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Victorian age in literature
Victorian age in literature
Victorian age in literature
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Catherine the Greedy
Wuthering Heights is a victorian novel the follows a love triangle comprised of Heathcliff, Edgar Linton, and Catherine Earnshaw. Catherine and Heathcliff are close friends while growing up, but an accident puts Catherine a bit closer to Edgar. After years of being in acquaintance, Catherine accepts Mr.Linton's marriage proposal, even though she is truly in love with Heathcliff. At first, Catherine talks in confidence to Nelly, her maid, about the decision before she accepts the proposal. She reveals it is Heathcliff who she really loves, but that she wants the comforts of living with the well off Mr.Linton. She claims marrying Edgar would help her provide for Heathcliff, but it’s obvious she is mostly marrying for money in this situation. She sacrifices true love to have a comfortable cushy life. Regardless, Catherine is fond of her husband, and enjoys her life, but when Heathcliff returns after a year of
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She’s happier married to Linton than she thinks she could ever be with her true love, Heathcliff. He obviously doesn’t see things the way she does, as he refuses to leave her alone. However, Catherine may love him but she doesn’t want to leave her life of luxury to be a beggar with him, even though at this point Heathcliff has attain wealth, though he hasn’t gained status or a better attitude. Catherine’s values are unique to her in the book. All the other character’s tend to put love and family above everything, but not her. She knows what she wants and gets it. Her heart causes her a little trouble near the end, but she still dies dotted on by her husband and in a very nice home with all the luxuries she could ask for.
Also, Catherine and her daughter (also named Catherine) place their values on different, the elder on comfort and the younger on love. Catherine’s daughter being such a contrast to her helps to highlight Catherine’s abnormal
...periences in life. The most important one is search for freedom. Catherine is always locked up in her chamber, or trying to get away from the suitors. Throughout in the book she thinks about going to the abbey, leaving the manor, or going on an adventure. In the end her marriage with Stephen shows her that now she is “… at least less painfully caged” (Cushman 164). The story was very exciting when you wait to see what she would do to another suitor. I learned that as much as you try to fight something sometimes you cannot and it’s bound to you. As seen with Catherine and marrying any one of the suitors. “If I was born a lady, why not a rich lady” (Cushman 4). I think the author wrote this because she wants to show how medieval Europe was like, the social classes, education, religion, and especially society’s look on marriage.
Catherine manipulates,her own self even. Who does she really love,and want to be with? “My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I’m well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. 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.” Cathy is also referring to herself as Heathcliff,basically stating that she knows him and loves him as well as she does herself. Catherine may have been in love with Linton but she feels like that's going to change. Her love for Heathcliff maybe too strong and she does want to be with Linton. He has only manipulated herself. Yes, as such wondrous creatures, women even manipulate themselves
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.
...ctive. Catherine is pushed to death and Heathcliff to brutal revenge, bordering on the psychotic. Yet before Cathy’s death, the knowledge that the other loves them is strong enough to make Wuthering Heights such a classic love story, and “that old man by the kitchen fire affirming he has seen two of 'em looking out of his chamber window, on every rainy night since his death,” shows that as they walk together on the moors, their self destruction may have led them to death, but also to what they most desired-being together.
With the death of Catherine, the reader is inclined to examine the causes. Cathy herself states that Edgar Linton and Heathcliff are the direct causes, and it is quite the possibility. Finally culminating in one rather brief, yet powerful confrontation, the clashing of Edgar and Heathcliff has been an issue between the two families ever since the day that Cathy and Heathcliff went playing in the moors and got caught at the Linton’s house. Calling him a gypsy and servant, Edgar Linton was disgraced by his presence. Then later, for that scoundrel to be the one that Cathy truly loves? It was just too much for Edgar. The hatred grew and grew. When Heathcliff left, Edgar was at ease. He had Cathy, she had forgotten (or so he thought) about Heathcliff, and all was happy and merry at Thrushcross Grange. Then Heathcliff returned. While his motivations for leaving were good and heartfelt, his return was almost cruel for our ‘princess’ Cathy. She was so used to having everything that she could want, that she thought she could have them both. But Edgar stepped in. He finally stood up for himself and told Heathcliff never to return to Thrushcross Grange.
The first, most obvious trait of Catherine’s heroism is that she values human relationships above materialism. Nothing is more important to Catherine than her lover, Henry, and as the novel goes on, her baby. When Henry is injured and sent to Milan, she has no trouble transferring to the new hospital there. Catherine loves Henry and would drop anything to be with him. Nothing material holds her back from being with him. Even when they live in Switzerland, they don’t have many material possessions. They live very simple lives because all the couple really needs is each other. In chapter forty, Henry describes their time together with this quote, "When there was a good day we had a splendid time and we never had a bad time. We knew the baby was very close now and it gave us both a feeling as though something were hurrying us and we could not lose any time together." Catherine obviously values her time with Henry more than anyone else, but it isn’t the physical aspect of getting out and doing things that satisfies her. What satisfies Catherine is the extra time she gets to spend with the love of her life b...
...arried him. Then she would return to Wuthering Heights and be struck by the difference in their lifestyles. Without the looming presence of Edgar’s manipulation, Catherine may very well have followed her heart and married Heathcliff instead. After all, Catherine did claim that her love for Edgar can and will change with time, but that she loves Heathcliff so much that he seems to be a part of her own being (Brontë 82).
Catherine was born into a rich solid family, where her father, Mr. Earnshaw, was a strict man, and her mother, Mrs. Earnshaw, was a pretentious woman. Through her conceited youth Catherine’s immaturity is clearly explained. Born with a very strong attitude; she is the type that throws a fit when doesn’t get what she wants. An example is, “when she learnt the master had lost her whip in attending the stranger, showed her humor by grinning and spitting at the stupid little thing” (33). Catherine was never love by her father, whom felt the need to tell her, “Nay Cathy, I cannot love thee; thou’rt worse than thy brother. Go, s...
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.
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...
Catherine’s revenge does not make things better for her. Her revenge on Heathcliff by blaming him for her upcoming death does not meliorate her mind. Just before she dies, she ascribes Heathcliff for her “murder.” “You have killed me, and thriven on it, I think” (Bronte 158). Catherine resembles what Oliver Goldsmith said, “When lovely woman stoops to folly, and finds too late that men betray, what charm can soothe her melancholy?
Lovers often bring out the best and worst in each other. In the book Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë, this is evident throughout the novel. Love and revenge may seem like polar opposites when they are considered individually. However, when revenge is a circumstance of love, something powerful is created from this unique pairing. Mr. Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw are soul mates that are also literary foils. Heathcliff and Catherine highlight each others strengths while also exposing each others weaknesses. The love that Catherine and Heathcliff share is unlike any other. Although Catherine and Heathcliff are so in love, there are several people who attempt to break them apart. Heathcliff, enraged by his fear
As Catherine grows up humbly alongside Heathcliff, she knows what it is to be a second priority when held under by oppressively dogmatic authority. So spending time with the Linton’s is a drastic change for her as it shows her how it feels when being seen as top priority. She soon becomes immune to the treatment. Spoiled and poise, Catherine loses her balance between being in the position of settling for less and always being handed the most luxury. Pretentiously, she begins to dress up to status, we know this to be out of character as Nelly has to stop and ask her, “why have you that silk frock on?”
During the first half of the book, Catherine showed different types of love for two different people. Her love for Heathcliff was her everything, it was her identity to love and live for Heathcliff but as soon as she found out how society views Heathcliff, she sacrificed their love and married Edgar Linton in the hopes of saving Heathcliff from Hindley and protecting him from the eyes of society. In her conversation with Nelly, Cathy who professed her love for Heathcliff quoted “My great miseries in this world have been Heathcliff's miseries, and I watched and felt each from the beginning: my great thought in living is himself.” Catherine proved Nelly Dean that the only person who can make her feel pain and sorrow is Heathcliff. The extent of her love was uncovered when she sang her praise of “I am Heathcliff” because this was the turning point in the book that allowed the readers to truly understand and see the depth of Cathy's love for Heathcliff. On the other hand, Catherine's love for Edgar wasn't natural because it was a love that she taught herself to feel. It might have come unknowingly to Cathy but she did love Edgar as she said “My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees.” Cathy knew that it was not impossible to love Edgar for he was a sweet and kind gentleman who showed her the world but unlike ...