Philip Zimbardo, featured on a Democracy Now! Daily Show news segment hosted by Amy Goodman, conducts an experiment at Stanford University in 1971 to examine the psychological effects of roles in prison life. The requirements for participants: average, middle-class, intelligent, healthy, male college student. Out of the 75 applicants, 24 are selected based on their reactions to a succession of interviews and personality tests. The 24 college students selected are expected to spend 2 weeks in a secluded prison beginning August 14th and paid $15 per day (n. ag. ).
$15 is equivalent to $89. 14 today (Inflation Calculator). Zimbardo has since reflected on the outcome, answering that “There were many results, but perhaps the most important was simply this: The simulation became so real, and the guards became so abusive, that the experiment had to be shut down after only 6 days rather than the two weeks planned” (“FAQ”). Characters in Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights experience psychocultural influence similar to Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment, and illuminate the entrapment motif in the work.
Experiment Topic Sentence The entirety of the Stanford Prison Experiment is described by Zimbardo not only on Democracy Now! ’s Daily Show, but also on the website prisonexp. org. Zimbardo explains that he flipped a coin to assign roles for the remainder of his study: guard or prisoner. (n. pag. ). When least expected on a quiet Sunday morning, policemen handcuff the assigned prisoners, read their rights, and drive them to the police station. Once the participants finish booking and fingerprinting, the policemen take them to a holding cell where they are blindfolded and asked to predict their offense.
Later the prisoner participants are searched, stripped, and sprayed with sanitizer. The prisoners now wear a numbered smock, a stocking cap to cover hair, and a heavy chain on their right ankle. (“The Story: An Overview of The Experiment”). The prisoners are now dehumanized, uniform, and restricted. Zimbardo explains how same policemen shuffle the prisoners to the basement of Stanford’s Psychology Department building which has transformed into Zimbardo’s prison lab.
The policemen leave and the participants assigned guards replace them, the assigned guards wear khaki clothing and silver reflecting aviators, carry billy clubs and whistles (“Guards”). The assigned guards have only been given the following instructions: maintain law and order, avoid physical violence, demand respect, and prevent prisoner escapes (“FAQ”). Though Zimbardo flips a coin to assign prisoners and guards, Emily Bronte is intentional in assigning such roles to her characters. Prisoners are trapped, dehumanized, and inferior.
When Hindley is in charge of Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff and Catherine are the major prisoners. “Heathcliff bore his degradation pretty well at first, because Cathy taught him what she learnt… the young master being entirely negligent how they behaved” (Bronte pg 48-49). It is appropriate that these two are prisoners together, since “whatever [their] souls are made of, his and [hers] are the same,” (Bronte 87) and “[her] miseries in this world have been Heathcliff’s miseries,” from the beginning (Bronte 89).
Under Hindley’s guard, Catherine and Heathcliff become more mischievous than before (Bronte, Charlotte, et. al. 310). Heathcliff does not remain a prisoner: as Heathcliff gains power and assumes the role of a guard, he imprisons Isabella, Catherine, Edgar, Hindley, and Hareton. Though Heathcliff and Catherine are arguably one in spirit, they also have the freedom to act separately—Catherine’s marriage to Edgar is a decision Heathcliff did not agree with—which is one reason why Heathcliff can hold power over Catherine other than social norms for the time period.
Heathcliff tells Catherine “The tyrant grinds down his slaves and they don’t turn against him, they crush those beneath them. You are welcome to torture me to death for your amusement, only allow me to amuse myself a little in the same style,” (Bronte pg 123). Catherine’s imprisonment to Heathcliff is spiritual and unique, since they are arguably the same person (Bronte 89). On the other hand Isabella is Heathcliff’s physical prisoner, she married him . Guards in Wuthering Heights include Hindley and later Heathcliff, since guards hold power over prisoners.
Hindley became tyrannical,” just like the assigned guards, and “[a] few words… were enough to rouse him all his old hatred of the boy. ” Not only does Hindley hate Heathcliff and Catherine, he seeks revenge, “flogging” Heathcliff and depriving Catherine of food (Bronte pg 48). Though Catherine and Hindley are under Heathcliff’s hand, they are still able and do imprison others. Catherine has no business being married to Edgar, taking advantage of his malleable persona (Bronte 87).
Edgar feels fair aversion towards Heathcliff. Catherine tries to alter his natural emotions to her and Heathcliff’s benefit (Bronte 88). Hindley, also under Heathcliff’s hand, imprisons his son Hareton. To prisoner’s misfortune, the guards in Wuthering Heights experience the Lucifer Effect similar to the Stanford Prison Experiment. Reader Sidharth Kriplani defines the Lucifer Effect: “when an ordinary, normal person first crosses the boundary between good and evil to engage in an evil action.
It represents a transformation of human character that is significant in its consequences. According to Christian legend, Lucifer was once God’s favorite angel until he challenged God’s authority and was cast into Hell with all the other fallen angels. ” The guards transform into their extreme role in both the Stanford Prison Experiment and Wuthering Heights. Zimbardo, through his input into the website and news segment prior stated, explains how in the beginning of the Stanford Prison Experiment guards treat the prisoners as expected.
The prisoners do their push-ups and follow the list of rules, but soon plan to remove their stocking caps, rip off their numbers, and barricade themselves inside their cells. The rebellion of the prisoners set he guards off into a heightened response of “control, surveillance, and aggression” (“Rebellion”). The guards, after using the fire extinguisher to herd prisoners, “broke into each cell, stripped the prisoners naked, took the beds out, forced the ringleaders of the prisoner rebellion into solitary confinement, and generally began to harass and intimidate the prisoners” (“Rebellion”).
The Democracy Now! Daily News segment broadcasted a clip of a guard, unnamed due to confidentiality, admitting “I had really thought that I was incapable of this kind of behavior… while I was doing it, I didn’t feel any regret, I didn’t feel any guilt. It was only after, afterwards, when I began to reflect on what I had done” (n. pag. ). In a similar fashion, Heathcliff was not always a relentless guard, for he was “found starving in Liverpool” (Bronte, Charlotte, et. al. 310).
Catherine also feels a shift in her role of prisoner, though it is dealing with personality it is still dealing with power over Heathcliff: “Catherine returns much changed… Heathcliff feels her neglect sharply, and Catherine feels torn between loyalty to her old friend and attraction to her new companions” (Bronte, Charlotte, et. al. 310). Relating Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment and Lucifer Effect to Wuthering Heights provides the opportunity to better understand Wuthering Height’s entrapment motif.
Prisoners in the Stanford Prison Experiment are ethically required to have the option to leave the experiment, but are nonetheless trapped because they are in a simulated prison with small cells. To quote the website Zimbardo and others designed, the “prison was constructed by boarding up each end of a corridor in the basement of Stanford’s Psychology Department building. That corridor was “The Yard” and was the only outside place where prisoners were allowed to walk, eat, or exercise, except to go to the toilet down the hallway (which prisoners did blindfolded so as not to know the way out of the prison)” (n. ag. ).
Entrapment also occurs as a motif in Wuthering Heights. Predictably, entrapment can center around conflict. In chapter three, Hindley is trapped, displaced from the favorable son and brother: Heathcliff. Hindley fails to escape by trying to separate Catherine and Heathcliff, soon getting sent off to college (Bronte 43). Isabella was trapped by Heathcliff, a prisoner without a cell, unable to enter rooms: “he had the key of our room in his pocket. The adjective our gave mortal offence. He swore it was not, nor ever should be, mine” (Bronte 159).
Wuthering Heights’ characters experience as prisoners and guards is similar to Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment, illuminating the entrapment motif Emily Bronte incorporated into the work. The Lucifer Effect is apparent in the guards, primarily Heathcliff, whom traps and hinders his prisoners. Zimbardo’s findings about the unintentional effects of a prison environment on prisoners and guards reaffirm the parallel effects in Emily Bronte’s intentional roles, becoming more radical as time continues.
