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This novel, by Emily Bronte, starts off in the perspective of the young and curious Mr. Lockwood in the winter of 1801, who has gone to Wuthering Heights to meet his landlord, the mysterious Heathcliff. While at the Heights, Lockwood finds himself unable to get home due to a snowstorm and is allowed to spend the night while he waits for the storm to subside. He stays in a forbidden guestroom where he finds several carvings of the name, Catherine. While staying in the room, he is haunted by nightmares, only to awaken the ghost of Catherine herself trying to get inside the house.
The next morning, Lockwood returns back to his grounds of Thrushcross Grange, the mysterious character of Heathcliff still fresh in his mind. He begs his housekeeper, Nelly Dean to recall her time at the Heights, who happily begins to narrate the history of Wuthering Heights, Thrushcross Grange, and their past inhabitants. From here most of the novel is being told to the reader through Nelly.
She begins her recollection of memories around the time when Heathcliff is brought into the family. Nelly explains that Mr. Earnshaw, owner of Wuthering Heights before Heathcliff, went to LIverpool and returned with an orphan that he insists as raising as his own. He names the boy Heathcliff, who doesn’t mix well with the family. With some time, Catherine grows to love Heathcliff, but Hindley never accepts him, and grows to resent him due to Mr. Earnshaw’s favoritism to Heathcliff. His feelings towards Heathcliff never waver throughout the course of the novel, being a huge part of Heathcliff’s awful childhood.
As time goes on, Catherine and Heathcliff grow closer, free from Hindley while he is away at college, but this ends as soon as Mr. Earnshaw dies. With his death...
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...mediately leaves to London, only to return half a year later to visit Nelly. While visiting, Nelly continues her story telling by concluding her tale with the recent events at the two estates.
She informs him that Catherine had opened up to Hareton, similar to the first Catherine opening up Heathcliff. She even offers to teach him how to read after mocking his illiteracy in the past. While they fall in love, Heathcliff falls mad with the memory of Catherine, admitting to Nelly he has lost all desire to interfere with the two new lovers. His madness eventually drives him to the grave, which he asked to be buried next to his lover, Catherine, but at the same time laying next to his long time foe, Edgar. Nelly concludes to Lockwood that Catherine and Hareton will wed New Year’s Day, which symbolizes a new beginning between the two families, lovers, and estates.
Heathcliff's love for Catherine transcends the normal physical "true love" into spiritual love. He can withstand anything against him to be with her. After Hindley became the master of Wuthering Heights, he flogged Heathcliff like a slave. Although Heathcliff could have simply run away, his decision to endure the physical pains shows his unrelenting devotion to Catherine. Fortunately, Catherine feels as deeply for Heathcliff as he does for her, explaining to Nelly that "Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same…" Their love for each other is so passionate that they can not possibly live apart. At Catherine's death, Heathcliff hopes that she will not rest, but will haunt him until he dies. This absurdity contradicts the traditional norm that one should pray that the dead rest in peace. Near the end of the novel, we learn that Catherine has haunted Heathcliff, allowing him only fleeting glances of her. This shows that despite their physical separation, nothing can part them spiritually. When Heathcliff dies and unites with Catherine once again, the neighbors see them haunt the moors. We finally see the power of their love; Not only does this love transcend physical barriers, it transcends time as well...
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
Catherine Earnshaw appears to be a woman who is free spirited. However, Catherine is also quite self-centered. She clearly states that her love for Edgar Linton does not match how much she loves Heathcliff. She is saying that she does love both, and she is unwilling to give one up for the other; she wants “Heathcliff for her friend”. Catherine admits that her love for Linton is “like the foliage in the woods”; however, her love for Heathcliff “resembles the eternal rocks beneath”. She loves Heathcliff and yet she gives him up and marries Linton instead, Catherine believes that if she marries Heathcliff it would degrade and humiliate her socially.
On the face of it, it would seem that the relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff is self-destructive to an extreme. Due to the lovers’ precarious circumstances, passionate personalities and class divisions, it seems that fate transpires to keep them apart and therefore the hopelessness of their situation drives them to self destruction. However, although the relationship is undeniably self-destructive, there are elements within it that suggest the pain Heathcliff and Catherine put each other through is atoned for to an extent when they share their brief moments of harmony.
The final sense of alienation and the most implicating occurs with Catherine's marriage to Edgar, Heathcliff considers this a betrayal of his love for her, since she wants the social status and existence at the Grange. Heathcliff is however proud and determined and does not cower when opposed by those consider themselves to be superiors. Finally, when he realizes that Catherine has chosen status, wealth and position over him, he disappears for three years and returns in the manner of a gentleman.
Catherine is free-spirited, wild, impetuous, and arrogant as a child, she grows up getting everything she wants as Nelly describes in chapter 5, ‘A wild, wicked slip she was’. She is given to fits of temper, and she is torn between her wild passion for Heathcliff and her social ambition. She brings misery to both of the men who love her, ultimately; Catherine’s selfishness ends up hurting everyone she loves, including herself.
Since Nelly’s life was not personally haunted by regrets, like Catherine and Heathcliff’s, she is able to recite the past and present in a clear and rational way. Lockwood believes in her story and is so intrigued by all the dreadful events that took place across a lifetime on these Yorkshire moors. From the outside looking in it may appear that the Earnshaws and Lintons were just a private family living their lives, but nobody really knows what goes on behind closed doors, except for the help, our Nelly. This is why her narration is crucial and without it, the story of Wuthering Heights may still exist, but would not be as believable. Works Cited Bront, Emily.
Heathcliff and Catherine have loved each other since their childhood. Initially, Catherine scorned the little gypsy boy; she showed her distaste by “spitting” at him (Brontë 27). However, it was not long before Heathcliff and Catherine became “very think” (Brontë 27). They became very close friends; they were practically brother and sister (Mitchell 122). Heathcliff is intent upon pleasing Catherine. He would “do her bidding in anything” (Brontë 30). He is afraid of “grieving” her (Brontë 40). Heathcliff finds solace and comfort in Catherine’s company. When Catherine is compelled to stay at Thrushcross Grange to recover from her injury, she returns as “a very dignified person” (Brontë 37). Her association with the gente...
Setting his work in the Middle Ages in a remote castle with horror and fantastic elements, Horace Walpole popularized the Gothic Romance genre with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto. He was the vanguard in bring thrills to readers with ancient prophecies, mysterious deaths, specters and supernatural events in his novel. However, the Gothic genre reaches a climax in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (1847), which is marked by its intensity of emotions and artistic subtlety. Wuthering Heights is an exquisite blend of realism and romance that makes it a classic love story that haunts us till today. In this paper, I will argue that social problems of class and economics pull Heathcliff and Catherine apart, and the Gothic Romance genre affects Wuthering Heights by adding Gothic elements of an extreme weather and landscape, supernatural events and death in her novel to create a dark and mysterious atmosphere appropriate for a revenge plot with heightened emotions.
At one point in the text, readers picture Heathcliff’s excavation of Catherine’s grave. This scene is a vital extract in determining the most common Romantic Movement.
After Heathcliff and Catherine get caught by the dogs at the Thrushwood Grange and Catherine is injured, Hindley decides to separate the pair. He makes Heathcliff a servant of Wuthering Heights and deprives him of education. He decides to make Catherine a lady. Heathcliff saves Hareton’s life after Hindley drops him, however Hindley shows no gratitude. After Heathcliff has been gone for three years, he comes back with money to Wuthering Heights.
The sympathetic part of Heathcliff shows through when he sees Catherine in the beginning stages of her sickness after childbirth. “He neither spoke, nor loosed his hold, for some five minutes, during which period he bestowed more kisses than ever he gave in his life before, I dare say…” (159). The sympathetic part of Heathcliff kicks in when he sees the woman he loves dying right before him. Heathcliff began to ask Catherine the questions he had not been able to ask her before, whether it had been due to his pride or to his absence - was insignificant., “‘...You loved me - then what right had you to leave me? What right - answer me - for the poor fancy you felt for Linton?” (162). When the novel begins, it is mentioned that Heathcliff is shouting, “‘Come in! Come in!’ he sobbed. ‘Cathy, do come. Oh do - once more! Oh! My heart’s darling, hear me this time - Catherine, at last!’” (28). Heathcliff attempts to get Catherine’s ghost to speak to him, because his main goal is to be united with her in death. Heathcliff’s character changes relatively fast when he sees Catherine dying in her bed. There is a sympathetic side shown that has not been quite expressed before, and also the feelings that Heathcliff kept bottled
Dreams play a large role in the story of Wuthering Heights. During Lockwood's first visit to the Heights, he has a night full of dreams and nightmares. Each one related to what Heathcliff had just read on the windowsil...
In Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, the Earnshaws, a middle class family, live at the estate, Wuthering Heights. When Mr. Earnshaw takes a trip to Liverpool, he returns with an orphan whom he christens “Heathcliff”. During their formative years, Catherine, Mr. Earnshaw’s daughter, plays with Heathcliff on the moors and becomes close with him. As a result, they form a special bond and Heathcliff and Catherine fall in love, unlike Hindley, Mr. Earnshaw’s son, who does not get along with Heathcliff. While Heathcliff benefits from his relationships, his connections are disadvantaged in terms of status, reputation, financial stability, and happiness.