Although negatively received initially, Wuthering Heights today has remained one of the finest books ever written based on the Gothic style of literature of the 18th century. Wuthering Heights is a novel that primarily held little promise upon publication in 1847, “selling very poorly and receiving only a few mixed reviews” (1). The book was found offensive and unacceptable by m

any Victorian readers in its “depiction of passionate, ungoverned love and cruelty (despite the fact that the novel portrays no sex or bloodshed), and the work was virtually ignored” (1). Charlotte Bronte, Emily’s sister, used similar methods of writing pertaining to Gothic love, yet she seemed unaware of the intense passion depicted within Wuthering Heights. In a reader’s supplement to Bronte’s novel, Charlotte Bronte declared, "Whether it is right or advisable to create beings like Heathcliff, I do not know. I scarcely think it is. But this I know: the writer who possesses the creative gift owns something of which he is not always master—something that, at times, strangely works for itself" (Shefter 35). Today, Wuthering Heights is considered a valuable resource for students of the Gothic traditions in the eighteenth century, which incorporates this Gothic “style of literature that featured supernatural encounters, crumbling ruins, moonless nights, and grotesque imagery, seeking to create effects of mystery and fear” (“Context” 1). The novel has been studied and analyzed by many scholars, yet it still seems to contain many enigmatic features, such as the character of Heathcliff. The passionate and doomed love affair between the characters of Catherine and Heathcliff provide the setting for the “most haunting love story in all of literature” (1; Melani 1; Bloom 32).

Bronte’s fame has established her as an influence towards many Gothic wri

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