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Essay on Emily Bronte Illusion and Reality

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A consideration of how Emily Bronte, Tennessee Williams and Shakespeare consider the notion of illusion and reality in the context of a love story.
Wuthering Heights follows the Romantic Movement, a movement within literature during the late 18th century with captured intense emotion and passion within writing as opposed to rationalisation. Emily Bronte’s main focal point within the novel is the extreme emotion of love and whether it leads to the characters contentment or ultimate calamity. This confliction of love is portrayed mainly through Catherine Earnshaw, a contemptuous, spoiled beauty whose metaphysical love for the protagonist, Heathcliff, will be tested by her disillusion of Edgar Linton and the social and financial benefits he …show more content…

As Cathy behaves mannerly and immaculate to conceal her true spiritual energy, Blanche behaves exactly the same with her frail image and glamour disguising not only her loss of wealth from the ancestral building the Belle Reve, but also to maintain a youthful image that men would have sexual attraction and admiration for. Blanches constant self-absorption is apparent through her selfishness of “soaking in the hot-tub” and “her little weakness” of perpetual need to be “looking wonderful”.
Catherine similarly becomes self-absorbed with the idea of becoming “the greatest woman in the neighbourhood” so like Blanche she harbours herself from a young girl into a woman with pristine physical appearance to capture social benefits. Upon this transition within Catherine she advocates her superiority over Heathcliff by stating he is a “bleak, hilly, coal country” harshly contrasting him against her new companion, Edgar, who appears a “beautiful, fertile valley”. In relation to David Cecil’s theory the environment Cathy associates her best friends with mirrors the true nature of the storm and the calm. Furthermore these quotations give reference to the importance of social class during Emily Bronte’s time; whilst wealthy individuals would have a more desirable image,

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