Analysis Of Nelly, I Am Heathcliff

Wailed in distress over forbidden love, “Nelly, I am Heathcliff!” (82) is considered one of the most poignant lines in Emily Bronte’s gothic romance, Wuthering Heights. In this admission, Catherine Earnshaw is claiming the identity of her lover for herself — suggesting they are so intertwined that separation is impossible. Why is it that Bronte chooses to create such an interdependent relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine; so much so that they claim to possess the same being? Arising from Heathcliff and Catherine’s similar childhoods of benign neglect and mistreatment as un-loved outcasts, Bronte suggests that their development into adulthood is hindered and linked from the start — both children associating personality-fulfilling alter

He laments his status as an outsider to Nelly stating, “I wish I had light hair and a fair skin, and was dressed, and behaved as well, and had a chance of being as rich as [Edgar] will be!” (57). Living vicariously through Catherine allows him to fulfill this need because, though it may be to his chagrin, she is an accepted member of the genteel society. Likewise, through Heathcliff, Catherine can experience the wild savageness and dominance that she is not allowed as a female in traditional Victorian society. Even as a young girl, Catherine liked to “act the little mistress…slapping and ordering” her companions around (42). In her decision regarding whether to marry Edgar Linton, who represents everything refined and well mannered, Catherine is faced with the issue of giving up her wild and controlling ways. Because she feels pressure to fulfill the role of a woman in the Victorian social structure, she realizes that although she loves Heathcliff, she cannot marry him because “if Heathcliff and [her] be married, [they] should be beggars” and “it would degrade [her] to marry [him]” (81).

Though she accepts the limitation of her power, she remains intensely connected to Heathcliff during his flight from Wuthering Heights and his eventual transformation into a master. When Heathcliff initially leaves Wuthering Heights, he is regarded akin to an outcast farm hand. When he returns, he has transformed into a man who, “looked intelligent, and retained no marks of former degradation” (96). Heathcliff returns having broken the Victorian social boundaries by which Catherine has been and remains constrained. Through Heathcliff, Catherine feels she becomes unbounded as