The Dysfunctional Family in Brontë’s Wuthering Heights Essay -- Wuther

The Dysfunctional Family in Brontà «Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s Wuthering Heights Creating a haven from the cruel outside world, families ideally provide protection and support for each of their members. In Emily Brontà «Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s Wuthering Heights, however, bitterness grows between the Earnshaws and the Lintons. Within these two families, siblings rival for power and parents fail to fulfill their roles as caregivers. The intertwining relationships of the Earnshaws and the Lintons are marked by physical abuse, degradation, and emotional negligence. These reduce each of the family members’ life to a lonely and meaningless journey though the cold and misty moors. Unforgiving as the moors that surround them, the Earnshaws and the Lintons often resort to physical violence when interacting with one another. When Lockwood first visits the protagonist Heathcliff at Wuthering Heights, he tries to caress one of Heathcliff’s dogs but is met with angry snarls. Heathcliff, seeing this, kicks the dog and informs his visitor: â€Å"You’d better let the dog alone. She’s not accustomed to be spoiled – not kept for a pet†(12). Like Heathcliff’s dog, no one in the Earnshaw or the Linton family is accustomed to affection. Nelly, the servant who has worked for the Earnshaws and the Lintons for many years, is considered to be a part of these two families. She has grown so accustomed to her master Hindley Earnshaw’s physical violence that she is unfazed when he sticks a knife between her teeth. Hindley tries to use physical violence as a means of re-establishing his power within his household, for he has lost his stranglehold on it when he spiralled into depression over his wife Frances’ death. An alcoholic and a gambler, Hindley is unsuccessful in obtaining his son Hareton’s a... ...s purposes. When Edgar Linton marries his beloved Catherine, Heathcliff revenges on his adoptive brother-in-law by marrying Isabella so that he may inherit the family fortune. He is only playing a game of emotions though, for he does not love Isabella at all. As Isabella laments to Nelly of her husband Heathcliff: â€Å"I gave him my heart, and he took and pinched it to death, and flung it back to me† (168). Cruel and false, the Earnshaws and the Lintons wreck havoc with each other’s hearts. They abuse each other physically, degrade their children, and withhold affection. The family structure collapses as the spirit is crushed. These two families banish the warmth of love and care from their midst and embrace the coldness of the still, harsh moors between their two houses. WORK CITED Brontà «, Emily. Wuthering Heights. New York: New American Library, 1959. The Dysfunctional Family in Brontà «Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s Wuthering Heights Essay -- Wuther The Dysfunctional Family in Brontà «Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s Wuthering Heights Creating a haven from the cruel outside world, families ideally provide protection and support for each of their members. In Emily Brontà «Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s Wuthering Heights, however, bitterness grows between the Earnshaws and the Lintons. Within these two families, siblings rival for power and parents fail to fulfill their roles as caregivers. The intertwining relationships of the Earnshaws and the Lintons are marked by physical abuse, degradation, and emotional negligence. These reduce each of the family members’ life to a lonely and meaningless journey though the cold and misty moors. Unforgiving as the moors that surround them, the Earnshaws and the Lintons often resort to physical violence when interacting with one another. When Lockwood first visits the protagonist Heathcliff at Wuthering Heights, he tries to caress one of Heathcliff’s dogs but is met with angry snarls. Heathcliff, seeing this, kicks the dog and informs his visitor: â€Å"You’d better let the dog alone. She’s not accustomed to be spoiled – not kept for a pet†(12). Like Heathcliff’s dog, no one in the Earnshaw or the Linton family is accustomed to affection. Nelly, the servant who has worked for the Earnshaws and the Lintons for many years, is considered to be a part of these two families. She has grown so accustomed to her master Hindley Earnshaw’s physical violence that she is unfazed when he sticks a knife between her teeth. Hindley tries to use physical violence as a means of re-establishing his power within his household, for he has lost his stranglehold on it when he spiralled into depression over his wife Frances’ death. An alcoholic and a gambler, Hindley is unsuccessful in obtaining his son Hareton’s a... ...s purposes. When Edgar Linton marries his beloved Catherine, Heathcliff revenges on his adoptive brother-in-law by marrying Isabella so that he may inherit the family fortune. He is only playing a game of emotions though, for he does not love Isabella at all. As Isabella laments to Nelly of her husband Heathcliff: â€Å"I gave him my heart, and he took and pinched it to death, and flung it back to me† (168). Cruel and false, the Earnshaws and the Lintons wreck havoc with each other’s hearts. They abuse each other physically, degrade their children, and withhold affection. The family structure collapses as the spirit is crushed. These two families banish the warmth of love and care from their midst and embrace the coldness of the still, harsh moors between their two houses. WORK CITED Brontà «, Emily. Wuthering Heights. New York: New American Library, 1959.