Dominant Gothic Elements in Wuthering Heights - the Only Novel by Emily Bronte =

Abstract

ABSTRACT

So far, Emily Bronte has been recognized as one of the best English authors with her masterpiece Wuthering Heights. With the aim of drawing a detailed and vivid “picture of analysis” of dominant Gothic elements appearing in the only novel by Emily Bronte, the study takes three main aspects of Wuthering Heights into consideration. Firstly, the setting of the work obviously should be the one representing the Gothicism distinctly. The author emphasizes the extreme landscapes and harsh weather through the eyes of an outsider – Lockwood. Gothic atmosphere is reflected in the isolation of the two houses from other societies and also the feelings of creep bringing about by the haunted castle. Secondly, the Gothic villain in Emily’s novel devotes his whole life to take revenge on people both in the Heights and the Grange as he believes they have wronged him. However, at last, everything he gains does not entertain him at all. The miserable mental life he has to suffer in the later part of the novel is definitely the revenge he takes on himself. The final significant element I consider in my thesis is how the author characterizes her heroines relying on traditional stereotypes of Gothic literature. What is noticeable is that despite depicting her heroines with several features that is similar with traditional ones, Emily Bronte finds a way to make hers distinctive, breaking the norm, beyond the cage of patriarchy. Emily gradually makes her female characters shift into more lively figures.