A Study on the Femme Fatale Characteristics
of Catherine Earnshaw in Wuthering Heights
English B, Category 3
Word Count: 3994
,TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 1
2. FEMME FATALE ............................................................................................................... 2
2.1 FEMME FATALE PROFILE ................................................................................................ 2
3. WUTHERING HEIGHTS ................................................................................................... 6
3.1. CATHERINE EARNSHAW AS FEMME FATALE ................................................................. 6
3.1.1. The Influence of Narrators...................................................................................... 6
3.1.2. Catherine’s Behaviours ........................................................................................... 9
3.2. HEATHCLIFF AS A NAÏVE LOVER .................................................................................. 10
4. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................... 12
5. REFERENCES ................................................................................................................... 14
, 1
1. Introduction
Female characters were mostly depicted as perfect wives for their husbands and pure
and virtuous women in society in the 19th century-English literature, also known as the
Victorian Age, an important era in history. All their duty was just to be a nice, and beautiful,
woman with impeccable manners at home, and to be a quiet member of their community
without any voice in any matter.
At the beginning of the Victorian Age, the perfect woman wasn’t ‘Madonna in the
sky’, but ‘an angel in the house’ (Gilbert & Gubar, 2000). Specifically, they were defined as
‘wholly passive, completely void of generative power’ and their ‘purity’ signified that “they
are, of course, self-less, with all the moral and psychological implications that the word
suggests”. Thus, “from the eighteenth century on, conducting books for ladies proliferated, to
enjoin young girls to submissiveness, modesty and self-lessness and to remind all women that
they should be angelic” (Gilbert & Gubar, 2000, p.20-21). This is exactly where Katarina
Fabijanic (2017) gives her critical point of view and attracts notice to the expectation of this
‘angelic’ profile in literature as a way to produce a woman who is always accessible to
others, serves them with a smile on her face and never thinks of her own needs or wants, in
other words, creating a human without an identity.
Similarly, as a response to the stereotypical classification that ‘woman’ was tried to be
put in, there occurred a small uprising among educated middle class in the 19th century when
feminist ideas spread and discriminatory laws were repealed (Fabijanic, 2017). This uprising
and opposition can be seen in the novels of the middle and the late Victorian Age in which
authors wrote novels with strong female characters who show their power and dominance in
different ways. Even in some books, authors preferred to show this power and dominance by
highlighting the selfishness and evilness of their protagonist. Brontë Sisters supported this
feminist uprising nearly with all of their novels, poems and female characters.
of Catherine Earnshaw in Wuthering Heights
English B, Category 3
Word Count: 3994
,TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 1
2. FEMME FATALE ............................................................................................................... 2
2.1 FEMME FATALE PROFILE ................................................................................................ 2
3. WUTHERING HEIGHTS ................................................................................................... 6
3.1. CATHERINE EARNSHAW AS FEMME FATALE ................................................................. 6
3.1.1. The Influence of Narrators...................................................................................... 6
3.1.2. Catherine’s Behaviours ........................................................................................... 9
3.2. HEATHCLIFF AS A NAÏVE LOVER .................................................................................. 10
4. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................... 12
5. REFERENCES ................................................................................................................... 14
, 1
1. Introduction
Female characters were mostly depicted as perfect wives for their husbands and pure
and virtuous women in society in the 19th century-English literature, also known as the
Victorian Age, an important era in history. All their duty was just to be a nice, and beautiful,
woman with impeccable manners at home, and to be a quiet member of their community
without any voice in any matter.
At the beginning of the Victorian Age, the perfect woman wasn’t ‘Madonna in the
sky’, but ‘an angel in the house’ (Gilbert & Gubar, 2000). Specifically, they were defined as
‘wholly passive, completely void of generative power’ and their ‘purity’ signified that “they
are, of course, self-less, with all the moral and psychological implications that the word
suggests”. Thus, “from the eighteenth century on, conducting books for ladies proliferated, to
enjoin young girls to submissiveness, modesty and self-lessness and to remind all women that
they should be angelic” (Gilbert & Gubar, 2000, p.20-21). This is exactly where Katarina
Fabijanic (2017) gives her critical point of view and attracts notice to the expectation of this
‘angelic’ profile in literature as a way to produce a woman who is always accessible to
others, serves them with a smile on her face and never thinks of her own needs or wants, in
other words, creating a human without an identity.
Similarly, as a response to the stereotypical classification that ‘woman’ was tried to be
put in, there occurred a small uprising among educated middle class in the 19th century when
feminist ideas spread and discriminatory laws were repealed (Fabijanic, 2017). This uprising
and opposition can be seen in the novels of the middle and the late Victorian Age in which
authors wrote novels with strong female characters who show their power and dominance in
different ways. Even in some books, authors preferred to show this power and dominance by
highlighting the selfishness and evilness of their protagonist. Brontë Sisters supported this
feminist uprising nearly with all of their novels, poems and female characters.
