Heathcliff As Female

Heathcliff as Female Gilbert and Gubar’s seminal feminist work argues that Heathcliff is female due to his lack of property, place, and title, deeming him to portray society’s view upon the female role. Upon reflection, Emily Bronte wrote in a time whereby women were the lesser gender to the male superiority, demonstrating that such a definition of female is of a woman in a man’s world. Yet, I feel that throughout the novel Heathcliff breaks conformity of title, he is simply Heathcliff, not “master,” as such a title would reduce him to a similarity of Linton. Heathcliff is no female; he is Heathcliff. In evaluating how Heathcliff could be read as female, Gilbert and Gubar focus upon the distinction between physical appearances and the underlying primate instinct that is continuing one’s gene pool. This battle is shown when Heathcliff admits, “But, Nelly, if I knocked him down twenty times, that wouldn’t make him less handsome, or me more so. I wish I had light hair and a fair skin, and was dressed, and behaved as well, and had a chance of being as rich as he will be!” It is claimed that this shows the connection between physical and material wealth, concentrating upon that fact that whilst Edgar Linton’s weak, effeminate appearance is point of ridicule, Catherine still chooses him due to the “breeding” status and wealth that he has to his name unlike Heathcliff. The quotation shows a longing, buried in everyone, to make oneself better by society’s expectations and such a vulnerability could deem it female yet there is such a sense of physicality and desperation in his plea that eradicates any label for such a confession. Here, he wills himself to heighten his social status through the pursuit, and eventual gain, of wealth. This act is out of the realms of a woman in this time, demonstrating that he opposes social restrictions to gender, thus making Heathcliff primarily male. The distinction between Edgar Linton and Heathcliff is marked further, in conjunction to Catherine, as Heathcliff states, “If he loved with all the powers of his puny being, he couldn’t as much in eighty years, as I could a day.” Here we are shown that Heathcliff loves without restraint and maybe the conflict between the two suitors was the death of Catherine but if loving too much is a sin, one can’t restrict that to be a feature of a specific gender. If anything, this conveys Heathcliff as an ‘other,’ as his characteristics do not follow a suitable pattern, he lives by his heart thus twisting every action to mirror his inner turmoil. There is something far more that love tying the characters of Heathcliff and Catherine as we learn throughout the novel, they have been created from the elements so as their souls are entwined. This is conveyed when Heathcliff tells, “I cannot look down to this floor, but her features are shaped on the flags! In every cloud, in every tree- filling the air at night, and caught by glimpses in every object, by day I am surrounded with her image! The most ordinary faces of men, and women- my own features- mock me with a resemblance.” This conveys that her being is formed through nature, thus the tangible world posts a resemblance to her, haunting Heathcliff. From this, we learn that both characters oppose social restrictions as Catherine is borne to wealth and status, yet such superficiality brings her nothing but emptiness. Her identity mirrors the battle between Linton and Heathcliff, as the former chooses wealth as a matter of status and lifestyle, ironic as socially that owes him the upper hand yet Catherine cannot reconcile with such insipidity and lack of passion which Heathcliff offers. For Heathcliff to continue to fight against a world which condemns him proves that despite being a “monster,” he has a raw power. He is Catherine and thus they are genderfree, living contained within their own desires. Throughout the novel, there is a constant discussion of creation, fulfilling the nature versus nurture argument, entwined in the lives of the Lintons, Catherine, Heathcliff and residing in Hareton. This is conveyed through Heathcliff exclaiming, “Now, my bonny lad, you are mine! And we’ll see if one tree won’t grow as crooked as another, with the same wind to twist it!” The wind acting as the history that binds them. Here, Heathcliff dismisses any paternal instinct due to Hareton being Hindley’s son of whom he burdens deep loathing and thus the ultimate revenge would be to draw likeness between Hareton to Heathcliff. It also demonstrates that Heathcliff would be better critiqued as a son of circumstance and all physical references to his being as the representation of his past as such isn’t tangible or understandable. We cannot pray to understand all of him as, like nature, it is far more powerful and immense than society deems to be and therefore there can never be a label to sufficiently apply to Heathcliff.