An Analysis Of Emily Bronte s Wuthering Heights

Misery Loves Company Being at the wrong place at the wrong time is dangerous enough, but stumbling across the wrong person can be life threatening. Toxic qualities infect the host individual as well as those surrounding them. Much like a merciless virus that can destroy a life from the inside out, poisonous characteristics run rampant through a community and spread as quickly as the plague. Historian and philosopher Howard Zinn proposes that, â€Å"the air of the world is poisonous. And you must carry an antidote with you, or the infection will prove fatal (Zinn 114). In Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte demonstrates the corrosive effects of human interaction through the motif of disease and contagion coupled with mental decay and the deaths of†¦show more content†¦The rich as well as the poor perished from these merciless viruses; all of England suffered the wrath of contagion. So much as 53,000 people in London died from Cholera alone (Laycock). One of the worst diseases was tuberculosis, which had a high fatality rate and killed Emily Bronte herself. Tuberculosis’ presence in Victorian society is represented in the novel and referenced several times as it infects multiple characters. Victorian illnesses are exceedingly prevalent throughout the novel’s plot. Numerous characters fall ill including, but not limited to, Catherine, Mr. and Mrs. Linton, and Isabella, however, is a virus guilty of the demise of countless characters; perhaps not. For some of the characters, unfortunately, their untimely death could not have been avoided without the advanced medical technology that exists today. For instance, Frances, although tended to by a doctor, could not be saved. Despite attempted treatment, the doctor revealed that, â€Å"misses (Frances) must go; he says she’s been in consumption for months† (Bronte, 59). Since medical knowledge of diseases such as tuberculosis was scarce, it was not uncommon for people to die resulting from waves of contagion . The deaths of characters in Wuthering Heights demonstrates how quickly disease spread during that time; the deaths of Mr. and Mrs. Linton proving to be the most integral demonstration of this. The couple contracted the fever from