The Society of Villains in Wuthering Heights: A New Perspective on the Element of Villainy

Subject Areas :

Abd-O-Rashid Shafiee ¹ , Mohsen Hanif ²

1 - Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Human Sciences, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran
2 - Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Human Sciences, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran

Received: 2021-01-08 Accepted : 2021-05-18 Published : 2021-10-01

Keywords: Hybridity, Homi Bhabha, Emily Bronte, mimicry, third space, Victorian, villain, villainy, Wuthering Heights,

Abstract :

Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights is so fraught with real-life experiences that the reader is unsure about recognizing any single character as the villain. Since the events in the novel take place in the Victorian era, and the attitude of the Victorian English towards the racial “other” was that of a vindictive better towards their slaves, this paper attempts to examine the role of villainy in the novel. Despite the general viewpoint that considers Heathcliff as the sole source of malice in the novel, this paper looks to build on a social approach in identifying the villain(s) of the novel. Drawing on Bhabha’s (2012) theories, such as “hybridity”, “mimicry” and “third-space”, which will serve as the main source of investigation, we will organize the argument so as to identify the villain(s) in Wuthering Heights. The purpose of such an investigation, therefore, will be to explain why and how a colonial "other", that is Heathcliff, becomes a villain in a society whose practitioners consider themselves righteous.

References:

Beaumont, M. (2004). Heathcliff's great hunger: The cannibal other in Wuthering Heights. Journal of Victorian Culture, 9(2), 137-163.

Bhabha, H. K. (2012). The location of culture. Routledge.

Brontë, E. (2000) Wuthering Heights. Wordsworth Editions Limited.

Carlisle, K. (2012). Emily Brontë's Heathcliff: His Journey of Jealousy. The Explicator, 70(1), 46-48.

Fraser, J. (1965). The name of action: Nelly Dean and Wuthering Heights. Nineteenth-Century Fiction, 20(3), 223-236.

Hagan, J. (1967). Control of sympathy in Wuthering Heights. Nineteenth-Century Fiction, 21(4), 305-323.

Hafley, J. (1958). The villain in Wuthering Heights. Nineteenth-Century Fiction, 13(3), 199-215.

Michie, E. (1992). From Simianized Irish to Oriental Despots: Heathcliff, Rochester and Racial Difference. In Novel: A Forum on Fiction (Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 125-140). Duke University Press.

Lodine-Chaffey, J. (2013). Heathcliff’s Abject State in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. Brontë Studies, 38(3), 206-218.

Przybylowicz, S. (2013). (Dys)Function in the Moors: Everyone's a villain in Wuthering Heights. Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies, 14(1), 6-20.

Stevenson, J. A. (1988). “Heathcliff is Me!”: Wuthering Heights and the question of likeness. Nineteenth-Century Literature, 43(1), 60-81.