“Why am I So Changed?”: Witnessing the hysteric’s trauma narrative through movement in place in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights
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2015
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Haverford College. Department of English
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Thesis
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eng
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Open Access
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Abstract
During one of Catherine’s hysteric fits, she cries out; “Why am I so changed? Why does my blood rush into a hell of tumult at a few words?” This question sparks my analysis behind Catherine’s hysteria in Wuthering Heights. My thesis aims to answer not only why is she so changed, but how is her transformation articulated on both a personal and cultural level. Hysteria during the mid nineteenth century was a richly debated topic. There were two main theories on the origin of hysteria: one stressed the lack of internal control, while the other emphasized too much external control on female bodies. My analysis, deeply rooted in history, joins both of these medical theories by examining Catherine’s movements through place. Catherine moves from places where she is happy to environments that slowly start to constrain her actions and choices. In this movement between places, Catherine’s increasingly agitated movements convey her growing frustration, and her outsider status. Her frantic movements are often undercut by moments of stillness. Overtime, her placidity pervades the text making her physical and emotional wounds apparent. By understanding Catherine’s narrative, the reader is moved to see how hysteria can be a fleeting source of agency and a cultural imposition that engenders enduring trauma.