Embroidery as self defence

Wuthering Heights, Catherine and Heathcliff - and embroidery.... following thoughts on the film, read in The Subversive Stitch (Rozsika Parker) that Charlotte Bronte (sister of Emily, author of Wuthering Heights)

"... deliberately reveals the curious contradictions in femininity through embroidery. In her work, embroidery, and thus femininity, emerge as both self denial and self defence, as a means of establishing an inviolate female space and announcing female subservience and availability."

Interesting! As pictured below.... Heathcliff (right) bursts into the living room. Cathy's embroidery/tapestry is between him and the feckless Mr Linton (her husband) standing behind her.

Defences and embroidery

In Cornwall - on a coastal footpath - a spectacular view of St Michael's Mount. It looks a perfect place to build a fortress or well-defended castle. Originally, I guess, that is why a monastery was built there.

Funnily enough later in the day there's a resonance with Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights and the embroidery that Victorian women seem so often to be engaged in - in fiction and otherwise. Watched the 1939 version with Laurence Olivier as Heathcliff and Merle Oberon as Cathy.

Cathy, married to the feckless Edgar Linton, of course always loves Heathcliff. In this scene Heathcliff storms into the marital home having made his fortune - and wanting Cathy back. And Cathy's tapestry is used as a defence - almost literally coming between her and the two men seeking her affection.