THE ROMANTIC NOVEL, ROMANTICISM, AND WUTHERING
HEIGHTS
The Romantic Novel
Romanticism and the Brontës
Romantic Elements in Wuthering Height
Robert Kiely raises the question, in The
Romantic Novel in England, Is there actually an English romantic
novel? He skirts answering his own question by
suggesting that some novels are influenced by Romanticism
and incorporate the same style and themes that appear in
Romantic poetry and drama. In his discussion, the term romantic
novel is often equated with the
romance, with the Gothic novel,
and with the romantic elements in a novel. Kiely regards Wuthering
Heights as a model of romantic
fiction; it contains these romantic/Gothic elements which
charterize the romantic novel:
- The dynamic antagonism or antithesis in the novel
tends to subvert, if not to reject literary conventions; often a novel
verges on turning into something else,
like poetry or drama. In Wuthering Heights, realism
in presenting Yorkshire landscape and life and the historical precision
of season, dates, and hours co-exist with the dreamlike and the
unhistorical; Brontë refuses to
be confined by conventional classifications.
- The protagonists' wanderings are motivated by flight
from previously-chosen goals, so that often there is a pattern of
escape and pursuit. Consider Catherine's marriage for social position,
stability, and wealth, her efforts to evade the consequences of her
marriage, the demands of
Heathcliff and Edgar, and her final mental wandering.
- The protagonists are driven by irresistible
passion–lust, curiosity, ambition, intellectual pride, envy. The
emphasis is on their desire for transcendence, to overcome the
limitations of the body, of society, of time rather than
their moral transgressions. They yearn to escape the limitations
inherent to life and may find that the only escape is
death. The longings of a Heathcliff cannot be fulfilled
in life.
- Death is not only a literal happening or plot
device, but also and primarily a psychological concern. For the
protagonists, death originates in the imagination, becomes a "tendency
of mind," and may develop into an obsession.
- As in Gothic fiction, buildings are central to
meaning; the supernatural, wild nature, dream and madness, physical
violence, and perverse sexuality are set off against social conventions
and institutions. Initially, this may
create the impression that the novel is two books in
one, but finally Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights
fuse.
- Endings are disquieting and unsatisfactory because
the writer resists a definitive conclusion, one which accounts for all
loose ends and explains away any ambiguities or uncertainties. The
preference for open-endedness is, ultimately, an effort to resist the
limits of time and of place That effort helps explain the importance of
dreams and memories of other times and location, like Catherine's
delirious
memories of childhood at Wuthering Heights and rambles on
the moors.
Romanticism, the
literary
movement traditionally dated 1798 to 1832 in England, affected
all the arts through the nineteenth century. The Brontës were
familiar with the writings of the major romantic poets and the novels
of Sir Walter Scott. When Charlotte Brontë, for instance, wanted
an evaluation of her writing, she
sent a sample to the romantic poet Southey. The romantic elements in
the
Brontës' writings are obvious. Walter Pater saw in Wuthering
Heights the characteristic spirit of romanticism, particularly in
"the figures of Hareton Earnshaw, of Catherine Linton,
and of Heathcliff–tearing open Catherine's grave, removing
one side of her coffin, that he may really lie beside her
in death–figures so passionate, yet woven on a background
of delicately beautiful, moorland scenery, being typical
examples of that spirit."
As the details of their lives became generally known and
as Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights received
increasingly favorable critical attention, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne
were cast in the role of Romantic Rebels. Contributing to the Romantic
Rebels Myth was the association
of Romanticism and early death; Shelley having died at 29,
Byron at 36, and Keats at 24. Branwell died at the age of 31, Emily at
30, and Anne at 29; to add to the emotional impact, Branwell, Emily,
and Anne died in the space of nine months. The Romantic predilection
for early death appears in Wuthering
Heights; Linton is 17 when he dies; Catherine, 18; Hindley,
27; Isabella, 31; Edgar, 39; Heathcliff, perhaps 37 or 38.
The major characteristics of Romanticism
could be extrapolated from a reading of Wuthering Heights:
- the imagination is unleashed to explore extreme
states of being and experiences.
- the love of nature is not presented just in its
tranquil and smiling aspects but also appears in its wild,
stormy moods,
- nature is a living, vitalizing force and offers
a refuge from the constraints of civilization,
- the passion driving Catherine and Heathcliff and
their obsessive love for each other are the center of their being and
transcend death,
- so great a focus is placed on the individual that
society is pushed to the periphery of the action and the reader's
consciousness,
- the concern with identity and the creation of the
self are a primary concern,
- childhood and the adult's developing from childhood
experiences are presented realistically,
- Heathcliff is the Byronic hero; both are rebellious,
passionate, misanthropic, isolated, and wilful, have mysterious
origins, lack family ties, reject external restrictions and control,
and seek to resolve their isolation by fusing with a love object,
- Hareton is the noble savage and, depending on your
reading of the novel, so is Heathcliff,
- Brontë experiments with the narrative structure
(the Chinese-box structure in which Lockwood narrates what Nelly tells
him, who repeats what others told her),
- the taste for local color shows in the portrayal of
Yorkshire, its landscape, its folklore, and its people,
- the supernatural or the possibility of the
supernatural appears repeatedly.
Brontë: Table of Contents
October 24, 2005
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