Stream of Cosciousness

Summary Emily Bronte, an English woman writer of superb talent in the nineteenth century, was well known for her only novel Wuthering Heights, the which is viewed as one of the greatest English literary works. Since its publication in 1847, Wuthering Heights has attracted much academic attention, but the research results are a little monotonous. Most studies have centered upon the powerful love between Heathcliff and Catherine, the analysis of the characters and its Gothic features. For a long time, most critics tend to think that Heathcliff is the focus and the key of the novel, while women of this book are, to some extent, considered insignificant. With the rise of the feminist movement and feminist literary criticism, feminist critics begin to challenge the traditional view by focusing on the role of women in the novel . However, they somewhat over-exaggerate women's importance. Wuthering Heights mainly tells the story of love and revenge between two families and an outsider who lived in the bleak Yorkshire in northern England. This novel is the reflection of women's true living conditions of the Victorian Age. The insightful account of living conditions of women in Wuthering Heights reflects that Emily Bronte was aware that women's status was low and they couldn't get the equal rights with men in law and marriage. By depicting the leading female characters, the author bravely put forward her view that the soft phrases, delicacy of sentiment and requirement of taste were the synonym for women's weakness, which challenged the traditional conception the society imposed on women. Therefore, she created the new women images in her novel Wuthering Heights to encourage women to rebel against the patriarchy to get their financial independence, enjoy their equality with men in the society and family, which lays the foundation for the western feminism. From the perspective of feminism, through analyzing the female social status under the control of the patriarchal