Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights: Criticizing Enclosure in Pre-19th Century Life and Literature

Wuthering Heights is a novel which criticisers the idea of enclosure in pre 19th century books and life. It was published in December 1847, but only 250 copies were published. It centres on pivotal characters, which Emily Bront� heavily describes. People who read the book from the contemporary audience would have been shocked from the language and all the swearing, they thought it was a depressing and morose novel. Emily Bront� was born in Thornton, Yorkshire, in the north of England; similarly the book is set in the north of Yorkshire, in the moors.

This amplifies the idea enclosure already as it is a hard to reach place, and the place where it is set, is remote to every where else! Emily had a rough life because she lived in a small stone cottage on the 2nd floor with three bedrooms, no bigger than a small closet. She died of Tuberculosis in late 1848. She caught a cold at her brother, Branwell's, funeral in September. Her novel "Wuthering Heights" reflects on her life, as she lived a rough life living in a small house with two sisters in the moors.

Moving on the opening of this prestigious novel opens with a specific date, 1801. This specific date "1801" is a similar to a diary so it would make the reader feel more intimately enclosed with Emily Bront�; plus the use of her heavy vocabulary and description makes me feel quite involved with the book and it's characters, yet it cleverly ties you into her grasp so you feel you have to carry on reading. But as this is a diary type opening the person, in this case the narrator: Lockwood, will inevitably express his feelings, which is indeed what he does so there is a sense of biased in his views and opinions.

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Lockwood seems to be a pleasant man who thinks himself to be in the same league as Heathcliff, yet he is much more polite and affectionate and can show his emotions more freely than Heathcliff. Yet as we enter this heavily described book he is the narrator and is quite provoked by Heathcliff, in the sense that he is a role model towards him.

The opening of the book is set in a remote place with a garish house, quite distressed and characterised, especially with gothic creatures. Lock mentions "1500" this was over the door of the house with the name "Hareton Earnshaw", so the story the is written in a 1st person narration. Also the fact that Heathcliff expresses the words "go to the Deuce" is quite atrocious and not appealing. This would immediately astonish the contemporary audience as witchcraft and mentioning the Devil was quite blasphemous and profound; this may have triggered a slight distaste towards the dreadful keeper of this dreadful house. Lockwood also asks himself questions like "Why did I think of Linton?" on page 17, this leads on to impression of enclosure like "Situation so completely removed from the stir of society" and "Misanthropists heaven", this means someone who hates society and everyone else.

This is ideal for an misanthropist because no one else is around and the nearest house is about 2 miles away. Another sense of a misanthropist is when Heathcliff says "Walk in" and when the dogs attack Lockwood because they are not use to anyone else. Nobody helps Lockwood when he shouts accept for Zillah, this is because women were cheap labour and disrespected back then. This leads to a description of Wuthering Heights it shows an influence of a gothic novel because of the different features like "quantity of grotesque carving lavished over the front", this is on page 2 and he says there is "Crumberling griffins and shameless little boys" over the door, so the book reinforces the idea of supernatural.

When it says "dark skinned gypsy" people thought they were into aroused suspicion. Another part of the supernatural is when Lockwood says "The storm subsided magically". The language reinforces the supernatural. By this time the reader feels that Lockwood has made an effort to be polite but all his efforts were thrown back in his face by Heathcliffs rudeness. "The walk in was littered with closed teeth, and expressed in the sentiment."

This novel shows that the life she led she was very, powerfully influenced by enclosure and that she was very enclosed being a women, as men were more dominant and allowed to vote, whereas women were still treated as the lower powered sex! Also in those times women weren't allowed to write and publish books, so with this in mind, how did Emily Bronte's book become so famous? If women weren't allowed to write books, how did Emily Bronte's book, and her sisters' for that matter, get published in what used to be a powerfully, male dominated world?

It seems to me that Emily Bronte was very influenced by enclosure in her life and that she is tired of the way women are exploited in the world. This is where the ideas of women, and supernatural mix "a lusty dame, with tucked-up gown, bare arms and fire-flushed cheeks, rushed into the midst of us flourishing a frying-pan: and used that weapon, and her tongue, to such a purpose, that the storm subsided magically."

In addition there are further, reinforced ideas of the supernatural in the mind of the reader as; there is an incident, after Lockwood has entered the house, and is waiting to talk to Heathcliff. He is seated anxiously waiting with Heathcliff's dogs, which are "haunting the recesses". This shows that the dogs are more powerful or seem to be more powerfully personified, and it gives the idea that the dogs are ghosts and dark spirited, especially the use of the word "haunted", as it implies bringing displeasure to someone or something, and maybe not welcoming anything.

At the end of the chapter, the reader would feel different towards Lockwood as they would have done at the beginning.

At the beginning Lockwood seems more provoked as he thinks himself to be in the same league as Heathcliff, towards the end he is shown to be quite different from Heathcliff; further more we would feel sympathetic towards him as he was callously attacked by Heathcliffs' dogs. Having been annoyed by this racket, Heathcliff is angry and unsympathetic towards him.

Moving on, Emily Bront� builds up the idea of the supernatural and enclosure, through a number of ways. Firstly we see Lockwood, anonymously, returning to Wuthering Heights, to have, yet another meeting with Heathcliff. "Yesterday afternoon set in misty and cold. I had half a mind to spend by my study fire, instead if wading through heath and mud to Wuthering Heights." This shows that Lockwood is optimistic to still show Heathcliff he can be a nicer person than normal.

Furthermore, after re entering Wuthering Heights, Lockwood is bombarded by displeasure and hints of hatred, towards him, as Heathcliff does not want a repeat of what happened before, "You should not have come out." This would make the audience feel slight sympathy towards Lockwood, but as he unconventionally turned up, it was not wrong for Heathcliff and the others to feel this way.

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