Coercive or controlling behaviour in an intimate or family relationship became a in the UK in December 2015. The legislation was the result of a to extend understanding of domestic abuse beyond physical violence. But, over 150 years earlier, Emily Brontë placed coercive control at the heart of her celebrated gothic romance, Wuthering Heights.
The novel is often read as a . It has inspired a and many . But Heathcliff is an abused child who becomes an abuser – and teaches his son to copy, continue and refine his abuse.
, Cathy declares that “My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I am Heathcliff!” Coercive control, like Cathy’s love, may not be fully visible, but it nonetheless underpins the emotional logic of Brontë’s plot.
Wuthering Heights is a novel of two halves. The first focuses on spirited, passionate Cathy, caught between her tamely domestic husband Edgar Linton and the thrilling wildness of Heathcliff, her soulmate from childhood. To revenge himself on Cathy for marrying Edgar, Heathcliff elopes with Edgar’s infatuated sister Isabella. Isabella initially sees Heathcliff as a brooding romantic hero, but...
