Reading Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights: The Resistance of Women against Patriarchal Violence

Abstract

Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights can be condemned as one of the most violent representations of male tyranny ever written. It can be read as strong female characters who take the role of powerful critique of patriarchal oppression. I will concentrate specifically on male violence against women as one of ways in which patriarchy is sustained. As Heathcliff establishes a patriarchal power, female characters are never anything but victims who are exposed to the threat of patriarchal force and physical violence. Without physical strength or economic independence, all woman characters share the critical words as the rhetoric like parody, which are their principal weapons against male oppression. Catherine recourses to anorexia nervosa and suicide as her own way of rebellion. Cathy takes the bravery to laugh at Heathcliff’s presence and violence. Isabella finally escapes her husband’s violence through derision and laughter. Using the weapons of harsh rhetoric, laughter, and even body, the women constantly disrupt Heathcliff’s authoritarian regime.