“As Crooked As the Other”: Representations of the Psychological Effects of Internal Colonialism in Brontë’s Wuthering Heights SIERRA CREDICO
of Emily
Southern landowners “grew rich from coal-
Brontë’s Wuthering Heights in 1845 and
mining on their property and exploiting
1846, the British empire was embroiled in
other natural trade resources” and “had the
the controversial practice of colonialism, “a
capital to industrialize the weaving trade,
centralizing of power, capital, and control in
and to build the mills and factories that
a core, with peripheral groups exploited for
became the defining feature of the North
their labor, materials, and natural resources”
of England,” while the North struggled with
(Markwick 128). This was occurring on several
“the inhumanity of the mill owners and the
fronts, including in India, in Ireland, and even
sufferings of the laboring poor” ushered in
in the poorer, less developed regions within
with the urbanization (Markwick 128). In other
its own country. The outset of the Industrial
words, Britain’s South raked in enormous
Revolution in Britain pitted wealthy Southern
profits from the mills, factories, and coal
regions against the rural Northern regions in
mines that simultaneously exploited and
a practice referred to as internal colonialism.
abused poor laborers in its North.
DURING
THE
CONCEPTION
S I E R R A C R E D I C O wrote this essay for Dr. Molly Youngkin’s "The Nineteenth Century Novel" class. Sierra is originally from Las Vegas, NV, and is a Senior Psychology and English major at Loyola Marymount University. She will be
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attending the University of San Diego’s School of Law in Fall 2022.
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