Bronte+Studies+Articles

 Crouse, Jamie S. “‘This Shattered Prison’: Confinement, Control, and Gender in //Wuthering Heights.//” __Brontë Studies__ 33 (Nov. 2008): 180-191. Both physical and psychological confinement as a means of establishing power over others is explored within traditional Nineteenth-Century gender roles. Crouse provides examples of the two houses as physical prisons, noting references to locked doors and windows. They are also, according to Crouse, prisons of convention, particularly with regard to gender. Heathcliff’s destructiveness and aggression follow the customary male role, while Catherine’s hysteria and self-destructiveness is traditionally female. Yet it is through these traits, Crouse states, that they attempt to exert control.

Inman, Laura. “‘The Awful Event’ in //Wuthering Heights.//” __Brontë Studies__ 33 (Nov. 2009): 192-202.
In this fascinating //Brontë Studies// article, Inman challenges the popular notion of //Wuthering Heights// as a love story and describes it as a “meditation on death.” With the exception of Hareton and the younger Catherine, all the Earnshaw and Linton family members die, twelve fatalities total. Death is a key plot device, changing the fates and fortunes of the principal characters. Yet more importantly, Inman observes, the characters are largely defined by how they react not only to the deaths of others, but their own impending demise. In addition, Inman examines expressions of grief and Victorian beliefs on the afterlife, including ghosts. Intriguingly, she also connects the book’s mortal theme to the innumerable deaths Brontë experienced in her own life. 

Krishan, Lakshmi. “‘It Has Devoured My Existence’: The Power of the Will and Illness in //The Bride of Lammermoor// and //Wuthering Heights//.” __Brontë Studies__ 32 (Mar. 2007): 31-40.
===Documenting that many Victorian medical theorists believed the will had hold over the mind and body, Lakshmi discusses the role of psychosomatic illnesses in both //Wuthering Heights// and Sir Walter Scott’s //The Bride of Lammermoor//, noting the similarities and differences between the two works. Rather than sickness as a result of a weak will, says Lakshmi, Brontë ’s characters exercise their wills to generate illness, thereby establishing control over their circumstances. Indeed, the essayist observes that Catherine and Heathcliff are able to will themselves to become unwell, to recover when necessary, and eventually, to die. ===


=== Tytler, Graeme. “Eating and Drinking in //Wuthering Heights//.” __Brontë Studies__ 34.1 (Mar. 2009): 15-27.  === ===Tytler asserts that although there are few actual references to food and drink in the novel, meals serve a symbolic function. According to Tytler, some of the book’s most important events occur in the kitchens of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, and meals are occasions in which characters tend to reveal something significant about themselves and their circumstances. Tytler also provides a thorough list of the food consumed throughout the work, from superior pheasant and goose, to pitiful whey and gruel. Most importantly, Tytler discusses the devastating effect that eating and drinking ultimately play in //Wuthering Heights//: both Catherine’s and Heathcliff’s eventual deaths from self-starvation. ===

Tytler, Graeme. "Masters and Servants in //Wuthering Heights//." __Bront ë Studies__ 33 (Mar. 2007): 44-53.
===In this essay, Tytler examines the relationships between the novel’s masters and servants, noticing that although the masters ultimately have the upper hand, it is striking how much power the servants exercise. Indeed, the bulk of the narrative is told by the housekeeper, Nelly Dean, who serves as nanny and nurse to Catherine, Heathcliff, and the second generation. Perhaps most significantly, Nelly plays a key role in both Catherine’s and Isabella’s relationships with Heathcliff. Tytler also observes that within the Earnshaw family, the master-servant relationship translates to one of domination-submission: after his father’s death, Hindley takes control, reducing Heathcliff from stepbrother to stable boy. Later, Heathcliff becomes a terrifying lord over his sickly son. === === ===

Tytler, Graeme. “The Role of Religion in //Wuthering Heights//.” __Brontë Studies__ 32 (Mar. 2007): 41-55.
In examining Brontë’s treatment of religion, Tytler states that most scholarly studies find the text anti-Christian. This is supported, he says, by Joseph and Nelly Dean’s limitations as authentic Christians. Despite Nelly’s supposed orthodoxy and Joseph’s warnings about the devil, both have beliefs steeped in superstition and local myths. Tytler also observes that non-Christian, superstitious belief is strongest for Catherine, Heathcliff, and Hindley. Heathcliff, in particular, refuses to accept the finality of Catherine’s death, a conviction based in the belief of ghosts. Moreover, both men repeatedly use the words hell, hellish, infernal, accursed, damn, damnable, and other related terms. Tytler also touches on the chasm in the Anglican Church at the time of Brontë’s writing, declaring that Joseph and Nelly’s frequent discord symbolizes this split. However, knowledge of the Church’s history would better serve the reader to understand this concept.  <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: #e6656d; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype'; msoansilanguage: EN-US; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastlanguage: EN-US; msobidilanguage: AR-SA; msobidifontfamily: 'Times New Roman';">