Emily Bronte died of tuberculosis in December 1848, barely a year after the publication of Wuthering Heights. Her novel, recognized as an original masterpiece soon after her death, involves issues of slavery, family relationships, and gender in ways that remain fresh and provocative.
The chaos of revolution. Wuthering Heights takes place between 1771 and 1802, an era that saw rapid political, social, and economic change in England as well as the development of Romantic literature. Politically, the period experienced the momentous American and French Revolutions. While England’s loss of its 13 American colonies and its subsequent struggle to contain the threat of the French Revolution have no direct analogues in Wuthering Heights, there is an indirect influence. The increasing social mobility and democratization associated with these political movements evoke anxiety in the novel’s landed gentry, among whom Heathcliff may be seen as an almost allegorical figure for the chaos of revolution. Equally significant to the novel are the slow abolition of slavery in England and a shifting understanding of the nature of marriage and the family.
Social mobility. The basis of the English class system before the nineteenth century was land, which conveyed both money and status.
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