A Critique of Victorian Moral Norms. Tragic Dilemmas between the Moors and the Manor

Another recent Brontë-related bachelor's thesis:

Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights as a Critique of Victorian Moral Norms

by Adriana Bartůňková

Univerzita Jana Evangelisty Purkyně V Ústí Nad Labem. Pedagogická Fakulta

May 2026

Although the novel Wuthering Heights was considered controversial in its time, today it is one of the most important works of British Victorian literature. The main aim of this thesis is to analyze and highlight how the author, Emily Brontë, through aspects of this work, depicts and at the same time criticizes moral norms of the Victorian era in which the novel was published, especially through social relationships and hierarchies. This bachelor's thesis also examines how difficult it was to live with these moral norms in the author's time, especially as a woman.

A Chinese paper on Catherine Earnshaw's dilemmas:

Between the Moors and the Manor: Catherine Earnshaw's Tragic Dilemma in Wuthering Heights

Zhu Mingzhu, Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin, 300380, China

Journal of Sociology and Education,  Vol. 2 No. 3 (2026)

Catherine Earnshaw's suffering in Wuthering Heights is often described as a conflict between two men: Heathcliff, the companion of her childhood, and Edgar Linton, the husband who offers rank and security. This paper reads that conflict less as a romantic choice than as a struggle over forms of life. The moors preserve Catherine's unruly kinship with Heathcliff and her memory of an undivided self; Thrushcross Grange promises comfort, status, and social intelligibility within a patriarchal order. Because the novel places these claims within a world governed by inheritance, class prejudice, and gender discipline, Catherine's marriage to Edgar becomes a compromised attempt to secure a life that she cannot fully inhabit. By examining the novel's spatial symbolism, the social conditions of Catherine's choice, and her own language of selfhood, the paper argues that her tragedy arises from an imposed division between inward identity and social survival. The discussion also considers why Catherine's dilemma continues to speak to contemporary readers, especially where external expectations still press individuals to turn against their own sense of life.