Crisis of Identity

More recent scholarly papers:

The Splitting of the Self: Catherine’s Crisis of Identity in Wuthering Heights
Olivia Bernard
Denison University

Articulāte: Vol. 28, Article 4 (2023)

The relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights is one of the most striking in Victorian literature. The sheer unbridled passion that the two have for each other goes beyond any kind of romantic lust, or indeed, beyond any kind of separation of the soul to begin with. Catherine’s famous declaration that “I am Heathcliff” (Brontë 64) is not metaphorical. As Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar suggest in their essay “Looking Oppositely: Emile (sic) Brontë’s Bible of Hell,” he is the embodiment of her masculinity. Andç so, because Victorian patriarchy attempts to strip control from women by both removing their access to masculine power and teaching the women themselves to internally spurn and disregard that power as a means of maintaining control, Catherine’s losing Heathcliff is a physical and social rending alike. She loses with him an important piece of herself, her ability to interact with the world, and her ability to seek control, both over herself and her surroundings. Emily Brontë uses the conflict between patriarchal norms and Catherine’s true, undivided self to make the mental fragmentation of Victorian women literal. By placing Catherine’s masculine half into Heathcliff, and then removing him from her as she’s pushed into the role of a proper lady, Brontë catalogues the inevitable destructive descent as her identities—first as an unorthodox but complete person and later as the split, “proper” woman she’s forced to become—collide and ensnare her physically and mentally. As she throws herself against the bars of this cage and gradually deteriorates, Brontë presents a potent warning about the violent damage oppressive structures do to those they trap.