The supernatural is used widely throughout 'Wuthering Heights' and plays a big part in determining the outcome of the story. The Victorians were very superstitious about the supernatural. Education was already becoming commonplace in Victorian England, and education brought scepticism. The majority of people were very sceptical about the supernatural but not non-believers because of the number of ghost stories that came in this period. The age of the Victorians was an important period where people's perceptions and ghosts changed dramatically, from partially believing in ghosts, to not believing in them at all, yet still being terrified of them. This clearly explains Heathcliff's reaction to seeing the ghost of Cathy. At first, the book was seen as shocking and inappropriate by all its readers.
When the book was first published, readers of the time saw it as extremely scandalous. Despite the fact that the novel doesn't not demonstrate any sex or bloodshed its depiction of the passionate love story of Cathy and Heathcliff was considered highly inappropriate, and was ignored for some time.
Bronte uses the supernatural through the entirety of the novel, however she uses it unconventionally. Heathcliff is not 'supernatural' in the sense that he is paranormal, but in that he appears to be superhuman. He appears bigger, stronger and larger than everything and everyone else around him. A large part of the fearsome power of the novel is the fact that Heathcliff is ultimately still flesh and blood, therefore, the horror and brutality of his actions make him seem supernatural (due to the severity of them). Heathcliff's malevolence proves great and long-lasting, this is shown in the abuse of Isabella, which he describes himself as purely ...
... middle of paper ...
...e supernatural. Towards the end however, it is unclear to the reader whether Heathcliff is dead or not. "But the country folks, if you ask them, would swear on the Bible that he walks..." suggests his ghost is present, yet prior to this, Brontë doesn't suggest that the villagers are superstitious, so there is a chance that these sightings were not real.
In conclusion, Bronte uses the supernatural and ghosts in Wuthering Heights to emphasise the power of love between Cathy and Heathcliff and proving that love exists beyond the grave and that the quality of love is unending. Furthermore, ghosts are used to assist in the storytelling, to help in enhancing the setting and develop characterisation, particularly in the character of Heathcliff, Nelly and Lockwood. The use of the supernatural enables the reader to be intrigued by the confusing use of extraordinary beings.
Heathcliff cried vehemently, "I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!" Emily Brontë distorts many common elements in Wuthering Heights to enhance the quality of her book. One of the distortions is Heathcliff's undying love for Catherine Earnshaw. Also, Brontë perverts the vindictive hatred that fills and runs Heathcliff's life after he loses Catherine. Finally, she prolongs death, making it even more distressing and insufferable.
Wuthering Heights was written by Emily Bronte. The story is centered on hatred, jealousy, and revenge that spans two generations. Social class plays a significant role in the story, as it the factor that ultimately divides two loves from being together. The futures of Cathy, Hareton, and Linton are shaped by the vengeful decisions made by Heathcliff. Each character chooses to use Heathcliff’s manipulation in a different way.
Emily Bronte relates the setting of the novel to what actions are presently occurring within the characters. The weather mocks the behaviors of the characters as well as the moors, which behave similarly to Catherine. Eventually she will be buried beside the moors allowing the appearance to change after she passed. A negative energy easily evident in the novel is Heathcliff, who disrupted not only the outward structure of Wuthering Heights but also the weather and appearance of the moors within the novel. The moors were discussed throughout the book and discussed how Heathcliff and Catherine first fell in love beside them, which began the downfall of the entire setting and appearance of the moors. Heathcliff disturbed Catherine’s deceased body by digging up her grave so that he may reside by her side when he passes, which caused disruption in the story between the spiritual and physical side of humanity. In Emily Bronte’s novel “Wuthering Heights”, she displays a constant emphasis of the significance that the setting of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange have on the characters as well as the describes dramatic changes in weather which coincided within the story’s plot.
In comparison, Catherine has not only grown up with Heathcliff, allowing her access to a myriad of interactions which Brontë’s audience wasn’t previously privy to, but she has developed her understanding of societal norms alongside him. Thus, the unabashed sympathy Cathy initially feels for her “poor Heathcliff” provides a new narrative altogether—a narrative that focuses on the individual, closely following Heathcliff’s transmogrification from a “starving, and houseless, and as good as dumb [child] in the streets of Liverpool” to a man who Lockwood interprets as filled with cruelty and “savage vehemence” (22, 37, 27). In addition, Catherine’s possible retelling of Wuthering Heights through her diaries eventually allows for Heathcliff’s cruelty to be put into conversation with his upbringing as a non-white subject in a wholly white
His sickness was real to an extent, though he probably did exaggerate it excessively. “...you’ll be comfortably asleep while I’m in agony, and nobody near me. I wonder how you would like to pass those fearful nights!’ And he began to wail aloud, for very pity of himself.” Linton cried repeatedly complaining of his illness (230). Linton attempted to take her heart before she realized what he was trying to do. “[Heathcliff] knows your papa wouldn’t let us marry now; and he’s afraid of my dying if we wait; so ...you are to stay here all night; and, if you do as he wishes, you shall return home next day, and take me with you.” (260). Heathcliff forced them to marry so that he could keep the
...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.
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.
First, Wuthering Heights is a contribution to the theme of the novel because it sets the mood for the scenes taken place inside the house. The house is first introduced to the reader during a storm. The house stands alone and the land around it is described as dreary and foreboding, which creates a mood of isolation. “On the bleak Yorkshire moors” describes the Yorkshire moors physical appearance. The estate has little vegetation and is more weathered, which moors are, as they are jutting, bare rocks towards the ocean. Wuthering Heights is an old stone house with gothic architecture and bleak interior. The people that live in Wuthering Heights are bitter and act violent. The characters of the story act wild when they are at Wuthering Heights, compared to other places in the novel. The setting of the house enforces the actions of the Earnshaws’, and Heathcliff. The name of the estate even sets a theme of gloom in the novel. Lockwood says Wuthering is, “a significant provincial adjective, descriptive of the atmospheric tumult to which its station is exposed in stormy weather” (12).
Wuthering Heights is a novel which deviates from the standard of Victorian literature. The novels of the Victorian Era were often works of social criticism. They generally had a moral purpose and promoted ideals of love and brotherhood. Wuthering Heights is more of a Victorian Gothic novel; it contains passion, violence, and supernatural elements (Mitchell 119). The world of Wuthering Heights seems to be a world without morals. 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. Young Cathy’s love for Hareton is a redemptive force. It is her love that brings an end to the reign of Heathcliff.
Wuthering Heights is not just a love story, it is a window into the human soul, where one sees the loss, suffering, self discovery, and triumph of the characters in this novel. Both the Image of the Book by Robert McKibben, and Control of Sympathy in Wuthering Heights by John Hagan, strive to prove that neither Catherine nor Heathcliff are to blame for their wrong doings. Catherine and Heathcliff’s passionate nature, intolerable frustration, and overwhelming loss have ruined them, and thus stripped them of their humanities.
A multitude of feelings and sentiments can move a man to action, but in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, love and revenge are the only two passions powerful enough to compel the primary actors. There is consensus, in the academic community,1 that the primary antagonist in the novel, Heathcliff is largely motivated by a wanton lust for vengeance, and it is obvious from even a cursory reading that Edgar Linton, one of the protagonists, is mostly compelled by a his seemingly endless love for his wife, and it even seems as if this is reflected in the very nature of the characters themselves. For example, Heathcliff is described as “Black-eye[d]” [Brontë,1], “Dark skinned” [Brontë, 3] and a “dirty boy” [Brontë, 32]; obviously, black has sinister connotations, and darkness or uncleanliness in relation to the soul is a common metaphor for evil. On the converse, Edgar Linton is described as blue eyed with a perfect forehead [Brontë, 34] and “soft featured… [with] a figure almost too graceful” [Brontë, 40], which has almost angelic connotations. When these features and the actions of their possessors are taken into account, it becomes clear that Edgar and Heathcliff are not merely motivated by love and revenge as most academics suggest, but rather these two men were intended by Brontë to be love and hate incarnate.
Wuthering Heights is filled with different examples of the Romantic Movements. Heathcliff is an exceptionally difficult character to analyze because he displays numerous altered personalities. This raises the question: which Romantic Movement was most common in Wuthering Heights? An analysis of Wuthering Heights reveals the most common Romantic Movement in the text: Romanticism. Romanticism is based upon the ideas of subjectivity, inspiration and the primacy of the individual. Various examples of these from the text are when Heathcliff has Catherine’s grave excavated, the repeated possibility of supernatural beings, and the love from the past that is seen from Heathcliff and Catherine.
To sum up, Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights is a classic that portrays a love, even though confined by social classes, trespasses boundaries of life and death. The Gothic elements incorporated in this novel such as extreme landscape and weather, supernatural events and death brings about a mysterious and gloomy atmosphere suitable for a revenge plot with heightened emotions.
The authorship of Wuthering Heights was an element of much discussion by critics. They believed the work to be the efforts of an inexperienced and unpracticed writer. The critical reviews, in my opinion, would have expressed even harsher judgments had it been commonly known that the author was in fact a young woman. “In Wuthering Heights, the reader is shocked, disgusted, almost sickened by details of cruelty, inhumanity, and the most diabolical hate and vengeance…”(Douglas, WH p. 302). Had this particular critic been aware of the author’s true identity, his barely concealed dislike for the work would have had no constraint.
...his is impossible to prevent. This leads to Mr. Heathcliff self destruction, because all of his life he has been looking for strategies to get revenge on those he hates. He does not want Wuthering Heights to be a haven, rather a purgatory. To his dismay he realizes his years of revenge, will not last all generations. Seeing how both families, the Linton and the Earnshaw's stand up for one another, Heathcliff understands that the one thing that kept him alive has now been defeated. Therefore his life has no purpose, and he has lost.