Wild Women and Witches in Wuthering Heights and Helen of Four Gates

This article explores the metaphors of ‘wild’ and ‘witch’ in the representations of heroines in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (1847) and Ethel Carnie Holdsworth’s Helen of Four Gates (1917), which borrows from Brontë in terms of its setting, characters and cross-generational plot. The narration frequently uses the adjective ‘wild’ to describe Catherine. While the male characters in both novels regard the second Catherine (Cathy) and Helen as wild witches, the heroines fashion themselves as witches to resist the cultural norm and defy male domination. Focusing on their experiences in the confinement of their bodies and minds such as pregnancy (Catherine and Helen) and domestic violence (Cathy, Isabella and Helen), this article discusses these women’s constant struggles with patriarchal authority and their search for power along with their imaginative engagement with the untamed wild moor. The figure of the wild woman or witch serves as a metaphor and a model for the heroines to liberate themselves from patriarchal confinement and violence.