To what extent are the three nineteenth century texts you've studied concerned with class and social stagnation?

I would argue that, based on my own reading of Emily Bronte’s ‘Wuthering Heights’, Jane Austen’s ‘Emma’ and ‘Selected Poems’ by Tennsyon, that nineteenth century texts are primarily concerned with class and social stagnation, particularly the place of women and the lower classes. Bronte and Austen use the characters of Heathcliff and Harriet both as literary vehicles to demonstrate the consequences of defying the inveterate societal stagnation of the class system. Tennyson, whilst still touching upon the issues of women and the lower classes, is predominantly concerned with the artist’s place in society and their inability to emerge from their own social bracket and adapt to society – they exist to observe life, not to partake. Nevertheless, his poems exemplify his concerns with social stagnation. However, numerous readers have speculated that many other issues are the primary concerns of Georgian and Victorian literature, including Diana Postlethwaite’s emphasis on the tragic love in ‘Wuthering Heights’ and Victoria Rose Perkins’ insightful suggestion that Tennyson’s conflict with depression was the crux of his poetry. Whilst these views are somewhat valid, class and social stagnation still appear to be the crucial subjects behind these three texts.

In all three texts, the place of women on the social hierarchy is a prevalent issue and in Emily Bronte’s ‘Wuthering Heights’, it plays a pivotal role in the development of the novel. Catherine’s rejection of Heathcliff is due to her wish to “be the greatest woman of the neighbourhood” and to marry above her own status; a delight she finds in the form of Edgar Linton. Despite her intense emotional attachment to Heathcliff, to marry him would be highly inappropriate and for Cathy, to marry upwards on the social hierarchy demonstrates a woman’s need to marry into a high status in order to be recognised as a respected figure of society. Interestingly, Gilbert and Gubar play on women’s low position in the social order by perceptively considering Heathcliff as a “female” character. This assertion has some credibility; Heathcliff is never ‘master’, he has little to no power or proprietary and is used as a slave by Hindley for a portion of the novel. According to Nelly, he also claims “I wish I had light hair and a fair skin and was dressed and behaved as well” focusing on the effeminate qualities of Edgar that he doesn’t possess – which is highly ironic considering many readers have interpreted Heathcliff as the epitome of masculine, Byronic heroism. His desire to possess the more feminine assets of Edgar offers credit to Gilbert and Gubar’s suggestion. The Bronte sisters were also forced to take on the masculine aliases of Ellis, Acton and Currer Bell in order for their works to be taken seriously, demonstrating the significant lack of female influence during the nineteenth century. This is further fuelled by Charlotte Bronte’s action of going public with their aliases and arguing that her sisters were of a “remote district where education had made little progress” – they did not mean to write their novels. This not only represents the conventional ideal of feminine modesty and simplicity – it also validates the view that in the nineteenth century, a woman’s skills in literature and in every other aspect of life were to be undermined, and their only solace was to be found in marrying into a high social class. Therefore, it follows that the place of women in society was of high concern to Emily Bronte during the writing of ‘Wuthering Heights’.