Abstract

This paper aims to supply a literary examination of Emily

Brontë’s Wuthering Heights that merges feminist and moralist
approaches. In view of obtaining a general overview of the
prevailing Victorian values, the characters will be analyzed on
the basis of whether their conducts are in accordance with the
expected behavioral patterns established by the Victorian
society or not. 

Keywords: Literature; Victorian Literature; Victorian Writers; Emily Brontë; Wuthering

Heights; Literary Criticism; Moralist Criticism; Feminist Criticism.

1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Feminist and Moralist Approach to the Victorian Era

First and foremost, a brief introduction to the Victorian era with regards to the
subordinate position that women held in society and the moral principles that prevailed in that
period will be given. The Victorian age is a historical period which dates back to 1820 and
developed until 1914, corresponding roughly with Queen Victoria’s rule. Throughout this time,
Britain was a remarkably powerful empire with growing status and economy (The Historical
Association, 2021); yet, this prosperity was accompanied by an inflexible code of morality
based on religious principles, outward appearance, and the concepts of dignity and
respectability (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2011).

In his work Victorian Values (1987), the professor of History at the Graduate School of
the City University of New York Gertrude Himmelfarb claims that the expression “manners and
morals'' is unmistakably Victorian, as both of them were intrinsically attached to the social
atmosphere of the time and the two of them are essential in the study of this historical period.
Although morals had long been turned into an elevated subject which had little to do with
anything mundane affairs such as manners, Victorians promoted the cultivation of the latter at
the expense of morality (Himmelfarb, 1987). Indeed, in Defence of the Victorians (1988)
Himmelfarb affirms that authors such as Thackeray and Trollope denounced how manners were
taking precedence over morals. Victorian society thought it no small virtue to protect and
maintain one’s appearance even while violating basic precepts of morality (Himmelfarb, 1987).
For this reason, experts such as Himmelfarb (1987) and Clements (1998) affirm that the term
“Victorian” is oftentimes associated with hypocrisy.

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 One of the main precepts ruling Britain at that time was the refusal to recognize the
actuality of sex, which was massively suppressed and concealed at the time (Encyclopedia
Britannica, 2011) and “there was increased discretion around sexual activity” (Weeks, 2017, p.
14). Nevertheless, the reality behind this sexual repression included prostitution, the spread of
venereal diseases, people who felt same-sex attraction, and as it is to be expected, women who
had sexual needs and desires (Stage, 1975). This side of reality was usually ignored or
disguised, for they were not aligned with Victorian morality. Sexual repression is illustrated in
several fragments of the novel which will be further discussed. 

Victorian society was characterized by its double-standard approach to sex that was
rarely ever questioned before the period came to an end. Victorians accepted and fully
acknowledged men’s sexual desires but failed to do the same with women (Encyclopedia
Britannica, 2011). Throughout this epoch, women were thought to be free of sexual needs and
they were expected to submit entirely to their husbands wishes. Moreover, Victorian morality
only accepted women’s sexual intercourses when they took place in order to fulfill their
husbands’ needs (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2011). Women’s sexual life was also heavily
associated with reproduction and childbirth, which were thought of as the main duty and
purpose of any woman of the time (Cott, 1978). Furthermore, females were considered to be
more delicate and to have more religious inclinations than men, which contributed to the
expectations regarding self-restraint placed on them. (Murdoch, 2013).

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica (2011), gender was thought to be utterly

determinative of most of the aspects involving a person’s behavior and actions during the
Victorian period. The ideology of “separate spheres” dominated all sections of society and
prevailed over all social classes. This doctrine was premised on the belief that males and
females are supposed to remain in different atmospheres and dedicate their lives to different
tasks. In conformity with Diana Cordea (2013, p. 117), “the philosophy of separate spheres
claimed that women were  best  equipped  for  the  private  or  domestic  realm,  while  men 
were  naturally  suited  to  the  active,  aggressive  and  intellectual  domains  of  public  life”. 

In The Victorian girl and the feminine ideal (2012, p. 4), a specialized teacher in
History and Women's Studies at Carleton University called Deborah Gorham states that “the
public sphere of business, politics and professional life was defined as the male sphere, whereas
the private sphere of love, the emotions and domesticity was defined as the sphere of women.”.
Thence, males were expected to take part in public life and they were allowed to receive formal
education and to participate in the fields of remunerated work and politics. Conversely, females
were expected to remain in the private spheres fulfilling their roles within the constraints of
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domesticity and family life (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2011). Thus, the character of Cathy will
be analyzed as it counterposes these stereotypical characteristics.

The ideal of the perfect lady in Victorian society involved sexual innocence and service
to the family unit. In the Victorian era, women’s lives were expected to be centered around
marriage, procreation, and family (Vicinus, 2013). Their mission was near the hearth of their
houses, where they were to wait as selfless and long-suffering creatures for their husbands.
Females were seen as companions of men and homemakers (Cordea, 2013). Unlike the heroine
or the ideal women prototypes of the past, who might display considerable spiritual force or
sensual power, considerable eroticism, elegance, and aristocratic grandeur, the Victorian
woman’s ideal features were those of gentleness, passiveness, and domesticity.  (Kollar, 2015).

From a feminist criticism perspective, this study is focused on the literary representation
of women within this period, and attention will be brought to works by female writers who have
been historically overlooked. Therefore, in order to analyze women writers and their writings
from a female perspective, this paper will focus on Emily Brontë’s novel Wuthering Heights.
This research seeks to address the imbalance that has traditionally persisted in favor of men's
writing and men's concerns, and it will focus on the condition of women within Victorian
society. In addition, it will be grounded in the assumption that women generally experience
subordination under patriarchy, an ideology that privileges masculine ways of thinking points of
view and marginalizes women politically, economically and psychologically. 

Following the bases of feminist literary criticism, the representation of women's

condition within literature and their position under Victorian patriarchy will be studied. In this
approach, the question of gender will be perceived as a social construction which draws a
distinction between what is “masculine” and what is “feminine”, being a product of culture and
social conditioning. As feminist criticism counts as an example of “hermeneutics of suspicion",
hidden ideologies or anomalies in the novel will be explored, rather than what it is said in the
text itself (Stewart, D. 1989). 

Conversely, the ethical or moral literary approach will be based on the Western
philosophies on ethics and morality. Thus, this paper will concentrate on Victorian principles to
decide what is right and wrong in society during this period. Values in justice involving
evaluations of fairness will be studied, both from a moralist and feminist standpoint. The basis
of virtue ethics will be followed in order to describe virtues associated with appropriate conduct
to form a righteous person taking gender into consideration. 

1.2 Introduction to Wuthering Heights

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 Wuthering Heights was published in 1847 by Emily Brontë under the pseudonym Ellis
Bell, probably in an attempt to avoid unfair critical reception in a historical period in which
women writers were not acknowledged as male authors were (Gawthrop, 2002). As Isaac
D’Israeli stated in Calamities of Authors (2019, p. 106), “of all the sorrows in which the female
character may participate, there are few more affecting than that of an Authoress.” 

In the 19th century it was still extremely hard for women to experience success in the
literary field, since the literary canon in Western literature was a white male-dominated
marketplace.  (Gawthrop, 2002). For this reason, in the early mid-Victorian era, anonymous
publications and the use of pseudonyms enabled many women to start their writing careers
without being conditioned by their feminine identity (Peterson, 2015). This also allowed them to
broaden the scope of topics they could choose for their writing, as many of them were
conventionalized as “masculine topics” which were beyond the domains of femenine analysis
and writing (D’israeli, 2019).

The fact that Brontë herself had first-hand experience facing the patriarchy and trying to
make a way to escape the limitations imposed on women might explain the presence of feminist
undertones in some elements of the story in the novel. Without the use of a pseudonym, the
novel would have most likely been met with harsh criticism, especially considering the many
ways in which the novel presents a defiant and even rebellious attitude towards the standardized
values which dominated all spheres of Victorian society. 

With a view to introduce the novel, a brief summary on it will be provided. The story is
narrated by Lockwood, a tenant, and by Nelly Dean, the housekeeper who witnessed the events
involving the destinies of the Earnshaw and the Linton families. Their stories begin with the
arrival of Heathcliff to the Heights as he was fostered by Mr. Earnshaw. After the death of the
latter, his son Hindley humiliates young Heathcliff, fueling his ferocious nature which finds its
complement in Catherine, Hindley’s sister. However, after overhearing her saying that marrying
him would degrade her, he leaves the house and does not return until three years later to find his
beloved married to Edgar Linton.

Heathcliff takes residence in the Heights, where Hindley lives with his son Hareton.
Heathcliff marries Linton’s sister, Isabella, whom he ill-treats and with whom he has a son also
named Linton. This marital union leads to a deterioration of Catherine’s health, who eventually
dies after giving birth to her daughter Cathy. After Linton's death, Heathcliff forces Cathy to

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marry his son to become the new master of the mansion of the Linton family. Heathcliff yearns
continually to be reunited with Catherine after his death. 

2. OBJECTIVES
2.1 Objectives Involving the Feminist Perspective
 Explore the Victorian ideals of masculinity and femininity within the novel from a
feminist approach. Hence, the reversal of gender roles concerning the characters of
Linton and Cathy will be discussed.
 Illustrate the constraints imposed on women when trying to get out of the private
sphere.
 Examine how domestic violence was collectively overlooked in Victorian society from
a feminist perspective. 
 Provide a brief analysis of the figure of Catherine from a feminist viewpoint. 

2.2 Objectives Involving the Moral Perspective

 Explore the Victorian ideals of masculinity and femininity within the novel and
Victorian society from a moralist approach. 
 Illustrate the moral ideal of women within the private sphere and its role as the Angel of
the House.
 Examine how domestic violence was collectively overlooked in Victorian society from
a moralist approach and the nonexistence of this term in this period.
 Provide a brief analysis of the figure of Heathcliff as the embodiment of the opposition
to behavioral standards induced by the religious morality of the period.

3. METHODOLOGY
The literary work analyzed in this paper has aroused the interest of numerous authors
and scholars whose area of study is that of feminism and morality. The attitudes displayed by
the characters of the novel have long been studied in order to make contemporary readers fully
understand the repressive values which prevailed in Victorian England and how these were
particularly stringent for women. Thereby, the purpose of doing the research which enabled the
completion of this paper is based on the value that we, as a modern society, can extract from
analyzing the oppression and the ambivalent morality which dictated how people just a couple
of centuries ago. A considerable number of people might be inclined to believe that such a
suffocating system is completely out of the question in today’s world; however, the evaluation
of such patterns of behavior might reveal that many of these values have left traces which are

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still perceptible in our current society. For this reason, the judgements and conclusions drawn
by scholarly figures should be studied and regarded as something of special interest if we wish
to identify the traces of male-chauvinistic beliefs and hypocritical morality in order to eradicate
them for good. 

Although the extremely domineering and despotic behavior which was directed towards
Victorian women is not present today in an open way, it is possible to identify many collective
attitudes and beliefs which are rooted in the oppressive values of Victorian times. Literary
works such as Wuthering Heights expose the reality behind the apparently prudent and sensible
nature of Victorian morality. The interpretation and investigation conducted by scholars have
brought to light the hypocrisy that characterized this society and the detrimental effect that it
had on a sizable number of Victorians. In this case, Catherine Earnshaw stands as the
embodiment of the damage that such a society can have on the psyche of a human whose
decisions are conditioned by external factors such as other people’s expectations or the fear of
losing one’s reputation in a hypercritical environment such as Victorian England. 

When analyzing Brontë’s work, doing previous research on the historical context in
which it was written is of the utmost importance. Thereby, the first steps taken when beginning
to develop this paper involved reading official documentation about the Victorian age. The
information gathered was later used to view the characters and their actions through a different
lens. It is not possible to judge their decisions properly without the knowledge about the
mindset of Victorians, for human action is heavily influenced by the environment in which the
individual lives and the values which have been instilled into him or her by their elders. This
means that it would not be fair to expect the same behavior from a Victorian man than from any
other person raised in a different country and with a different set of values. Therefore, gathering
data about this particular historical period is crucial when undertaking the task of examining the
characters of a novel such as the one analyzed in this paper and what each of them represents
and reveals about the mentality of that time. 

After acquiring a decent amount of knowledge about the Victorian era, it was necessary
to investigate different scholars’ interpretations of general themes which are central to the work
and how these relate to the morality of the period in which the story is set. Many of these
themes revolve around the concepts of masculinity and femininity and the diverse connotations
that they carried. The expectations and responsibilities thrust upon each sex guided the way in
which the men and women of this period lived their lives, and this has long been established as
one of the major pillars of Victorian morality. any individual who did not conform to the social
rules imposed on each sex was forced to become an outcast, an outsider to society, someone
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with no reputation or respectability. Hence researching the connotations associated to each sex
was absolutely essential when analyzing this work from a feminist and moral point of view. 

Reading scholars’ ideas about this specific novel was also imperative in order to fully
grasp what each of the characters embodies and how they delineate many of the patterns of
behavior which were rampant in Victorian England.  This contributed to the development of
crucial points discussed in this paper such as the one that asserts that although Heathcliff has
traditionally been regarded as the absolute villain of the novel, due to the morality that prevailed
at that time, Victorian society would have upheld many of his abusive behaviors such as the
ones directed towards his own wife. Observations such as this one were enabled by the study of
information provided by official websites, documents, books, and papers. 

The main source of information used in the research required by this paper has been that
of official papers found online. Since Wuthering Heights has been thoroughly analyzed ever
since its publication, there are a myriad of documents which have been made available to the
public and which contain highly valuable interpretations of the work and of the Victorian Age.
These analyses have proved very helpful when researching the way in which other interpreters
belonging to the academic world have viewed the plot of the story and the details that permeate
each scene and that reveal information about morality and the extremely patriarchal society
which governed England during Victorian times. Once this information about the historical
period, the novel itself, and the criticisms of scholars was gathered and presented in the paper,
certain fragments of the novel were selected specifically to illustrate the points of interest to the
feminist and moralist viewpoints that have been used throughout the analysis. 
 
4. FEMINIST AND MORAL ANALYSIS
This section will provide a literary criticism of the Victorian novel Wuthering Heights
(1847) by Emily Brontë from a general feminist viewpoint and a moral one. As mentioned
before in the second section, the objectives of the feminist analysis aim to provide a contrast
between the Victorian ideals of masculinity and femininity, and the reversal of roles within
some selected fragments in the novel. Particularly, the characters of Catherine, Cathy and
Linton will illustrate how Brontë shifts men’s and women’s roles in order to denounce a
situation where gender division is prominent. In order to discuss Victorian morality, a contrast
between man/woman and moral /immoral will be provided. 

Further, the third point will provide an examination on female characters’ freedom to
make choices throughout the evolution of the plot, along with domestic violence by Heathcliff
on Isabella. The vision of domestic violence as a natural and usual act will be reflected in

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Nelly’s reaction. Indeed, the figure of Heathcliff will be relevant from a religious perspective.
Religious morality will be reflected in Heathcliff’s behavior, and an analysis on how his actions
would be considered in Victorian society if he were a woman will be provided. To bring this
section to a conclusion, the evil actions and behaviors of Heathcliff and Catherine will be
analyzed from a Victorian religious standpoint.

4.1 Masculinity and Femininity

Victorian ideals of femininity followed Rousseau's thoughts, which agrees that “woman
ought to be weak and passive, because she has less bodily strength than man; and hence infers,
that she was formed to please and to be subject to him; and that it is her duty to render herself
agreeable to her master- this being the grand end of her existence.” (Perdones, 2019, p. 4). Little
Catherine’s description distances from the feminine characteristics and behavior a woman was
required to maintain. From an early age, girls were educated to fulfill their roles as future wives
and mothers, and they were thought to be weaker.

In 1887, a writer for a Victorian magazine explained that a baby-girl offers sweetness,
tenderness and delicateness, while a man-child has more possibilities of strength, power and
ambition (Gorham, 2012). The words presented in this magazine represent this socially accepted
division of gender and girl’s education in passiveness and submissiveness:

 “The daughter who is to lift the burden of domestic cares and make them
unspeakably lighter by taking her share of them; the sister who is to be a little
mother to her brothers and sisters; the future wife and mother in her turn, she
is the owner of a destiny which may call on her to endure much and to suffer
much, but which, as it also bids her love much . . . is well worthy of an
immortal creature . . .” (Gorham, 2012, p. 5).

In Wuthering Heights (1847), Emily Brontë challenges the ideals of Victorian

femininity and masculinity as a way of questioning the attributes assigned to gender. Chapters
five and twenty-four clearly instantiate a reversal of gender roles. From her very childhood,
Catherine’s ways are out of feminine values imposed on the figure of woman during Queen
Victoria’s rule. Particularly, in chapter five the narrative voice claims that Catherine “had ways
with her such as I never saw a child take up before” (Brönte, 1847, p. 52). An analysis of this
issue from a feminist and moral perspective is essential, since Cathy is portrayed as an active
girl because “her spirits were always at high-water mark” and she was talkative, hence “her
tongue always going - singing, laughing, and plaguing everybody who would not do the same.”
(Brönte, 1847, p. 52).

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 Further to this, it is relevant to research the description of Catherine’s male-like
behavior. She is presented as a wild, disrespectful and fickle girl, and she enjoyed annoying and
dominating others. She is described as “a wild, wicked slip she was (...) for when once she made
you cry in good earnest” “it seldom happened that she would not keep you company, and oblige
you to be quiet so that you might comfort her” (Brönte, 1847, p. 52). She had fun by
misbehaving and being the center of attention, challenging others with her naughty look and
ridiculing Joseph’s religious words: “she was never so happy as when we were all scolding her
at once, and she defying us with her bold, saucy look, and her ready words; turning Joseph’s
religious curses into ridicule, baiting me, and doing just what her father hated most.” (Brontë,
1847, p. 53).

At a time when girls were expected to submit to the will of their fathers and brothers in
order to adhere to Victorian morality, Catherine challenged the patriarchal figures in the house
(Kollar, 2005). A feminist perspective would find this interesting as Catherine won’t allow
herself to be controlled by the patriarchal constraints her father tries to impose, and implies her
awareness that the patriarchy itself is an unjust and hypocritical system (Almeida, 2011). Hence,
one might say that the character of Cathy has the power to dominate men, and Victorian
morality found this to be unethical since women were viewed as “weak and naïve creatures who
should submit to the dictates of men” (Kollar, 2005, p. 13). 

In chapter twenty-four, Linton and Cathy’s perfect day and their idea of happiness are
clearly controversial according to Victorian ideology. In the words of Cathy, “he wanted all to
lie in an ecstasy of peace; I wanted all to sparkle and dance in a glorious jubilee. I said his
heaven would be only half alive; and he said mine would be drunk: I said I should fall asleep in
his; and he said he could not breathe in mine, and began to grow very snappish.” (Brontë, 1847,
p. 314). 

A number of authors have discussed the unconventional features of these characters. In

“Wuthering Heights: Curioser and Curioser” (2011), Amy E. Almeida studies the change of
roles of Linton and Cathy in the novel. As specified by this researcher, Linton is the submissive
personality and complies with Catherine’s every whim and demand. This is exactly how a
woman should behave in a patriarchal society. According to Gilbert and Gubar (2000, p. 23),
“from the eighteenth century on, conduct books for ladies had proliferated, enjoining young
girls to submissiveness, modesty, self-lessness; reminding all women that they should be
angelic”. 

Challenging Victorian morality, Cathy enjoys drunkenness, liveness and activeness, and
her preference was “rocking in a rustling green tree, with a west wind blowing, and bright white

9
clouds flitting rapidly above; and not only larks, but throstles, and blackbirds, and linnets, and
cuckoos pouring out music on every side, and the moors seen at a distance, broken into cool
dusky dells; woods and sounding water, and the whole world awake and wild with joy.”
(Brontë, 1847, p. 314). 

This character does not follow the ideal of how a “good” girl should be, but instead, she
behaves immorally. It is of interest to analyze Cathy’s desire to drink, since this practice was
restricted to men, and women hardly drank outside the private sphere. As Warsh (1993, p. 88)
reports, ethical values in Victorian society described female alcoholics as “the most degraded of
women…morally, socially, and physiologically”. On the contrary, women were believed to
have maternal instincts and sensibilities that would, and should, deter them from indulging in
liquor. (Skelly, 2008). 

Nevertheless, Linton is not presented as masculine character, yet he enjoys peace,

passiveness and calmness. In contrast to Heathcliff, Edgar is presented as an effeminate
person since his illness feminizes his character. The Historian (2017) reports that “Victorian
masculinity can be outlined as an ideology of spirituality and earnestness between 1837 and
1870, which changed to one of strength and stoicism from 1870”. Pivotal aspects of manliness
in Victorian society were physical strength, athleticism, virility, stoicism, power and activeness.
Besides, they were required to be unemotional, strong, sexually dominant and violent (The
Historian, 2017). This analysis of Linton's perfect day is based on the quotation below.

“He said the pleasantest manner of spending a hot July day was
lying from morning till evening on a bank of heath in the middle of
the moors, with the bees humming dreamily about among the
bloom, and the larks singing high up overhead, and the blue sky and
bright sun shining steadily and cloudlessly” (Brontë, 1847, p. 313). 

As stated by Quinn (2014, p. 3), “the Brontës’ portrayal of men emulates the anxieties
surrounding the shift from Romantic to Victorian values of manliness, ultimately rejecting any
stable definition of the nineteenth-century man.”. Hence, Emily Brontë’s portrayal of Edgar
Linton as a female-like character is a way of challenging Victorian morality, since it was not
usual for men to behave and act just as women were expected to. Similarly, as moral and
feminist analysis are closely connected, Brontë’s description of female characters' show a desire
to question women's place in society. In the same way, the author points out inequality in
Victorian society, putting women at the same level as men and mocking the idea of gender
roles. 

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 4.2 Domestic Violence

The disgraceful and shameful side of family life was often repressed, hidden, and
ignored in Victorian times (Dodenhoff & Paces, 2008). The oppressive constrictions and
limitations that kept women within the private sphere, domestic violence, quarrels, and scenes
of masters seducing or abusing their housewives were not represented in literature nor in the
arts; the issues affecting women were not addressed at all. (Dodenhoff & Paces, 2008). This
neglectful attitude towards women’s suffering and lack of rights and freedoms contributed to the
continuation of the values and rules that dominated and conditioned their lives (Vicinus, 2013).
They were supposed to embrace and act according to the Victorian principles, and even if their
lives were marked by distress or dissatisfaction, they were almost forced to put on a facade and
pretend that married life was a source of bliss and fulfillment (Vicinus, 2013). 

In chapter twenty-four, it could be implicitly deduced that Heathcliff abused physically

on Isabella. In Victorian society, spousal abuse was usual in the lower-class community, even
though domestic violence existed at all social levels (Dodenhoff & Paces, 2008). Consideration
must be given to Nelly’s response to Isabella: “Hush, hush! He’s a human being,’ I said. “Be
more charitable: there are worse men than he is yet!” (Brontë, 1847, p. 220). Nelly’s reaction
clearly reflects Victorian sexist values and the clear concern for being respectful towards
Victorian morality. Therefore, Nelly considers that there are worse men than Heathcliff despite
Heathcliff’s violence and aggressiveness towards Isabella “he was worked up to forget the
fiendish prudence he boasted of, and proceeded to murderous violence” (Wuthering Heights,
1847, p. 220).

It is worth noting how this character seems to embody or represent the full integration
of Victorian morality, for she does not question the way in which Heathcliff behaves within the
confines of domesticity. Like the majority of the Victorian population, Nelly seems to submit
her personal beliefs to the patriarchal values that penetrate all sections of society. Therefore,
Isabella sees escaping from her household as the only possible form of putting an end to the
abuse that she has been experiencing ever since she got married. If Victorian society had
acknowledged the reality behind this aggressive and male-chauvinistic behavior that oppressed
women and favored their husbands, Isabella would have had the opportunity to seek help from
her acquaintances; but since this was not the case, she was forced to leave on her own without
asking for help from her loved ones. 

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 In “He Could Not Hold His Passions: Domestic Violence and Cohabitation in England”
(2008, p. 5), Ginger Frost remarks that “Victorian men wished to be ‘masters in their own
house,’ and did not hesitate to use violence if they could not achieve mastery any other way”.
The feminist perspective finds this relevant because violence sows the seeds of men’s desire to
assert masculinity and their dominion over women, as in the hierarchy of society women are in
a subordinate position to men. 

Throughout the Victorian era, institutions exemplified the morality of the times, which
considered marriage as a negotiable relationship in which gender was clearly distinguished, and
showed a huge discretion over sentencing (Komorowski, 2014). Generally accepted, while
women expect men to indulge in alcohol and their temper, men expect women to obey and not
complain about their actions (Frost, 2008). As a justification for the violent behavior of men
towards women, “juries also sometimes considered women’s behavior provoking if they did not
behave like wives, even though they had taken no vows of obedience” (Frost, 2008, p. 7). In
addition, husbands usually put the blame on their wifes who, according to them, incited them to
act in an aggressive way (Komorowski, 2014).

4.3 Women’s Will in the Victorian Patriarchy 

Not wishing to marry and opting for a single life was considered a heretical position for
a Victorian woman, and the few females that did choose this path had little to no visibility at the
time (Smith, 2001). Nonetheless, until the mid-17th century marriages were often arranged by
parents or trustees, but during Victorian ages women had the opportunity to choose their fiancée
(Yuchkovich, 2018). In Wuthering Heights, Catherine married wealthy Edgar Linton despite her
love for Heathcliff.  Very few artists chose the theme of the rejected man as the central element
to their works (Vicinus, 2013). Hence it was not at all normalized and the females who desired
to reject a suitor and live as independent women often felt pressured to give in and eventually
accept a man as her life companion and husband (Vicinus, 2013).

In the novel, Heathcliff’s aggressive attitude towards his wife Isabella is not met with
complete submissiveness and acceptance on the part of the woman, for she resorts to escaping
from their marital home and leaves her husband on his own without offering an explicit
explanation (Haque, 2012). From a feminist perspective, Isabella’s reaction to the prolonged
mistreatment on the part of her husband can be seen as a rebellious attitude which challenged
the rigid Victorian mentality of the time. Even though she told Nelly “I ought and wished to
remain (...) to cheer Edgar and take care of the baby” (Brontë, 1847, p. 219) and she is aware of
her role as wife and mother, she decided to escape from him and start a new life together with

12
her son: “I contrived a clear escape; and therefore, I must get quite away” (Brontë, 1847, p.
219).

From a moralist approach, the fact that she opts for fleeing from her household and finding a
new place in a different city instead of verbalizing the reality of her life inside Wuthering
Heights to ask for help reflects the way in which the topics of marital issues and domestic
violence were hidden and never discussed openly. The fact that women’s place was morally and
physically restricted to the private sphere contributed to social unrest in women leaving their
duties aside, considering that “the law in England was designed to protect marriage, and made
divorce or separation very difficult to obtain.” (Dodenhoff, & Paces, 2008). Marriage limited
women's rights even more because they lost their property such as money, land, material goods,
etc. Consequently, their husbands had control over their possessions and women were expected
to fulfill their responsibilities. (Bleser, 1991). Because she is a married woman, the social
disapproval caused by her departure would be even worse.

4.4 Religious Morality in the Novel

Since most of the narrative voices, such as that of Lockwood, and both primary and
secondary characters such as Joseph, describe events and other characters of the story in
religious terms, the prevalence of religion and Christian principles in Wuthering Heights has
long been discussed by critics. Lockwood himself, despite being a secondary character in the
novel, introduces biblical concepts, for instance, through his dreams (Bell, 1962).

In his first dream, Lockwood hears a preacher delivering a sermon entitled “Seventy
Times Seven and the First of the Seventy-First”, which alludes to Matthew 18: 21-22, a passage
in which Peter asks Jesus, “Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till
seven times?” (English Standard Version Bible, 2001), to which he answered “I say not unto
thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.” (English Standard Version Bible,
2001). The very title of the sermon, therefore, poses the question of the existence of an
unpardonable sin (Bell, 1962). This dream of an unforgivable mistake becomes increasingly
relevant and symbolic as it is followed by a second dream in which Lockwood sees a young
Catherine, appearing from an outcast outside of the household as she attempts to gain entrance
(Bell, 1962). 

According to Professor Edgar Shannon’s critical interpretation (1959), the connection

between these two dreams seems to suggest that Catherine became an outcast, an exile, a
“fallen” figure as she committed the unforgivable sin by denying her natural affinity and love

13
for Heathcliff and marrying Edgar Linton. Furthermore, in chapter 9 there is a conversation
between Catherine and Nelly which is particularly relevant when analyzing religious matters in
the novel, as it poses questions involving the nature of hell and heaven more urgently than in
any other speeches included in English novels: 

"If I were in heaven, Nelly, I should be extremely miserable...I dreamt

once that I was there [and] that heaven did not seem to be my home,
and I broke my heart with weeping to come back to earth; and the
angels were so angry that they flung me out into the middle of the
heath on the top of Wuthering Heights, where I woke sobbing for joy."
(Brontë, 1847, p. 102)

In The Madwoman in the Attic (2004), Gilbert & Gubar discuss that this clear rejection
of heaven can be interpreted as a rebellious attitude on the part of Catherine against the
fixedness of the religious values that dictated the social rules and the code of conduct that
conditioned Victorians’ lives. Satan too, especially when portrayed as a Byronic hero in John
Milton's “Paradise Lost”, has long been regarded as a participant in the novel (Gilbert & Gubar,
2004). He is mentioned repeatedly throughout the story and one of the protagonists, Heathcliff,
is heavily associated with him on multiple occasions, as his own wife does in chapter 13
(Gilbert & Gubar, 2004). At this moment in the novel, Nelly is reading Isabella’s letter in which
she tells her about her stay at Wuthering Heights. Isabella describes Heathcliff as an evil and
heartless person, and she tells Nelly: "Is Mr. Heathcliff a 'man? If so, is he mad? And if not, is
he a devil?". (Brontë, 1847, p. 174).

Another aspect of the novel which is worth noting when analyzing the religious motifs
in the novel is the fact that Catherine is depicted throughout the whole story as a rebellious and
mischievous female character, suggesting that she presents the characteristics of the archetypal
“fallen woman”. (Oda, 2010). This stereotype was associated with women who did not act in
accordance with the set of rules and codes of behavior imposed on the figure of the horouable
19th-century woman. This label has its origins rooted in the concept of the “fall from grace”
from the Book of Genesis (English Standard Version Bible, 2001). Therefore, fallen women
such as Catherine were believed to be of a lesser respectability due to their unwillingness to
comply with Victorian values. They were seen as women who had lost their highly prized
innocence, which was considered to be of the utmost importance with respect to women’s
public reputation in Victorian morality. 

The novel presents Victorian morals in a way which helps the readers to understand
how closely linked these were to religious ideals, particularly, to Christian values. When
analyzing the way in which the ideal woman is described in the Bible, one can see how these

14
impositions exert a considerable influence upon the expectations that conditioned Victorian
women’s lives. As one can see in 1 Timothy 2: 9-15, the instructions for women in the Bible are
explicit and straightforward: 

“I also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety,
adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or
expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess
to worship God. A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do
not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be
quiet.  For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one
deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. But
women will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love
and holiness with propriety.” (English Standard Version Bible, 2001,
Timothy. 2:9-15)

These values based on modesty, self-denial, sacrifice, and servitude were used in
Victorian times to judge the respectability and decency of women; and this collective mindset in
clearly reflected in the novel, particularly through the way in which Catherine is portrayed and
how the rest of the characters regard her attitude and decisions. (Oda, 2010). Since she
embodies a form of rebellion against the standards and restrictions that Victorian women had to
accept and use as their guiding principles, she is depicted as a dishonorable woman who
deserves the madness and suffering that follows after her decisions regarding her love life. 

In his doctoral dissertation entitled Heaven and Hell:Emily Brontë's vision of an earthly
heaven and hell in Wuthering Heights with a Miltonic comparison (2012), K.J. Pálmadóttir
discusses this idea. He argues that, in Milton´s poem, Satan is depicted as a figure who presents
characteristics of a hero and a villain at the same time. These same qualities are attributed to
Heathcliff, which creates a strong link between the two characters. The two of them share the
very same desire to ravage “heavenly hierarchy”. Additionally, both feel as if they have been
scorned; hence their need for revenge. Their destructiveness can be seen as a  result of their
sense of pride (Pálmadóttir, 2012). 

For this reason, both of them have been long studied as villains who exert their
influences in evil ways but whose wrongdoings are rooted in emotional wounds or sufferings
from the past. In addition, Heathcliff presents many attitudes which were regarded as morally
unacceptable in the Victorian period. For this reason, he is attributed with features of both a
hero and a villain. The following fragment presents an instance in which Heathcliff commits
what at that time and even nowadays is considered an atrocity: 

15
 “I disturbed nobody, Nelly,’ he replied; ‘and I gave some ease to myself. I
shall be a great deal more comfortable now; and you’ll have a better chance
of keeping me underground, when I get there. Disturbed her? No! she has
disturbed me, night and day, through eighteen years incessantly remorse-
lessly till yesternight; and yesternight I was tranquil. I dreamt I was sleeping
the last sleep by that sleeper, with my heart stopped and my cheek frozen
against hers.” (Brontë, 1847, pp. 364-365)

 The parallelism between the two characters is clearly illustrated by the similarities
between one of Satan’s utterances in “Paradise Lost” and one of Heathcliff’s statements in
chapter 6 of Wuthering Heights (Pálmadóttir, 2012). Both line 263 of “Paradise Lost” “Better to
reign in Hell, than to serve in Heav’n” and Heathcliff’s words in chapter 6 “I’d not exchange,
for a thousand lives, my condition here, for Edgar Linton’s at Thrushcross Grange” expose the
characters’ determination to reject all forms of yielding to a fixed hierarchy, embracing
obedience, and submitting to an uncontrollable fate (Pálmadóttir, 2012). If this parallelism
between the two characters is studied from a religious-morality point of view, it can be argued
that the figure of Heathcliff is infused with the most negative connotations available in the
Christian tradition, which are those associated with Satan.

5. CONCLUSION
When considering the information that is nowadays available regarding the reality of
the Victorian society that is central to the novel written by Emily Brontë, it can be argued that
the characters of the story illustrate many of the patriarchal and male chauvinistic aspects which
dominated the England of the 19th century. Furthermore, the plot of the novel also reveals some
relevant aspects about the morality which prevailed at that time and the expected behaviour
associated to each sex. For this reason, moral and feminist criticism have been combined to
study the actions of the characters and what they reveal about Victorians. Some particular
fragments of the novel have been used for illustrative purposes so as to analyze the predominant
mentality or the collective mindset that marked the Victorian period. 

Specific data about the historical period in which the novel is set allows the readers to
grasp many of the choices and attitudes that the main characters present throughout the story.
As it has been stated in the previous sections, the society of this time in history promoted
discipline, family values, prudishness, self-restraint, and the moral code fostered by
Christianity. Victorian society was heavily characterized by an hypocritical set of values which
were chiefly focused on the concepts of respectability, dignity, and reputation; Victorians were
usually willing to employ varied means to reach a higher position in society and oftentimes,

16
ethical values were transgressed in order to ascend in the social scale. The plot of the novel
contains many instances in which the characters infringe the moral rules and codes of behavior
dictated by Victorian society. 

Many of these transgressions can be analyzed not only from a moral point of view, but
also from a feminist perspective that brings to light the inequality between men and women
during the time in which the novel is set. According to Victorian morality, the two main female
characters, Catherine and Cathy, were expected to fulfill some particular roles and meet certain
expectations which were never placed upon males. Furthermore, as has been discussed above,
men during the Victorian Age were allowed to impose their authority on women, especially on
their wives, as has been illustrated by the case of domestic violence exerted by Heathcliff. Yet,
when women dared to defy the social rules imposed on them with the purpose of escaping from
the abuse perpetrated by their male relatives, they are regarded as indecorous.

Double-standards were also rampant in Victorian society and the author portrayed this
side of the society in which she lived through the characters of the novel. The morality of the
time dictated different values for males and females and determined that they inherently
belonged to different spheres. This is illustrated in the plot of the story, especially through the
reactions of certain characters to the actions or decisions made by others. It is particularly
striking the way in which Catherine is portrayed as a mad woman who has lost her sanity
without even taking into consideration the possibility of her mental state as a direct consequence
of the rules which have been imposed on her and the decisions that she has made in order to
follow societal patterns and meet the expectations placed upon Victorian women of her social
class. Moreover, the novel exposes how aggressive behavior towards women within the
confines of domesticity was normalized and widely accepted.

In light of the arguments presented, it can be concluded that this literary work offers an
insight into the reality of Victorian society which was often concealed and given a facade of
moral righteousness and discipline. Yet, the actuality behind the self-constraint and the
strictness that characterized this period is one of underlying repression and oppression meant to
maintain a positive reputation among the rest of the members of society. It also allows the
readers to reflect upon how this severe execution of self-restraint applied in an attempt to fit into
society in which one lives can have detrimental consequences and promote the perpetuation of
unfair behaviors such as the patriarchal and chauvinistic mentality that dominated the lives of
both men and women in Victorian society. Although these heavily destructive values are not as
predominant in today’s world, there are still numerous traces of this old-fashioned and highly
pernicious mindset in our current society. Some women are still conditioned by the mentality
17
which dictates the way in which they should act; therefore, an analysis of literary classics such
as Wuthering Heights can be particularly helpful when it comes to analyzing the patterns that
have been perpetuated throughout history and which must be changed if equality between sexes
is to be achieved. 
 

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