Elements Of Romanticism In Wuthering Heights

“The Victorian era was a period of dramatic change which brought England to its highest point of development as a world power. The rapid growth of London, from a population of 2 million when Victoria came to the throne to one of 6.5 million by the time of Victoria 's death, indicates the dramatic transition from a way of life based on the ownership of land to a modern urban economy. England experienced an enormous increase in wealth. However, unregulated and rapid industrialization brought a host of economic and social problems. The extreme inequities between women and men stimulated a debate about women 's roles. Women were denied the right to vote or hold political office throughout the period, but gradually they won significant

Romanticism is movement, period, style, or genre in literature. Romanticism occurred in America and Europe in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and it is the specific historical movement in ideas and art (Gleckner 231). Romanticism has many features and it cares mainly about intuition, imagination, and individual. First feature is the interest in childhood and common man. Romanticism confirms that savage is noble and childhood is good. Second feature is strong feelings, senses, and emotions. Romanticism confirms that knowledge is gained by intuition. Third feature is awe of the nature; Romanticism confirms awe of the nature in language, art, and the sublimity by the connection with the nature. Fourth feature is importance of imagination and it is important because romantics believed in individual imagination as critical authority. Fifth feature is the celebration of individual. Romantics elevated the misunderstood achievements and heroic individual outcast. ‘Wuthering Heights’ novel has many features of the romantic genre. It is a romance novel because it is a love story with the declarations of the romantic union between Catherine and Heathcliff. The example is in ‘Miss Cathy and he were now very thick’ (32). The relation with the nature and its elements connects the novel with the romantic genre. The text from the novel that confirms that is ‘I lingered round them, under that benign

The example of that is in that passage ‘he will be rich, and I shall like to be the greatest woman of the neighborhood, I shall be proud of having such a husband’ (69). ‘Wuthering Heights’ shows the real domestic life and its troubles inside home. The example is in ‘you will escape from a disorderly, comfortless home’ (70). ‘Wuthering Heights’ has not only realistic signs but also many characters that confirm that genre of it and they get away from the obvious model of romantic characters. For Heathcliff, he could be considered as a Byronic hero. Byronic hero characteristics are, sophisticated, mysterious, and a dangerous hero. He is moody rebel and he can be arrogant. The hero is attractive to woman who is drawn to his complicated personality, secret past and hidden conflicts. Heathcliff does not reform, and the malevolence proves great and long lasting. So, he has desire to revenge from Hindley and Edgar and that is obvious in his relation with his wife and that is clear in that passage ‘he wishes to provoke Edgar to desperation-he says he has married me on purpose to obtain power over him’ (134). For Isabella, her unhappy marriage shows element of cruelty in her character and that is obvious in that passage which confirms her bad and unstable marriage ‘don’t put faith in a single word he speaks, he’s a lying fiend, a monster, and not a human being’ (132). A major character