Final answer:
Emily Brontë's 'Wuthering Heights' protests gender appropriation by challenging traditional gender roles, allowing characters like Catherine to display traits such as assertiveness. The narrative questions societal norms and the restrictive 'angel in the house' stereotype, presenting a complex portrayal of gender influenced by various social factors.
Step-by-step explanation:
Wuthering Heights is often analyzed through gender criticism, a perspective originating from feminist literary criticism that considers not just the roles of women but the broader construction of gender and sexuality. The novel, though written in the patriarchal context of the 19th century, surprisingly questions and inverts traditional gender norms.
The characterizations of Catherine Earnshaw and other figures in the story suggest levels of empowerment and resistance against the social norms of the period.
For instance, Catherine defies the typical gender appropriation of her time by displaying qualities such as assertiveness and independence, which were traditionally considered masculine traits. She challenges the angel in the house stereotype that restricted women's roles to domestic spheres and portrayed them as passive.
Instead, her tumultuous relationship with Heathcliff and her complex personality contribute to a narrative where characters are not confined by their genders but are influenced by a variety of factors including class and lineage.
Moreover, Emily Brontë's own life as a writer was a form of protest against gender expectations. In an era when feminine authorship was often dismissed or unappreciated, Brontë's work stands out as a bold assertion of female creativity and intellectual power.
Thus, the novel itself serves as a testament to and protest of gender appropriation, symbolizing the challenges that women like Brontë faced in asserting their voices in a male-dominated field.