Slavery and patriarchy as sources of imprisonment in Wuthering Heights on the

examples of Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw and their personal struggles for
liberation

Imprisonment and liberation are one of the major themes pervading Wuthering Heights by
Emily Bronte. According to Magdalena Pype, the novel can be read as a strong voice for
freedom in all forms (325). She rightly notices that slaveholding practices did not fall out of
favour in the 19th century and the theme of enslavement constantly recurs in the book (Pype
324). Considering the context of institutionalized slavery, the novel takes on a new, deeper
meaning as it is grounded in the current economic, political and humanitarian problems that
Britain had to grapple with in the first part of the 19 th century (Pype 325). The issue of
enslavement and liberation in the book manifests itself through the examples of main
characters.

Magdalena Pype rightly notices that the legacy of a slaveholding economy in the novel
appears in the authors depiction of Heathcliffs relationship with Hindley Earnshaw and
later in Heathcliffs treatment of his domestics (321).When Heathcliff comes to
Wuthering Heights, he is ill-treated and referred to as a gypsy. After old Earnshaws death,
Hindley becomes a tyrranical master, depriving his adopted brother of educationand
relegating him to hard field work (Pype 322) . Nevertheless, Heathcliff liberates himself after
a three-year absence, taking over Wuthering Heights and introducing the same slaveholding
practices that earlier he suffered from (Pype 322). He imprisons Cathy, forces her into
unwanted marriage and reduces Hareton to a field worker. Heathcliff seeks revenge against
patriarchy and as it was mentioned by Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, to kill
patriarchy, he must first pretend to be a patriarch (297) .Thus, he mistreats Isabella or abuses
his own son.

Catherine Earnshaw also struggles with the problem of imprisonment, trying her best to
liberate herself from a conventional world dominated by men. Heathcliffs arrival at
Wuthering Heights gives her a chance to taste freedom and experience a fullness of being. She
treats a young boy like a whip she can take control of (Gilbert, Gubar 265). Catherine feels
freedom while playing on the moors with her companion, being certain that Heathcliff is a
complementary addition to her being (Gilbert, Gubar 265) . The sense of unity has a
liberating effect on her. Yet, Catherine cannot escape social conventions. According to Gilbert
and Gubert she cannot do otherwise than as she does, must marry Edgar because there is no
one else for her to marry and a lady must marry ( 277). Her first impression of Thrushcross
Grange as the opposite of hellish Wuthering Heights misleads her into thinking that it is the
place of freedom and fulfillment (Gilbert, Gubert 273). In fact, however, being Mrs. Linton
causes her to suppress impulses and act only according to reason ( Gilbert, Gubert 274).
Catherine wishes she could escape from a prison of her body, her marriage, her self, her
life (Gilbert, Gubert 279). She struggles with her own identity and all these factors lead to
her madness. Sandra M.Gilbert and Susan Gubar say that Catherines mirror image is one
more symbol of the cell in which Catherine has been imprisoned by herself and by society
(284). She wants to return to Wuthering Heights as to become reunited with Heathcliff a
symbol of her true self and desirous id ( Gilbert, Gibert 281). Unfortunately, in the face of her
mental struggle the journey into death is the only way out ( Gilbert, Gubert 284).

Heathcliff and Catherine are two complementary characters whose struggle for survival in
a world dominated by patriarchy and slaveholding practices is one of the major themes
touched upon in Wuthering Heights. Their liberation comes only after death when two kindred
spirits are permanently reunited.

Works cited

Gilbert, Sandra M. and Gubar, S. Looking Oppositely: Emily Brontes Bible of Hell. The

Madwoman in the Attic: the Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary

Imagination. New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1984.

Pype, Magdalena. Wuthering Heights and the Nineteenth-Century Campaign for the

Abolition of Slavery. Face to Face, Page to Page: PASEP Papers in Literature, Language

and Culture. Ed. Dorota Babilas, Agnieszka Piskorska, Pawe Rutkowski. Warszawa:

Instytut Anglistyki. Uniwersytet Warszawski, 2014.