The Construction, Internalization and Subversion of Heathcliff’s “gypsy” Identity in Wuthering Heights
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This study re-examines the racialized ontology of Heathcliff in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights through the theoretical lens of Internal Orientalism, arguing that his enigmatic “Gypsy” identity functions as a strategic cultural construct rather than a mere biological marker. While previous scholarship has frequently oscillated between metaphysical and class-based interpretations of Heathcliff’s vengeance, this research contends that his presence constitutes a localized eruption of colonial anxiety within the domestic sanctuary of the Yorkshire moors. By integrating Edward Said’s framework of Othering with the spatial politics of the nineteenth-century English estate, the article demonstrates Heathcliff is constructed as a “Gypsy” Other through racialized and animalized representations, his exclusion from domestic and educational spaces, and exoticized fantasies about his unknown origins. Such discursive and institutional practices construct him as uncivilized and socially illegitimate and turn his ambiguous identity into a threat to the established order of family, marriage and property.
DOI: 10.61784/wjll3015
Author: XinYi Zhang
Institution: Beijing Foreign Studies University
Language: English
Topic: Ayn Rand and Brontë studies
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7225620593
FWCI:
Cites:
Cited by:
Related to: