American writer Sue Grafton once said, “We all need to look into the dark side of our nature - that's where the energy is, the passion. People are afraid of that because it holds pieces of us we're busy denying.” Her words couldn't represent the novel Wuthering Heights more perfectly. Written by Emily Brontë, the novel explores the idea of “dark sides” and the struggle within a person who cannot choose between their dark side and their light side. In the novel, this struggle takes shape through three separate characters, who, through Freudian analysis, can be argued as three parts of one single personality. Sigmund Freud's second topography of the human mind is an accurate map of the relationship between three key figures in the novel: Heathcliff, Edgar, and Catherine. This map is made up of three parts, the id, superego, and ego. The id focuses on all basic wants, the superego revolves around morality, and the ego represents the mediator between the two.
In order to fully understand the relationship between these three key characters, it is important to understand their histories. In the most basic explanation, the story is about Catherine marrying Edgar Linton because of his high status, as opposed to marrying Heathcliff, the abandoned orphan whom is described as the other half of her soul. Wuthering Heights explores the complex relationship between these characters created by one woman having to choose between two men; one who is loyal, pleasant, and moral, and one who is exciting, dangerous, and who pushes the limits of morality. A consistent theme of psychoanalytic theory is “the existence of opposing emotions and urges” (Thruschwell p ). Freud's second topography acts as a psychological model for this complex relationship...
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...etween these three important characters. They are essentially three elements of one single personality, evident through their individual traits, and interactions amongst one another.
Works Cited
Brontë, Emily. Wuthering Heights. Thomas Cautley Newby, 1847. Web. .
Freud, Sigmund. The Ego and the Id. Trans. Joan Riviere, ed. James Strachey. New York:
Norton, 1960. Web.
Simms, Karl. "Sigmund Freud." Routledge Critical Thinkers. (2002): 46. Web. 22 Feb. 2012. .
Thurschwell, Pamela. "Chapter 5: Freud's Maps of the Mind." Routledge Critical Thinkers. (2000): 79-93. Print. .
Freud, Sigmund. Ego and the Id of Sigmund Freud (The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological works of Sigmund Freud Series).
Sigmund Freud was born in 1856 to Jewish Galician parents in the Moravian town of Pribor in the Austrian Empire (“Sigmund Freud” n. pag). During his education in the medical field, Freud decided to mix the career fields of medicine and philosophy to become a psychologist (“Sigmund Freud” n. pag). During his research as a psychologist, he conceived the Structural Model Theory, which he discussed in his essay Beyond the Pleasure Principle. The theory states that the human psyche is divided into three main parts: the id, ego, and super-ego (“Id, Ego, and Super-ego” n. pag). He concluded that the id was the desire for destruction, violence and sex; the ego was responsible for intellect and dealing with reality; and the super-ego was a person’s sense of right and wrong and moral standards (Hamilton, n. pag). Freud argued that a healthy individual will have developed the strongest ego to keep the id and super-ego in check (“Id, Ego, and Super-ego” n. p...
The story of social class in Wuthering Heights is no less paramount and essential to the novel. There are two high class families in the novel, The Lintons and the Earnshaws. Both families are of the aristocracy, and they make it apparent from their manners and action towards the people of the lower class. Both families, like many rich people today and of the late eighteenth and nineteenth century, believe that the only people good enough to associate with them or on a romantic level are those of noble birth. This becomes an issue in the novel when Heathcliff comes to live with Catherine and Hindley. While Catherine isn’t particularly fond of Heathcliff at first, she becomes emotionally attached to him, and he becomes a great source of happiness for her. This leads into a problematic issue and a love triangle between Catherine, Edgar, and Heathcliff. The feelings that Catherine faces lead into love and a difficult question she must conclude with. Should she hold true to family values and forget the romantic fondness with Heathcliff? Or follow in her true instinct of love and neglect the option of tradition? Although immediately after Catherine’s decision of doing what is “rational” and marries Edgar, she clarifies to Nelly, the housekeeper, that her reason for doing this is because, “It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff…” (81). These previous
Wuthering Heights went through its own transformation throughout the novel. Wuthering Heights is a good novel to show that everyone and everything has the ability to change. Almost every character’s appearance or personality is altered in some way.
Freud, S., & Strachey, J. (19621960). The Ego and the Super-ego. The ego and the id (pp. 19-20). New York: Norton.
Among the social issues discussed in Wuthering Heights, one of the most prevalent is the treatment of women. This is especially highlighted with Heathcliff, who interacts with three women throughout story. Each woman sees a different man based on his motivation. Catherine sees a loving, beautiful person; Isabella sees an evil, spiteful creature; and Catherine sees an abuser. Heathcliff’s treatment of each woman is motivated by love, anger, and vengeance.
The complicated nature surrounding Heathcliff’s motives again adds an additional degree of ambiguity to his character. This motivation is primarily driven by Catherine’s marriage to Edgar and past rejection of Heathcliff, since he was a servant whom Hindley disapproved of. Prior to storming out of Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff overhears Catherine say, “It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now…” (Brontë 87). The obstacles that ultimately prevent Heathcliff from marrying Catherine provide insight into Heathcliff’s desire to bring harm to Edgar and Hindley. The two men play prominent roles in the debacle, Edgar as the new husband and Hindley as the head figure who refused Heathcliff access to Catherine. Following this incident, Catherine says, “Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same…” (Brontë 87). Catherine’s sentiment indicates she truly would rather be with Heathcliff, but the actions of others have influenced her monumental decision to marry Edgar. Furthermore, Heathcliff is motivated to not only ruin Edgar’s livelihood, but also gain ownership of his estate, Thrushcross Grange. This becomes clear when Heathcliff attempts to use Isabella
McKibben and Hagan take different approaches to Wuthering Heights, but both approaches work together to form one unified concept. McKibben speaks of Wuthering Heights as a whole, while Hagan concentrates on only sympathies role in the novel. McKibben and Hagan both touch on the topic of Catherine and Heathcliff’s passionate nature. To this, McKibben recalls the scene in the book when Catherine is "in the throes of her self-induced illness" (p38). When asking for her husband, she is told by Nelly Dean that Edgar is "among his books," and she cries, "What in the name of all that feels has he to do with books when I am dying." McKibben shows that while Catherine is making a scene and crying, Edgar is in the library handling Catherine’s death in the only way he knows how, in a mild mannered approach. He lacks the passionate ways in which Catherine and Heathcliff handle ordeals. During this scene Catherine’s mind strays back to childhood and she comes to realize that "the Linton’s are alien to her and exemplify a completely foreign mode of perception" (p38). Catherine discovers that she would never belong in Edgar’s society. On her journey of self-discovery, she realized that she attempted the impossible, which was to live in a world in which she did not belong. This, in the end, lead to her death. Unlike her mother, when Cathy enters The Heights, "those images of unreal security found in her books and Thrushhold Grange are confiscated, thus leading her to scream, "I feel like death!" With the help of Hareton, Cathy learns not to place her love within a self created environment, but in a real life where she will be truly happy. The character’s then reappear as reconciled, and stability and peace once more return to The Heights.
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.
...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.
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
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.
(4) Wuthering Heights’s mood is melancholy and tumultuous. As a result, the book gives off a feeling of sorrow and chaos. For example, Catherine’s marriage with Edgar Linton made Heathcliff jealous and angry. In retaliation, Heathcliff married Edgar’s sister, Isabella, to provoke Catherine and Edgar. Heathcliff and Isabella’s marriage ignited a chaotic uproar with Edgar and Catherine because Linton disapproved of Heathcliff’s character, and Catherine loved Heathcliff in spite of being married to Edgar. Inside, Catherine wanted to selfishly keep Heathcliff to herself. Their relationships all had tragic endings because Catherine died giving birth to Edgar’s child. Isabella also died, leaving behind her young son. Heathcliff and Edgar resented each other because of misery they experienced together. The transition of the mood in the story is from chaotic to somber.
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.
Freud developed many different psychological theories that can relate to the story of Wuthering Heights by interpreting the dreams of Lockwood, as well as explaining some behavior of the characters. Heathcliff's behavior, for example, makes more sense when described by defense mechanisms and the three parts of the mind than it does when it is looked at without Freudian theories. Had Sigmund Freud had the chance to sit Heathcliff down on his couch, he would have been able to explain much of Heathciff's behavior in ways that Emily Bronte could never have imagined.