Question Is it true to suggest that the predominant feeling of the novel is one of suffering? This essay will explore the theme of suffering throughout Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. Written in the Victorian era and set within the Georgian era the novel is that of a gothic fiction and was Emily’s only novel. Wuthering heights was written between October 1845 and June 1846, and was first published in 1847 under the pseudonym ?Ellis Bell? and had sold very poorly. The Victorian readers had found the novel rather shocking and quite inappropriate in the way it depicted passion and ungoverned love and cruelty. This led them to believe the novel had actually been written by a male. Just about every character within Wuthering Heights suffers from physical and emotional suffering, many even die from it. Heathcliff’s character is the only one to avoid a physical illness, but it is his love for Catherine that causes a vast amount of suffering both for himself and other characters within the novel. Heathcliff’s character seems to overpower all other characters sometimes physically but mainly by his domineering nature. The moment he arrives at wuthering heights he throws the Earnshaw family into contention. His language is "gibberish" and his dark race provokes the labels "gipsy," and "villain," This ill treatment is not much of an advance on his "starving and houseless" childhood, and he swiftly becomes a product of all of the abuse and mistreatment. It is his character whom first experiences suffering at the hands of Hindley. It is from this bad treatment that arouses Heathcliff’s deep and enduring hatred and his overwhelming desire for revenge. Hindleys envy of Mr. Earnshaw's love for the orphan sets off a chain reaction of cruelty and mistreatment. As a child he calls Heathcliff an "imp of Satan" and hopes a pony will kick Heathcliff's brains out (Brontë, 1870, p. 65). After Mr. Earnshaw dies Hindley begins treating Heathcliff like a servant. Deprived of an education and treated inhumanly, Heathcliff is left bitter and uncivilized. ‘So, from the very beginning, he bred bad feeling in the house; and at Mrs. Earnshaw's death, which happened in less than two years after, the young master had learned to regard his father as an oppressor rather than a friend, and Heathcliff as a usurper of his parent's affections and his privileges; and he grew bitter with brooding over these injuries.’ (Brontë, 1870, p. 55) Before Heathcliff arrives, Hindley is evidently the young man of the house, and he does not easily give up this honor. It can also be viewed that Hindley was also a victim of suffering from his father Mr. Earnshaw and he reacts by in turn making Heathcliff suffer. After the death of Hindley’s wife Frances, Hindleys life starts for a steady decline as he takes nothing to do with his son putting blame on him for his wife’s death