Akulova Mariya

Contemporary Literary Theory

Prof. Sophie Howlett
Final Essay

Psychoanalysis by Freud and „Wuthering Heights” by Bronte.

I will try to apply the psychoanalysis introduced by Freud to the book „Wuthering

Heights” written by Bronte. In the text we see the crisis of human relations and distortion

of human personality. Love, hate, revenge and death are all present here. I consider that

psychoalalysis introduced by Freud is applicable to explain the motives and actions of the

main hero of the book, Heathcliff. I argue that Prohibition of Incest was the taboo which

contradicted unconcious desires of the main hero and the inability to resolve the conflict

between the reality and fantasies lead Heathcliff to psychological death and later to

physical death. These are my arguments which I will try to prove in my final paper.

Before I turn to analysis itself I will try to briefly summarize Freud’s doctrine.

According to Freud the mind of the person is structured and there can be distinguished 3

structural categories: id (which is always at the bottom), ego (which is in the middle) and

superego (which is always at the top). ’Id’ acts in accordance with the „pleasure instinct”, it

is what the person wants. ’Ego’is associated with reality. ’Superego’ can be interpreted as

the rules imposed by society in accordance with which a person should act. ’Ego’ is always

the mediator between the ’id’ and ’superego’, it mediates the other two in order the

personality of the person didn’t split.

„The ego represents what may be called reason and common sense, in contrast to

the id, which contains passion”(Sigmund Freud, 25). ’Ego’ is concerned with self-

preservation and if one wants to adjust to reality, one must control its basic instincts. This

is the so-called stuggle between „pleasure principle” and „reality principle”. Freud argues

that every body has to undergo this repression of „pleasure principle” by „reality

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principle”. He states that every man is prepared to put up with this repression. But if too

much is demanded of a person, s/he is likely to fall sick.

According to Freud every child is born helpless and „premature”. Therefore child is

dependent on those members who are more mature, i.e. parents. The connection with our

parents is not only biological, but also pleasurable. When a child grows, relation to its

mother take on a new „libidinal dimension”, the sexuality is born. According to Freud

sexuality emerges „spontaneously from internal causes.” (Madan Sarup, 4). The child’s

libido develops through specific phases. Among them Freud distinguishes the oral stage,

the anal stage, the phallic stage and the latency period. Freud considers that „erotogenic

zone” conception of development (through which the sexual instinct finds its release) and

the infant’s sexuality are most fundamental ideas of psychoanalysis.

Freud insists that child’s relations with parents are crucial in the achievement of

proper sexual identity. Love of the child to the mother is dominant. Later the boy-child

begins to perceive the parent of the same sex as a rival. He dreams about killing of this

rival to possess mother. This is Oedipus complex. However, the boy-child has to abandon

his fantasies about mother. What prevents him is the fear of being castrated by the father.

Father in his mind is associated with the law and authority.

Desire, repression of pleasure instincts and sexual identity are central to Oedipus

complex. Moreover, it represents for Freud the beginning of morality, conscious and law.

The father’s Prohibition of Incest is symbolic of all the higher authority. Later, growth and

maturity of the child is perceived as a successful resolution of the Oedipus complex. Thus,

Freud writes, “The dissolution of the Oedipus complex would consolidate the masculinity

in a boy’s character”(Sigmund Freud, 32). However, not always can this conflict between

keeping to the rules and breaking the taboos be successfully resolved. “The struggle which

once raged in the deepest strata of the mind and was not brought to an end by rapid

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sublimation and identification, is now continued in a higher region, like the Battle of the

Huns in Kaulbach’s painting”(Sigmund Freud, 39).

The actions of Heathcliff in the book of Emily Bronte „Wuthering heights”

perfectly exemplify the Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis. Heathcliff wants to have close

relations with the girl, called Catherine. But there are some obstacles to this. First of all,

Heatcliff is treated as a step-brother of Catherine. He was brought into this house by the

father of Catherine and later brought up as the member of the family. Secondly, other

members of the family considered him as an inferior person, who is not from the noble

family. Look, for example, at the words of Mr. Hindley, the step-brother of Heathcliff:

"Heathcliff, you may come forward," cried Mr. Hindley, enjoying his discomfiture, and
gratified to see what a forbidding young black-guard he would be compelled to present
himself "You may come and wish Miss Catherine welcome, like the other servants."

For all except father Heathcliff is not the member of the family and thus doesn’t

deserve to have any relations with the daughter of noble parents. Nevertheless, father is the

law and authority for all in the family and tries to mediate the relations between all the

children. We see that Heathcliff has to suppress his fantasies about Catherine, she is

unachievable for him, at least as far as father is alive. The Prohibition of Incest is the rule

of society imposed on him and according to which he has to live. Later we will see that

namely the prohibition of incest, the inability to fulfill the desires transferred Heathcliff’s

fantasies to obsession.

Heathcliff enters the patriarchal order. He makes formal peace with his stepfather

and hopes to realize his fantasies somewhat later. He has to repress his desires and fantasies

into unconscious. Heathcliff enters the world of gendered roles. Living in society he has to

construct a family. We see that he tries to adjust to the external world, he tries to create a

family with another girl and live according to the rules of society. But it turned not to be an

easy thing for Heathcliff.

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 Freud states that there are some mechanisms which help “ego” mediate between the

other two. For example such as sublimation, reaction formation, or rejection. If ‘id’ is

suppressed too much and doesn’t find release in any of these mechanisms then this

suppression will be felt in slips of the tongue or dreams.

Thus we see in the book that Heathcliff’s unconscious haunts him. Fantasies and

dreams about Catherine don’t leave him, they make him look for her and make him

demand proximity with him. He is split between the rules of society where incest is

prohibited and desires that were hidden in the darkest corners of his mind to possess his

sister. This unconscious plagues him.

It becomes even worse with the death of Catherine. “…love is with unexpected

regularity accompanied by hate… ”(43), Freud insists. And in the text we see, that

Heathcliff understands that his desires and fantasies were not realized and now will never

be. Having not successfully resolved the taboo, namely Prohibition of Incest, we see that he

returns to the Sadistic stage of the Pre-Oedipal. This sadistic stage is closely connected

with the anal stage. According to Freud this is the stage when a person doesn’t want to

share or let anything from him. We see that Heathcliff’s anal stage is expressed in

greediness. He fired all the servants in the house, he married his son and daughter of

Catherine and made her refuse from her inheritance, he doesn’t spend money and doesn’t

let anyone spend his money either. Consider the dialogue between the guest, Mr Lockwood

and the maid forking for Mr. Heathcliff:

"Is he not rich enough to keep the estate in good order?" I enquired. "Rich, sir!" she
returned. "He has, nobody knows what money, and every year it increases. Yes, yes, he's
rich enough to live in a finer house than this: but he's very near- close-handed; and, if he
had meant to flit to Thrushcross Grange, as soon as he heard of a good tenant he could not
have borne to miss the chance of getting a few hundreds more. It is strange people should
be so greedy, when they are alone in the world!"

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 This greediness however doesn’t come alone. It is interconnected with sadism as

well. He becomes very rude in manner and considers it to be normal to hit a woman.

"I'll put my trash away, because you can make me, if I refuse," answered the young lady,
closing her book, and throwing it on a chair. "But I'll not do anything, though you should
swear your tongue out, except what I please!" Heathcliff lifted his hand, and the speaker
sprang to a safer distance, obviously acquainted with its weight.
He has an irresistible desire to hurt other people and doesn’t even conceal his

intentions. That’s what he says about himself:

The first thing she saw me do, on coming out of the Grange, was to hang up her little dog;
and when she pleaded for it, the first words I uttered were a wish that I had the hanging of
every being belonging to her…

He revenges all people around him for the death of Catherine, for the unfulfilled

dreams and desires. He ruins the lives of all the people who were somehow connected with

Catherine. He can not cope with the reality. The internal conflict between the dreams and

reality leads him to neurosis, which later turns to psychosis.

We see that the thing line between the ‘ego’ and the external world is broken and

unconscious begins to create an alternative reality for Heathcliff. According to Freud at this

stage when person confuses the reality and alternative world, psychosis begins. In the text

we read that Heathcliff sees the ghost of Catherine everywhere, hears her voice calling him

to join her, talks to her. The ghost of Catherine and possibility to talk to her are the only

things that matter to him now. That is what for example, Mr Lockwood witnessed:

…I stood still, and was witness, involuntarily, to a piece of superstition on the part of my
landlord, which belied, oddly, his apparent sense. He got on to the bed, and wrenched open
the lattice, bursting, as he pulled at it, into an uncontrollable passion of tears. "Come in!
Come in!" he sobbed. "Cathy, do come. Oh do- once more! Oh! my heart's darling; hear me
this time, Catherine, at last!" The spectre showed a spectre's ordinary caprice: it gave no
sign of being…

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 He refuses to pay attention to anything else, he constantly and impatiently waits

until her ghost visits him again, he is longing for the moment when he will be able to join

her. He lives in the unreal world that his unconscious created.

Freud states that there are always two contradictory desires in the mind of the

person. The first is the so-called ‘love desire’ and the second is ‘death desire’. According to

Freud ‘death desire’ can be represented through hare or revenge, “…we can find a

representative of the elusive death instinct in the instinct of destruction on to which hate

points the way”(Sigmund Freud, 43). The ‘ego’ has to always mediate between the two

desires. In the book we see that Heathcliff is always between these two desires: one

moment he wants to love and live the next minute the only his wish is to die, because

without Catherine he can not live. However, the ‘death desire’ is the only one left for him

when he grows older.

The final goal of life according to Freud is death, a return to that state where the ago

can not be injured. „Sexual energy is the force which builds up history but it is locked up in

tragic contradiction with the death drive.” (Terry Eagleton, 161) We see that Heathcliff is

not interested in this life any more. What matters to him is fantasies about her. He strives to

die and join her as soon as possible and every other day when he is still alive is unbearable

for him. He struggles to return to a state before he was even conscious. And at the end his

goal is reached. He dies psychologically and physically and finally rests in peace.

In the conclusion I would like to say that I tried to applied the psychoanalyses of

Freud to explain the action of Heathcliff. We saw that Prohibition of Incest was crucial to

the main hero of the book. He could not resolve the inner conflict between the taboo of

society and his desires in his mind, we saw the gradual disintegration of personality which

lead at the end to death.

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Literature:

Emily Bronte “Wuthering Heights”

Sigmund Freud “The Ego and the Id and other works”, vol. XIX

Madan Sarup “Modern Cultural theorisist: Jacues Lacan”

Terry Eagleton „Literary theory. An Introduction”

Zherebkina, “Read my desire”