[IRS Journal] Book One – “Wuthering Heights”
Title Analysis: “Wuthering Heights”
Wuthering (local adjective used within the text): an adjective used to describe the fierce and wild winds that blow during storms on the moors
Through this analysis of the title, one can assume that the winds which blow across the moors during the storms may represent the conflicts which seem to occur so often in Wuthering Heights between the characters (Heathcliff and Catherine etc.)
Text Style: Gothic Literature:
Gothic literature is a literary style which was popular towards the end of the 18th century, and was usually portrayed as a fantastical tale dealing with horror, despair, the grotesque and other dark elements, such as ghosts. Ghosts are a recurring
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Their love for one another can also be thought of forbidden love due to the large difference in social standing between the both of them. Also, a sort of ‘Love Triangle’ is also shown throughout the text between Catherine, Heathcliff and another male named Edgar. Whilst Catherine loves Heathcliff, she knows she must marry Edgar, who loves her, in order to keep her high place in society. It is this love triangle that seems to cause most of the conflicts that occur within Wuthering Heights.
Precariousness of One’s Social Standing:
Another theme is the precariousness of one’s social standing. This can be linked in with forbidden love. Catherine chooses Edgar over Heathcliff based off his social standing, and she believes she has made the right choice based on that her place in society would be elevated. It is evident that one’s social standing was of upmost importance, and marrying Heathcliff would be unacceptable for a lady such as
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She seems to criticise both characters (being Heathcliff and Catherine) equally throughout her recount of their lives. Although, Nelly is not the only narrator of Wuthering Heights as Lockwood also recounts some of Catherine’s life through the reading of her journals from which he found after his stay at Wuthering Heights.
Time being represented as a cycle
Emily Bronte recounts the tales of Catherine and Heathcliff’s lives in a cycle. The narrator, Nelly, tells each characters tales from different points in their lives, jumping from one month to that of another a period of time later, instead of having a steady flow of events. Through this, we focus on the most important events of each characters life, events which are significant to the plot line and the development that each character goes through.
Time in this narrative is structured in two different ways, at some points it can be considered a “present narrative”, which tells the tale of what is happening in that present time, and a “past narrative”, which is recounted by several characters within the text to tell the tale of what happened in the
Over a long period of time, an individual’s social status has always had a great impact on relationships between others. Relationships such as friendship, romance and even family relationships are greatly influenced by one’s social status. When people value social status to the utmost importance, it often acts as a barrier to further solidify relations with others. “Wuthering Heights” is a classic novel written by Emily Bronte which illustrates how social status gets in the way of relationships. This story (set in eighteen hundreds) displays the true nature of the people at that time because they excessive had pride. Since they had excessive pride, they often judged people based on their social class; hence changing their relationship between each other. In this novel social class was measured by observing an individual’s wealth, appearance and manners. Heathcliff happens to be the male lead character of this story that lacks social class due to his rebellious relationship with Hindley. Afterwards, Hindley degrades Heathcliff’s status this affects his connections with Catherine and Nelly. Since Heathcliff’s status diminishes, Catherine becomes reluctant to continue her affair with Heathcliff. Nelly also becomes wary of Heathcliff because his personality changes after restoring his own status. Thus, it is clearly seen that social class has an impact on the story by altering Heathcliff’s relationship between Hindley, Catherine and Nelly.
Catherine first becomes exposed to the opposing forces as she experiments with her desires for love and a better quality of life. *6* Because she constantly shifts priorities from one man to the other, her love for Heathcliff and Edgar results in a destructive disequilibrium. *1*In the novel, Cathy is portrayed as a lady with untamable emotions. *7* In her childhood she learns to l...
In conclusion Emily Bronte employs the literary devices of repetition and anthesis to make closure for the wild love of Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff with the union of Hareton and Cathy’s love.With the characters being so similar the reader can't help to tie these sets of doubles together making Catherine’s and Heathcliff's forbidden love acceptable with the peaceful relationship of Cathy’s and Haretons relationship.
Heathcliff cried vehemently, "I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!" Emily Brontë distorts many common elements in Wuthering Heights to enhance the quality of her book. One of the distortions is Heathcliff's undying love for Catherine Earnshaw. Also, Brontë perverts the vindictive hatred that fills and runs Heathcliff's life after he loses Catherine. Finally, she prolongs death, making it even more distressing and insufferable.
The complicated nature surrounding Heathcliff’s motives again adds an additional degree of ambiguity to his character. This motivation is primarily driven by Catherine’s marriage to Edgar and past rejection of Heathcliff, since he was a servant whom Hindley disapproved of. Prior to storming out of Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff overhears Catherine say, “It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now…” (Brontë 87). The obstacles that ultimately prevent Heathcliff from marrying Catherine provide insight into Heathcliff’s desire to bring harm to Edgar and Hindley. The two men play prominent roles in the debacle, Edgar as the new husband and Hindley as the head figure who refused Heathcliff access to Catherine. Following this incident, Catherine says, “Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same…” (Brontë 87). Catherine’s sentiment indicates she truly would rather be with Heathcliff, but the actions of others have influenced her monumental decision to marry Edgar. Furthermore, Heathcliff is motivated to not only ruin Edgar’s livelihood, but also gain ownership of his estate, Thrushcross Grange. This becomes clear when Heathcliff attempts to use Isabella
Furthermore, the love that Heathcliff’s young niece and nephew share is one that echoes that of what his and Catherine’s love could have been, which provides even more ground for the fiend to tyrannize the two. The semblence in their relationships can be seen in comparable scenes, the first of which recounts Catherine uttering, “It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now…” (74) Later, Heathcliff pronounces apropos of Cathy caring for Hareton, “Your love will make him an outcast, and a beggar.” (299) The similarities between their two relationships is therefore outlined in their alluded elements of shame and social degradation that can be found in both occasions , and this likeness further agitates the aching heart of Wuthering Height’s antagonist.
After a childhood spent together, Heathcliff and Catherine’s love essentially unites and binds them together, forming one complete whole unable to function separately. Catherine and Heathcliff both bring something important to the relationship. The latter supplies a form of power
Wuthering Heights is not just a love story, it is a window into the human soul, where one sees the loss, suffering, self discovery, and triumph of the characters in this novel. Both the Image of the Book by Robert McKibben, and Control of Sympathy in Wuthering Heights by John Hagan, strive to prove that neither Catherine nor Heathcliff are to blame for their wrong doings. Catherine and Heathcliff’s passionate nature, intolerable frustration, and overwhelming loss have ruined them, and thus stripped them of their humanities.
Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights is a novel about lives that cross paths and are intertwined with one another. Healthcliff, an orphan, is taken in by Mr. Earnshaw, the owner of Wuthering Heights. Mr. Earnshaw has two children named Catherine and Hindley. Jealousy between Hindley and Healthcliff was always a problem. Catherine loves Healthcliff, but Hindley hates the stranger for stealing his fathers affection away. Catherine meets Edgar Linton, a young gentleman who lives at Thrushcross Grange. Despite being in love with Healthcliff she marries Edgar elevating her social standing. The characters in this novel are commingled in their relationships with Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange.
To sum up, Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights is a classic that portrays a love, even though confined by social classes, trespasses boundaries of life and death. The Gothic elements incorporated in this novel such as extreme landscape and weather, supernatural events and death brings about a mysterious and gloomy atmosphere suitable for a revenge plot with heightened emotions.
Catherine is trapped between her love of Heathcliff and her love for Edgar, setting the two men down a path of destruction, a whirlwind of anger and resentment that Catherine gets caught in the middle of. Catherine is drawn to Heathcliff because of his fiery personality, their raw attraction and one certainly gets the sense that they are drawn together on a deeper level, that perhaps they are soulmates. C. Day Lewis thought so, when he declared that Heathcliff and Catherine "represent the essential isolation of the soul...two halves of a single soul–forever sundered and struggling to unite." This certainly seems to be backed up in the novel when Catherine exclaims “Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He's always, always in my mind--not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being...” This shows clearly the struggle Catherine feels as she is drawn spiritually to Heathcliff, but also to Edgar for very different reasons. Edgar attracts Catherine predominantly because he is of the right social class. Catherine finds him "handsome, and pleasant to be with," but her feelings for him seem petty when compared to the ones she harbours...
“Wuthering Heights is a strange, inartistic story”(Atlas, WH p. 299). “Wuthering Heights is a strange sort of book” (Douglas, WH p.301). “This is a strange book” (Examiner, WH p.302). “His work [Wuthering Heights] is strangely original” (Britannia, WH p.305). These brief quotes show that early critics of Emily Bronte’s first edition of Wuthering Heights, found the novel baffling in its meaning - they each agreed separately, that no moral existed within the story therefore it was deemed to have no real literary value. The original critical reviews had very little in the way of praise for the unknown author or the novel. The critics begrudgingly acknowledged elements of Wuthering Heights that could be considered strengths – such as, “rugged power” and “unconscious strength” (Atlas, WH p.299), “purposeless power” (Douglas, WH p.301), “evidences of considerable power” (Examiner), “power and originality” (Britannia, WH p.305). Strange and Powerful are two recurring critical interpretations of the novel. The critics did not attempt to provide in depth analysis of the work, simply because they felt that the meaning or moral of the story was either entirely absent or seriously confused.
Wuthering Heights is a novel which deviates from the standard of Victorian literature. The novels of the Victorian Era were often works of social criticism. They generally had a moral purpose and promoted ideals of love and brotherhood. Wuthering Heights is more of a Victorian Gothic novel; it contains passion, violence, and supernatural elements (Mitchell 119). The world of Wuthering Heights seems to be a world without morals.
(4) Wuthering Heights’s mood is melancholy and tumultuous. As a result, the book gives off a feeling of sorrow and chaos. For example, Catherine’s marriage with Edgar Linton made Heathcliff jealous and angry. In retaliation, Heathcliff married Edgar’s sister, Isabella, to provoke Catherine and Edgar. Heathcliff and Isabella’s marriage ignited a chaotic uproar with Edgar and Catherine because Linton disapproved of Heathcliff’s character, and Catherine loved Heathcliff in spite of being married to Edgar. Inside, Catherine wanted to selfishly keep Heathcliff to herself. Their relationships all had tragic endings because Catherine died giving birth to Edgar’s child. Isabella also died, leaving behind her young son. Heathcliff and Edgar resented each other because of misery they experienced together. The transition of the mood in the story is from chaotic to somber.
It is a question that has baffled readers and critics alike through generations, a question that can be endlessly pondered upon and debated over, as to why Emily Bronte chose to name her first and only novel, after the house in which a sizable part of the action chronicled takes place, despite being armed with characters of such extra-ordinary strength and passion as Heathcliff or Catherine. But on close scrutiny, a reader can perhaps discern the reason behind her choice, the fact that Wuthering Heights is at once a motif, a setting and according to a few critics, even a ‘premonitory indication’ of the tempestuous nature of things soon to occur.