Emily Brontë’s Portrayal of Heathcliff as a Social Pariah in Regency England

Emily Bronte’s Heathcliff is a brooding figure of the Yorkshire moors, consumed by rage and wild passion. Yet to read Heathcliff exclusively as the doomed villain would be to dismiss the true complexity of his character. Heathcliff’s presence as an outsider in Wuthering Heights (1847) is immediately evident through his lowly beginnings. Taken off the streets of Liverpool by Mr Earnshaw, the orphan Heathcliff is described as ‘a little Lascar, or an American or Spanish castaway.’ 1 In an era in which pedigree was fundamental to social and economic success, Heathcliff’s gypsy-like appearance and his social status as a ‘bastard’ allow for the other characters to identify him as an interloper who seemingly does not belong in the society in which he has been placed. Casting Heathcliff further away from the civility of Regency society, Bronte situates much of Heathcliff’s action and romance in the wild landscapes surrounding Wuthering Heights. Bronte’s use of pathetic fallacy transforms the moorland and dark bogs into places of danger and darkness. In Wuthering Heights it is clear that Heathcliff’s role as the outsider is in many ways a more complex narrative device. The ambiguity of Heathcliff’s parentage and ethnicity serves to ostracise him, setting him on a somewhat tragic trajectory for the rest of the novel; and the setting makes his character synonymous with the primitive and brutal qualities of these harsh northern lands. As Catherine herself notes, my love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks … a source of little visible delight, but necessary.” 2

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