Wuthering Heights

Abstract

Abstract This essay views Lockwood’s first dream in Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, in which “the famous Jabes Branderham preach[es] from the text,” as a “slice” of Methodist history. Enlisting E.P. Thompson’s suggestion that Jabes Branderham is modeled after Methodist Jabez Bunting, I argue that Brontë’s presentation of Methodism in the dream contains valuable socio-economic information. As an aspiring member of the gentry, Lockwood fears the subversive potential of Methodism and resents Branderham’s preaching of it and Joseph’s observance of it. I argue further that Brontë uses Methodism as a tool in her characterization of Lockwood and Joseph.