Liceul Teoretic “Spiru Haret”, Moinesti

LUCRARE DE ATESTAT
LIMBA ENGLEZA

WUTHERING HEIGHTS

Barna Lusia-Elena
Clasa a XII-a E
Profil filologie-intensiv engleza
Profesor coordonator: Popa Laura

2020
2020
CONTENTS:

I. Introduction .......................................................................................................... 2
II. The Reader's Guide to Wuthering Heights........................................................... 3
i. The Childhood of Heathcliff................................................................... 3
ii. The maturity of Heathcliff...................................................................... 4
iii. Epilogue.................................................................................................. 5
III. Characters............................................................................................................. 5
IV. Wuthering Heights as a Gotic Novel.................................................................... 7
i. The Horror element in Wuthering Heights............................................. 8
ii. Death and destruction of lives................................................................. 9
iii. Conclusion............................................................................................. 12
V. The Significance of Names in Wuthering Heights.............................................. 12
VI. Symbols and Motifs............................................................................................. 18
VII. Themes in Wuthering Heights............................................................................. 19
VIII. Understanding “I am Heathcliff”.................................................................. 24
IX. Wuthering Heights Conclusion............................................................................ 26

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 Introduction

Wuthering Heights is a novel by Emily Brontë published in 1847 under her

pseudonym "Ellis Bell". Brontë's only finished novel, it was written between October
1845 and June 1846. Wuthering Heights "is an English genre of fiction popular in the
18th century. It is characterized by an atmosphere of mystery and horror and having a
pseudo-medieval setting. Wuthering Heights and Anne Brontë's Agnes Grey were
accepted by publisher Thomas Newby before the success of their sister Charlotte's
novel Jane Eyre. After Emily's death, Charlotte edited the manuscript of Wuthering
Heights and arranged for the edited version to be published as a posthumous second
edition in 1850. Although Wuthering Heights is now a classic of English literature,
contemporaneous reviews were deeply polarised; it was controversial because of its
unusually stark depiction of mental and physical cruelty, and it challenged strict
Victorian ideals regarding religious hypocrisy, morality, social classes and gender
inequality. The novel also explores the effects of envy, nostalgia, pessimism and
resentement. The English poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, although an
admirer of the book referred to it as “A fiend of a book - an incredible monster [...]
The action is laid in hell, - only it seems places and people have English names there.”
Wuthering Heights contains elements of gothic fiction, and the moorland setting is
significant aspect of the drama. The novel has inspired many adaptions, including
film, radio and television dramatisations, a musical, a ballet, operas, and a song by
Kate Bush.
It is a multi- generational Gothic and romantic novel. It revolves around
thWuthering Heights "is an English genre of fiction popular in the 18th century. It is
characterized by an atmosphere of mystery and horror and having a pseudo-medieval
setting. It is a multi- generational Gothic and romantic novel. It revolves around the
doomed love between Heathcliff and Catherine .Wuthering Heights sheds the lights
with Lockwood, an owner of Heathcliff's, coming the home of his landlord Mr.
Earnshaw, a Yorkshire Farmer and owner of Wuthering Heights, brings home an
orphan from Liverpool. The baby is called Heathcliff and lives with the Earnshaw
children, Hindley and Catherine.It is a movement that refers to ruin, decay, love,
romance death, terror, and chaos, and unusual irrationality and compassion over
rationality and sense.
e doomed love between Heathcliff and Catherine .Wuthering Heights sheds the lights
with Lockwood, an owner of Heathcliff's, coming the home of his landlord Mr.
Earnshaw, a Yorkshire Farmer and owner of Wuthering Heights, brings home an
orphan from Liverpool. The baby is called Heathcliff and lives with the Earnshaw
children, Hindley and Catherine.It is a movement that refers to ruin, decay, love,
romance death, terror, and chaos, and unusual irrationality and compassion over
rationality and sense.

Emily Jane Brontë (30 July 1818 - 19 December 1848) was an English novelist
and poet who is best known for her only novel, Wuthering Heights, now considered a
classic of English literature. Emily was the third-eldest of the four surviving Bronte
sibling, between the youngest Anne and her bronther Branwell. She published under
the pen name Ellis Bell. Emily Bronte remains a mysterious figure and a challenge to
biographers because informations about her is sprase due to her solitary and reculsive
nature. Charlotte Brontë (was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the
three Brontë sisters) remains the primary source of information about Emily, although

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as an elder sister, writing publicly about her shortly after her death, she is not a neutral
witness. Stevie Davies believes that there is what might be called Charlotte’s smoke-
screen and argues that Emily evidently shocker her, to the point where she may even
have doubted her sister’s sanity. After Emily’s death, Charlotte rewrote her character,
history and even poems on a more acceptable (to her and the bourgeois reading
public) model. Charlotte presented Emily as someone whose “natural” love of the
beauties of nature had become somewhat exaggerated owing to her shy nature,
portraying her as too fond of the Yorkshire moors, the homesick wheneever she was
away. According to Lucasta Miller, in her analysis Brontë biographies, “Charlotte
took on the role of Emily’s first mythographer.” In the Preface of the Second Edition
of Wuthering Heights, in 1850, Charlotte wrote “My sister’s disposition was not
naturally gregarious; circumstances favoured and fostered her tendency to seclusion;
except to go church or take a walk on the hills, she rarely crossed the threshold of
home. Through her feeling for the people round was benevolent, intercouse with them
she never sough; nor, with a very few exceptions, ever experienced. And yet she knew
them: knew their ways, their language, their family histories; she could hear of them
with interest, and talk of them with detail, minute, graphic and accurate, but with
them she rarely exchaged a world.”
Emily Brontë has often been characterised as a devout if somewhat unorthodox
Christan, a heretic and a visionary “mystic of the moors”.

The Reader's Guide to Wuthering Heights

A Brief Summary
Many people, generally those who have never read the book, consider Wuthering
Heights to be a straightforward, if intense, love story — Romeo and Juliet on the
Yorkshire Moors. But this is a mistake. Really the story is one of revenge. It follows
the life of Heathcliff, a mysterious gypsy-like person, from childhood (about seven
years old) to his death in his late thirties. Heathcliff rises in his adopted family and
then is reduced to the status of a servant, running away when the young woman he
loves decides to marry another. He returns later, rich and educated, and sets about
gaining his revenge on the two families that he believed ruined his life.

The Childhood of Heathcliff

 Chapters 4 to 17
The story begins thirty years before when the Earnshaw family lived at
Wuthering Heights consisting of, as well as the mother and father, Hindley, a boy of
fourteen, and six-year-old Catherine, the same person that he had dreamt about and
the mother of the present mistress. In that year, Mr Earnshaw travels to Liverpool
where he finds a homeless, gypsy-like boy of about seven whom he decides to adopt
as his son. He names him "Heathcliff". Hindley, who finds himself excluded from his
father's affections by this newcomer, quickly learns to hate him but Catherine grows
very attached to him. Soon Heathcliff and Catherine are like twins, spending hours on
the moors together and hating every moment apart.
Because of this discord, Hindley is eventually sent to college but he returns, three
years later, when Mr Earnshaw dies. With a new wife, Frances, he becomes master of
Wuthering Heights and forces Heathcliff to become a servant instead of a member of
the family.

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 Heathcliff and Cathy continue to run wild and, in November, a few months after
Hindley's return, they make their way to Thrushcross Grange to spy on the
inhabitants. As they watch the childish behaviour of Edgar and Isabella Linton, the
children of the Grange, they are spotted and try to escape. Catherine, having been
caught by a dog, is brought inside and helped while Heathcliff is sent home.
Five weeks later, Catherine returns to Wuthering Heights but she has now
changed, looking and acting as a lady. She laughs at Heathcliff's unkempt appearance
and, the next day when the Lintons visit, he dresses up to impress her. It fails when
Edgar makes fun of him and they argue. Heathcliff is locked in the attic where, in the
evening, Catherine climbs over the roof to comfort him. He vows to get his revenge
on Hindley.
In the summer of the next year, Frances gives birth to a child, Hareton, but she
dies before the year is out. This leads Hindley to descend into a life of drunkenness
and waste.
Two years on and Catherine has become close friends with Edgar, growing more
distant from Heathcliff. One day in August, while Hindley is absent, Edgar comes to
visit Catherine . She has an argument with Ellen which then spreads to Edgar who
tries to leave. Catherine stops him and, before long, they declare themselves lovers.
Later, Catherine talks with Ellen, explaining that Edgar had asked her to marry him
and she had accepted. She says that she does not really love Edgar but Heathcliff.
Unfortunately she could never marry the latter because of his lack of status and
education. She therefore plans to marry Edgar and use that position to help raise
Heathcliff's standing. Unfortunately Heathcliff had overheard the first part about not
being able to marry him and flees from the farmhouse. He disappears without trace
and, after three years, Edgar and Catherine are married.
Six months after the marriage, Heathcliff returns as a gentleman, having grown
stronger and richer during his absence. Catherine is delighted to see him although
Edgar is not so keen. Isabella, now eighteen, falls madly in love with Heathcliff,
seeing him as a romantic hero. He despises her but encourages the infatuation, seeing
it as a chance for revenge on Edgar. When he embraces Isabella one day at the
Grange, there is a argument with Edgar which causes Catherine to lock herself in her
room and fall ill.
Heathcliff has been staying at the Heights, gambling with Hindley and teaching
Hareton bad habits. Hindley is gradually losing his wealth, mortgaging the farmhouse
to Heathcliff to repay his debts.
While Catherine is ill, Heathcliff elopes with Isabella, causing Edgar to disown his
sister. The fugitives marry and return two months later to Wuthering Heights.
Heathcliff hears that Catherine is ill and arranges with Ellen to visit her in secret. In
the early hours of the day after their meeting, Catherine gives birth to her daughter,
Cathy, and then dies.
The day after Catherine's funeral, Isabella flees Heathcliff and escapes to the
south of England where she eventually gives birth to Linton, Heathcliff's son. Hindley
dies six months after his sister and Heathcliff finds himself the master of Wuthering
Heights and the guardian of Hareton.

The Maturity of Heathcliff

 Chapters 18 to 31
Twelve years on, Cathy has grown into a beautiful, high-spirited girl who has
rarely passed outside the borders of the Grange. Edgar hears that Isabella is dying and
leaves to pick up her son with the intention of adopting him. While he is gone, Cathy

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meets Hareton on the moors and learns of her cousin and Wuthering Heights'
existence.
Edgar returns with Linton who is a weak and sickly boy. Although Cathy is
attracted to him, Heathcliff wants his son with him and insists on having him taken to
the Heights.
Three years later, Ellen and Cathy are on the moors when they meet Heathcliff
who takes them to Wuthering Heights to see Linton and Hareton. His plans are for
Linton and Cathy to marry so that he would inherit Thrushcross Grange. Cathy and
Linton begin a secret and interrupted friendship.
In August of the next year, while Edgar is very ill, Ellen and Cathy visit
Wuthering Heights and are held captive by Heathcliff who wants to marry his son to
Cathy and, at the same time, prevent her from returning to her father before he dies.
After five days, Ellen is released and Cathy escapes with Linton's help just in
time to see her father before he dies.
With Heathcliff now the master of both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange,
Cathy has no choice but to leave Ellen and to go and live with Heathcliff and Hareton.
Linton dies soon afterwards and, although Hareton tries to be kind to her, she retreats
into herself. This is the point of the story at which Lockwood arrives.
After being ill with a cold for some time, Lockwood decides that he has had
enough of the moors and travels to Wuthering Heights to inform Heathcliff that he is
returning to the south.

Epilogue
 Chapters 32 to 34
In September, eight months after leaving, Lockwood finds himself back in the
area and decides to stay at Thrushcross Grange (since his tenancy is still valid until
October). He finds that Ellen is now living at Wuthering Heights. He makes his way
there and she fills in the rest of the story.
Ellen had moved to the Heights soon after Lockwood had left to replace the
housekeeper who had departed. In March, Hareton had had an accident and been
confined to the farmhouse. During this time, a friendship had developed between
Cathy and Hareton. This continues into April when Heathcliff begins to act very
strangely, seeing visions of Catherine. After not eating for four days, he is found dead
in his room. He is buried next to Catherine.
Lockwood departs but, before he leaves, he hears that Hareton and Cathy plan to
marry on New Year's Day.
Characters

Heathcliff: Found, presumably orphaned, on the streets of Liverpool and taken by

Mr. Earnshaw to Wuthering Heights, where he is reluctantly cared for by the family.
He and Catherine grow close, and their love is the central theme of the first volume.
His revenge against the man she chooses to marry and its consequences are the central
theme of the second volume. Heathcliff has been considered a Byronic hero, but
critics have pointed out that he reinvents himself at various points, making his
character hard to fit into any single type. He has an ambiguous position in society, and
his lack of status is underlined by the fact that "Heathcliff" is both his given name and
his surname.
Catherine Earnshaw: First introduced to the reader after her death, through
Lockwood's discovery of her diary and carvings. The description of her life is
confined almost entirely to the first volume. She seems unsure whether she is, or

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wants to become, more like Heathcliff, or aspires to be more like Edgar. Some critics
have argued that her decision to marry Edgar Linton is allegorically a rejection of
nature and a surrender to culture, a choice with unfortunate, fateful consequences for
all the other characters.
Edgar Linton: Introduced as a child in the Linton family, he resides at
Thrushcross Grange. Edgar's style and manners are in sharp contrast to those of
Heathcliff, who instantly dislikes him, and of Catherine, who is drawn to him.
Catherine marries him instead of Heathcliff because of his higher social status, with
disastrous results to all characters in the story.
Nelly Dean: The main narrator of the novel, Nelly is a servant to three
generations of the Earnshaws and two of the Linton family. Humbly born, she regards
herself nevertheless as Hindley's foster-sister (they are the same age and her mother is
his nurse). She lives and works among the rough inhabitants of Wuthering Heights but
is well-read, and she also experiences the more genteel manners of Thrushcross
Grange. She is referred to as Ellen, her given name, to show respect, and as Nelly
among those close to her. Critics have discussed how far her actions as an apparent
bystander affect the other characters and how much her narrative can be relied on.
Isabella Linton: Is seen only in relation to other characters. She views Heathcliff
romantically, despite Catherine's warnings, and becomes an unwitting participant in
his plot for revenge against Edgar. Heathcliff marries her but treats her abusively.
While pregnant, she escapes to London and gives birth to a son, Linton.
Hindley Earnshaw: Catherine's elder brother, Hindley, despises Heathcliff
immediately and bullies him throughout their childhood before his father sends him
away to college. Hindley returns with his wife, Frances, after Mr Earnshaw dies. He is
more mature, but his hatred of Heathcliff remains the same. After Frances's death,
Hindley reverts to destructive behaviour and ruins the Earnshaw family by drinking
and gambling to excess. Heathcliff beats Hindley up at one point after Hindley fails in
his attempt to kill Heathcliff with a pistol.
Hareton Earnshaw: The son of Hindley and Frances, raised at first by Nelly but
soon by Heathcliff. Joseph works to instill a sense of pride in the Earnshaw heritage
(even though Hareton will not inherit Earnshaw property, because Hindley has
mortgaged it to Heathcliff). Heathcliff, in contrast, teaches him vulgarities as a way of
avenging himself on Hindley. Hareton speaks with an accent similar to Joseph's, and
occupies a position similar to that of a servant at Wuthering Heights, unaware that he
has been done out of his inheritance. In appearance, he reminds Heathcliff of his aunt,
Catherine.
Cathy Linton: The daughter of Catherine and Edgar, a spirited and strong-willed
girl unaware of her parents' history. Edgar is very protective of her and as a result she
is eager to discover what lies beyond the confines of the Grange. Although one of the
more sympathetic characters of the novel, she is also somewhat snobbish towards
Hareton and his lack of education.
Linton Heathcliff: The son of Heathcliff and Isabella. A weak child, his early
years are spent with his mother in the south of England. He learns of his father's
identity and existence only after his mother dies, when he is twelve. In his selfishness
and capacity for cruelty he resembles Heathcliff; physically, he resembles his mother.
He marries Cathy Linton because his father, who terrifies him, directs him to do so,
and soon after he dies from a wasting illness associated with tuberculosis.
Joseph: A servant at Wuthering Heights for 60 years who is a rigid, self-righteous
Christian but lacks any trace of genuine kindness or humanity. He speaks a broad
Yorkshire dialect and hates nearly everyone in the novel. Mr Lockwood: The first

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narrator, he rents Thrushcross Grange to escape society, but in the end decides society
is preferable. He narrates the book until Chapter 4, when the main narrator, Nelly,
picks up the tale.
Frances: Hindley's ailing wife and mother of Hareton Earnshaw. She is described
as somewhat silly and is obviously from a humble family.
Mr and Mrs Earnshaw: Catherine's and Hindley's father, Mr Earnshaw is the
master of Wuthering Heights at the beginning of Nelly's story and is described as an
irascible but loving and kind-hearted man. He favours his adopted son, Heathcliff,
which causes trouble in the family. In contrast, his wife mistrusts Heathcliff from their
first encounter.
Mr and Mrs Linton: Edgar's and Isabella's parents, they educate their children in
a well-behaved and sophisticated way. Mr Linton also serves as the magistrate of
Gimmerton, as his son does in later years.
Dr Kenneth: The longtime doctor of Gimmerton and a friend of Hindley's who is
present at the cases of illness during the novel. Although not much of his character is
known, he seems to be a rough but honest person.
Zillah: A servant to Heathcliff at Wuthering Heights during the period following
Catherine's death. Although she is kind to Lockwood, she doesn't like or help Cathy at
Wuthering Heights because of Cathy's arrogance and Heathcliff's instructions.
Mr Green: Edgar's corruptible lawyer who should have changed Edgar's will to
prevent Heathcliff from gaining Thrushcross Grange. Instead, Green changes sides
and helps Heathcliff to inherit Grange as his property.

Wuthering Heights as a Gothic Novel

Wuthering Heights, the romantic and passionate love story between the barbarous
and uncomfortable Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw. The story is told through the
narrator Mr Lockwood, a visitor to Wuthering Heights who is told the fascinating tale
by Nelly Dean, the servant. Her tale revolves around the orphan Heathcliff, Catherine
Earnshaw and her descendants, and the Linton relatives. Heathcliff was a enthusiastic
gypsy child adopted by the Earnshaw family. He loves Catherine Earnshaw. She loves
him, but she doesn't get married to him but she chooses for Edgar Linton, who has
property and status. Heathcliff elopes with Isabella, Edgar's sister. Heathcliff becomes
a rich and respected man. He could take over the Earnshaw family home and the
Linton family home. Heathcliff loves Catherine throughout the story, in spite of he is
led to inflict revenge as he cannot own her. He is buried next to her when he dies.
Bronte describes natural forces and events vividly while narrating the plot by means
of Nelly Dean and Lockwood in order to display the connection between the inner and

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outer natural world in the Wuthering Heights.Virginia Woolf comments on Wuthering
Heights, and considers that Brontë wants “to say something towards of her characters
which are not only ‘I love’ or ‘I hate,’ but ‘we, the whole human race’ and ‘you, the
eternal powers.’”76 Using the extreme and sometimes contemptible behavior of the
difference among characters that Brontë is able to convey significant lessons about the
world and universe as a whole, rather than just the lives of the characters themselves.
Barbara Benedict explained Brontë herself in her role as a female author is an object
of curiosity, yet she becomes even more of a curiosity in her brilliant ability to create
a completely unique reality. Woolf describes Brontë as almost possessing magical
powers . The novel is filled with boorish, antagonistic characters that endlessly betray,
mistreat and enact violence and revenge upon each other. The characters do not
conform to any recognizable set of social values or follow any conventional moral
code. However, despite the uncivilized characters and the ambiguous morality of the
novel, Wuthering Heights was exceedingly popular in its time, and has continued to
be regarded in high esteem over the years. While the novel is much loved and
consistently praised for its beautiful poetic writing style, Wuthering Heights raises
countless questions and lends itself to numerous interpretations. Within its
unconventional framework, Wuthering Heights deals with timeless themes; obsessive
love, the thirst for revenge, and the precariousness of social classes. Interwoven with
ghostly appearances and references to demons and other supernatural elements,
Wuthering Heights is an e ample of othic fiction, although in many ways Brontë brea
s the mold of the genre. By snubbing convention in numerous ways, Wuthering
Heights is a curious novel which has attracted curious readers for many generations.

THE HORROR ELEMENT IN WUTHERING HEIGHTS

Gothic narrative novel involves the concepts of paranoia, the barbaric, and the
taboo.! Gothic fiction invariably involves a theme of persecution, often ambiguously
rendered, with the victim of persecution being transformed into a persecutor, or vice
versa.An undercurrent of insanity is a staple of any Gothic plot, with ambition or
vengeance driving at least one character to the brink of madness. "Terror made me
cruel ,Be with me always - take any form - drive me mad! only do not leave me in this
abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! it is unutterable! I can not live without my
life! I can not live without my soul!" Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights,The Gothic
novel characteristically includes a story of the supernatural, the melodramatic or the
macabre. It was a fashionable form of writing in the late eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries. Some of the characteristic features and conventions of the
Gothic are listed in the box below often set in a sinister place such as a castle or
ruined building, preferably with underground passages, labyrinths and dungeons. The
supernatural element of the story might result from a curse or omen.David Daiches
supports this point of view and expresses that “the homely and familiar and the wild
and e travagant go together” in Emily Bronte’s novel. This emphasizes that while
exploring the environment, Bronte also remarks the coexistence of passion to protest
the dominance of nature over human psychology. "It is as if she could tear up all that
we know human beings by, and fill these unrecognizable transparences with such a
gust of life that they transcend reality. Hers, then, is the rarest of all power.” The
supernatural may take the form of ghosts, nightmares or animation of previously
inanimate objects. The hero is generally passion-driven, violent and melancholic
when Catherine says in the following quotation. "I have not broken your heart - you
have broken it; and in breaking it, you have broken mine".Arnold Kettle explains the
deviation into vengefulness “Heathcliff becomes a monster: what he does to Isabella,

8
to Hareton, to Cathy, to his son,even to wretched Hindley, is cruel and inhuman
beyond normal thought. He seems to achieve new refinements of horror, new depths
of degradation.” the gothic consistently approached the supernatural as if it can be
described or observed in the mode of formal realism. By novelizing the supernatural,
the monstrous and the unspeakable, the gothic attempts to inscribe the passions of fear
and terror.

DEATH AND DESTRUCTION OF LIVES

In 'Wuthering Heights' by Emily Bronte, the characters find destiny and death
most of time , which causes s in a kind of intrigue with doom that colours the novel.
In this lesson, we figure out at death in 'Wuthering Heights. 'Demise is all revolves
around Wuthering Heights! Things start to descending for the residents of Wuthering
Heights when Mr. and Mrs. Earnshaw die leaving siblings to take care oneself and
themselves. In addition to mourning, the children have to learn about love in a
loveless and harsh environment. Bettina L. Knapp indicates since myths live outside
temporal time, novel’s universality and timelessness stem from characters’ archetypal
depths in this mysterious setting. This emphasizes that Wuthering Heights has become
a myth through Emily Bronte’s Puritanical cultural and literary canon. Moreover, the
use of setting and nature imagery in Wuthering Heights helps to assess how human
beings are affected by the environment and are in a struggle to oppose natural impact
through their inner worlds. This implies that some characters, especially Heathcliff
and Catherine, intend to suppress the strength of the natural landscape by their
passion. The novel is curious in its convoluted narrative-within-a-narrative format, its
embodiment of the Gothic genre, and its lack of concern with social conventions, but
it also contains curiosities in the form of supernatural phenomena, the portrayal of the
female, and the character of Heathcliff. Curiosity in English culture, according to
Barbara M. Benedict, can be defined as “the mar of a threatening ambition, an
ambition that takes the form of a perceptible violation of species and categories: an
ontological transgression that is registered empirically. There is no doubt that
Earnshaw ,her father's death influenced Catherine. Not only she have to deal with
mourning the loss of her father, but Catherine and Heathcliff are left in the care of her
abusive brother, Hindley. In addition, Catherine's sister-in-law, Frances, dies in
childbirth and Edgar's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Linton, die from an illness Catherine
gave them as they were caring for her in their home. Wuthering Heights itself is
exploring by a curious inclination. Mr. Lockwood, a person entering the world of
Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, is seeing after his first faced with
Heathcliff and has a voracious urge to find out the history of the strange web of
characters. Lockwood questions Nelly Dean, the longstanding house eeper of
Wuthering Heights, “hoping sincerely she would prove a regular gossip.” Indeed,
Nelly Dean does prove to be a gossip. The curious Loc wood gets a perverse ind of
thrill out of Nelly’s stories, saying “I was e cited, almost to a pitch of foolishness,
through my nerves and my brain.”Nelly also seems to gain a sense of pleasure out of
gossip and begins her narrative, “waiting no further invitation to her story.” While
Catherine is forward to her marriage offering to Edgar, Catherine tells Nelly, her
housekeeper about a dream that she has had her death. ''I was only going to say that
heaven did not seem to be my home; and I broke my heart with weeping to come back
to earth; and the angels were so angry that they flung me out into the middle of the
heath on the top of Wuthering Heights; where I woke sobbing for joy.'' It looks odd
and strange that Catherine would contemplate death what should be a happy and
enjoyable time in her living, but her dream provides two goals. Firstly, it is a

9
metaphor for how Catherine feels about leaving Wuthering Heights. Secondly, it
threatens, warns of, Catherine's life after death. Page Catherine's Death chooses
Edgar, it prompts Heathcliff to run away from Wuthering Heights. When he returns
and begins courting Edgar's sister, Isabella, Edgar refuses to allow him back at
Thrushcross Grange. As a result, Catherine stops eating and ends up going mad. When
Heathcliff realizes the condition Catherine is in, he is angry with her for killing them
both by betraying her heart and marrying Edgar. Heathcliff says, ''Do I want to live?
What kind of living will it be when you - oh, God! would you like to live with your
soul in the grave?''For Heathcliff, living without Catherine is a fate worse than death.
He actually feels like a part of him dies with her and begs her to haunt him rather than
to leave him .Heathcliff has miserable stupidity of his character, child, and nothing
else, which ma es that dream enter your head. Pray, don’t imagine that he conceals
depths of benevolence and affection beneath a stern e terior! He’s not a rough
diamond - a pearl-containing oyster of a rustic: he’s a fierce, pitiless, wolfish man. I
never say to him, “Let this or that enemy alone, because it would be ungenerous or
cruel to harm them;” I say, “Let them alone, because I should hate them to be
wronged:” and he’d crush you li e a sparrow’s egg, Isabella, if he found you a
troublesome charge. I now he couldn’t love a Linton; [. . .] There’s my picture: and
I’m his friend" The Death of Mr Earnshaw ,at of time Mr. Earnshaw began to fail. He
had been active and healthy, yet his strength left him suddenly; and when he was
confined to the chimney-corner he grew grievously irritable. A nothing vexed him;
and suspected slights of his authority nearly threw him into fits. This was especially to
be remarked if any one attempted to impose upon, or domineer over, his favourite: he
was painfully jealous lest a word should be spoken amiss to him; seeming to have got
into his head the notion that, because he liked Heathcliff, all hated, and longed to do
him an ill-turn. This emphasizes that “they are said to be not merely human beings,
with recognizably human needs, capabilities and failings, but the embodiment of the
special ‘forces,’ ‘energies,’ or ‘principles’.” They reflect their dangerous and
revengeful side through their passion. To compare between Catherine and natural
events in some cases, the winds on Wuthering Heights devastate the harmony of
nature and Catherine destroys the cosmic unity through her marriage to Linton instead
of Heathcliff. Actually, Catherine’s conflicting emotions toward Heathcliff and Linton
are reflected as a response to the destructive changing natural elements. Hagan
expounds this frustration:

THE ROMANTIC ELEMENT IN WUTHERING HEIGHTS

"He's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are
the same". First of all , we could fully understand the characteristics of romantic
literature in 18th Century England through Wuthering Heights.Actually, the
Romanticism believed that man, as an individual, is superior, so romantic novels
really probe deeply inside characters. You can see this most obviously with Heathcliff
and his rage and jealous, and also in Catherine, with her need to conform to social
standards and her willful stubbornness. If all else perished and he remained, I could
still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe
would turn to a mighty stranger. [. . .] My love for Linton is like the foliage in the
woods. [. . .] My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of
little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I am Heathcliff. [. . .] not as a pleasure. [. . .]
but as my own being. Emily emphasizes the natural quality of her emotions by
enriching her feelings for Heathcliff and Edgar by means of natural imagery.
Moreover, Catherine indicates that she is the other self of Heathcliff; Heathcliff and

10
Catherine’s identities are intertwined. This is the reason why she enriches her feelings
for Heathcliff."In the evening, the weather broke; the wind shifted from south to
north-east and brought rain first and then sleet, and snow. On the morrow, one could
hardly imagine that there had been three weeks of summer: the primroses and
crocuses were hidden under wintry drifts; the larks were silent, the young leaves of
the early trees smitten and blackened". Similar to nature’s beautiful descriptions in
Wuthering Heights, Catherine is depicted as a beautiful person in a way responding to
the beauty of nature. Landscape descriptions in Wuthering Heights become much
clearer when "I have just returned from a visit to my landlord in 1801 the solitary
neighbour that I shall be troubled with. This is certainly a beautiful country! In all
England, I do not believe that I could have fixed on a situation so completely removed
from the stir of society. A perfect misanthropist’s heaven: and Mr. Heathcliff and I are
such a suitable pair to divide the desolation between us" .“It is as if she could tear up
all that we now human beings by, and fill these unrecognizable transparences with
such a gust of life that they transcend reality. Hers, then, is the rarest of all power.”
What vain weather-cocks we are! I, who had determined to hold myself independent
of all social intercourse, and thanked my stars that, at length, I had lighted on a spot
where it was next to impracticable, I, weak wretch, after maintaining till dusk a
struggle with low spirits, and solitude, was finally compelled to strike my colours;
and, under pretence of gaining information concerning the necessities of
establishment". The fictional and romantic characters of Thrushcross Grange and
Wuthering Heights are also in conflict with their environment in Wuthering Heights:
“the gentle, moral Edgar Linton of the range contrasts with the malevolent and
magnetic Heathcliff” While Wuthering Heights represents nature involving rivers,
trees, rocks, leaves, air, and wind, Thrushcross Grange stands for the modern world of
money, greed, and technology. Such a contrast ends up a rivalry in most cases and
relatively signifies that characters overcome nature’s dominance through dealing with
the other problems in their lives and through being indifferent towards it. The
existence of a dualistic structure in their lives implies the endless developing conflicts
in these families. Unlike Wuthering Heights, Thrushcross Grange which is situated on
a valley is elegant and comfortable and carries none of the grim features of the hills. It
is “a splendid place carpeted with crimson, and crimson covered chairs and tables.
While stressing the relation between the beauty and that of nature, Catherine is
depicted as part of the natural habitat she lives in. However, she becomes much more
powerful than nature in respect to her passion. Catherine’s consistency in her passion,
ambition, and coolness is reflected by most critics and, thus, they support how
Catherine contradicts with nature. Like most critics Phyllis Bentley, a very early critic
who manifests the consistency in the outloo towards Bronte’s masterpiece. Her
powerful reason would have deduced new spheres of discovery from the knowledge
of the old; and her strong imperious will would never have been daunted by
opposition or difficulty; never have given way but with life.”The role of the younger
Cathy, for example, becomes elevated to new prominence in this reading. If Heathcliff
is the tyrannical monster enslaving the kingdom, it is Cathy who "slays the beast," so
to speak. It is her love for Hareton that can be argued to have broken Heathcliff's
spirit, and it is she who educates him and prepares him for his new role. At the end of
the novel, when Nelly narrates Lockwood about the death of Heathcliff and Catherine,
she describes their fearlessness. they reflect their contradictory evaluations of each
other. Being assessed as a non- human supernatural being, Heathcliff is noted as
powerful and wild, --even more powerful than nature because of his passion to have
dominance over it. Catherine Earnshaw, on the other hand, embodies the

11
characteristics of both Heathcliff and Edgar. Besides, doubts begin to appear as to
whether Heathcliff is human at all and people around him become the victim of his
inhumanity. Heathcliff is depicted as wilder than nature in his natural peculiarities.
Outlying hills have basically been portrayed as wild and fearful as well as mystic in
its nature. However, Heathcliff has been described as much wilder in his inner nature
in Wuthering Heights: “His mouth watered to tear you with his teeth, because he is
only half man—not so much and the—and the rest fiend!”Catherine and Heathcliff’s
controversial love, thereby, becomes an immortal and universal love continuing on the
moors which cannot be ended by death. This continuity reflects the power of their
love. Heathcliff and Catherine’s union is completed after death and becomes timeless
as well as universal such as the natural forces of Wuthering Heights. This indicates
that they respond to natural atmosphere by their eternal love to each other. However,
their own passion which is more powerful than the hills also destroys their love.
Heathcliff reflects how he is worried about losing Catherine V.

CONCLUSION
Emily's novel includes the relationship between Nature and humanity; and
between Romance and horror; ways in which the soul might survive after death;
personal betrayal and injustice; the imagination; separation and loss. Such themes
must have been in her mind as she thought about the new novel. In Wuthering Heights
she had learned the value of tight arranged in order of occurrence dominance ; it
seems likely that this time she would want to start with a project , but this may be
deceptive , since it is actually in the writing that Emily finds out her narrative novel.
Emily Bronte achieved her artistic success through a combination of inspiration and
hard work: this is not a startling conclusion. Gothic romances were mysteries, often
involving the supernatural and heavily tinged with horror, and romance they were
usually set against dark backgrounds of medieval ruins and haunted castles.
Wuthering Heights, published in 1847, revolves around the passionate and destructive
love between its two central characters, Edgar, and Heathcliff .Emily Bronte's
headstrong and beautiful Catherine Earnshaw and her tall, dark, handsome, and
brooding hero/devil, Heathcliff. The Novel revolves around the family of the
Earnshaws, owners of the called ‘Wuthering Heights’, where the defeniftly hedgehog,
Heathcliff, is brought by the father of the foundling who has found him deserted in
Liverpool, and who describes him ‘as dar almost as if it came from the devil’ for
‘when Mr. Earnshaw first brings the kid home,Heathcliff and Hindley. Both boys,
indeed, hate each other with a passion partly born of ‘sibling rivalry’, even though
they are not blood relatives (at least such is not openly stated even if critics have
inferred more than an act of man ind in Mr. Earnshaw’s rescuing the boy and his
wife’s attendant hostility. When Earnshaw dies, Hindley wastes time in correcting the
unlawful takeover of control from which he thinks he has got sorrow by recognizing
Heathcliff to the level of a servant. Although, Cathy and Heathcliff have formed a
pledged which nothing will ever cease , even Cathy’s marriage to the wealthy Edgar
Linton.

The Significance of Names in Wuthering Heights

The mastermind behind Wuthering HeightsNames of People

The names of key players in the novel provide clues

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Before passing the threshold... I detected the date ‘1500’, and the name ‘Hareton
Earnshaw’.
— Mr. Lockwood
Hareton
Foreshadowing
What is truly interesting is that at the very start of the novel, the name Hareton
Earnshaw is seen over the door into Wuthering Heights. This isn't random but is there
for an important reason. It establishes that Wuthering Heights has been in the
Earnshaw family for some time. At the very end of the novel, Hindley's son Hareton
Earnshaw becomes owner of Wuthering Heights.
This is fitting. Heathcliff has taken his vengeance on his enemies, so justice has been
served. He dies and is finally with his love, Catherine, eternally, so his torment and
anguish are resolved. Now it's time that peace finally comes to Wuthering Heights in
the form of the next generation and that Hareton receives his birthright.
Clue:
If we look at the name itself, it sounds uncannily like "heir" and indeed,
Heathcliff is said by Nelly Dean to have cheated Hareton out of his birthright by
becoming master at Wuthering Heights. In the end, Hareton becomes the heir to the
property that has long been in his family.

Heathcliff and Catherine

Heathcliff
There is so much in the name Heathcliff. Not only does it speak to location but to
parentage and even to passion.
Meaning
The British meaning of the name Heathcliff means literally heath near a cliff.
Clues:
Place
The name is also suggestive that this is where this child came from (much closer to
home and not in far-off Liverpool).
Parentage
Mr. Earnshaw lost a son in death by the name of Heathcliff and when he brings a
strange child home, he chooses to give him this same name, which has led to
speculation that the boy was really his own child (and there are other clues that
support this idea).
Passion
As touched on, the name conjures an area near cliffs and subtly reminds readers
of Penistone Crags, a rocky cliff-like outcropping near to Wuthering Heights and a
romantic spot Heathcliff and Catherine went to, to be alone together.
More:

13
Characterization
While the name perfectly captures the haunted, wild, untameable, unforgiving
landscape, it also perfectly characterizes Heathcliff's persona.
Repetition of the Name
The name crops up a number of times in the novel: the deceased son, the
foundling treated as a son, and as the last name for Heathcliff's only son (Linton
Heathcliff)). It is also seen in Catherine's daughter, Cathy Linton, who also gains the
names Heathcliff and Earnshaw. She's a Linton from Thrushcross Grange, marries
Linton Heathcliff (Heathcliff's son who is from Wuthering Heights), then marries
Hareton Earnshaw (Her uncle Hindley's son and her cousin who is also from
Wuthering Heights). Her alliances with Heathcliff's son and with her cousin, connects
the two houses, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange.
Catherine Earnshaw
Double Use
Catherine leaves Wuthering Heights to marry Edgar Linton and they have one
child, Cathy, who marries and ends up living at Wuthering Heights.
Earnshaws
Clues:
The Earnshaws had to "earn" their money and work hard at farming to retain their
holdings. While they appear to have been reasonably well off, they certainly were not
as well-to-do as the Lintons.
In adulthood, both Catherine and her brother Hindley display a desire for wealth.
Catherine earns it by going against her heart and her love for intense and passionate
Heathcliff and marrying vanilla and bland Edgar.
Hindley seeks money from Heathcliff and earns it by having to swallow his pride
and allowing Heathcliff to stay at the Heights in Catherine's old room, even though
Hindley still hates Heathcliff and wishes him dead.
Meaning
The latter syllable of the name, "shaw" is interesting too. The British meaning
being, the tops and stalks of a cultivated crop. Perfectly in tune with Wuthering
Heights being owned by farmers.
Linton
Clue:
When we look at the name Linton, the first syllable is "lint." Now what does lint do?
It sticks to a garment. Edgar Linton, the neighbor from Thrushcross Grange, is like
lint that is attached to Catherine. Edgar is unswerving in his pursuit of Catherine. The
inevitable happens and Catherine marries Linton instead of Heathcliff, but while
Linton is attached to Catherine externally, readers know that Heathcliff has her
inwardly.

Reoccurring Use
When Heathcliff, in revenge, marries Edgar's sister, Isabella Linton, their only
son is named Linton Heathcliff, which also shows the connection between the two
houses.
Being unable to remove the chain, I jumped over, and, running up the flagged
causeway... knocked vainly for admittance, till my knuckles tingled and the dogs
howled. ‘Wretched inmates!’ I ejaculated, mentally, ‘you deserve perpetual isolation
from your species for your churlish inhospitality. At least, I would not keep my doors
barred in the day-time.
— Mr. Lockwood

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Lockwood (Heathcliff's Tenant Who Rents the Grange)
Clues:
It can be no accident that Bronte chose this name for Heathcliff's tenant, and
indeed, when Mr. Lockwood tries to visit Wuthering Heights, he is locked out by a
gate, and is locked out in other ways: he is given a chilly reception by Heathcliff,
Joseph and the inmates, he is out of his element, he is attacked by the dogs.
On his second visit, he faces a locked door and in spite of his pounding and
hollering, no one will open to him. Later, infuriated at his treatment, when he tries to
leave, he is not only pinned to the ground by the dogs but effectively forced to stay by
a snow storm.
When he has to spend the night, he has to sleep in a wooden paneled bed that is
closed and confining and he is besieged with nightmares and haunted by Catherine's
ghost who seizes his hand and won't let go.
When he tries to return home the next day, he sinks up to his neck in snow, so he
is trapped again.
Characterization
Detached and out of touch with reality
Lockwood is emotionally and psychologically locked and may in fact be a
sociopath. He craves acknowledgement and ego strokes and goes out of his way to
seek out those who do not notice him or pander to his vanity and yet he rejects those
who finally show interest in him (bait and switch), so he is trapped in his own strange
psychological prison, where he leads a vacant, loveless existence, on the fringes of
life but never truly part of anything.
An extremely interesting example of Lockwood's being so locked in his
perception is seen right at the end of the novel. Readers will remember how terrified
Lockwood was when haunted by Catherine's ghost and how in the last chapter he is
resentful that Cathy and Hareton seem fearless: "Together, they would brave Satan
and all his legions." So on the one hand, when something affects Lockwood
personally, he notices and acknowledges it.
On the other hand... he is fully acquainted with the tortured history of the Heights
and Nelly has just recounted that others (Joseph, country folks, church folk, and a lad
have seen Heathcliff's and Catherine's ghosts), plus she has just related that Hareton
placed sods over Heathcliff's grave so that it matched the others and was as smooth
and verdant (green) as its companion mounds but... because none of this affects
Lockwood personally, what absolutely detached and oblivious conclusion does he
come to?
He seeks and discovers the three mounds and he sees that Catherine's grave is
only half buried and Heathcliff's grave is bare (it's obviously been disturbed by
something), and Lockwood in his typical fashion wonders how anyone could ever
imagine "unquiet" slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth.

Why Name Repetition?

The repetition of the names of the key characters in the novel in subsequent
generations: Hareton, Heathcliff, Cathy, and Linton, shines a spotlight on who is
important to the story.
Full Circle
 Heathcliff and Catherine are buried together in the Kirkyard on a slope close
to the moors and are finally together eternally.

15
 Hareton inherits Wuthering Heights. And he marries his cousin Cathy. So the
two Earnshaw children, Hindley and Catherine each have a child and their offspring
end up together at Wuthering Heights.

Names of Locations

Key locations have evocative and suggestive names.

A key location in the novel and the inspiration for Penistone Crags.
Penistone Crags
Perhaps no other spot mentioned in Wuthering Heights captures our imaginations
as much as Penistone Crags, appealing to the romantic in all of us.
Who of us hasn't pictured it as the premium romantic spot for Catherine and
Heathcliff? As children, they go there to escape Hindley; as they get older and the
love and attraction between them grows, it becomes a place for them to be alone
together. Movie versions show them embracing and sharing intensely romantic
moments at the base of Penistone Crags.
The likely inspiration for Penistone Crags is an actual place called Ponden Kirk.
It is an outcropping of gritstone rock and is about one kilometer north of Top Withens.
The Kirk has an opening in its base, which corresponds to the Fairy Cave in the book.
Local legends claim that women who pass through the opening will marry within
a year.

Double Entendre?
When we look closer at this name it has sexual undertones. One only has to
loosely separate the syllables: penis tone or form two words, "penis" and "stone" to
picture "rock hard" passion in Heathcliff.
Now, let's take the ball and run with this a bit further. When we think of the name
Heathcliff, we think of a heath area near a cliff. Penistone Crags was a cliff-like area,
rising out of the moors. It seems obvious that Penistone Crags was suggestive of
Heathcliff's passion and it was the key spot for a liaison.
We know that Catherine and Heathcliff went there when they wanted to be alone
together. Whether or not they consummated their love there is open to debate but there
is likely not a reader alive who hasn't thought that if those two made love, Penistone
Crags would have been the place.

The Fairy Cave

16
Double Entendre
If Penistone Crags puts us in mind as to Heathcliff's state of arousal and as being
the premier "make-out spot" for the two lovers, there is another name that is part of
this picture.
The Fairy Cave is part of Penistone Crags. It was an explorable opening at the
bottom of the Crags.

Symbolism
The Fairy Cave amply portrays the female, Catherine, and her particular physical
attributes.
Because the Fairy Cave is part of the Crags, this is suggestive of union between
Heathcliff and Catherine.
The whole structure, Crags and Fairy Cave, could also symbolize that Heathcliff and
Catherine were made of the same material and were forever joined, both from a
genetic standpoint (if he was her half-brother) and from a soul mate one.
Catherine famously said, "Nelly, I am Heathcliff."
Heathcliff said of Catherine, "I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my
soul!"

Location Believed to be the Setting for the Wuthering Heights Farm Owned by
the Earnshaws

Wuthering Heights
Wuthering is an actual word and means tempestuous, stormy, which perfectly
describes the wild, windswept chilly location of the Heights farmhouse at the top of
the moors and also characterizes most of the inhabitants. The place seems cursed.
Thrushcross Grange
Thrushcross Grange is in Thrushcross Park, a lush green sheltered location at a
lower altitude than the Heights.
Meaning
When the words of Thrushcross Grange are looked at, a picture emerges of a
bird-filled country residence of someone wealthy. This name perfectly depicts the
Linton's station in life.
 Thrush: one meaning is: any of numerous migratory songbirds.
 Cross: While this word has a number of meanings, it can denote a crossing
from one place to another (which is exactly what Catherine did when she left

17
Wuthering Heights to move to Thrushcross Grange). A cross can also mean a trial or
affliction and certainly Thrushcross Grange was that for Heathcliff.
 Grange: residence or country house and various outbuildings of a gentleman
farmer.
Symbols
Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors used to represent abstract ideas
or concepts.
Moors
The constant emphasis on landscape within the text of Wuthering Heights endows the
setting with symbolic importance. This landscape is comprised primarily of moors:
wide, wild expanses, high but somewhat soggy, and thus infertile. Moorland cannot be
cultivated, and its uniformity makes navigation difficult. It features particularly
waterlogged patches in which people could potentially drown. (This possibility is
mentioned several times in Wuthering Heights.) Thus, the moors serve very well as
symbols of the wild threat posed by nature. As the setting for the beginnings of
Catherine and Heathcliff’s bond (the two play on the moors during childhood), the
moorland transfers its symbolic associations onto the love affair.

Ghosts
Ghosts appear throughout Wuthering Heights, as they do in most other works of
Gothic fiction, yet Brontë always presents them in such a way that whether they really
exist remains ambiguous. Thus the world of the novel can always be interpreted as a
realistic one. Certain ghosts—such as Catherine’s spirit when it appears to Lockwood
in Chapter III—may be explained as nightmares. The villagers’ alleged sightings of
Heathcliff’s ghost in Chapter XXXIV could be dismissed as unverified superstition.
Whether or not the ghosts are “real,” they symbolize the manifestation of the past
within the present, and the way memory stays with people, permeating their day-to-
day lives.

Motifs
Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to
develop and inform the text’s major themes.
Doubles
Brontë organizes her novel by arranging its elements—characters, places, and themes
—into pairs. Catherine and Heathcliff are closely matched in many ways, and see
themselves as identical. Catherine’s character is divided into two warring sides: the
side that wants Edgar and the side that wants Heathcliff. Catherine and young
Catherine are both remarkably similar and strikingly different. The two houses,
Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, represent opposing worlds and values.
The novel has not one but two distinctly different narrators, Nelly and Mr. Lockwood.
The relation between such paired elements is usually quite complicated, with the
members of each pair being neither exactly alike nor diametrically opposed. For
instance, the Lintons and the Earnshaws may at first seem to represent opposing sets
of values, but, by the end of the novel, so many intermarriages have taken place that
one can no longer distinguish between the two families.

Repetition
Repetition is another tactic Brontë employs in organizing Wuthering Heights. It seems
that nothing ever ends in the world of this novel. Instead, time seems to run in cycles,
and the horrors of the past repeat themselves in the present. The way that the names of

18
the characters are recycled, so that the names of the characters of the younger
generation seem only to be rescramblings of the names of their parents, leads the
reader to consider how plot elements also repeat themselves. For instance,
Heathcliff’s degradation of Hareton repeats Hindley’s degradation of Heathcliff. Also,
the young Catherine’s mockery of Joseph’s earnest evangelical zealousness repeats
her mother’s. Even Heathcliff’s second try at opening Catherine’s grave repeats his
first.
The Conflict Between Nature and Culture
In Wuthering Heights, Brontë constantly plays nature and culture against each other.
Nature is represented by the Earnshaw family, and by Catherine and Heathcliff in
particular. These characters are governed by their passions, not by reflection or ideals
of civility. Correspondingly, the house where they live—Wuthering Heights—comes
to symbolize a similar wildness. On the other hand, Thrushcross Grange and the
Linton family represent culture, refinement, convention, and cultivation.
When, in Chapter VI, Catherine is bitten by the Lintons’ dog and brought into
Thrushcross Grange, the two sides are brought onto the collision course that structures
the majority of the novel’s plot. At the time of that first meeting between the Linton
and Earnshaw households, chaos has already begun to erupt at Wuthering Heights,
where Hindley’s cruelty and injustice reign, whereas all seems to be fine and peaceful
at Thrushcross Grange. However, the influence of Wuthering Heights soon proves
overpowering, and the inhabitants of Thrushcross Grange are drawn into Catherine,
Hindley, and Heathcliff’s drama. Thus the reader almost may interpret Wuthering
Heights’s impact on the Linton family as an allegory for the corruption of culture by
nature, creating a curious reversal of the more traditional story of the corruption of
nature by culture. However, Brontë tells her story in such a way as to prevent our
interest and sympathy from straying too far from the wilder characters, and often
portrays the more civilized characters as despicably weak and silly. This method of
characterization prevents the novel from flattening out into a simple privileging of
culture over nature, or vice versa. Thus in the end the reader must acknowledge that
the novel is no mere allegory.

Themes in Wuthering Heights

The concept that almost every reader of Wuthering Heights focuses on is the
passion-love of Catherine and Heathcliff, often to the exclusion of every other theme–
this despite the fact that other kinds of love are presented and that Catherinedies half
way through the novel. The loves of the second generation, the love of Frances and
Hindley, and the"susceptible heart" of Lockwood receive scant attention from such
readers. But is love the central issue in this novel? Isits motive force perhaps
economic? The desire for wealth does motivate Catherine's marriage, which results in
Heathcliff's flight and causes him to acquire Wuthering Heights, to appropriate
Thrushcross Grange, and to dispossess Hareton. Is it possible that one of the other
themes constitutes the center of the novel, or are the other themes secondary to the
theme of love? Consider the following themes:

Clash of elemental forces.

The universe is made up of two opposite forces, storm and calm. Wuthering
Heights and the Earnshaws express thestorm; Thrushcross Grange and the Lintons,
the calm. Catherine and Heathcliff are elemental creatures of the storm.This theme is
discussed more fully in Later Critical response to Wuthering Heights.

19
 
The clash of economic interests and social classes.
The novel is set at a time when capitalism and industrialization are changing not
only the economy but also thetraditional social structure and the relationship of the
classes. The yeoman or respectable farming class (Hareton) wasbeing destroyed by
the economic alliance of the newly-wealthy capitalists (Heathcliff) and the traditional
power-holding gentry (the Lintons). This theme is discussed more fully in Wuthering 
Heights as Socio-Economic Novel.

The striving for transcendence.

It is not just love that Catherine and Heathcliff seek but a higher, spiritual
existence which is permanent and unchanging, as Catherine makes clear when she
compares her love for Linton to the seasons and her love for Heathcliff to the rocks.
The dying Catherine looks forward to achieving this state through death. This theme
is discussed more fully in Religion, Metaphysics, and Mysticism.

The abusive patriarch and patriarchal family.

The male heads of household abuse females and males who are weak or
powerless. This can be seen in their use of various kinds of imprisonment or
confinement, which takes social, emotional, financial, legal, and physical forms.
Mr.Earnshaw expects Catherine to behave properly and hurtfully rejects her "bad-girl"
behavior. Edgar's ultimatum that Catherine must make a final choice between him or
Heathcliff restricts Catherine's identity by forcing her to reject an essential part of her
nature; with loving selfishness Edgar confines his daughter Cathy to the boundaries of
Thrushcross Grange. A vindictive Hindley strips Heathcliff of his position in the
family, thereby trapping him in a degraded laboring position. Heathcliff literally
incarcerates Isabella (as her husband and legal overseer), and later he imprisons both
Cathyand Nellie; also, Cathy is isolated from the rest of the household after her
marriage to Linton.

Study of childhood and the family.

The hostility toward and the abuse of children and family members at Wuthering
Heights cut across the generations.The savagery of children finds full expression in
Hindley's animosity toward Heathcliff and in Heathcliff's plans of vengeance.
Wrapped in the self-centeredness of childhood, Heathcliff claims Hindley's horse and
uses Mr. Earnshaw'spartiality to his own advantage, making no return of affection.
Mr. Earnshaw's disapproval of Catherine hardens herand, like many mistreated
children, she becomes rebellious. Despite abuse, Catherine and Heathcliff show the
strength of children to survive, and abuse at least partly forms the adult characters and
behavior of Catherine and Heathcliff .

The effects of intense suffering

In the passion-driven characters–Catherine, Heathcliff, and Hindley–pain leads
them to turn on and to torment others.Inflicting pain provides them some relief; this
behavior raises questions about whether they are cruel by nature or are formed by
childhood abuse and to what extent they should be held responsible for or blamed for
their cruelties. Is all their suffering inflicted by others or by outside forces, like the
death of Hindley's wife, or is at least some of their torment self-inflicted, like
Heathcliff's holding Catherine responsible for his suffering after her death? Suffering
also sears the weak; Isabella and her son Linton become vindictive, and Edgar turns

20
into a self-indulgent, melancholyre cluse. The children of love, the degraded Hareton
and the imprisoned Cathy, are able to overcome Heathcliff's abuseand to find love and
a future with each other. Is John Hagan right that "Wuthering Heights is such a
remarkable workpartly because it persuades us forcibly to pity victims and victimizers
alike"?

Self-imposed or self-generated confinement and escape.

Both Catherine and Heathcliff find their bodies prisons which trap their spirits
and prevent the fulfillment of their desires: Catherine yearns to be united with
Heathcliff, with a lost childhood freedom, with Nature, and with a spiritual real;
Heathcliff wants possession of and union with Catherine. Confinement also
defines the course of Catherine's life:in childhood, she alternates between the
constraint of Wuthering Heights and the freedom of the moors; in puberty, she is
restricted by her injury to a couch at Thrushcross Grange; finally womanhood and her
choice of husband confine her to the gentility of Thrushcross Grange, from which she
escapes into the freedom of death.

Displacement, dispossession, and exile.

Heathcliff enters the novel possessed of nothing, is not even given a last or family
name, and loses his privileged statusafter Mr. Earnshaw's death. Heathcliff displaces
Hindley in the family structure. Catherine is thrown out of heaven,where she feels
displaced, sees herself an exile at Thrushcross Grange at the end, and wanders the
moors for twentyyears as a ghost. Hareton is dispossessed of property, education, and
social status. Isabella cannot return to her beloved Thrushcross Grange and brother.
Linton is displaced twice after his mother's death, being removed first to Thrushcross
Grange and then to Wuthering Heights. Cathy is displaced from her home,
Thrushcross Grange.

Communication and understanding.

The narrative structure of the novel revolves around communication and
understanding; Lockwood is unable tocommunicate with or understand the
relationships at Wuthering Heights, and Nelly enlightens him by communicating the
history of the Earnshaws and the Lintons. Trying to return to the Grange in a
snowstorm, Lockwood cannot see the stone markers. A superstitious Nellie refuses to
let Catherine tell her dreams; repeatedly Nellie does not understand what Catherine is
talking about or refuses to accept what Catherine is saying, notably after she locks
herself in her room. Isabella refuses to heed Catherine's warning and Nellie's advice
about Heathcliff. And probably the most seriousmis-communication of all is
Heathcliff's hearing only that it would degrade Catherine to marry him.

The fall.
Recently a number of critics have seen the story of a fall in this novel, though
from what state the characters fall from or to is disputed. Does Catherine fall, in
yielding to the comforts and security of Thrushcross Grange? Does Heathcliff fallin
his "moral teething" of revenge and pursuit of property? Is Wutheirng Heights or
Thrushcross Grange the fallen world? Is the fall from heaven to hell or from hell to
heaven? Does Catherine really lose the Devil/Heathcliff (this question arises from the
assumption that Brontë is a Blakeian subbversive and visionary)?

Love in Wuthering Heights.

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 Romantic love takes many forms in Wuthering Heights: the grand passion of
Heathcliff and Catherine, the insipid sentimental languishing of Lockwood, the
coupleism of Hindley and Frances, the tame indulgence of Edgar, the romantic
infatuation of Isabella, the puppy love of Cathy and Linton, and the flirtatious sexual
attraction of Cathy and Hareton. These lovers, with the possible exception of Hareton
and Cathy, are ultimately self-centered and ignore the needs, feelings, and claims of
others; what matters is the lovers' own feelings and needs.Nevertheless, it is the
passion of Heathcliff and Catherine that most readers respond to and remember and
that has madethis novel one of the great love stories not merely of English literature
but of European literature as well. Simone de Beauvois cites Catherine's cry, "I am
Heathcliff," in her discussion of romantic love, and movie adaptations of the novel
include a Mexican and a French version. In addition, their love has passed into
popular culture; Kate Bush and Pat Benetar both recorded "Wuthering Heights" a
song which Bush wrote, and MTV showcased the lovers in a musical version.The
love-relationship of Heathcliff and Catherine, but not that of the other lovers, has
become an archetype; it expresses the passionate longing to be whole, to give oneself
unreservedly to another and gain a whole self or sense of identity back, to be all-in-all
for each other, so that nothing else in the world matters, and to be loved in this way
forever. This type of passion-love can be summed up in the phrase more--and still
more , for it is insatiable, unfulfillable, and unrelenting in its demands upon both
lovers.

Heathcliff and Catherine: True Lovers?

Despite the generally accepted view that Heathcliff and Catherine are deeply in
love with each other, the question of whether they really love each other has to be
addressed. This question raises another; what kind of love or feeling is Emily Brontë
depicting? Her sister Charlotte, for example, called Heathcliff's feelings "perverted
passion and passionate perversity." I list below a number of interpretations of their
love/ostensible love.

Soulmates.
Their love exists on a higher or spiritual plane; they are soul mates, two people
who have an affinity foreach other which draws them togehter irresistibly. Heathcliff
repeatedly calls Catherine his soul. Such a love is not necessarily fortunate or happy.
For C. Day Lewis, Heathcliff and Catherine "represent the essential isolation of the
soul,the agony of two souls–or rather, shall we say? two halves of a single soul–
forever sundered and struggling to unite."

A life-force relationship.
Clifford Collins calls their love a life-force relationship, a principle that is not
conditioned by anything but itself. It is a principle because the relationship is of an
ideal nature; it does not exist in life, though as in many statements of an ideal this
principle has implications of a profound living significance. Catherine's conventional
feelings for Edgar Linton and his superficial appeal contrast with her profound love
for Heathcliff, which is "anacceptance of identity below the level of consciousness."
Their relationship expresses "the impersonal essence of personal existence," an
essence which Collins calls the life-force. This fact explains why Catherine and
Heathcliffseveral times describe their love in impersonal terms. Because such feelings
cannot be fulfilled in an actual relationship, Brontë provides the relationship of
Hareton and Cathy to integrate the principle into everyday life.

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Creating meaning.
Are Catherine and Heathcliff rejecting the emptiness of the universe, social
institutions, and theirrelationships with others by finding meaning in their relationship
with each other, by a desperate assertion of identitybased on the other? Catherine
explains to Nelly: ...surely you and everybody have a notion that there is, or
should be, an existence of yours beyond you. What were the use of my creation if I
were entirely contained here? My great miseries in this world have been Heathcliff's
miseries,and I watched and felt each from the beginning; my great thought in living is
himself. If all else perished, and heremained, I should still continue to be; and, if all
else remained, and he were annihilated, the Universe would turn to amighty stranger. I
should not seem part of it". Dying, Catherine again confides to Nelly her feelings
about the emptiness and torment of living in this world and herbelief in a fulfilling
alternative: "I'm tired, tired of being enclosed here. I'm wearying to escape into that
glorious world,and to be always there; not seeing it dimly through tears, and yearning
for it through the walls of an aching heart; butreally with it, and in it.
Their love is an attempt to break the boundaries of self and to fuse with another to
transcendthe inherent separateness of the human condition; fusion with another will
by uniting two incomplete individuals createa whole and achieve new sense of
identity, a complete and unified identity. This need for fusion motivates Heathcliff's
determination to "absorb" Catherine's corpse into his and for them to "dissolve" into
each other so thoroughly thatEdgar will not be able to distinguish Catherine from
him.Freud explained this urge as an inherent part of love: "At the height of being in
love the boundary between ego andobject threatens to melt away. Against all the
evidence of his senses, a man who is in love declares ‘I' and 'you' are one,and is
prepared to behave as if it were a fact."

Love as religion
Love has become a religion in Wuthering Heights, providing a shield against
the fear of death and thean nihilation of personal identity or consciousness. This use
of love would explain the inexorable connection between love and death in the
characters' speeches and actions.Robert M. Polhemus sees Brontë's religion of love as
individualistic and capitalistic:
Wuthering Heights is filled with a religious urgency–unprecedented in British novels–
to imagine a faith that mightreplace the old. Cathy's "secret" is blasphemous,
and Emily Bront ë's secret, in the novel, is the raging heresy that has become common
in modern life: redemption, if it is possible, lies in personal desire, imaginative power,
and love. Nobody else's heaven is good enough. Echoing Cathy, Heathcliff says late in
the book, "I have nearly attained myheaven; and that of others is altogether unvalued
and uncoveted by me!" The hope for salvation becomes a matter oferoticized private
enterprise Catherine and Heathcliff have faith in their vocation of being in love with
one another.... They both believe that they have their being in the other, as Christians,
Jews, and Moslems believe that they have their being in God. Look at the mystical
passion of these two: devotion to shared experience and intimacy with theother;
willingness to suffer anything, up to, and including, death, for the sake of this
connection; ecstatic expression;mutilation of both social custom and the flesh; and
mania for self-transcendence through the other, That passion is away of overcoming
the threat of death and the separateness of existence. Their calling is to be the other;
and that calling, mad and destructive as it sometimes seems, is religious.

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The desire for transcendence takes the form of crossing boundaries Catherine dying
and rejecting conventions; this is the source of the torment of being imprisoned in a
body and in this life, the uncontrolled passion expressed in extremeand violent ways,
the usurpation of property, the literal and figurative imprisonments, the necrophilia,
the hints of incestand adultery, the ghosts of Catherine and Heathcliff–all, in other
words, that has shocked readers from the novel's firstpublication. Each has replaced
God for the other, and they anticipate being reunited in love after death, just
asChristians anticipate being reunited with God after death. Nevertheless, Catherine
and Heatcliff are inconsistent in their attitude toward death, which both unites and
separates. After crying "Heathcliff! I only wish us never to be parted,"Catherine goes
on to say, "I'm wearying to escape into that glorious world," a wish which necessarily
involves separation.

Conventional religion is presented negatively in the novel.

The abandoned church at Gimmerton is decaying; theminister stops visiting
Wuthering Heights because of Hindley's degeneracy. Catherine and Heathcliff reject
Joseph'sreligion, which is narrow, self-righteous, and punitive. Is conventional
religion replaced by the religion of love, anddoes the fulfillment of Heathcliff and
Catherine's love after death affect the love of Hareton and Cathy in any way?Does the
redemptive power of love, which is obvious in Cathy's civilizing Hareton, relate to
love-as-religionexperienced by Heathcliff and Catherine?

Love as addiction.
Is what Catherine and Heathcliff call love and generations of readers have
accepted as Ideal Lovereally an addiction? Stanton Peele argues that romantic or
passion love is in itself an addiction. What exactly does hemean by addiction?
- An addiction exists when a person's attachment to a sensation, an object, or another
person is such as to lessen hisappreciation of and ability to deal with other things in
his environment, or in himself, so that he has becomeincreasingly dependent on that
experience as his only source of gratification.
Individuals who lack direction and commitment, who are emotionally unstable, or
who are isolated and have fewinterests are especially vulnerable to addictions. An
addictive love wants to break down the boundaries of identity andmerge with the
lover into one identity. Lacking inner resources, love addicts look outside themselves
for meaning andpurpose, usually in people similar to themselves. Even if the initial
pleasure and sense of fulfillment or satisfaction doesnot last, the love-addict is driven
by need and clings desperately to the relationship and the lover. Catherine,
forexample, calls her relationship "a source of little visible delight, but necessary."
The loss of the lover, whether throughrejection or death, causes the addict withdrawal
symptoms, often extreme ones like illness, not eating, and faintness.
The addict wants possession of the lover regardless of the consequences to the loved
one; a healthy love, on the otherhand, is capable of putting the needs of the beloved
first.

Understanding “I am Heathcliff”

 Catherine implies that their love is timeless and exists on some other plane than
her feelings for Linton, which areconventionally romantic. If their love exists on
a spiritual or at least a non-material plane, then she is presumably free toact as
she pleases in the material, social plane; marrying Edgar will not affect her

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 relationship with Heathcliff. Bydying, she relinquishes her material, social self
and all claims except those of their love, which will continue after
death.Heathcliff, in contrast, wants physical togetherness; hence, his drive to see
her corpse and his arrangements for theircorpses to merge by decaying into each
other.
 If identity rather than personal relationship is the issue or the nature of their
relationship, then Catherine is free tohave a relationship with Edgar because
Heathcliff's feelings and desires do not have to be taken into account. She needsto
think only of herself, in effect.
 In Lord David Cecil's view, conflict arises between unlike characters, and the
deepest attachments are based oncharacters' similarity or affinity as expressions
of the same spiritual principle. Thus, Catherine loves Heathcliff becauseas
children of the storm they are bound by their similar natures. This is why
Catherine says she loves Heathcliff"because he's more myself than I am.
Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same." As the expression
ofthe principle of the storm, their love is, of course, neither sexual nor sensual.
 Because of the merging of their identities or, perhaps it would be more accurate to
say, because of their intensedesire to merge and refusal to accept their literal
separateness, Catherine's betrayal of her own nature destroys not onlyher but
threatens Heathcliff with destruction also.
Is Catherine deluding herself with this speech? Louis Beverslius answers yes,
Catherine is preoccupied, if notobsessed with the image of herself "as powerfully,
even irresistibly, attracted to Heathcliff." Their bond is a negativeone:
they identify with one another in the face of a common enemy, they rebel against a
particular way of life whichboth find intolerable. It is not enough, however, simply to
reject a particular way of life; one cannot define oneselfwholly in terms of what he
despises. One must carve out for oneself an alternative which is more than a
systematicrepudiation of what he hates. A positive commitment is also necessary. The
chief contrast between Catherine and Heathcliff consists in the fact that he is able to
make such a commitment (together with everything it entails) while sheis not. And,
when the full measure of their characters has been taken, this marks them as radically
dissimilar from oneanother, whatever their temporary 'affinities' appear to be. It
requires only time for this radical dissimilarity to become explicit.

Their dissimilarities appear when she allies herself, however sporadically, with
the Lintons and oscillates betweenidentifying with them and with Heathcliff. When
Heathcliff throws hot applesauce at Edgar and is banished, Catherineinitially seems
unconcerned and later goes off to be with Heathcliff. Her rebelliousness changes from
the open defianceof throwing books into the kennel to covert silence and a double
character. Catherine both knows Heathacliff and doesnot know him; she sees his
avarice and vengefulness, but believes that he will not injure Isabella because she
warnedhim off. Catherine's mistaken belief that she and Heathcliff still share an
affinity moves her to distinguish in their lastconversation between the real Hathcliff
whom she is struggling with and the image of Heathcliff which she has heldsince
childhood. It is with the false image that she has an affinity: Oh, you see, Nelly!
He would not relent a moment, to keep me out of hte grave!
That is how I'm loved! Well, nevermind! That is not my Heathcliff. I shall love mine
yet; and take him with me–he's in my soul.The fact that to maintain the fiction of their
affinity Catherine has to create two Heathcliffs, an inner and an outer one,suggests

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that total affinity does not exist and that complete mergining of two identities is
impossible.
Catherine is similarly deluded about her childhood and has painted a false
picture of the freedom of WutheringHeights. 
Catherine's assertion that Heathcliff is "more myself than I am" is generally
read as an expression of elementalpassion. But is it possible that she is using
Heathcliff as a symbol of their childhood, when she had freedom of movement and
none of the responsibilities and pressure of adulthood, when she was "half savage, and
hardy and free."? Does Catherine become, in the words of Lyn Pykett, "the object of a
competitive struggle between two men, each ofwhom wants her to conform to his own
version of her"?

Wuthering Heights Conclusion

Wuthering Heights is a great example of all of those aspects, but unlike most
Gothic romances, I do not think that Wuthering Heights builds to an intense and
violent climax before its ending. Instead, I think the tension in the novel unfolds as
the inner conflict within Heathcliff slowly dissolves, as his love for Catherine lessens
his longing for revenge on his dead oppressors’ children. Although the novel’s happy
ending is not possible until Heathcliff’s death, his authority becomes less threatening
in the days that precede his death.

As time passes, Heathcliff becomes increasingly obsessed with his dead love
Catherine, and finds constant reminders of her everywhere he turns. He begins
conversing with her ghost, and, after his climactic night on the moors he is overcome
with a sudden sense of cheer, and he has a happy premonition of his own impending
death. This part of the novel makes me very suspicious about what occurred at the
moors to cause Heathcliffs change of attitude. The text frequently compares Heathcliff
to the Devil, but he does not believe in Hell.

His forced education of religion as a child caused him to deny the existence of
Heaven, and his lack of religious beliefs seemed to cause him not fear death. I think
death for Heathcliff symbolizes one thing: the beginning of his reunion with
Catherine. I think the thought of this reunion with Catherine even sparks excitement
for Heathcliff, which gives him the happy premonition of death. I think the marriage
between Cathy and Hareton, symbolizes the start of a new life and the end of
depression and disparity in the novel.

I also think the marriage symbolizes the power love has to overcome hardships
and prevail. The marriage between Cathy and Hareton leading to a happy ending is
also foreshadowing of the idea that had Catherine and Heathcliff been allowed to
marry, the violence and revenge seen in the second half of the novel may not have
occurred. I think that the reunion of Catherine and Heathcliff’s ghosts is a fitting piece
to the happy ending of the novel, demonstrating again that true love prevails, for
better or for worse.

In conclusion, there are several standards from the fictional society in Wuthering
Heights that influence the characters to make decisions that are careless and regretful.

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A classic theme in Wuthering Heights is social class. Heathcliff started at the bottom
of the social hierarchy and tried to prove to Catherine he was good enough by coming
back rich and important, a suitable man for a lady to marry. Heathcliff is greatly
affected by his prior abuse and maltreatment growing up, as well as Catherine’s
selfish decision to marry another man. He responds by taking advantage on the people
who did not accept him and marrying Isabella Linton out of spite to Catherine.
Heathcliff not only affects Catherine, but also the rest of the characters for the rest of
the novel. Despite Heathcliff’s wrongdoings, Emily Bronte makes it almost
impossible to not sympathize with Heathcliff even after his revenge against the
Lintons. The two narrations represent two different views. With Marlow Lockwood’s
narration, the reader gets an outside view of the situation, while Nelly’s (the servant)
narration shows the facts of what really happened. In fact, people today still talk about
the epic love story of Heathcliff and Catherine and their tragic downfall.

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