Wuthering Heights and the Construction of Class Maximilian Gonzalez College

The characters in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights treat class hierarchy as if it is something natural and immutable, but the author shows that the way characters treat each other is largely based off the class they come to identify with. This identity is gained through the way characters are raised, not something they are truly born with. While Heathcliff is mistreated due to his origin, he manages to remove himself from this position and gain a position of power. On the other hand, Hareton, son of the esteemed Earnshaw family, becomes an illiterate servant through Heathcliff’s manipulation. While other characters treat them like they belong in these positions, Brontë uses these characters to show that class is a construction, a matter of nurture rather than nature.

The first clear instance of class construction is when Mr. Earnshaw brings young Heathcliff back to Wuthering Heights after his trip to Liverpool. The immediate response to him is overwhelmingly negative. Nelly, who narrates the story to Lockwood and is herself a servant, initially describes him as a “dirty, ragged, black-haired child” who speaks “in some gibberish that nobody could understand” (26). Nelly also continually refers to Heathcliff as “it,” speaking of...