Irrational Love in Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

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Irrational Love

Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights and the importance of commitment in life

Emily Bronte, a skilled novelist, is able to toy with the minds of her readers by forcing them to sympathize for an irrational love story in her one and only novel, Wuthering Heights. As readers, we are drawn to the love and passion possessed by Heathcliff and Catherine, even though it represents evil and flawed love. Through this, Bronte forces us to reconsider the definition of “true love”. As opposed to most scholars’ readings of the novel, I strongly believe that Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights privileges the tortured relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine over the healthier, more stable relationship of Cathy and Hareton. Cathy and Hareton’s relationship represents a compromise of sorts for Bronte, a socially acceptable love that’s nevertheless not as deeply felt as Heathcliff’s and Catherine’s. This argument is supported by Bronte’s own biography and by the novel’s ending, which many fail to decrypt correctly. Bronte advocated for passion – a depth of commitment to another – over compromise, which is a theme presented in the novel Wuthering Heights.

As readers, we cannot help but question whether certain novels mirror the lives of their authors. Even though much is unknown about Emily Bronte we can unravel the mysteries surrounding her life with her novel, Wuthering Heights. In this book, one may find evidence which suggests that certain characters were inspired by Bronte’s personal experiences. For instance, we can point to the strong resemblance between Bronte’s dog Keeper and Heathcliff; Heathcliff possesses numerous signature characteristics of Bronte’s devoted dog. One characteristic that the author wishes to accentuate ...

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...to believing that she views Catherine and Heathcliff as destructive lovers whose love is to selfish to be successful. Bronte essentially gives Heathcliff and Catherine a rebirth when she introduces the parallel characters of Cathy and Hareton, who embody the positive characteristics of the previous lover’s. That being said they are devoid of the passion that is the driving force of the entire novel. Through careful analysis, Bronte’s personal life could be seen as one of the many reasons why she preferred the passionate relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine. In addition, after decoding the ending we can understand who Bronte wishes to reward, even if this may be through death. I thus content that Bronte has written one of the greatest novels of romance in all of time; a novel free from the bounds placed by society and a novel that is the epitome of love.

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