Religion and spirituality in Wuthering Heights

Abstract

The aim of this dissertation is to explore and study Emily Bronte's life and works, with special reference to Wuthering Heights, and identify elements of the spiritual and the superstitious. In chapter one, I tried to look into Emily Bronte's own life and poetry so as to try and identify her ambiguous spiritual inclinations. I felt that this exegesis would be useful so as to enable a clearer understanding of the representations of religion and superstition in Wuthering Heights. The second chapter deals with Wuthering Heights and analyses the implications and religious resonances, Christian or non-Christian, in the dreams of Lockwood and Catherine. Chapter three is about Heathcliff. I have drawn upon the work of a number of critics who have seen Heathcliff as a kind of devil inflicting misery, or as a redeeming Christ. Moreover, I have analysed Heathcliff's exhumations of Catherine's body which tie in with both the superstitious and spiritual nature of the novel. Chapter four tackles the second generation of Wuthering Heights. It is indeed interesting to see the change in the characters' approach to spirituality and the way those primitive and elemental passions, so evident in the first generation, seem to almost disappear in the second generation. In chapter five, I delved into the religion of the first housekeepers at Wuthering Heights- Joseph and Nelly Dean. Joseph is a staunch Calvinist but also a dissenter or hypocrite in his religious convictions. Nelly Dean is essentially superstitious in her spirituality, and although she believes herself to be a true Christian, her motivations are sometimes cruel and selfish. The final chapter, chapter six, deals with the Christian notions of heaven and hell which are frequently referred to in Wuthering Heights. Whilst in the Christian faith heaven and hell exist as a theologically objective reality, in Wuthering Heights each character often experiences a very personal heaven or hell which mainly exists on the level of metaphor.