Wuthering Heights Theme Essay
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.
Bronte uses repetition to show emphasis on an idea.Bronte reveals her idea about love in the novel, by repetition such as the character names of Catherine,and Cathy.Both characters parallel the different forms of love present in the book.Even though both characters have the same name it does not mean that they are the same person.Catherine was Cathy’s mother,and the only similar thing they had in common was the “capacity for intense attachments”(139).Cathy “did not resemble her[mother];for she could be soft and mild as a dove;her anger was never furious,her love never fierce[,but]deep and tender”(139).Cathy foils her own mom in every way..Cathy traits of domesticity is what makes her love with Hareton workout.Catherine didn't possess a domestic side, she only possessed a wild spirit which ultimately led to her demise.Catherine being “a wild, wicked slip of a girl"(...
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...liff who was lower social status than her, as for Cathy’s and Hareton’s union it was “the crown of all[society’s]wishes”(232).Hareton was also a lower status than Cathy, but their love union was cherished unlike Catherines, and Heathcliff's love which shows Bronte’s view of love.Her view seems to prefer the domestic,stable,and serene love of the second generation to the eccentric love of the first generation lovers.
In conclusion Emily Bronte employs the literary devices of repetition and anthesis to make closure for the wild love of Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff with the union of Hareton and Cathy’s love.With the characters being so similar the reader can't help to tie these sets of doubles together making Catherine’s and Heathcliff's forbidden love acceptable with the peaceful relationship of Cathy’s and Haretons relationship.
Works Cited
Wuthering Heights
Emily Bronte's erudite novel, Wuthering Heights, is set between the late eighteenth century and the early nineteenth century. This era was a time where the British bureaucracy had been a clean-cut, unprinted mandate on how an individual would live and work in his life. Those who commanded British society were the royal members, followed by the nobility. The nobles had been followed by the gentry, otherwise known as the upper-middle class. Members of the gentry were in possession of servants and rather grandiose estates, however unlike the members of the aristocracy, they held no titles; their status was most vulnerable to alteration. For instance, a man may view himself as a gentleman; he believes this supposition due to his polite behavior and articulation. However, to his humiliation, he discovers that his fellow citizens do not view him in the same degree. A man at that time had only been a gentleman according to the number of servants he had, the yards of land he owned, where his money had come from (whether through inheritance, land, or trade), and finally his eloquence. Having only one of these qualifications would do very little in aggrandizing one's status. The Linton and Earnshaw's dependence on such a volatile system served as the driving force for their actions and as the stimulus for the characters' destructive nature.
Society today embellishes the words romance and passion, claiming them to be all good and positive. However, almost no works of media capture the darkness of intense fervor like Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. Her two protagonists, Heathcliff and Catherine, are one of literature’s most romantic star-crossed lovers, whose only parallel is Romeo and Juliet. Once her father brings the young and wild gypsy home, Catherine forms an unbreakable attachment with him. They embody the term “gothic romance” with tragedy and distress in every chapter threatening the relationship and sanity of the two characters. Catherine and Heathcliff’s amorous affinity and bond towards each other kindles drama that inflicts pain and suffering on those around them, causing the world that encompasses Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange to fall apart.
By centralizing this thwarted passion, it is Brontes aim to warn readers of the demoralizing mindset that accompanies unrestrained devotion. Catherine struggles immensely with her role in two separate realms: one of refined tenderness and eloquence, the other of rampant fervor. This struggle is best illustrated in her relationship to Edgar and Isabella Linton as they represent civilized and cultivated members of society. Upon first arrival at Thrushcross Grange, Catherine is initiated into the contrasting environment of the Lintons and is separated from the savage lifestyle of Wuthering Heights. Catherines spirit is spilt into two opposing forces and develops a double personality to endure the internal conflict.
In the novel Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte talks about two cities combining by a forced marriage. She talks about how these characters are in one big love triangle. These characters are Catherine, Edger, Cathy, Heathcliff, Isabella, Linton, Hareton, and many more. The novel starts off with these characters that are in love with each other. They end up getting separated by an event that will change relations not only between them but the entire city. So the novel starts off with Catherine who is madly in love with Heathcliff who owns Thrushcross Grange.
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.
There is two stereotypical types of families, one where the children learn from their parents behavior and do the same as they grow up, and the other where they dislike – and do the opposite. In Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, the characters are quite intricate and engaging. The story takes place in northern England in an isolated, rural area. The main characters of the novel reside in two opposing households: Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights. Wuthering Heights is a story of a dynamic love between two people. This love transcends all boundaries, including that over life and death. The author takes parallelism to great extends. Much of the events that happen in the first half of the story correspond to events in the second half; first generation of characters is comparable to the second generation. Many may argue that the characters are duplicates of each other and that they share many traits. Although Catherine Earnshaw and Cathy Linton are mother and daughter, their personalities and lifestyles are very different. This is a great example where the child is and behaves quite different than her mother.
His assertion focuses on how their relationship is a displaced version of symbiotic relationship between mother and child. Emotionally, Heathcliff is the world to Catherine just as a mother is to a child and a child to a mother. (p. 366). This statement is supported by a passage in the novel in which Heathcliff has left and she seeks him calling for him at intervals and crying hard enough to beat out any child (p. 88-90). Upon Heathcliff’s return, Brontë uses language that Wion believes depicts the cessation of their relationship’s development in the Freud’s oral stage of libidinal development (p. 368). Brontë uses phrases such as “drank from hers” when discussing them gazing at each other and “They were too much absorbed in their mutual enjoyment…” (p. 99, 368). The use of this language is interesting and begs us to question if its use was intentional to display the basicness and necessity of their relationship as if to say that they could just as easily not be together as they could stop consuming sustenance. The novel demonstrates many times that the relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff is fundamental to their existence. A major piece of evidence supporting this is Catherine’s breakdown when Heathcliff leaves as well as when Heathcliff and Edgar’s disagreement reaches a point where Edgar forces Catherine to decide between himself and
Catherine is trapped between her love of Heathcliff and her love for Edgar, setting the two men down a path of destruction, a whirlwind of anger and resentment that Catherine gets caught in the middle of. Catherine is drawn to Heathcliff because of his fiery personality, their raw attraction and one certainly gets the sense that they are drawn together on a deeper level, that perhaps they are soulmates. C. Day Lewis thought so, when he declared that Heathcliff and Catherine "represent the essential isolation of the soul...two halves of a single soul–forever sundered and struggling to unite." This certainly seems to be backed up in the novel when Catherine exclaims “Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He's always, always in my mind--not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being...” This shows clearly the struggle Catherine feels as she is drawn spiritually to Heathcliff, but also to Edgar for very different reasons. Edgar attracts Catherine predominantly because he is of the right social class. Catherine finds him "handsome, and pleasant to be with," but her feelings for him seem petty when compared to the ones she harbours...
Young Cathy’s love for Hareton is a redemptive force. It is her love that brings an end to the reign of Heathcliff. Heathcliff and Catherine have loved each other since their childhood. Initially, Catherine scorned the little gypsy boy; she showed her distaste by “spitting” at him (Brontë 27). However, it was not long before Heathcliff and Catherine became “very think” (Brontë 27).
Catherine Earnshaw, now Linton, and Cathy Linton, then Heathcliff, both high inn spirits shared many similarities in appearance. Catherine’s “spirits were always at high-water mark, her tongue always going- singing, laughing, and plaguing everybody who would not do the same (36).” Catherine “had the bonniest eyes, and sweetest smile (36)” and she loved to adventure out onto the Moors and explore her inner wild child. Cathy is “a real beauty in face [with] . . . dark eyes . . . fair skin, and small features (167).” She too was also “saucy (167)” and wild wanting to “walk on the top of those hills (168).” Both had dark eyes, had a temper, were childish and both fell in love with a man who was too poor for how they wanted to be viewed. Catherine falls in love with Heathcliff while playing on the Moors, but comes to the realization that she must marry Edgar to help her be the rich wife she needs to be. Similarly, Cathy falls in love with Hareton who does not have an education and “cannot read [referring to the Hareton name on the building] (194).” After realizing that marrying Heathcliff and Hareton is not going to socially benefit them and Heathcliff forces Cathy to marry Linton they both marry the ‘other one’, Edgar and Linton. Catherine and Cathy can recognize and love the traits of a soft sensitive man, but also crave the passionate love of an unpredictable masculine man. In the end what differs in their lives is that
...ly declared their love there. As respite from the prison of Wuthering Heights the moors are a mysterious place that is liberating, and boundaryless. Catherine says, “I wish I were out of doors- I wish I were a girl again, half savage and hardy, and free” (105). Once Catherine compares Linton and Heathcliff saying, “My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods. Time will change it, I’m well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath a source of little visible delight, but necessary” (84).
Catherine and Heathcliff formed their bond during childhood, the time of life when their love for each other was expressed in the truest sense of the word. While the majority of the Earnshaw family despised Heathcliff, “Miss Cathy and he were…very thick” soon upon his introduction into the household at Wuthering Heights (Bronte 47). They shared a love of exploration and mischief, and were rebellious cohorts in a rigid and controlling home. They were constantly in trouble, yet because they had each other, they didn’t seem to suffer affliction. Their relationship was simple and genuine. In fac...
Bronte's Use of Language and Setting in Wuthering Heights Between pages 15 and 18 there are identifiable ways in which 'Bronte' uses 'language and setting' to establish the characters and create a distinguishable atmosphere. In this essay, themes, genres and styles will be discussed to show how 'Bronte' establishes the characters; there will also be a discussion of the 'gothic' elements which Wuthering Heights contains. Many people would argue that the style of 'Wuthering Heights' is peculiar and complex, the power of Wuthering Heights owes much to its complex narrative structure and to the device of having two conventional people relate a very unconventional tale. Bronte importantly introduces the element of 'the supernatural' into chapter 3 which is an important technique as it grips the reader. Lockwood has come into contact with the ghost of Cathy, who died 18 years before, Some might argue that she is a product of Lockwood's imagination, and it is clear that Bronte has presented these facts in this way so that the reader can make up their own mind on the subject.
Emily Brontë’s novel, Wuthering Heights, demonstrates a social criticism on women’s power to control their own fate and the ideal women in the nineteenth century. Specifically in Lyn Pykett’s, Changing the Names: The Two Catherines, a strong feminist perspective is explored. In her criticism she goes through many different analyses of Catherine Earnshaw-Linton and her daughter Cathy and what they represent in regard to a women’s power and social expectations in the nineteenth century. Pykett says that the two Catherines represent women’s true nature according to Brontë. Catherine Earnshaw-Linton is faced with the choice between two men but chooses based on what is accepted in her society, the man that can provide her economically, not the man whom she loves. This marriage to Edgar instead of Heathcliff is the source of Catherine’s problems and ultimately her demise. It causes one to question whether it is right to marry for the social aspect or for true love. Young Cathy seems to face the problem her mother has as well but she finds a way to be true to her nature and fight the tyrann...
Before anything else, I would like to talk about the nature of the principle characters of this novel. I’d like to start with Catherine as she seems to be the central character of this love story. Of course the latter is my personal assumption. Catherine is the very representative of nature and naturalism. From the first chapters of novel and Mrs. Dean’s great and elaborate account of Catherine, we encounter the portrayal of wild nature represented by the moor. Totally intractable and precarious in nature, the moor is the most appropriate identifier of Catherine’s character. In fact, her childhood interest in the moor leads us to the conclusion that she has no touch of reason till the time she is prohibited by her sister-in-law and brother after her five-week stay at Lintons’. Interestingly, she takes her playmate, Heathcliff, to the moor to spend the joyful private time with him and this is the very foreshadow that prognosticates Heathcliff’s later confusions and sufferings as a result of her precarious and wild nature. However, Heathcliff himself has no sheer difference in character with her regarding naturalism. Ironically enough, he never undergoes any obligatory changes to abandon such a character and on the contrary he is inspired by tyrannical treatment from Hindley to assume his naturalism. Based on these assumptions we can conclude that these two lovers are the representatives of id in this novel. They act upon every impulse without any contemplations or control of wild passion. To cut the long story short, they act as their unconscious bids them to do. They are not alone in this aspect as Hindley also joins them in this characteristic in a different manner. As a result of...