Social Class In Wuthering Heights

Divisions exist among groups of people which are derivative of seemingly frivolous differences, such as wealth, race, religion, and gender. People are implicitly assigned a social class at birth based upon their parents’ circumstances, and this class tends to define people throughout their lives. The concept of social classes is one that reviles us, yet we are able to easily understand it in its basic form. However, the more intricate details resulting from the existence of a strict social hierarchy are not so easy to comprehend. In Wuthering Heights, author Emily Bronte explores various ideas of social class, among which are the hierarchical—yet somewhat unstable—structure of a classist system, the idea of the underdog, and how the existence
Earnshaw’s death, Hindley returns to Wuthering Heights to take over as its head-of-house. One of his first actions is to “[drive Heathcliff] from their company to the company of the servants, deprive him of instruction… and insist that he labor out of doors” (Bronte 35). Hindley shrewdly understands that Heathcliff is unable to threaten his ownership of Wuthering Heights so long as he has the low stature of a field hand. When he was first introduced to the Earnshaw household, Heathcliff was just a “gipsy brat” (28). Before Hindley effectively demoted Heathcliff, he was not always a member of the gentry. He was originally an orphan child who was unable to speak or act in any acceptable manner. Bronte uses Hindley’s actions as a way to highlight that those who are born in a class tend to stay in that class, or be pushed back to it by some external factor. In this case, that external factor is Hindley. This is reminiscent of the old saying “ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” Despite originally affirming the “stickiness” of one’s class, Bronte later questions said stickiness when Heathcliff returns to Wuthering Heights, wealthy and educated, with seemingly tamer mannerisms and speech. Through this third social transition for Heathcliff, Bronte elucidates that social class, due to its abstractness, can always change, despite the trends that have been previously
Something about the spirit of an underdog—oppressed, yet tenacious—really gets people to root for a character and immerse themselves in a story. Bronte uses the concept of social class to make Heathcliff an underdog, at least for the first half of Wuthering Heights. Most underdogs have something that drives them to fight against the figurative Goliath of their story, and Heathcliff is no exception. His love of Catherine and then his hatred of Hindley motivate him to solider on. This additional fondness on the reader’s part, fostered by Bronte, makes the reader continue to root for Heathcliff long after his underdog status has subsided. This is necessary to entice the reader to continue relating to Heathcliff when he acts in ways that many readers might consider unsavory, in order to keep Heathcliff’s motives in the minds of the