Euphemisms in Wuthering Heights

A new Croatian undergraduate thesis:

Euphemisms in Emily Brontë's “Wuthering Heights” and Colleen Hoover's “It Ends With Us”

Josipa Matić, Sanja Škifić (mentor)

University of Zadar (Department of English)

This paper embarks on an investigation into the realm of euphemisms, shedding light on their crucial function as linguistic tools in the context of social interactions. Euphemisms, characterized by the substitution of offensive words or phrases for potentially inoffensive ones, emerge as crucial tools for fostering effective and sensitive communication. This paper explores the utilization of euphemisms in two literary works: Emily Brontë's “Wuthering Heights”, set in the 19th century, and Colleen Hoover's “It Ends With Us”, a contemporary novel. By scrutinizing how these authors employ euphemistic expressions to address sensitive themes and reflect the societal norms, values, and taboos of their respective eras, the study aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of linguistic choices within literature and how these choices evolve over time. The research findings supported the first hypothesis, demonstrating that both “Wuthering Heights” and “It Ends With Us” feature euphemisms primarily aligned with the themes presented in the novels. The greatest number of euphemisms, in both works, belong to the semantic field of death, while in “It Ends With Us” there are also many euphemisms belonging to the semantic fields of narcotics and relationships. The second hypothesis, which suggests that “Wuthering Heights” would contain more euphemisms, was supported by the analysis, as “Wuthering Heights” has significantly more euphemisms compared to “It Ends With Us”