GOTHIC ELEMENTS IN WUTHERING HEIGHTS
Flávia Aparecida Ribeiro Teixeira"
SINOPSE: The Gothic Genre and the Romanticism. Demonstration of the finite and
tragically self-consuming nature of passion. Gothic-romantic elements in Wuthering
Heights. The new generation. The shift from the dark to the plausible.
This paper aims at showing the gothic elements in a novel written in 1847 
Wuthering Heights  by Emily Brontë. It is a story of a wild passion in which gothicism
runs simultaneously to Romanticism.
The gothic style consists on a kind of literature which features supernatural
elements encounters, crumbling ruins, moonless nights, and grotesque imagery, seeking to
create effects of mystery and fear. Ambiguity, chaos, darkness, irrationality and secrecy are
usually present in the gothic novels. They generally show a life of pain, destruction and fear
that shadow feelings of love, reason and morality among others.
Tales of recuperation or reparation and resistance to loss find in the Gothic an
adequate way of expression.  The desire to be terrified is as much part of the human nature
as the need to laugh. This has been recognized for as long as stories have been told
(HENESSY, 1978, p. 7).
The late eighteenth century was dominated by the gothic novel, in which the
supernatural plays the role. It was one aspect in the literature of the eighteenth century
which ran parallel to the Romantic movement. In fact, it is appropriate to say that, at times,
Gothic qualities appear to be a characteristic of Romanticism, which was, in part, one of the
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Aluna do Curso de Especializaçćo em DocÄ™ncia em Língua Inglesa do CES/JF, especialista em Língua
Inglesa pela Faculdade de Filosofia, CiÄ™ncias e Letras de Além Paraíba. Professora orientadora: Cecy Barbosa
Campos.
reasons for the decline of the former as a genre, since some of its aspects were absorbed by
the latter. Even later, in the early nineteenth-century prose fiction, the Gothic appears in
different ways.
Due to the facts mentioned above, the great Emily Brontë s novel Wuthering
Heights is often considered a gothic-romantic story for it is satured with some of those
typical aspects of the Gothicism. Its great theme is the finite and tragically self-consuming
nature of passion. A doomed love and a desolate landscape can also be highlighted in
Brontë s novel.
The fantastic and the supernatural are easily found. In Wuthering Heights, Gothic
features are an extension of the Romantic content. Examples are the terrifying dreams, the
appearances of Cathy as a ghost, her haunting of Heathcliff after her death, the suggestion
of Heathcliff as a diabolic figure in possession of black magic, the frequent occurrence of
bad weather, and visits to the graveyard, all connected to a doomed love theme. Moreover,
throughout the novel, the frequent hallucinations of Catherine and Heathcliff occur at
moments of great emotion, passion and suffering. Both of them develop illness and
starvation due to psychological disturbances.
For three days, Catherine did not leave her room. She refused to eat. On the third day
she opened the door and asked for food and water. She said she was dying. I believed
no such thing at first, as she ate and ate what I brought her. But she became feverish,
then violent. Her mind started to wander. She imagined she was a child again, back at
Wuthering Heights. Then she was by the churchyard, with Heathcliff (BRONTË, 1977,
p. 42)
Brontë s Heathcliff has strong resemblances to horror stories characters. He is a
depressive tormented man who never stops mourning. Always haunted by the past, he
cultivates a self-hate. More than that, Heathcliff believes in  evil spirits to which he is
constantly compared. His pain and cruelty causes hate and suffering to others. Although
Heathcliff is considered to be a  damned spirit , he is not more than a victim of himself. He
seems to be unkillable, but dies from within, willing his own death, since he can not marry
Catherine. Heathcliff remains fixed to a darkly romantic past till he is unresistingly drawn
to death.
Heathcliff presides a range of darksome episodes: he beats and kicks the fallen
Hindley, he throws a knife at Isabella, he savagely slaps young Catherine, he does not
trouble to summon a doctor for his dying son, as he no longer has any use for him.
Heathcliff grinds his victims beneath his feet like worms just like any other gothic character
in the most traditional horror stories. Nelly, the narrator, tells us what had happened to
Heathcliff s wife:  Isabella would not stay long with Heathcliff. A few days after my visit,
she arrived at Thrushcross Grange, out of breath and bleeding. Heathcliff had thrown a
knife at her; she had escaped and run all the way to the Grange (BRONTË, 1977, p. 47 )
As important as the aspects already mentioned above, as in many other works of
gothic fiction, ghosts frequently appear throughout Wuthering Heights, although the way
they are presented does not make it clear if they are real ghosts or simple hallucinations.
Although, in some passages, they seem to be more realistic, such as Catherine s spirit as a
child when it appears to Mr. Lockwood in chapter III may be explained as nightmares. He
says, horrified:  My fingers closed on the fingers of a little ice-cold hand! The intense
horror of nightmares came over me: I tried to draw back my arm, but the hand clung to it!
(BRONTË, 1977, p. 20 )
In this extract, Lockwood, a shadowy character himself, thought to have had a
dream but it is so realistic that the reader is led to believe that there is really a supernatural
being causing his disturbance. The presence of the ghost suggests that there is more in the
Heights than just a feeling of paranormality. In fact, they seem to be haunted. In chapter
XXIV, some villagers allege sightings of Heathcliff s ghost, which could be dismissed as
unverified superstition. He is often seen walking on the moors with a woman, on every
rainy night. Whether real or not, ghosts are a mark of the gothic romantic,representing an
endless love, able to resist even to death.
Regarding the houses of the two main families, which are separate by the cold,
muddy and barren moors. There are numerous differences betwen Wuthering Heights and
Thrushcross Grange. First of all, their own names give the idea of completely different
atmospheres: Wuthering Heights represents a windy and stormy environment, whereas
Thruscross Grange represents a calm and serene place. Even the weather contrasts the two
places: at Wuthering Heights, it is often stormy, at Thrushcross Grange, often gentler. In
addition to that, these two contrasting estates in the novel represent opposing worlds and
values. Wuthering Heights, set in the moorlands, is the most likely setting of all sorts of
misfortunes. It is also the land of storm, of the untamed and passionate people in an
atmosphere of mystery and fear, shapes coming out upon the eye, into the fog, whereas
Thrushcross Grange which is set in a green valley, is the land of peace and calm, of order,
moral and cultural standards.
According to Joyce Carol Oates,  It is the fidelity to the observed physical world,
and Brontë s own inward applause, that makes the metamorphosis of the dark tale so
plausible (2003).
Triumph only comes with the more plausive love of the second Catherine and
Hareton (the  second Heathcliff). Young Catherine has not inherited her mother s
predilection for the grave. Mysteries are gradually dispelled. Instead of the narcissist and
violent love of Heathcliff and Catherine, Hareton and Cathy will celebrate a marriage of
emblematic significance. They decide to live in Thrushcross Grange.
As we have seen, Wuthering Heights is a novel in which a great deal of gothic
elements can be found. The passionate and painfully convincting nostalgia for the Heights,
the moor, evinced mainly by Catherine and Heathcliff, their values and their world are
doomed are evidences of it.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BRONTË, Emily Jane. Wuthering Heights. London: Collins English Library, 1977.
GRIFFITH, Benjamin W. Jr. Barron s simplified approach to Wuthering Heights.
London: Barron s Educational Series, 1966.
HENESSY, Brendan. The Gothic novel: a critical and bibliographical series. London:
Longman, 1978.
WUTHERING Heights. On-line. Disponível em: Acesso
em: 20 set. 2003.
OATES, Joyce Carol. Wuthering Heights. Disponível em: Acesso
em: 20 set. 2003.