Heathcliff as the masculine counterpart of androgynous Catherine in Wuthering Heights

Abstract

Androgyny is first introduced to literary criticism by Virginia Woolf. She proclaims that “in each of us two powers preside, one male, one female; and in the man’s brain the man predominates over the woman, and in the woman’s brain the woman predominates over the man”.1 It is “an ideal plan of human soul, which surpasses traditional gender classification and possesses more active potentials”.2 “The nineteenth century saw an increasingly widespread and articulate statement of women’s claims”.3 Therefore, as a writer in the first half of the nineteenth century, it would have been impossible for Emily Brontë to compose a novel expressing her feminist ideas clearly and obviously, or to organize a campaign against the patriarchal system. She chose to expose her plea for equal rights by a smart textual strategy: making Catherine an androgynous character. Under the disguise of Heathcliff, a male character, Catherine fights against social prejudice and defends her right to equality. Emily is “clever, benevolent but very stubborn: ‘Stronger than a man, simpler than a child, her nature stood alone’”.4 Emily was not a standard Victorian woman, who was expected to be mild, obedient, elegant, and refined. In the Victorian era, it was difficult for women to start a literary career because they were believed to be the “angels in the house”.5 However, Emily and her sisters sought equality with men, even though the patriarchal system in the Victorian era oppressed women. But even in a feminine mind, the male counterpart cannot be suppressed forever. Emily Brontë showed this in Wuthering Heights, and Catherine reveals this in her actions. Catherine is mischievous, but confined by Victorian values. Though she receives a conventional genteel education, her androgynous character is formed during her rebellion against injustice toward women. As an androgynous girl, she performs the feminine and masculine parts of her personality on different occasions. Whenever Catherine’s rebellious spirit seeks revenge for unjust social conventions, Heathcliff comes to life. When Catherine wants to uphold https://doi.org/10.1080/00144940.2023.2205578