Imbalance in Nature in Wuthering Heights

Imbalance in Nature in Wuthering Heights

Since the dawn of human thought, man has sought to define the relationships between all things surrounding him. He categorizes every living creature, labels every natural element and names every phenomenon. He then connects each object to another with a line and draws the line back to himself. This way, he feels omnipotent, confidently grasping the 'essence' of his world in his hands. Such behavior seems to have peaked in the nineteenth century when many intellectuals around the world were pre-occupied with defining the relationships between man and the society, man and God, man and nature, and man and man. The preservation of order intrigued them and the concept of entropy frightened them. Many of the writers from the nineteenth century were also captivated by these relationships and Emily Brontë was no exception. Although Brontë's Wuthering Heights is best known as a tale of tragic love, it is also a very provocative study of relationships, especially those between social classes. Brontë creates a microcosm of the upper-class English society in Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. It is a relatively controlled environment until Brontë allows 'factors' from the outside world (and different social classes) to seep into the society. Immediately, the balance of the two families is disturbed and when the pillars of support (the parents) disappear, the entire society is thrust into complete turmoil. From this premise, Brontë begins to highlight contrasting, paradoxical and complimenting relationships between the characters. These pairs are formed and/or destroyed by the interjection of influence from the 'outside.' Wuthering Heights is an incredibly poignant suggestion of the dangers ...

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...atherine even demands that he stay with her regardless of what Edgar thought. Heathcliff says to her, "I'll stay. If he shot me so, I'd expire with a blessing on my lips"(149). This relationship, from beginning to end, is absolutely unnatural and Brontë suggest that it is the major cause of Catherine's deterioration and death.

The struggle between good and evil does not free the two families until Heathcliff's death. Linton, Isabella, Catherine and Edgar, all tainted by Heathcliff's impurity, are gone by the end of the novel. The unnatural interjections therefore, die with Heathcliff; no remnant of his evil remains. With the marriage of Catherine Linton and Hareton Earnshaw, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange are finally returned to normalcy. Equilibrium is restored and Brontë's world is once again, the bright and shinning society the novel began with.