Emily Bront And Wuthering Heights Essay

Emily Bront and Wuthering Heights

Art is part of its creator, and authors, poets, singers, and artists are part of the work they create. Every idea has to come from somewhere, and work is usually inspired by something in the creator's life. You can see an author in her characters, her plot, her setting, and strewn throughout the rest of the novel. Emily Bront was no different; her writing reflected her as a person. Many aspects of Bront's novel, Wuthering Heights, are based on the author's own life; whether these elements were drawn from her personality, her beliefs and desires, or the experiences of her life and of the lives around her, they all contribute to the novel.

Emily Bront, born in Yorkshire, England, grew up on the moors. Her mother died when she was only three, leaving Emily and her five siblings, Charlotte, Anne, Branwell, Elizabeth, and Maria, to be raised by their father. Bront published poetry throughout her life, but Wuthering Heights was her only novel. Her siblings were also talented writers; Branwell published works throughout his life, and Charlotte, Anne, and Emily Bront published poetry and novels under the pseudonyms of Currer, Acton, and Ellis Bell, respectively. They chose to hide their true identities because they knew their work would be taken more seriously if readers assumed they were men. In fact, after Bront's death, readers were convinced her brother Branwell had actually penned Wuthering Heights. At the age of thirty, Emily Bront died of tuberculosis, the illness that claimed the lives of most of the members of the Bront family.

Emily Bront used characteristics of her own personality to help create the characters of her novel. Reclusive and introverted, Bront spent a lot of time on her own, which reflects the isolated nature of not only the characters living at Wuthering Heights, but the house itself (Krueger). The setting and characters are described using words such as solitary, desolation, and removed (Bront 3). The idea that Bront's characters were completely removed from society reflects on the fact that she preferred spending her free time in her room, writing, rather than in a social, public atmosphere. Also, it has been said that Bront's sometimes forbidding manner led to the creation of her violent, cruel characters such as Heathcliff (Bront). Bront created characters such as the hellish villain that is Heathcliff as a parallel to the intimidating person some considered her to be (Bront 137). In addition to her forbidding manner, Bront's teachers and peers claimed that she had a mannish quality about her, which can easily account for the fact that, although beautiful, Catherine Earnshaw could never have been considered a proper lady until she was introduced to the Lintons (Paddock). The character of Catherine Earnshaw was considered a wild, hatless little savage before she spent time with Mrs. Linton and her daughter, Isabella (Bront 52). Bront's own distaste for a ladylike lifestyle is very clearly reflected in Catherine, who spends her time playing in the moors with Heathcliff. Bront uses her own personality traits to help create interesting, complex characters in her writing.

Bront's beliefs about religion and love are the basis of Wuthering Heights. Her father, Reverend Patrick Bront had considerable influence over her religious beliefs, and, although the God within her own breast [was] a God who certainly has nothing in common with the one worshiped by the Reverend Patrick Bront, it is very clear that her strong spirituality had an impact on her writing (Bloom). There are religious allusions throughout the pages of her novel, and the importance her father put on religion during her childhood is partly responsible. According to Harold Bloom, Emily Bront's religion is essentially erotic, and her vision of triumphant sexuality is so mingled with death that we can imagine no consummation for the love of Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw except death (Bloom). Bront believed love was closely intertwined with death, which is why Heathcliff and Catherine were only able to truly be together in death. Her beliefs on topics such as religion and love were a driving force behind the novel and the plot itself.

Emily Bront's desires to remain at home for the majority of her time, but also to live in another world superior to this one are easily found in the pages of Wuthering Heights. One of the most defining moments of Bront's novel is Catherine Earnshaw's dream and subsequent confession to Nelly. She says, heaven did not seem to be my home; and I broke my heart with weeping to come back to earth; and the angels were so angry that they flung me out into the middle of the heath on the top of Wuthering Heights; where I woke sobbing for joy (Bront 80). It is well known that Bront was really only ever comfortable in her home, so when Catherine Earnshaw dreams that she is in heaven and is not happy there, she is simply expressing Emily's deep love of her home (Salmon). The fact that Catherine prefers her childhood home to heaven is a reflection of the love and comfort Bront associated with her own home. However, while her home was the one place where she felt truly comfortable, Bront seemed to yearn for a world beyond this one (Paddock). Like Bront, Catherine and Heathcliff want to live in a world where they could be together. They could be in heaven, they could be rich, but neither can be truly happy until they are together, which is a parallel to Bront's feelings of dissatisfaction with her world. Bront's desire to remain in her house, but to reach beyond her world is reflected in the characters of Catherine and Heathcliff.

Emily Bront's experiences, whether they are her childhood pastimes, family situations, or other experiences, are reflected in her novel through the characters and setting she has created. Bront was born and raised is Yorkshire, which is also the setting of the events in Wuthering Heights. She grew up near her beloved moorlands, which can be seen in a direct relationship between her life and her work (Paddock). Bront's love for the moors completely parallels the feeling Heathcliff and Catherine have towards the swampy land. It is their escape, their place to just be themselves. Also, when Bront was only three, her mother died, leaving her to grow up with no constant female role model in her life, a situation very similar to that of Catherine Earnshaw, whose mother died when she was still a child as well. In fact, the Bront family was well-accustomed to tragedy as most members of the family died at an extremely young age, mostly due to tuberculosis. The repetitive nature of tragedy in the Bront family could account for the early deaths of Catherine Earnshaw, Hindley Earnshaw, Isabella Linton, Linton Heathcliff, and Frances. In addition, Bront loved animals, especially dogs, and she had her fair share of experience with dog bites and fights, which most likely inspired the motif of violent canines in the novel. The dogs in the book were such a danger to those who were unfamiliar that you might as well leave a stranger with a brood of tigers (Bront 7). Bront effectively uses her own experiences to enhance the story of the Earnshaws and the Lintons.

Bront was also able to take advantage of the experiences of those around her for her creative purposes. Her brother, Branwell, was a source of inspiration for her characters. The man, at one point, madly loved a woman who could never be his (Salmon). This is easily connected to Heathcliff's relationship with Catherine Earnshaw. He loves her so much, but the boundaries between them prevent them from being together. Branwell had fallen in love with a woman whom he had brought low into sin and disgrace (Salmon). This parallels the fact that, although Heathcliff loves Catherine with all his heart, he can never be with her because it would degrade her to marry him (Bront 80). He is not good enough for the woman he loves, and the inspiration for that situation came directly from Branwell Bront.

Emily Bront's life was a major inspiration for her work. She used aspects of her own life to create plot, characters, settings, and many other factors that weigh into the completion of a novel. She created a novel that emulated her personality, her beliefs, her desires, and her experiences. The impact of Bront's life on her work is immeasurable because, really, what is art without the influences that led the artist to that work?

Works Cited

Bloom, Harold. "Bloom on Emily Bront." Novelists and Novels, Bloom's 20th Anniversary

Collection. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2005. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.

"Bront, Emily." The Bronts, Bloom's Major Novelists. Philadelphia:

Chelsea House Publishing, 1999. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.

Bront, Emily. Wuthering Heights. New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 2004. Print.

Krueger, Christine, ed. "Bront, Emily." Encyclopedia of British Writers, 19th Century, vol. 1.

New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2002. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc

Paddock, Lisa, and Carl Rollyson. "Bront, Emily." The Bronts A to Z: The Essential Reference to Their Lives and Work, Literary A to Z. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2003. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.

Salmon, Arthur L. "A Modern Stoic: Emily Bront." In Poet-Lore (January 1892): 6470. Quoted as "A Modern Stoic: Emily Bront" in Bloom, Harold, ed. The Bronts, Classic Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2008. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.