Feminist' Ideas in Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights"

Women’s rights have been a question greatly discussed for quite some time, and the debate is still continuing despite the possibilities offered to women today. Feminism nowadays has evolved into a movement in a number of directions, starting with women equality and ending with homosexuality. However, feminism originally is an ideology that is based on equal political, economic and social rights for women. Feminism theory deals with analysing women’s social roles and experiences in relation to gender inequality. Traces of this ideology are vastly represented and can be found in a number of literary works, as notable examples are novels written by female authors (the Brontë sisters, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot and others) during the Age of Realism. The Age of Realism/the Victorian period was a crucial period in world’s literature. It was a period in which writers discarded idealizing and romanticizing and instead opted for depicting things as they were. In addition the new approach to writing, the Victorian period is also noteworthy for new beliefs upon a number of things in human life, including, social environment, perception of personality and individual as such; moreover, the period was even more significant due to the changes in women’s lives. The 19th century was a time during which women were fighting to obtain certain rights that were not delegated to them before, e.g. as education was expanding, women had the chance to be educated; they also had the option to financially support themselves by working. This fight is one of many representations of feminism theory as we know it today. Female authors of the time used their writings to emphasize their rights to come out of submission enforced on them and make a life on their own without the burden of men dominion. ‘Many women assumed the opportunity of using the life they saw around them to construct novels which would capture a picture of contemporary life as well as attract readers to identify themselves to

References: Bibliography: 1. Brontë, E. (1992) Wordsworth Classics: Wuthering Heights. Hertfordshire:Wordsworth editions Limited. 2. de Beauvoir, S. (1949) Introduction to the Second Sex Online sources: 1. Rehnuma Bint Anis (2006) The Woman Question in the novels by the Bronte Sisters; available from: http://www.banglajol.info/index.php/IIUCS/article/viewFile/2629/2244 [Accessed on April 20, 2011]