Emily Bronte Wuthering Heights as a Psychological Novel

Wuthering Heights , written by Emily Bronte deals with the strong forces of passion driven internally as an incentive to execute revenge by Heathcliff. It is a psychological novel that shows various landscapes of self , human relationships and other layers of human traits and personality. The novel largely deals with the dark romance between Heathcliff and Catherine but the passion and revenge passes down till the very last generation. 

As a psychological novel , one can observe that projection of self that is magnified with the help of nature. The mansion of wuthering heights has a strong and fierce flow of gales. It is violent and Bronte clearly emphasizes it to reflect the inner self of the characters or human self itself. From a psychological standpoint , self is divided into two where the inner self is the self that is hidden from the world whereas the outer self is the self that is projected upon to the world. In the novel , the Wuthering Heights represents the inner self of the human psyche that is dark and violent whereas the mansion of Thrushcross Grange represents the brighter and good side of human self or outer self.  Clearly , the nature itself is divided into two and hence it is a division of human self into two that shows the psychological flow of divided selves. 

In addition to this , the love that Heathcliff has for Catherine is driven by his Id personality. It is observable where Heathcliff has a lot of attachment towards her rather than Hindley who brutally abuses him in his childhood. The aspect of Id is driven by passion in a positive sense for Catherine in the beginning of the novel because Catherine is the only one who has sympathized his existence and cared for him. This drives the both to extend their relationship into a different level of emotional bondage. Hence , Heathcliff finds pleasure or Id driven desire only towards Catherine.  The another human personality traits that can be seen in the novel is the ego. The ego is the reality principle that balances the Id or pleasure principle. Catherine shows ego in her personality and it is observable when she tells Nelly that she is marrying Edgar so that she can cater the needs and give privileges to Heathcliff. This is ego because she balances her desire of love for both Edgar and Heathcliff. 

However , the psychological novel focuses its prime on human relationships. Freud has given a discourse on Oedipus complex and Carl Jung developed a theory on Electra complex. These are both binary opposites when it comes to human relationships among the family members. The instances of Oedipus complex is seen between Heathcliff , Catherine and Edgar. Heathcliff becomes jealous of Catherine’s attachment towards Edgar where Edgar appears to be a fatherly figure and Heathcliff dislikes him. This instance shows the development of Oedipus Complex in the novel. The development of Electra Complex is seen between Catherine , Heathcliff and Isabella where Catherine becomes jealous of Isabella’s attachment towards Heathcliff. This development clearly projects the psychological development of Electra Complex in the novel. 

The novel also projects the Jungian theory of animus and anima theory. The animus is the unconscious masculine side of a woman whereas the anima is the unconscious feminine side of a man. Bronte has projected both of these aspects in the novel where female characters especially from Wuthering Heights including Catherine Earnshaw , her daughter shows the unconscious masculine side of a man in their personality traits. The stamp their feet on the floor and talk aggressively while talking to each other and consistently abuse each other violently. This reflects Jungian theory of animus in the character of female characters in the mansion of Wuthering Heights. The anima is another Jungian theory that can be seen in the novel especially in the character of Mr. Linton who is a son of Heathcliff and Isabella. Mr. Linton shows the anima side of unconscious feminine  side in a man and Mr. Linton projects the feminine attributes of a weak physical strength and submissive behaviour towards his own authoritative father , Heathcliff.