Understanding the family in Wuthering Heights by Emily BronteJerome Bump, author of "Family Systems Theory, Addiction and Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte", 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 Bump's examples of the contagious nature of hostility, abuse, and dependency between the two generations. The only escape route for the second generation from the negative impression of the first generation is through intervention outside the closed family unit. HOSTILITY At the beginning of the novel, Lockwood visits Heathcliff. What Lockwood finds is the isolated second generation of a closed family unit. Not only isolated from society, the family is hostile to each other and to strangers. Lockwood immediately senses hostility and is treated like an unwanted stranger, rather than being welcomed into a more open family unit. HOSTILITY IS CONTAGIOUS Hostility can be transferred from person to person, like a virus. The effects of hostility on Lockwood as Heathcliff's unwelcome guest represent how the family unit also reflects the same hostile nature. Lockwood imitates the hostility he feels in his family. In Lockwood's dream, the apparition of a young girl appears to him near the widow. As the ghost orders Lockwood to "let me in", Lockwood replies "I will never let you in" (Bump quoting Wuthering Heights). He then slashed the ghost's wrist with broken glass. Not only has hostility influenced Lockwood's actions through his subconscious, but he refuses to open up to a stranger. REPETITION OF NAMES The repetition of names from generation to generation is a clue that other elements are repeated... in the center of the card... ...the generation is able to escape from the repetition and transform 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 grate 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 "The 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 Age (George Landow, professor of English and art history, Brown Univ.) http://landow.stg.brown.edu/victorian/victov.html