Erica Goldman 11/18/11 ENG 320A, Section 2 Wuthering Heights and its Hellish Boundaries Emily Bront fills

Wuthering Heights with numerous binary oppositions, such as the living versus the dead, inside versus outside, and the civilized versus the uncivilized. Yet throughout the course of the novel, it is revealed that there are no actual or theoretical boundaries separating each of these ideas from its opposite. For instance, Catherine Is death immediately following her daughters birth demonstrates the lack of separation between the living and the dead. The two scenes dealing with the images of the bloodied wrists of Heathcliff and Catherine Is ghost passing through a window demonstrate that no true border exists between the inside and the outside. The incident of Edgar and Isabella Linton fighting over a dog inside their house, among other scenes, reveals that there is no boundary separating the civilized from the uncivilized. As no such borders divide these key ideas, each exists as an extension of its opposite in the human soul, the unitary origin (376) that literary critic J. Hillis Miller argues does not exist. Yet, characters in the novel, as well as people in true life, place meaning on the differences between such antithetical ideas and erect imaginary boundaries between them. This is demonstrated by the image of the hand in a window symbolizing a persons agency to create such boundaries, as well as Charlotte Bronts separating herself from all other readers in her assertion that she is the only reader who truly understands Wuthering Heights. As these boundaries cause people affected by them to suffer, the novel may essentially be warning readers against creating such liminalities around themselves. Catherine I blurs the boundary between the living and the dead when she is reincarnated into her daughter. This important event occurs at midnight, the threshold or boundary between one day and the next. Between Catherine IIs birth and Catherine Is death, the mother does not recover sufficient consciousness to miss Heathcliff, or know Edgar (128). Though Catherine

Is body remains alive, it is empty of any signs of awareness. A soul is what most believe gives a person her spirit and sense of self, as well as her ability to make decisions; hence consciousness containing the word conscious, which is similar to conscience. As Catherine I lacks consciousness or a conscience, her soul no longer exists inside her body. According to the narrator Nelly Dean, Catherine Is body remains alive for two hours (128) after the birth of her daughter, who wail[s] out of life during those first hours of existence (128). Though the mother loses consciousness, the daughter gains it immediately. It seems as if the consciousness (the conscience, the soul) exits the body of Catherine I and immediately nestles itself inside her daughter. The transition from life, to death, and to life again is seamless; there is no boundary between the two states of being. By partaking in this cycle, Catherine I demonstrates that there is no barrier separating death from birth, or the living from the dead. This imaginary boundary appears also in the scene in which the ghost of Catherine I attempts to enter Wuthering Heights by reaching her hand through a window. In this action, Catherines ghost demonstrates her desire to rejoin the living inside the house. By refusing her entry, Lockwood uses the window to create a fictitious boundary between the worlds of the living inside the house and the dead outside it. However, there is no true barrier between these two places, and in his death Heathcliff uses the link between the living and the dead to demonstrate the lack of boundary between the inside and the outside. Unlike Catherines ghost, Heathcliff desires to exit the realm of the living inside the Heights, as his body lies inside while his wrist rests on the windowsill, hand extended toward the outdoors. An important window-like image in this scene is that of Heathcliffs eyes, which remain open in a life-like gaze of exultation (256) after his death. Eyes typically represent windows to ones soul, therefore as Heathcliffs eyes [will] not shut (256), the doorway to his soul remains open, and his spirit is

free to exit his body. As the aforementioned window is open to the outside, Heathcliffs soul can exit the house and enter the realm of the moors, and as demonstrated by Catherines ghost, souls are indeed capable of surviving outdoors without being inside physical bodies. Though Lockwood attempts to establish a boundary between the inside and the outside by keeping Catherine Is ghost from entering the house, Heathcliff proves this boundary to be false, as in his death his soul is permitted to transition freely from the domain of the inside to that of the outside. Early in the novel, it is established that the indoors are where civilized people live, the outdoors the uncivilized. We see the merging of these two realms when, earlier in his life, Heathcliff becomes the master of Wuthering Heights. Heathcliffs holding Nelly and Catherine II prisoner in the Heights is clearly beastlike behavior, causing the two women to consider trying to escape through the window or into a garret, and out by its skylight (211). To them, the outside world on the moors is safer, more peaceful and civilized compared to the wildness inside the Heights. Another indication of the outdoors representing the civilized is when, near the end of the novel, Catherine II and Hareton take their meal out of doors, under the trees (252) at the Grange. As Hareton becomes literate, he begins a transformation from being rough and uneducated to being more polished and civil. Catherine II, in teaching Hareton how to read, acts as the source of intelligence and civility. As the only people remaining from the novels two dynamic families, the fact that these two recently well-mannered characters prefer the outdoors demonstrates that this realm begins to hold some indication of the civilized world. As the outdoors loses its connection with the wild and uncivil, the indoors fails to remain civilized, as Isabella and Edgar Linton maliciously fight over a dog and nearly pull it in two between them (38) while inside their house. Heathcliff and Catherine I watch them from outside through a window, which they can easily see through as the Lintons have not put up the shutters, and the

curtains [are] only half closed (38). As the window is only a transparent boundary separating the moors from the indoors, it represents the nonexistence of the borders between the inside and the outside, and the civilized and the uncivilized. In his essay Wuthering Heights: Repetition and the Uncanny, J. Hillis Miller argues that no unity exists between these opposing ideas of life and death, inside and outside, and the civilized and the uncivilized. He writes, the intuition of unitary origin may be an effect of language, not some preexisting state or some place in or out of the world (376). Yet Miller is incorrect in stating this, as there is in fact some underlying connection between these three key ideas and their opposites. Each of these boundaries is intertwined with its reverse in the scene in which Catherine I screams when seeing her reflection in the mirror at Thrushcross Grange. This event reveals that Catherine Is two personalities as Catherine Earnshaw and Catherine Linton are both part of her overall identity, and therefore cannot be separated. Catherine I and Nelly both expect that the younger, rowdier version of Catherine I ceases to exist, or dies away, in the creation of her new identity as the civilized Mrs. Linton. Catherines image in the mirror as Mrs. Linton creates the illusion of a boundary separating this exterior face from her true uncivilized self who only exists inside her. In fact, Catherine I does not recognize her reflection in the mirror and believes it to be a stranger, saying to Nelly, Dont you see that face?... The room is haunted! (96). Her uncivilized nature fights its way out of her body through a scream, and the fact that Catherine I thinks she is at home at Wuthering Heights (97) demonstrates that her old, uncivilized self is still very much alive inside her. Though Catherine I is transformed into a very dignified person (41) during the course of her stay with the Lintons, her old traits are only utilized to mold her character and they never truly disappear. These civilized and uncivilized qualities both exist together, and as extensions of each other, in Catherine Is true identity, which

is essentially her soul. In binding together all aspects of ones personality, the soul is the unitary origin between these binary oppositions. As there are no true separations between such antithetical ideas, and these ideas all naturally exist inside a persons soul, then such boundaries must be artificially imagined and conjured up. Indeed, as the characters believe that boundaries exist between the inside and the outside, the living and the dead, and the civilized and the uncivilized, they essentially craft these boundaries around themselves. The image of the hand on the windowsill once again becomes imperative in discussing this idea. Hands represent ones own agency, or the power one has to shape ones own life, and windows represent some form of boundary separating two distinct ideas. By combining these two images, the hand becomes a symbol for ones ability to shape his own boundaries; a severed one represents the separation of the agency from the boundary, or loss of ones ability to create or cross such a border. A cut wrist is not far from a severed hand, and Lockwood does attempt to sever Catherine the Ghosts hand when he pulls its wrist on to the broken pane, and rub[s] it to and fro till the blood [runs] down and [soaks] the bedclothes (20-21). In doing this, Lockwood defines two important boundaries and attempts to rob the ghost of her ability to cross them. He identifies the window as a definite boundary between the inside and the outside worlds, as he attempts to seal the portal by stacking a pile of books up in a pyramid against it (21) in order to keep the ghost outside. Lockwood also distinctly separates the ghost from those alive when he refers to her as a spectre (23), a changeling (22), and a wicked little soul (22), and thereby creates a boundary between the living and the dead. Nelly recounts how the third boundary, that between the civilized and the uncivilized, comes to the represent the distinction between the inside and the outside, respectively. Heathcliffs appearance as a dirty, ragged, black-haired child (29) with black eyes defines him

as a racially other gipsy brat (29), and during this era gypsies were considered to be rough and inferior compared to settled Englishmen. Nelly informs Lockwood that Mrs. Earnshaw was ready to fling it [Heathcliff] out of doors (29) and asked her husband how he could fashion to bring [it] into the house (29). In her threat to cast the gypsy-like Heathcliff outside, Mrs. Earnshaw establishes that the inside domestic world belongs to the civilized and the wild moors outside to the uncivilized, the house door being the boundary between the two. Such boundaries between the civilized and the uncivilized, the inside and the outside, and the living and the dead do not truly exist; the characters simply place meaning onto such oppositions, effectually imagining and therefore creating these boundaries around themselves. This behavior is not limited to the novels characters: Charlotte Bront too creates a boundary between herself all other readers, who she believes will never truly understand the novel as her sister Emily means for them to. Charlotte writes that only she herself has obtained a clear glimpse of what are termed (and, perhaps, really are) its faults; [has] gained a definite notion of how it appears to other people to strangers who knew nothing of the author; who are unacquainted with the locality where the scenes of the story are laid (313). Charlotte believes that readers will find the characters repulsive (313) and unintelligible (313). It is as if she thinks the novel is so mystical and removed from real life that readers will never able to relate to it, as if some sort of barrier stands in the way of them understanding of the novel. Yet an 1850 review of Wuthering Heights in the Leader argues that the novel is not so distant that readers cannot comprehend it: it asserts that the [novels] visions of madmen are not more savage, or more remote from ordinary life (348). According to the Examiner, Charlotte herself later mentions a writer who has discerned the real nature of Wuthering Heights, and has, with equal accuracy, noted its beauties and touched on its faults (346). As Charlotte begins her second

statement by saying it is her duty (346) to report such an occurrence, it appears that she has realized her wrongdoing in earlier assuming that there is a barrier keeping readers from understanding and identifying with the novel, and she acknowledges that no boundary exists separating her from all other readers. Like the characters in the story she believes she so fully understands, Charlotte creates the impression of boundaries between herself and others, and between the novel and its readers boundaries that in fact do not exist. In revisiting some of the novels key scenes, we see that this imagining and creating of borders seems to be something negative and fearful, as each character who interacts with such boundaries suffers because of them. For instance, though Catherine Is ghost has no intention of harming Lockwood, he feels an intense horror (20) in discovering that she is (at least in his nightmare) a tangible, cognizant creature. Because Lockwood separates the living from the dead, and like many people fears that which is unknown to him, he causes himself unnecessary distress. Heathcliff believes that this boundary, as well as that between the inside and the outside, separates him from the dead Catherine I. This causes him much grief, as he feels isolated from her and calls out a window, sobbing, Come in! come in!... Cathy, do come. Oh, do once more! hear me this time Catherine, at last! (23). The living Catherine I suffers when believing that her external appearance as the composed Mrs. Linton is unrelated to her internal self, the reckless, youthful Catherine Earnshaw. The startling recognition that such a face is her own frightens rather than simply surprises her because she has come to believe that these two opposing identities the civilized one and the uncivilized one are and must be separate. Had she not believed in such a boundary, she would have saved herself from much anguish. Real people suffer from constructing their own boundaries also. By creating for themselves the nom de plumes of Acton, Currer, and Ellis Bell, the Bront sisters created a boundary between their

real selves and their writer selves, as well as between themselves and the public. Though the sisters disguised their identities in order to avoid the stigma that was associated with being female writers, they must have felt some vexation over not being able to publicly admit to having created such literary masterpieces. Why else would Charlotte Bront have eventually felt the need to reveal that she and her sisters were the mysterious writers? By creating such boundaries around their own lives and identities, the Bront sisters may have caused themselves additional suffering on top of the hardships they already experienced in their difficult lives. As the novels characters, as well as the real people close to the author, suffer from the unnatural boundaries they create around themselves, it seems that establishing such boundaries for oneself is something harmful or negative, and should be avoided. This warning against constructing such liminalities seems to be one of Emily Bronts key messages to her readers. Yet it may not be the only idea she is attempting to impart to them: the novel could also demonstrate Emilys plea for freedom from her penname Ellis Bell. In masking her true identity, this false name places a firm boundary around her. It keeps her confined to her daytime profession as a poor, underappreciated governess, and denies her the possibility of gaining respect as an adept writer and improving her situation in life. In her novel, Emily demonstrates that no such boundary exists between ones internal and external identities. The characters in her novel, as well as people in real life, place significance on such differences in ideas and therefore create boundaries between them. Indeed, those who create such boundaries for themselves suffer because of them. Like Lockwood, they fear that which they need not fear; like Heathcliff, they grieve for those who actually still exist. They split their own identities, causing themselves anguish, like Catherine I, or quiet frustration like the Bront sisters. If we too

construct such extreme divisions within our lives, the boundaries we create might just turn out to be threshold[s] of hell (251).