Emily Bronte did not strictly adhere to the usual contemporary literary methods of presenting a story, or developing the plot or indeed the main characters within Wuthering Heights. However whether or not such considerations make Wuthering Heights a book that is a Gothic Romance is certainly very debatable. The styles, settings, plot lines, and the main characters of the novel Wuthering Heights were instrumental in the seminal status of this work since Emily Bronte’s death. The arguable darkness of the bleak surroundings and the complexity of the main characters of the book Wuthering Heights are essential in deciding whether the novel itself is an example of Gothic Romance.

As a novel Wuthering Heights has certainly managed to set off or cause many debates or discussions about its meaning, its style, and of course with regard to its main characters, Heathclif and Cathy in particular. Emily Bronte wrote Wuthering Heights in such a way that it could be reasonably argued the novel is an example or not an example of a Gothic Romance. The way in which Emily Bronte depicts the manor house and the bleak surroundings of the North Yorkshire moors where it is based could readily fit in with the realist school of literature. In Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte deliberately does not seek to portray the manor house in which the majority of the story takes place as a warm, friendly, or welcoming place.

Instead Emily Bronte goes out of her way to demonstrate that the manor house is dark, bleak, and does in fact have a very sinister nature. In one sense the ways in which Emily Bronte describes the manor house in Wuthering Heights fits in very comfortably with the realist style of writing more usually ascribed to authors such as Charles Dickens than any of the Bronte sisters. It is not only in describing the manor house in Wuthering Heights that demonstrates that Emily Bronte was influenced by realist writing techniques, as the portrayal of the main characters also reflects elements of the realist style throughout the course of the novel.

The depictions of Heathclif and Cathy could be regarded as being very realist in their construction and also in their actual presentation. Emily Bronte artfully describes the both the complexity, and the highly sinister undertones of Heathclif’s character, as well as his enigmatic personality. The character and personality of Cathy could also be regarded as being portrayed through a realist writing style.

However, despite Emily Bronte’s style in Wuthering Heights reflecting realist writing techniques there are other elements within the novel that demonstrate a strong Gothic influence leading to a Gothic Romance feel to the finished book. The discernibly strong Gothic influences within the entire course of Wuthering Heights clearly explains why it could be argued that this book is in fact a Gothic Romance rather a purely realist work.

To be described as a Gothic part of a Gothic Romance, a place, an event, or a character will need to be depicted as being dark, being bleak, or even as being sinister as well as not complying to generally held social and moral values. Gothic could be understood as being old and grand, or alternatively as being evil and abnormal. Stories and novels that are nominally romantic in nature or over all style should usually conclude with a happy ending, in which the majority or indeed all of the main characters finish the tale in a better position than when it started. The way in which all Gothic Romance are written often tends to reflect the generally contradictory nature of the main elements within that genre. Or in other words whether the dark, the mysterious, or the downright sinister will be more prominent than love interests as well as a happy ending for the main characters.

In Wuthering Heights the Gothic part of the story undeniably revolves around the character of Heathclif. It is in many respects the way in which Emily Bronte successfully makes Heathclif appear to be a mysterious, dark, and potentially very dangerous man is key to the complexity as well as the enduring appeal of Wuthering Heights as a whole. The descriptions, the thoughts, attitudes, and the behaviour of Heathclif combine effortlessly to present him as a Gothic figure. If anything, Emily Bronte succeeds in portraying Heathclif as a Gothic figure because Wuthering Heights is not written from his personal perspective. Instead Emily Bronte makes Heathclif appear darker, more mysterious, and more sinister by having two distinct characters tell the whole story through their own narration.

A great deal of the Gothic nature of the Wuthering Height story rests upon the way in which Heathclif’s past is simply not known, and due to him also keeping his motivations hidden from every body he comes into contact with. The part of the plot that turns the story of Wuthering Height into a Gothic Romance rather than just a Gothic or realist story is the prospect of Heathclif and Cathy becoming romantically involved with each other. Although, in parts of the Wuthering Heights that seems a realistic chance, this is not what actually happens by the end of the book.

The literary techniques employed by Emily Bronte in the writing of Wuthering Height could best be described as a combination of a realist approach and the presenting of the story in the form of a Gothic Romance. Emily Bronte by using two different people to narrate the story throughout the Wuthering Height managed to produce a highly realistic and very convincing account of the places, the events, as well as the people within the plot of the book. The North Yorkshire moors could certainly be described as a dark, desolate, and lonely place, especially if visited during winter, or indeed if experienced during the middle of a storm in spring or in the summer. The presenting of places, people, or events in the most realistic ways possible was a writing technique that Emily Bronte would have understood perfectly well, given the use of similar methods by Charles Dickens at the time that Wuthering Height was written in.

Bibliography

Algernon Charles Swinhurne, “Emily Brontë,” in The Athenaeum, No 2903, June 16, 1883, pp.

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David Daiches, editor, in the introduction to Wuthering Heights, Penguin, 1965, pp. 7-29

Winifred Gerin, ‘Emily Brontë,” in Reference Guide to English Literature, edited by D L

Kirkpatrick, St James Press, 1991, pp. 300-02

Tom Winnifrith, “Emily Brontë,” In Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 21 Victorian Novelists before 1885, edited by Ira B Nadel and William E Fredeman, Gale Research, 1983, pp. 55-67