Emily Brontë, author of Wuthering Heights, once staged a hunger strike to protest her father when he fired a beloved servant. She not only rebelled against her father's authority as a teenager, but later in her life, she also refused medical treatment that would have helped ease her tuberculosis while on her deathbed. These two instances provide evidence of Brontë's anorectic behaviors, thus demonstrating clear parallels to the theme of anorexia in Wuthering Heights. During the time of Brontë's life, and in the setting of the novel, women were assumed to be "angels in the house," completely devoted to their husband and familial role. This stereotypical domestic feminine role left women feeling trapped and powerless. In the novel, Catherine's refusal of food and anorectic behaviors demonstrate this feeling of powerlessness, as she is unable to escape the stereotypical female role. Her anorexia exemplifies her attempts to subvert her gender role in the only way she feels possible-by exerting control over what she ingests. Throughout Wuthering Heights, Catherine Earnshaw exhibits anorectic behaviors in order to subvert the expected behaviors of domestic women. She refuses to eat as a means of protest when Hindley whips Heathcliff because of his response to Edgar Linton's teasing. She tells Edgar, "I hate him to be flogged! I can't eat my dinner" (59). In feeling she has no verbal power, she ignores her physical need for food because it is the only power she believes she possesses. Because she has no control over the men and the situation, Catherine finds power in manipulation by refusing to eat.
             Society emphasizes and prioritizes the importance of social status, encouraging women to marry for the purpose of bettering their reputations. Catherine falls short of defying feminine gender expectations by marrying Edgar of the socially accepted Linton family in order to gain s...