars and I took
the wretch to my care. Hindley and Isabella took their
seats, and showed you every sign of cordial and settled
house. I could have trodden on him, to hurt him, but
launching the iron-tongued horse-whip with perfect
annoyance upon Joseph I led him for somewhere like a
bogus or swine that had precluded bristles." No point

was quarrelled for Edgar Linton to ignore Heathcliff’s

superior social status and suggested the kitchen for
more suitable place for him to eat. The explanations
after Hindley excluded Heathcliff from the family rights
were exempted even in dialectic references. Not only
was Heathcliff representatively adopted into the high
status family, he was affectionately treated as the true
son by Mr. Earnshaw. In the present principle on which
options on courtesy are made, high social status were
not an obligatory prerequisite to enter the high society,
but being white-skinned was. Despite having superior

social status than Hareton, Heathcliff’s playing

-house

with Mr. Earnshaw’s watch

-dog, "I love thee." was

r

esponded with Hindley’s savage tyranny on Heathcliff,

"And I love my father, and I love my own people. Is that
wrong? Heathcliff strives to be part of the society that
negates him, died among "wails" instead of "whispers".

Heathcliff’s stagnation on the so

cial scale is

metaphorical of the social situation of the time.

Heathcliff’s inability to climb the social ladder

symbolizes the mid-century England where the

problems of race and slavery did not vanish with the
abolition of the slave trade in 1807 and emancipation
in 1833.

CONCLUSION

This paper identifies the major issues of social
discrimination in British society at the time the novel
was written and how these issues coincide with

Heathcliff’s life events. However, a specific focus is

placed on racial segregation, illustrating through

Heathcliff’s social stagnation that social standing was
not based solely on wealth but on one’s skin color and
ancestry (Periš, 2017). The case of Heathcliff’s

segregation from the rest of the family is not based on
his social class, but on his skin color. His exclusion from

all circles of social life is explicitly stated: “In the opinion

of all the Lintons, the Earhshaws, and everyone
connected with them, he was a vulgarly dressed, low-
vulgar man, which placed his imperfection above all

their flaws.” Heathcliff’s isolation from other

characters demonstrates that the problem lies in the
color of his skin, a thing that could not be changed or

altered: “From the very beginning of the novel

Heathcliff (. . .) is constructed in a subtly racist discourse
as belonging to a filthy, wild-looking and dreadfully
primitive class, which later makes Catherine dreadfully
and bewilderingly unable to marry him though she is

irretrievably in love with him.” While still a boy,

Heathcliff is not allowed to be in the same room with
the white people because of all the negative
assumptions about the people of color. Thus Hindley

commands Joseph to “keep the fellow out of the
room.” Only white people are allowed to banter and

play. The same problem is noticeable later on, when
Heathcliff returned to the Yorkshire Moors as a newly

rich, Edgar Linton still “suggested the kitchen as a more
suitable place for him” to eat. High social status was not

a prerequisite to enter the high society, but being
white-skinned was prerequisite to acquire the right to

be treated humanely. Heathcliff’s stagnation on the
social scale symbolizes “the mid

-century England

where the problems of race and slavery did not vanish

with emancipation.” The laws passed after t

he

abolition of slavery, which included penal servitude for
the people of color and civil death of the children born
out of wedlock, were a solid foundation for the
perseverance of ancient prejudices.

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