“Another love grows cold, on a sleepless night, the storm goes on out of control, deep in her heart, the thunder rolls” (“The Thunder Rolls”, Garth Brooks). Although the storm in Garth Brooks’ hit “The Thunder Rolls”, is about a cheating husband, the thunder truly does roll often in Wuthering Heights. The storms more internally between relationships, causing many hearts to grow cold. In Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, the family dynamics and relationships play a key role in the plot and overall themes of the novel. As the many characters of the novel age, their interactions with each other proves more harmful than good. The love and betrayal that takes place between these relationships is what drives the characters’ actions and behaviours …show more content…
as retold to Mr. Lockwood by Nelly. As critical analysist Jerome Bump states, “They would emphasize that as soon as Lockwood asks that he be told their stories by Nelly, the novel becomes the' history of several family systems and of all the characters in the systems, male as well as female, living and dead”. These family dynamics are found by the examination of the relationships between Hindley, Catherine and Mr. Earnshaw, Hindley and Heathcliff, and finally the second generation of characters. Hindley, Catherine, and Mr.Earnshaw experience a rocky relationship, to say the least. Hindley is constantly in the shadow of his little adopted brother, Heathcliff, and is nearly ignored by his father. Mr. Earnshaw favors Heathcliff so much that Hindley grows his initial hatred for Heathcliff out of jealousy. Hindley fights Heathcliff in an outcry for attention repeatedly, which his father then ignores. Catherine also acts out in her childhood but mostly out of spite of her father. However, as Catherine verbally asks of her father’s disapproval he sincerely claims, “I cannot love thee: thou'rt worse than thy brother.” (59). His lack of love and support for his children is what continues to make them so unstable. As Mr. Earnshaw’s health begins to deteriorate his love for his biological children is in near shambles. After his death, Catherine is left continuously searching for the love she did not receive as a child, causing the turmoil of the rest of her life. Hindley is affected as well, from being rejected so much as a child he lacks empathy and becomes an abusive alcoholic, increasingly so after his wife’s death. Heathcliff, not knowing Mr. Earnshaw for long before he died, is mostly affected when Hindley becomes his guardian. Though Hindley is not technically the father of Heathcliff, he acts as a legal guardian to him for a majority of his childhood. Hindley is the initial beginning for Heathcliff’s hatred and search for revenge. He torments, beats, and bullies Heathcliff to his breaking point daily. Hindley also reminds Heathcliff that he will never receive what he has always wanted, Catherine, repeatedly. As Hindley criticizes Heathcliff’s appearance, “It’s like a colt’s mane over his eyes!” (82), Heathcliff takes his message to heart. Due to Hindley’s harsh nature towards Heathcliff it is easily visible where Heathcliff’s own violence spawns from. Even upon his return, Heathcliff’s initial revenge plan’s first step is to ruin Hindley’s life. He succeeds at doing so by taking all of Hindley’s estate, his money, and finally his son but because Heathcliff’s revenge is set on the emotional trauma he endured that still does not fill the void in his heart. This void he tries yet does not successfully fill is taken out on the second generation of characters. The second generation of characters, Hareton, Cathy, and Linton, are the most affected by their parents’ decisions.
All of their names are derived from past family members and Jerome Bump claims that this is not a coincidence; claiming, “At Wuthering Heights names are simply repeated, as if there were little difference between the generations, as if their owners kept adopting the same roles and following the same script century after century” . Each name hides a story behind it, and those stories unfold accordingly. Hareton’s name is the one listed on the gate when Mr. Lockwood first arrives,“I detected the date ‘1500’ and the name ‘Hareton Earnshaw.’”(3). Cathy and Linton have a more interesting back story in their names, one for comfort and another in spite. Cathy is named after her mother as an attempt for her mother’s spirit to live on by her husband. She is everything Catherine was; adventurous, sly, and free-spirited yet she is also everything her father wanted from her mother; reserved, caring, and sympathetic. Nelly Dean, her caretaker describes Cathy lovingly, “No angel in heaven could be more beautiful than she appeared” (237). Cathy never knows her mother, as she died during childbirth, but her connection with her father creates the wholesome human she is. Truthfully, Edgar is the only father in the novel who is a stand-up man and raises a beautifully sophisticated young lady. That being said, Catherine is inside Cathy and that part of her is what gets her into trouble resulting in her kidnapping. Even without her mother’s physical presence, Cathy is still influenced by Catherine in her later years to the point some characters can hardly tell the difference. Her father suppresses her mother’s qualities by forbidding her adventures on the grounds. He fears she may cross the moors into Wuthering Heights territory, as her mother did so many years ago to Thrushcross Grange. Like Catherine, Linton is influenced by his dead mother, Isabella Linton. His
upbringing with her created a spoiled young boy and he receives quite the rude awakening once he begins to reside with his father, Heathcliff. As his name derives from the family Heathcliff so despises, it is only fit that he acts like them as well. Hareton, the last boy yet the first born is the one who defies all the odds given to him. Growing up in an abusive household, forced to live as a servant, and never shown love; Hareton should have turned out as Heathcliff planned him to be, like himself. However, Hareton admires Heathcliff, yearns for education, and is curious in the other people he is surrounded by. Hareton’s relationship with Heathcliff is quite the unexpected bond. The way Heathcliff treats Hareton, Hareton should feel the same Heathcliff felt towards Hindley. However, Hareton inspires to be Heathcliff for a long period of time in the novel. Jerome Bump analyzes their relationship stating, “When Heathcliff elopes with Isabella, he hangs her dog to prevent its barking; when Isabella finally escapes from him, she passes by Hareton who is hanging a litter of puppies himself”. This event supports Hareton’s own aspirations to be like Heathcliff because he copies his mechanisms and acts. Nevertheless, Heathcliff lacks what Hareton exceeds in; a loving not fighting nature. He has compassion, and at first looks for a playmate in Linton, but soon gives up and begins an increasing interest in Cathy, his future wife. Cathy and Hareton’s relationship defies all of the standards left by their ancestors. As they unite from different social classes to one household, a love starts to flourish. This love be compared to Heathcliff and Catherine’s; however, Cathy and Hareton’s love is pure and real, compared to their predecessors. Whereas their predecessors could not obtain and maintain love, Cathy and Hareton did, and their relationship proves to be one of the most important to the novel. Ultimately, the relationships formed in the novel contribute enormously to the plot of Wuthering Heights and themes of the novel as a whole. Without the relationships between the children and their parents, the personality of nearly all characters would be distorted completely. Through the examination of Hindley, Catherine and Mr. Earnshaw, Hindley and Heathcliff, and finally the second generation of characters, the reader has a better understanding of the novel. These stormy relationships fuel all actions; good or bad and can be related to for generations to come, through song or otherwise. Works Cited Brooks, Garth. By Pat Alger. The Thunder Rolls. Garth Brooks. Allen Reynolds, 1991. CD. Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights. London: Penguin, 2006. Print. Bump, Jerome. "The family dynamics of the reception of art." Style, Summer 1997, p. 328+. Academic OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=1611wesths&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA20615233&it=r&asid=f673e534fb7f5d487c0ca42839858d07. Accessed 18 Dec. 2016.
The initial downward spiral of Heathcliff’s life was predominantly caused by harsh influences in the environment in which he was raised. Heathcliff, an adopted child, grew up in Wuthering Heights, a desolate and dystopian estate when compared to the beauty of the neighboring Thrushcross Grange. In childhood, Heathcliff displayed evidence of a sympathetic personality through his emotional attachment to Catherine and kind attitude towards Nelly. At the time of Mr. Earnshaw’s death, Nelly describes a scene where, “Miss Cathy had been sick, and that made her still; she
The setting used throughout the novel Wuthering Heights, helps to set the mood to describe the characters. We find two households separated by the cold, muddy, and barren moors, one by the name of Wuthering Heights, and the other Thrushcross Grange. Each house stands alone, in the mist of the dreary land, and the atmosphere creates a mood of isolation. These two places, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange differ greatly in appearance and mood. These differences reflect the universal conflict between storm and calm that Emily Bronte develops as the theme.
Cathy and Heathcliff's separation only therefore ensues as a result of their initial outing to Thrushcross Grange. Their promise to grow up together as 'rude as savages,' is destroyed when Cathy and Heathcliff are separated physically by many factors resulting from this visitation. Just as the Linton's dog 'holds' Cathy, so too is the Linton's house symbolically presented as separating her from Heathcliff, when Heathcliff resorts to peering in through their 'great glass panes' to see Cathy, after being physically 'dragged' out of Thrushcross Grange.
Linton Heathcliff is only interested in himself. He is a sickly and scared young man. Like his mother Isabella Linton who accused Catherine Earnshaw of selfishly wanting Heathcliff for herself – in which she didn't- Linton enjoys inflicting and watching people suffer. As Heathcliff threatened to kill Linton, Linton only thought about his own life and, decided to betray Cathy, tricking her into staying at Wuthering Heights and getting married to him, instead of returning to Thurshcross Grange to where her father lies on his deathbed.
The Lintons and Earnshaws are part of the Gentry class of Victorian England; they are both landowning families, fairly high up in the class hierarchy. But the genetic natures of the families are entirely different: the Lintons are well behaved, subdued, spoilt, steady, sensible and arrogant; in comparison, the Earnshaws are strong willed, moody, generous, free spirited, easily influenced, laid back and non-formal. The nurture of the characters is connected very strongly to social status: Heathcliff is denied social status initially by his birth and subsequently by Hindley, which creates great hatred in Heathcliff: this denial of status is perceived much more seriously than what we consider serious today. Catherine chooses Edgar over Heathcliff for reasons of social status, even though she and Heathcliff are so similar. Hareton is also denied social status, which turns his attitudes against the Gentry class and creates rifts between him and other characters: for example, it makes Cathy and Linton, who would be his equals, look down on him.
Emily Brontë, in her novel, Wuthering Heights, suggests that children, in their very nature, exhibit traits from their parental influences. However, these traits are not always represented at the same time and can come out in different situations. For instance, as Cathy Linton grows up, her personality is a mixture of her calmer father, Edgar, and her more fiery mother, Catherine. She shows both these personalities, but she limits each to the correct time and circumstance. Also, the same goes for Linton Heathcliff, who has become a mixture of both his mother, Isabella, and his father, Heathcliff. Lastly, this is shown in Hareton Earnshaw, who, because he has little to no relationship with his biological parents, has turned into a man more like Heathcliff, his surrogate father, instead of Hindley, his genetic father. In this way, parental influence can shape a child into becoming more like them.
From being isolated in the moors of England, with only the two houses-Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. And those are placed 4 miles apart from each other. Having grown up at Wuthering Heights, Catherine, Hindley, and Heathcliff all suffer from a lack of love and structure. Wuthering Heights is a very bleak and dark place, that isn’t too happy. None of them found happiness until they fled from that dreary place that they call home. Heathcliff is grumpy and mean, and wants to inflict that on everyone else around him. Hurt people, hurt people. As opposed to Thrushcross Grange, which is more structured. Edgar and Isabella are more compassionate people, because of the love that they received from their parents. It also leaves them vulnerable to Catherine and Heathcliff’s aggressive nature, as well as a ploy in Heathcliff’s plan. Knowing this, Catherine is only stuck with two options-marry Heathcliff or Edgar. Based on the decision she made (good or bad, depending on the person) it started a spiral of events that currently effects Linton, Hareton, and Cathy. The same thing is to be said about Cathy. Cathy is still in the same environment. Though she is growing up at Thrushcross Grange, and be raised by her father and Nelly. Hareton is growing up at Wuthering Heights, under the wrath of Heathcliff, which is not pleasant. He is becoming mean and malicious, something Heathcliff wants. Then you have Linton who grew up
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.
...e of joy and pain in Catherine’s life, as their love was so powerful that it can only be embraced by the extent of death. With many other important messages in the novel, the most important is the changes that occur in and between the characters. The numerous characteristic aspects, the characters in the story are enthralling. Although, Cathy Linton may be recognized as a duplicate of Catherine Earnshaw due to the parallelism of generations, their traits and personalities are entirely individual. Cathy is an innocent and fine young lady, and Catherine is a selfish evil monster. Throughout the progress of the story the reader can clearly appreciate the mismatched traist of the mother and daughter. And like, psychologists have said, “Often children avoid the ways their parents have gone”. Although Cathy doesn’t experience her mother ways, she lives the opposite way.
Catherine Earnshaw is the daughter of Mr. Earnshaw and his wife; Catherine falls powerfully in love with Heathcliff, the orphan Mr. Earnshaw brings home from Liverpool. She was born at Wuthering Heights and was raised with her brother Hindley. Catherine loves Heathcliff so intensely that she claims they are the same person but does not marry him because Hindley has degraded him after their father's death so her desire for social advancement motivates her to marry Edgar Linton instead, a neighbour from Thrushcross Grange and he is handsome and rich, another reason for Catherine marrying him. She is quite passionate about Heathcliff though, and does not want to give him up. She becomes ill when Heathcliff and Edgar fight, and dies in childbirth.
...he was able to interpret the events of her life, and for the first time tell a visitor of everything that has gone on. 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 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.
Young Cathy’s love for Hareton is a redemptive force. It is her love that brings an end to the reign of Heathcliff. 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).
In the novel Wuthering Heights, a story about love that has turned into obsession, Emily Bronte manipulates the desolate setting and dynamic characters to examine the self-destructive pain of compulsion. Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights is a novel about lives that are intertwined with one another. All the characters in this novel are commingled in their relationships with Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange.
In the novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, Heathcliff is an orphan boy brought to Wuthering Heights by Mr. Earnshaw, who has two children of his own already - Catherine and Hindley. Heathcliff changes over the course of his life by the following; Heathcliff begins by getting along well with Catherine Earnshaw, however, Catherine Earnshaw is introduced to Edgar Linton and Heathcliff becomes jealous of their forming relationship, and once Catherine has passed away after delivering Edgar’s child, Heathcliff becomes haunted by her ghost, and wishes to only be united with her in death.
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.