Catherine Earnshaw Mental Illness

In the novel Wuthering Heights, we see that some of the characters have issues. Fortunately, Catherine Earnshaw is a fictional character, she has a few mental illnesses, but if she did exist in real life, she would be diagnosed with Depression, Bipolar, and Narcissistic. She is a difficult person to talk with since her mood always changes or is not interested in talking.

Catherine Earnshaw suffers from Bipolar. One minute she is happy and then the next minute she sad or angry. Its extreme mood swings from depression to mania, used to be called manic depressive disorder.(WebMD) “Nelly, I see now, you think me a selfish wretch; but did it never strike you that if Heathcliff and I married we should be beggars? whereas, if I marry Linton,

It is a mental condition characterized by feelings of severe despondency and dejection, typically also with feelings of inadequacy and guilt, often accompanied by lack of energy and disturbance of appetite and sleep. “Catherine's face was just like the landscape—shadows and sunshine flitting over it in rapid succession; but the shadows rested longer, and the sunshine was more transient.” (Bronte 195) She is looking more like she want to give up and the joy from her face is going away and the darkness of depression is taking over. A symptom of depression is guilt. Guilt is usually defined as the human emotion of feeling regret or remorse over violating one’s internal values. “Doubtless Catherine marked the difference between her friends, as one came in and the other went out. The contrast resembled what you see in exchanging a bleak, hilly, coal country for a beautiful fertile valley; and his voice and greeting were as opposite as his aspect.” (Bronte 50-51). This is saying that she is feeling sad that when one friend comes another one goes away. She feels like everyone just come and goes. The last symptom of depression is sadness. When you are suffering from depression, you will feel sad and feel like no one likes you and you will feel down. “Oh I will die, she exclaimed , ‘since no one cares anything about me. I wish I had not taken that. Then a good while after I heard her murmur, ‘No, I’ll not die-he’d be glad-he does not

Narcissism is having having an excessive or erotic interest in oneself and one's physical appearance. “ Mrs. Linton sat in a loose white dress, with a light shawl over her shoulders, in the recess of the open window, as usual. Her thick, long hair had been partly removed at the beginning of her illness, and now she wore it simply combed in its natural tresses over her temples and neck. Her appearance was altered, as I had told Heathcliff; but when she was calm, there seemed unearthly beauty in the change.” (Bronte 115). This states that she has to have a very high fashionable outfit and have her appearance has to be good and does not like the way she looked with out her dresses and jewelry. A symptom of Narcissism is selfishness. It's caring about one self and none else. “I've no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in heaven; and if the wicked man in there had not brought Heathcliff so low, I shouldn't have thought of it. It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love him; and that, not because he's handsome, Nelly, but because he's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same, and [Edgar's] is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire. (Bronte 59). She is only caring about how she feels and doesn't care about how Edgar and Heathcliff feel.She's also not being honest and telling her feelings and keeping