In the novel “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Brontë, an obscure love triangle entangles three characters into a fatal web of jealousy, revenge and affliction. At the apex of this triangle is Catherine Linton Earnshaw. She struggles with the choice of either Heathcliff or Edgar. She is at war not only with these two men, but with herself. Constantly swinging between her innate, wild nature and her materialistic aspirations slowly corrodes Catherine’s delicate mind into insanity. Catherine copes with these conflicting emotions through projection, repression, sublimation and other defense mechanisms until they fail, leaving her in ruin. As a child, Catherine was a “wild, wicked slip...defying [the household] with her bold, saucy look, and her ready words...” (Brontë 44). Her and Heathcliff would create mischief together and run around the moors without a care in the world. This changes when Catherine spends five weeks at Thrushcross Grange with the Lintons. After spending this time with the distinguished family, Catherine dissociates from her former self, as well as Heathcliff, and readily accepts her lady-like image. Repressing her old, untamed life, she projects her flaws onto Heathcliff and acts cruelly towards him. She calls him “an unreclaimed creature, without refinement, without cultivation; an arid wilderness of furze and whinstone” …show more content…
At the apex of this triangle is Catherine Linton Earnshaw. She struggles with the choice of either Heathcliff or Edgar. She is at war not only with these two men, but with herself. Constantly swinging between her innate, wild nature and her materialistic aspirations slowly corrodes Catherine’s delicate mind into insanity. Catherine copes with these conflicting emotions through projection, repression, sublimation and other defense mechanisms until they fail, leaving her in
In the novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, the character Catherine Earnshaw is used to deliver the powerful theme of civility at war with passion. In the story, Bronte portrays the two clashing forces as a major storm that causes turmoil in the novel’s setting. While Heathcliff represents passion, Edgar displays the attributes of civility. *2*However, Catherine Earnshaw becomes the living symbol of the antithesis. She becomes the eye of the hurricane where all the turmoil and conflicts of the characters meet. Catherine finds herself tangled in an imbalance between Edgar and Heathcliff, or between civility and passion, which eventually tears her apart emotionally and physically.
To further contrast Edgar’s and Nelly’s opinion s of Catherine ways, Edgar sees Catherine as docile, calm, and loving. This side to Catherine can be attributed to when she stays at the Linton’s home. Catherine spends five with the Linton’s and while she is there she does not show her rough rude side in their company. As describe by the narrator, she took care not to act like a young ruffian and worse than a brute; comparing her to Heathcliff (her lover). While on the other hand, Nelly recognizes this calm behavior displays by Catherine as one of double standard; she being deceitful to get her own
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
In “Wuthering Heights”, Emily Bronte”s novel, young characters exhibited multiple signs of immature actions and emotions. Heathcliff and Catherine both chased juvenile emotions, finding a possibly fake love in other people. Linton showcased the same adolescence when he faked illness so she would stay with him in order to fulfil his aspiration. Heathcliff attempted to get revenge on multiple characters, mostly focussing on Edgar Linton. Almost all of the characters demonstrate the characteristics that suggests their immaturity.
In Emily Bronte's gothic novel, Wuthering Heights, Catherine Linton's inability to take responsibility for her actions affects the lives of the people she loves the most, including herself. Edgar Linton was devastated by her indecisiveness to choose whom she loved, Heathcliff went mad for the same reason as well, and Catherine suffered mentally and physically due to her inability to decide.
Society today embellishes the words romance and passion, claiming them to be all good and positive. However, almost no works of media capture the darkness of intense fervor like Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. Her two protagonists, Heathcliff and Catherine, are one of literature’s most romantic star-crossed lovers, whose only parallel is Romeo and Juliet. Once her father brings the young and wild gypsy home, Catherine forms an unbreakable attachment with him. They embody the term “gothic romance” with tragedy and distress in every chapter threatening the relationship and sanity of the two characters. Catherine and Heathcliff’s amorous affinity and bond towards each other kindles drama that inflicts pain and suffering on those around them, causing the world that encompasses Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange to fall apart.
Have you ever read a book where you have a hard time keeping track of characters and events and the order of the book? Well than you must have come across this gothic novel called “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Bronte. She combines more than one element of a gothic novel and that is craziness, obsession and villain heroes. The novel is formed around the two similar love stories of Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff and the young Catherine Linton and Hareton Earnshaw. The motif of this book is full of doubles and repetitions; it has two protagonists as mentions earlier, Catherine and Heathcliff, two narrators, Mr. Lockwood and Nelly, and two houses, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. In spite of all this, Emily Bronte wasn’t just torturing us for no reason but the cycles in violence and the repeating or scrambling the characters names even in intermarriages tells us that it is trapped in something overpowering and unresolved. Assume the chaos of doubling and repetition, their symptoms are increasing on an unresolved issue that drives this entire story around for the sake of Catherin and Heathcliff unresolved passion. Catherine and Heathcliff share a love so deep that the two souls seem to have intertwined into one. In result Bronte deliberately arranges the characters, and the place into pairs. She shows the particular difference on the double to demonstrate both the imaginary ideal and the tragic reality of relationships that are surrounded by the restraints of class, and society.
Through self-centered and narcissistic characters, Emily Bronte’s classic novel, “Wuthering Heights” illustrates a deliberate and poetic understanding of what greed is. Encouraged by love, fear, and revenge, Catherine Earnshaw, Heathcliff, and Linton Heathcliff all commit a sin called selfishness.
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...
“I have not broken your heart - you have broken it; and in breaking it, you have broken mine”. (Brontë 156) Since the beginning of time, love is something all aspire to attain. It has shown through novels, movies, plays, and songs, however not all love is the same. In Emily Brontë’s novel, Wuthering Heights, published in 1847, characters illustrate through disputes that occur, deception and selfishness. This is illustrated through the events of; Heathcliff's hunger for revenge, Edgar Linton's impact on Catherine in comparison to Heathcliff, and Heathcliff’s deception on all characters.
In the gothic novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, the author hides motifs within the story.The novel contains two major love stories;The wild love of Catherine, and Heathcliff juxtaposing the serene love of Cathy,and Hareton. Catherine’s and Heathcliff's love is the center of Emily Bronte’s novel ,which readers still to this day seem to remember.The characters passion, and obsession for each other seems to not have been enough ,since their love didn't get to thrive. Hareton and Cathy’s love is what got to develop. Hareton’s and Cathy’s love got to workout ,because both characters contained a characteristic that both characters from the first generation lacked: The ability to change .Bronte employs literary devices such as antithesis of ideas, and the motif of repetition to reveal the destructiveness of wild love versus a domestic love.
In a failed attempt to discourage Isabella Linton’s budding desire for Heathcliff in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, Nelly Dean does not hesitate in standing behind Catherine’s assertion that he would destroy Isabella if she were to pursue him romantically: “She is better acquainted with his heart than I, or any one besides,” Nelly warns, “and she would never represent him as worse than he is” (103). While Nelly’s plea falls upon deaf ears, her admission rings true—if there is anyone in Wuthering Heights with more insight on Heathcliff’s actions and motives, it is Catherine Earnshaw. Had Brontë aimed to interrogate Heathcliff’s individual growth and regression in Wuthering Heights, Catherine may have narrated the tale, but as the original
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.
In Wuthering Heights, Brontë does not idealize love; she presents it realistically, with all its faults and merits. She shows that love is a powerful force which can be destructive or redemptive. Heathcliff has an all-consuming passion for Catherine. When she chooses to marry Edgar, his spurned love turns into a destructive force, motivating him to enact revenge and wreak misery. The power of Heathcliff’s destructive love is conquered by the influence of another kind of love.
The basic conflict of the novel that drives Heathcliff and Catherine apart is social. Written after the Industrial Revolution, Wuthering Heights is influenced by the rise of new fortunes and the middle class in England. Money becomes a new criterion to challenge the traditional criterias of class and family in judging a gentleman’s background. Just as Walpole who portrays the tyrannies of the father figure Manfred and the struggles of the Matilda who wants to marry the peasant Theodore, as depicted in the quote “(…) improbability that either father would consent to bestow his heiress on so poor a man, though nobly born”(p. 89), Brontë depicts a brutal bully Hindley who torments Heathcliff and separates Catherine from him. Heathcliff, a gypsy outcast picked u...