Wuthering Heights seems to be a series of destructive decisions. Heathcliff and Catherine never achieve a life of happiness together; their actions cannot lead to a blissful ending. The other characters are guilty of creating their own strife, whether from personal faults or lack of wisdom. In a way, Emily Bronte’s ability to weave flaws into each person’s character lends a sense of reality or humanness to the novel; no one is seen as entirely good or bad. Without lecturing her readers, Bronte demonstrates just how regrettable succumbing to impulses can be. I realized while reading that even though their lives have an aspect of romance, I would never want to live the way that they did.
Much of the blame for the tragic events could be placed upon Catherine. She unwisely chose to reject Heathcliff, even though “[thei]r souls…are the same” and marry Edgar Linton instead (Bronte 102). Their marriage was founded on love, but not a lasting bond. When asked to describe her relationship with Linton, Catherine says she is well aware that “time will change it…as winter changes the trees” (Bronte 104). She proves to be entirely selfish, accepting Linton’s marriage proposal with shallow motives. Linton is good-looking, affectionate, and wealthy, and even if their relationship will not be permanently fulfilling, he looks like the better choice in comparison to Heathcliff. Whatever motives convinced her to marry Linton betrayed her true feelings. I know how difficult it can be to choose between two people, especially when you don’t want to hurt either one. The decision is made even more confusing when you could picture yourself happy with each. In Catherine’s case, she was not worried about hurting their feelings as much as which one would be...
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...orse, and Cathy is a prime example of this.
Throughout Wuthering Heights, I attempted to learn from the characters misery that they had, in most cases, brought upon themselves. Catherine’s difficulty making her decision reiterated to me how important it is to follow your heart when in a relationship, even if there are ‘good reasons’ to do just the opposite. From Heathcliff, I was able to see how seeking revenge will only destroy your happiness as well as the one’s you love. Young Cathy was a perfect example of the power of positivity, and how to indulge in negative thoughts will only add to your burden and isolate you from friends and family. Whether Emily Bronte intentionally wrote the novel with moral lessons in mind or not, her characters are perfect examples of how not to live.
Works Cited
Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights. New York, Bantam Dell, 2003. Print.
In Emily Bronte's gothic novel, Wuthering Heights, Catherine Linton's inability to take responsibility for her actions affects the lives of the people she loves the most, including herself. Edgar Linton was devastated by her indecisiveness to choose whom she loved, Heathcliff went mad for the same reason as well, and Catherine suffered mentally and physically due to her inability to decide.
Set at the end of the eighteenth century, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë is a mysterious book that maintains the reader on the edge of their seat as Brontë explores the dark side of love, revenge, and the juxtaposition between nature and man. But had Wuthering Heights been set in another time period, many situations-from Heathcliff’s arrival to the Earnshaw family to the union of Hareton and Cathy-may not have occurred. It should also be noted that many events consisted of an eerie, strange feel to them-a similar style seen in many Gothic novels, a popular genre in the eighteen and nineteen hundreds.
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.
“Catherine 's incompletely heard confession of her devotion to Heathcliff precipitates his exile, which hardens him into a machine organized for revenge. Although Heathcliff dominates the action of Wuthering Heights, and the imagination of its author and its other characters, Catherine more clearly exemplifies what the two of them stand for.” (Spacks 1)
In Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte is able to use the setting of the English moors to show two different aspects of the world and symbolically, the destructive nature of love. At one end there is Wuthering Heights and the evil that results in the cruelty that its inhabitants force upon each other, while the other end is Thrushcross Grange and the naivety and ignorance that results from its "utopia-like" atmosphere . For Heathcliff and Catherine, who will destroy anyone for the other, the only peace that can be reached is in the middle of the two estates where they can live by their own rules. The irony of the story is that Catherine and Heathcliff's obsessive love not only leads to their destruction, but to the destruction of the others who loved them.
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.
In the novel Wuthering Heights, author Emily Brontë portrays the morally ambiguous character of Heathcliff through his neglected upbringing, cruel motives, and vengeful actions.
The complex and furious creation of Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights is a powerful novel that fiercely combines many of the greatest themes in literature, such as love and its intricacies, revenge and the its terrible effects, and the contrasts between nature and society. One of the most prevalent themes in this celebrated work is that of crime and punishment, or sin and retribution. One character in particular, Heathcliff, stands apart as a conduit for both of these, es-pecially his sins. His past crimes, both worldly and metaphysical, coincide with his punishments.
Wuthering Heights, written by Emily Bronte (1847), is one of the most highly regarded novels in English Literature as it was intended to both shock and captivate readers with scenes of passion and spitefulness (Bloomfield 2011). Comprised of violent characters and harsh realities, this exceptional novel was not openly accepted by the Victorian society at first. Essentially speaking, it was labeled as somewhat contentious. Victorian literature is most likely to consist of romanticized representations involving difficult lives in which hard work, determination, luck and love triumph in the end. Wuthering Heights, therefore, challenged those strict elements. Nevertheless, subsequent audiences are much more understanding and tolerant concerning the use of objectionable characteristics relating to human life throughout this literature.
Emily Brontë’s novel Wuthering Heights, set in the countryside of England’s 1700’s, features a character named Heathcliff, who is brought into the Earnshaw family as a young boy and quickly falls into a passionate, blinding romance with the Earnshaw’s daughter, Catherine. However, Heathcliff is soon crushed by this affection when his beloved chooses the company of another man rather than his own. For the remainder of the novel he exudes a harsh, aversive attitude that remains perduring until his demise that is induced by the loss of his soulmate, and in turn the bereavement of the person to whom the entirety of his being and his very own self were bound.
Love is a strong attachment between two lovers and revenge is a strong conflict between two rivals. In the novel Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte uses setting to establish contrast, to intensify conflict, and to develop character. The people and events of Wuthering Heights share a dramatic conflict. Thus, Bronte focuses on the evil eye of Heathcliff's obsessive and perpetual love with Catherine, and his enduring revenge to those who forced him and Catherine apart. The author expresses the conflict of Wuthering Heights with great intensity. Hence, she portrays a combination of crucial issues of romance and money, hate and power, and lastly passion and prudence.
Her selfishness lies within the reality that she married Linton for the things he could have provided for her. Nothing parted Catherine and Heathcliff. Not God, nor Satan, it was Catherine herself – Catherine was the cause of her broken heart. Along with breaking her heart, she also broke Heathcliff’s, which led him to loathe and yearn for vengeance against what Heathcliff thought was the cause of Catherine’s death – her daughter.
Catherine was happy in her marriage at first but later became overwhelmed with her desire to be with Heathcliff. She was forced to distinguish the difference between her love for Heathcliff and her love for her new life with money. In the end, Catherine Earnshaw’s husband, Edgar Linton, died and Catherine finally realized that money and social class were not as fulfilling as her desire to have passion in her life, a desire which could only be met by 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.
Emily Bronte’s, Wuthering Heights, includes the struggle for happiness, like marry like, and revenge. Heathcliff grew up neglected and abused. When he fell in love with his long time friend, Catherine Earnshaw, she betrayed him by choosing another man over him, causing Heathcliff to become bitter and rude to everyone who comes in contact with him. He goes out of his way to make everyone miserable and unhappy just like himself. Although the perspective of Heathcliff is seen as “a mad man,” he is actually suffering from Antisocial Personality Disorder, Conduct Disorder, and Depression.