Emily Bronte’s contribution to British literature
Uploaded by CaseyP on Mar 22, 2017
Introduction
Literature plays a crucial role in today's society. It is a tool that is utilized in exposing different issues that face the community. Today, both men and women have an opportunity to give their contributions to this important field of English literature. However, this was not always the case especially in British literature as the field was dominated by men and supported by a society that believed women could not give any meaningful contribution. Though she wrote only one novel, Emily Bronte redefined the role of women in British literature through her book, Wuthering Heights. The paper evaluates her influence to this important field. It seeks to show that her work not only defied the norm, but it also began a movement that set the stage for other women to give their contribution.
Emily Bronte’s contribution to British literature
Emily Bronte was born during the Victorian era when male chauvinism made it impossible for women to venture into writing and benefit the society with their thoughts. Though not well educated, the work of Emily Bronte was a reflection of herself which made a lot of people relate to what she had written (Brontë, p 62). The possibility of a woman writing a book was so limited that her book had to be published under the name of a male author as a female writer was unheard of in that era. When the novel, Wuthering Heights, was released, it defied all societal norms that had been placed by the society and which every author had to conform to for them to be accepted. These challenges noted, the work presented by Emily Bronte was years ahead of her time given the environment under which the book was published.
One of the reasons why her work was so important to British literature is because it revolved around passion, sexual desires, power, and conflict. It was the first time that an author, males included, took a chance and showed the society that women were not lesser beings to their male counterparts. To date, her book is still considered as one of the greatest romantic novel in the English literature. Additionally, her work exuded a degree of rebellion, loneliness and a quest for freedom at a magnitude not witnessed before (Brontë, p 125). The ability by Emily Bronte to write a book that did not involve a girl in distress who would be...