In Chapter 18 of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, Nelly recounts the first interaction between Cathy Linton and Hareton Earnshaw. In this brief encounter, Cathy immediately judges Hareton by his appearance, distinguishes him as a servant, and is unprepared for a rude awakening when discovering that the man she insists is a servant, is in fact, her cousin. 

During this reading, I was particularly struck by Nelly’s reflection of Hareton and his circumstances: “Good things lost amid a wilderness of weeds, to be sure, whose rankness far over-topped their neglected growth; yet, not withstanding, evidence of a wealthy soil, that might yield luxuriant crops under other and favourable circumstances” (paragraph 54). Nelly’s description of Hareton’s unfortunate luck has striking parallels to Percy Shelley’s, “England in 1819”  whose poem begins with “An old, mad, blind, despis’d, and dying king, Princes, the dregs of their dull race, who flow Through public scorn – mud from a muddy spring, Rulers who neither see, nor feel, nor know, But leech-like to their fainting country cling” (lines 1-5). 

While Nelly’s wilderness of weeds metaphor differs from Shelley’s description of a tyrant king who oppresses his people, I can see a distinct connection between the tyrant king and Heathcliff in regard to his treatment of Hareton. Inattentive and unfeeling rulers, like that of the mad king Shelley references, diminish the value of their subjects by neglecting their potential, which is exactly what Heathcliff does to Hareton. By restricting Hareton and diminishing him to a status that is beneath that of his birth, I am convinced Heathcliff becomes no better than the mad king who leeches off his country for the protection of his own wealth and greed.

As I was reading these chapters of Wuthering Heights, I could not help but focus somewhat on the relationship between Heathcliff and his son, Linton. The father and son first meet when Linton is 12 years old, as he has spent his life up to that point being raised by his mother, Isabella, in London. When the young boy comes to Thrushcross Grange, he is of sickly temperament, and it is clear his upbringing has predisposed him to incessant whining. For these reasons, Heathcliff takes an instant disliking toward his son. He cannot even stand to be in the same room as him for very long, as Nelly comes to find out from the housekeeper of Wuthering Heights: ” Mr. Heathcliff seemed to dislike him ever longer and worse, though he took some trouble to conceal it: he had an antipathy to the sound of his voice, and could not do at all with his sitting in the same room with him many minutes together” (Chapter 21). Unsurprisingly, Linton takes after his mother much more than he does his father. Heathcliff despises everything about his son that he once hated in his wife and her brother: their refinement, fragility, and spoiled entitlement. Whereas Heathcliff grew up treated as a ward, and later more like a servant or a slave, Edgar, Isabella, and now Linton, all enjoyed comfortable and pampered childhoods. I believe that this leads to Heathcliff having much difficulty in accepting him as his son, since he embodies so much of what he resents.

While thinking about this relationship, I was reminded of the poem “The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point,” by George Eliot. The poem is told from the point of view of an enslaved African woman who is running away from her master. A master with whom she shares an infant son. There is a line where she says ” My own, own child! I could not bear to look in his face, it was so white.” Like Linton to Heathcliff, the woman’s child embodies what she hates most: her master. For this reason, she cannot stand to look at him, and struggles with the idea that he is even her child in the first place. Unlike Heathcliff, however, she also takes pity on the child, as she knows that he will be brought up into slavery. Because of this, she ends up killing him to spare him from this fate.

Heathcliff’s son Linton seems so unlike his father in physical appearance that one might not even believe they are related. His blonde hair and physical ailments lead us as readers to believe he isn’t anything like the absent father figure. However, in a heated argument with Cathy regarding the topic of love, we see a side of Linton we hadn’t previously seen. Linton admits that he believes if the two were husband and wife, Cathy would love him more than anyone else (something he evidently wants). Cathy tells him she will lover her father more than anyone, which irritates Linton. Further in the argument, Linton tells Cathy that her mother hated her father but loved his. This infuriates Cathy who pushes Linton’s chair, causing him to fall and have a coughing fit. This event unleashes Linton’s hidden personality where he blames Cathy, won’t accept her apology, and wishes her a terrible night sleep thinking on her cruel actions.

Does this remind anyone of a certain someone who blamed Catherine for breaking his heart and wouldn’t accept her apology, even as she was clearly dying? Linton however, later apologizes to Cathy and admits that she is kind and he is deeply in love with her. He also admits that he cannot help but show his darker nature but regrets his words towards her and wants to make up for it. This, to me at least, shows he isn’t like Heathcliff at all. He recognizes his faults and wants to do right by Cathy.

In Chapter 17 of Wuthering Heights, Isabella finally manages to flee from Heathcliff, but not before getting into a violent altercation with him where he flies into a “murderous rage”. After Isabella runs from Wuthering Heights to Thrushcross Grange, badly beaten and fatigued from the journey, she recounts the brawl to Ellie. The tyrannical relationship between Heathcliff and Isabella can be seen as a microcosm of Harriet Martineau’s argument concerning the lack of consent of the governed (women) by the government (men). Heathcliff, an embodiment of a patriarchal figure head, completely rules over Isabella’s life, her decisions and what she’s allowed to do. His malevolent nature emphasizes the power men had over women at the time and the perils that can accompany such toxic masculinity. Despite having no romantic inclination towards Isabella, he makes her remain at Wuthering Heights merely out of spite and a sense  of entitlement in being her husband and seeing her as his property. While Isabella consented to the marriage all her attempts at learning were quickly put to an end and she had no autonomy whatsoever. Her escape from him is symbolic of her gaining her freedom not just from Heathcliff but her brother as well. Her decision to move away with her son is a powerful one that allows her to regain consent of the happenings of her life.

When I was reading yesterday’s reading, many instances described in the book led me back to Percy Shelley’s poem England in 1819. The poem describes an old, dying, and mad king who is oppressing the British people. In a similar way, Heathcliff is sucking the life out of those who are living in his house, and all of those who come into contact with him. Shelley writes, “Rulers who neither see, nor feel, nor know, / But leech-like to their fainting country cling, / Till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow” (Shelley 4-6). This to me could describe his relationship to Isabella, who he abused until she died young, leaving behind a child. This could also describe his relationship to his son Linton, who is also dying, and is being subjected to his abuse in his house. This can be seen when Nelly Dean thinks, “I could not picture a father treating a dying child as tyrannically and wickedly as I afterwards learnt Heathcliff had treated him, to compel this apparent eagerness; his efforts redoubling the more imminently his avaricious and unfeeling plans were threatened with defeat by death” (Bronte 259). Here, Nelly Dean is saying exactly what Percy Shelley was describing in his poem: the closer to death the ‘king’ gets, the more he takes it out and tries to rejuvenate with the blood of the young, poor, and innocent. Shelley’s poem, which was written for a massacre, goes on to say, “A Senate — Time’s worst statute unrepeal’d, / Are graves, from which a glorious Phantom may / Burst, to illumine our tempestuous day” (Shelley 14-16). With this line, Shelley is saying that all of the laws and civic rights meant to protect them are nonexistent. This relates to Heathcliff’s relationship with the children living in his care: there are no civic rights in his house: all tenants are subject to slave labor and abuse.

This chapter of Wuthering Heights reminded me of the poems and short readings about the persecution of children during this era. In Wuthering Heights, as a result of the men’s attempt at gaining money, power and land, multiple children are displaced, mistreated and abused. For example, Hareton is barely raised, illiterate, and made to seem less worthy than Linton. Cathy is tricked and purposefully made to feel very guilty and at fault for Linton’s illness. Linton is taken from a loving home at Thrushcross Grange to a treacherous environment at Wuthering Heights so that Heathcliff can inherit Linton’s money. The children in the novel rarely have mothers, and if they do they die early in their lives–it seems like these mothers cannot survive in an environment so dominated by this toxic masculinity. This ill-treatment of children by men leads to many issues in the children including sickness, emotional problems, self-hatred, violence, etc. This mistreatment of children by men can be paralleled by the mistreatment of children by the government during the industrial revolution in England. As demonstrated by the poetry we previously read, during the Victorian Era the government turned a blind eye to the horrors of children’s participation in the dangers of chimney sweeping. In further research I found that typically chimney sweepers were either orphan boys chosen to be chimney sweeps or were sold by destitute parents to a chimney master. The young boys would work from early morning to night and were forced to climb through the chimneys in exchange for a place to sleep, food, and water. Similarly to multiple children in Wuthering Heights, chimney sweeper children are not loved by a family, raised, given attention or nurtured. Like the children in Wuthering Heights, these chimney sweeper children suffered greatly at the hands of their elders.

I have found Isabella Linton to be a very intriguing character within Wuthering Heights as she is pushed aside by Heathcliff and Edgar, for Catherine. At first she starts out as a naïve girl who foolishly becomes trapped in a marriage to Heathcliff, while he is still in love with Catherine. Her marriage to Heathcliff in Chapter 14 manifests as Isabella being deprived of love, living with a mad husband, with no escape. I assumed it would be the end of her, that she would fade into the background as Heathcliff pursued the Catherine drama, and at a later point in the novel, there would be a line stating “and Isabella Linton had died a few years ago,” but Chapter 17 surprised me, for Isabella leaves her husband and moved south to raise her son.

Isabella taking initiative to get herself out of this situation displays strength grown within herself, for she no longer stands as a defenseless naïve woman. She leaves for preservation for her unborn child and herself to remove both of them from the toxicity of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, caused by Heathcliff and Catherine. Is this a courageous act showing the strength of Victorian women? There is no denying that it does take a lot of mental resolve to remove one’s self from an abusive situation. However, the insight into Isabella’s feelings and actions is usually brief, expressed through Nelly, and overshadowed by Heathcliff. While Isabella did not simply fade into the background, she still cannot escape how she impacts Heathcliff. Her actions continued to reflect Heathcliff’s character, whether it be displaying his manipulativeness in taking advantage of her naïvety, his abusiveness in their marriage, or even when she leaves, it’s furthering his isolation because he once had positive connections to Catherine, Edgar, and Isabella, and now each of them have left him in their own ways.

In Wuthering Heights, Hareton’s new position after his father dies is now a worker. To live in his own home, he is now forced to do what is asked of him by Heathcliff. He is now described as a “servant.” Along with this, Heathcliff refers to him as “mine,” indicating he now feels he has ownership over him. His position can now be compared to the child’s position in the poem, “The Chimney Sweeper.” Like the father and mother who are absent in the poem because they are in the church praying, Hareton’s parents are both absent due to their deaths. While it seems the parents in the poem left the child willingly to pray at the church, Hareton’s parents are absent due to their untimely deaths. In comparison, both the children and Hareton have people force their ownership over them by people who aren’t even their parents and are forced to work in an environment they didn’t consent to. They are both treated as objects who are forced to be taken advantage of and aren’t seen as humans with feelings or opinions. They are now expected to do what is asked of them, so they can continue living. Along with this, both of their experiences of growing up are tainted because of what they are forced to endure. For instance, Hareton is uneducated and unable to read what he should be able to and the chimney sweepers’s health is negatively affected because by being a chimney sweeper, the children would damage their lungs and get diseases.

While continuing to read Wuthering Heights, we continue to see how strong-willed and passionate Emily Bronte has written her female characters. The women of the novel continue to act according to their own interests and not according to how their father or husband want them to.

As we saw in the first several chapters, Catherine Earnshaw was free-spirited and acted the way she wanted to growing up and playing with Heathcliff. As she grows older and marries Edgar Linton she continues to act according to what she wants by seeing Heathcliff when he returns despite Edgar being against this.

Like her mother, Cathy Linton also goes against Edgar’s wishes. He is very protective over Cathy and doesn’t want her to leave their property however she does so anyway and eventually comes across the place and people that her father was protecting her from at Wuthering Heights. As the story goes on she continues to go to Wuthering Heights and meets with Linton Heathcliff in secret despite her father not wanting her to have any relations with the Heathcliffs.

The way in which Catherine and Cathy act against others’ wishes and do what they wish reminded me of what Harriet Martineau discusses in her essay Society in America. When referencing James Mill saying that “women may be regarded, the interest of almost all of whom is involved, either in that of their fathers or in that of their husbands.”, she says that “the interests of women who have fathers and husbands can never be identical with theirs”.

Although in the case of Wuthering Heights it isn’t necessarily political interests that Catherine and Cathy are differing from Edgar, it still shows that women don’t have to think or do exactly as their fathers or husbands want them to and can act independently according to what they want to do for themselves.