Defining Taboo: A study of the life and work of the
Bront sisters
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Brittany Bell
Silence=Death: Gay Rights,
Wuthering Heights, and the
Outspoken Emily Bront
Emily Bronts Wuthering Heights and Charlotte Bronts
Jane Eyre
Journal Article focused on:
Conference paper focused
on::
Non-Normative Gender and
Relationship Roles
Gender Ambiguity and Role
Reversal
Sexual Addiction
-Destruction of the Body
-Destruction of the Mind
-Destruction of the Spirit
Select Quotes from
Wuthering Heights
Gender Roles and Ambiguity
Edgar is a lamb of [Cathys] (Bront 11:83)
Destruction of the Body
Heathcliff starves himself for days and goes on nightly
walks that no one can explain. He says simply that he
is within sight of [his] heaven (Bront 33:238).
Destruction of the Mind
He even comes up with the idea to remove the side
of her coffin so that he may be buried next to her in
death and [dissolve] with her, being more happy
still (Bront 29:209).
Destruction of the Spirit
Mrs. Linton [sits] in a loose, white dress[with]
Gimmerton chapel bells still ringing in the
background (Bront 15:113-114).
God is not a Feminist
Battle against patriarchal
convention
Feminism, Gender
Inequality, and Class
Inequality
Involvement of the
Christian Church in all of
the above
Select
Quotes from Jane Eyre
Photos
The picture above is from an online source
and depicts Heathcliffs mourning over the
death of Catherine in Wuthering Heights. This
idea of the final consummation in death is
what prompted me to research taboo
subjects in this literature such as sexual
addiction, non-normative relationships, and
gender equality.
The picture below is also from an online
source and depicts a distraught Heathcliff,
being haunted by Catherine to the point of
starving himself and having complete
disregard for his own well-being.
A picture from a version of Jane Eyre
illustrated by Santiago Caruso. This picture
depicts the thesis of my article, God is not a
Feminist, because of its focus on the phrase,
Punish her body, save her soul. This phrase
is the epitome of the submission to
patriarchal society forced on Victorian women
by the Christian Church.
women are supposed to be very calm generally: but
women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for
their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as
their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a
restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men
would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more
privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to
confine themselves to making puddings and knitting
stocking, to playing on the piano and embroidering
bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at
them, if they seek to do more or learn more than
custom has pronounced necessary for their sex
(Bront JE 12:104).
not forget that if [she rejects] it, it is not [him she
denies], but GodHe opens to you a noble career; as
[his] wife only can [she] enter upon it. Refuse to be
[his] wife, and [she limits herself] for ever to a track
of selfish ease and barren obscurity (Bront JE
34:381).
We hear one last warning from St. John, citing this
scripture from the gospels, Whoever will come after
me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and
follow me (Bront JE 38:422).
