Understanding the Family in Wuthering Heights by Emily BronteJerome Bump, author of "Family-Systems Theory, Addiction, and Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights", analyzes the relationships of the “closed family unit” to understand the relationships in the novel. A better understanding of Wuthering Heights can be seen in the examples Bump gives of the contagious nature of hostility, abuse, and dependency across both generations. The only way for the second generation to escape the negative impression of the first generation is through intervention from outside the closed family unit. HOSTILITY At the beginning of the novel, Lockwood visits Heathcliff. What Lockwood discovers is the second generation isolated from a closed family unit. Not only isolated from society, the family is hostile to each other and to strangers. Lockwood immediately feels hostility and is treated like an unwanted outsider, instead of being welcomed by a more open family unit. Hostility is contagious. Hostility can spread from person to person, like a virus. The effects of hostility on Lockwood as Heathcliff's unwelcome guest show how the family unit also reflects the same hostile nature. Lockwood imitates the hostility he feels in the family. In Lockwood's dream, the apparition of a young girl appears to him at the widow's house. As the ghost asks Lockwood to "let me in", Lockwood responds "I'll never let you in" (Bump quoting Wuthering Heights). He then cut the ghost's wrist with broken glass. Not only has hostility affected Lockwood's actions through his subconscious, but he refuses to open up to a stranger.REPETITION OF NAMESThe repetition of names from generation to generation is a clue that other elements are repeating... ... middle of paper... ...the generation is capable of breaking away from repetition and transforming the closed family unit into an open family unit. This is evident at the end of the novel when Lockwood returns to Wuthering Heights. Instead of an isolated and hostile family, Lockwood finds the door and lattice wide open for visitors to enter. Work Cited Bump, Jerome (Prof. of English, Univ. of Texas-Austin). “Family Systems Theory, Addiction, and Emily Wuthering Heights.” Part 6 of The Family Dynamics of Victorian Fiction. [Rpt. Excerpts from “Family Dynamics in the Reception of Art,” Style 31.2 (1997): 328-350.]http://landow.stg.brown.edu/victorian/bronte/ebronte/bump6.html... From The Victorian Web: Literature, History, and Culture in the Victorian Era (George Landow, Professor of English and Art History, Brown Univ.) http://landow.stg.brown.edu/victorian/ victov.html