Analysis Of Emily Bronte 's ' Wuthering Heights '

At the center of Wuthering Heights lies a tragic vision of decay and detachment which depends completely on the severances Emily Bronte has created between characters, estates, and social statuses. Bronte reveals societal flaws that had never before been recognized during her time and creates a raw vision of Victorian life; one in which the differences between characters and their social standings outweigh their true beliefs and desires when it comes to who they choose to be, who they choose to surround themselves with, and how they choose to treat those around them. In its most distinct form, Wuthering Heights is a love story that chronicles the lives of Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, regardless of the distance between them. It is

As a consequence of Heathcliff's visit to the Grange, Edgar's sister Isabella falls in love with him, and her feelings seem to be sincere. In this one-sided love affair Heathcliff takes advantage of the innocent girl's infatuation to foster his obsession for revenge. (Isabella is her brother's heir). Catherine's reaction is very hard to interpret. It is natural that she is jealous, if she still feels the same for him as before, and that may be the reason why she dissuades Isabella from marrying Heathcliff. But the words she uses, telling her what an abominable creature Heathcliff is, are not the sort you expect to hear from someone talking of a sweetheart. Later on when her husband and Heathcliff are having a quarrel, she stops Edgar from hurting her friend . There is an excess of emotion, and her explanation to this behaviour is that she wants them both, Edgar and Heathcliff: "Well, if I cannot keep Heathcliff for my friend - if Edgar will be mean and jealous, I'll try to break their hearts by breaking my own" (109).Her love for Heathcliff has not cooled down, instead it seems to be a stronger obsession than ever considering the torments she goes through, when she becomes seriously ill.The last time Catherine and Heathcliff see each other is a very heart-rending meeting. Their love for each other is as strong as ever, and Heathcliff

Heathcliff cried vehemently, "I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!" Emily Brontë distorts many common elements in Wuthering Heights   to enhance the quality of her book. One of the distortions is Heathcliff's undying love for Catherine Earnshaw. Also, Brontë perverts the vindictive hatred that fills and runs Heathcliff's life after he loses Catherine. Finally, she prolongs death, making it even more distressing and insufferable.

While Wuthering Heights was a symbol of darkness and winter, Thrushcross Grange could only be described as its opposite. Thrushcross Grange can be seen as a happy place that is light and summery. Its inhabitants are blissful and naive. They did not worry or have to fend for themselves because there is always money and servants to wait on them. The inhabitants of the house are ignorant of the cruelties and injustices of the outside world. When Isabella, Edgar's sister, marries Heathcliff and is taken to the Heights, she too learns these realities and is destroyed by them. She is imprisoned in the Heights by her husband. Isabella writes Nelly and describes her depression;

It is worth, therefore, noticing the significant difference in the two major properties in the novel. Working class people inhabited Wuthering Heights, while Thrushcross Grange was inhabited by those higher on the social ladder. When Heathcliff and Catherine “peek” through their window, it shows that they aspire to be on the same level, socially. Heathcliff aquires both and this symbolises his character. He has the façade of a “gentleman” of high social rank, but has the “gypsy” like demeanour. Heathcliff resides at Wuthering Heights, a place that is constantly bombarded by the “north wind”. This stormy surround can often emulate Heathcliff’s emotional anger at the betrayal of his beloved Cathy. Heathcliff represents a typical protagonist of the Romance genre at the time; internalised in his emotions and lonely but there is hope that he will ultimately becomes much more of a typical hero with the experience of love. Heathcliff, however, as much as the reader wants him to, never becomes this typical hero and has much the adverse effect from love.

During his multiple visitations to her new residence, Thrushcross Grange, he meticulously tries to make her feel ashamed of her marriage to Edgar Linton. For example, in his second visit to Thrushcross Grange he states that “[she has] treated [him] infernally” and that she should expect “[his revenge] ... in a very [short] while” (105-106). Correspondingly, Catherine responds saying that she is in shock by “his [new phase of character]” and is curious as to how he will get his “[so called ‘revenge’] ... [on her supposed ‘infernal’ treatment]” (106). Infuriated by her calling his sense of judgment, and revenge a bluff, he starts his master plan by aiming his affections at Edgar’s sister, Isabella Linton. Wantonly, Heathcliff manages to win Isabella’s heart and as such “[takes her away on horseback]” for Catherine to find out (122). Once again at hearing the disappearance of Heathcliff, this time with another woman, Catherine slips into another round of hallucinations. Yet, unlike the last time, her condition becomes life threatening. Catherine, in the time of her ailment, believes that “[her old life, and self are gone because of how Heathcliff treats her now]” (151). At the same time of when Catherine thinks this, Heathcliff, returns once again, to inform that “[he has not changed in how he treats her, but she has changed in how

Heathcliff grows up as a trouble maker; he is now an evil man whose wrath ensnares everybody around him. The catalytic moment that sends Heathcliff over the boiling point is when the love of his life, Catherine Earnshaw, choses his biggest rival, Edgar, to marry her. After this key moment in the novel, Heathcliff is never the same character. Heathcliff obsession with Catherine Earnshaw turns into a potent wrath and it is clearly shows in this quote by Heathcliff, “I seek no revenge you … That’s not the plan – The tyrant grinds down his slaves and they don’t turn against him, they crush those beneath them – You are

Unfortunately Isabella fell in with an evil man, Heathcliff. Their marriage was never about love and compassion it was about to the downfall of Edgar. Also he wanted to own the land. Isabella endured abuse from Heathcliff and could never go back home because Edgar disowned her. Isabella was trapped in an evil house, with an

Heathcliff is the first person Lockwood is introduced to at Wuthering Heights, which helps leave his initial impression. Lockwood sees himself in Heathcliff, and even confuses their personalities sometimes. But, considering Heathcliff is extremely rude to the servants (and Cathy Linton), this persuades Lockwood to think otherwise. This relationship shows that Heathcliff is a protagonist, because Lockwood is too.

But, she cannot bring herself to marry him because of his social status. Heathcliff overhears a fraction of this conversation (the fraction in which he is degraded) and enraged by it, he storms off. (This is a significant junction in the novel because it occurs when Heathcliff swears revenge slowly accumulates the power to be able to enact

Instead, he ends up marrying Isabella and treats her miserable because of that fact that he cannot be happy without Catherine, and now she is gone forever. The only thing Heathcliff has left of Catherine is the sounds of her ghost that haunts the grounds of Wuthering Heights. Mr. Lockwood discovers Catherine's ghost when he comes to Wuthering Heights and realizes everything is not right there. “ knocking my knuckles through the glass, and stretching an arm out to seize the importunate branch: instead of which, my fingers closed on the fingers of a little, ice-cold hand. The intense horror of nightmare came over me: I tried to draw back my arm, but the hand clung to it, and a most melancholy voice sobbed, "Let me in—let me in!"(Bronet

When Catherine I returns from Thrushcross Grange, she is unrecognizable to Heathcliff because she has evolved into a more complete version of herself that he cannot accept. Cathy I tries to embrace Heathcliff in a hug and, as William Blake would say, momentarily touch souls, but Heathcliff adopts a “black”, “cross” expression, because the Catherine I that has returned is not the Catherine I that he wanted back (Brontë 42). Heathcliff’s “shame and pride [throw] double gloom over his countenance, and [keep] him immoveable” (Brontë 42). He stares at the girl he thought was his other half and cannot find anything familiar under the perfect dress and neat coils of silken hair. Heathcliff is “immoveable” in that he will not be swayed to the new Cathy I’s side, even if she contained this version of herself within all along. He mistakenly thinks that he is only in love with the Catherine I whom he thought he knew, rather than the person that Catherine I actually is, which includes Thrushcross Grange’s influence. By forcing Cathy I into the walls of his perception, Heathcliff erases her personhood completely. While Heathcliff clings to the Catherine I that he remembers, Cathy I believes that if she belongs partially at Thrushcross Grange, then he must as well. Cathy I likes the person she became at Thrushcross Grange because she always had some Grange in her

Living in a permanent state of childhood with Heathcliff, she displays ridiculous amounts of immaturity for her age, including temper tantrums, crying fits, and self-induced illness (Apter 178). She is overcome with intense jealousy, such as displayed in declaring Isabella’s affection for Heathcliff to everyone shortly after finding it out. Catherine’s immaturity eventually manifests into prolonged symptoms that affect her mental and physical health. “Once she has passed childhood, and her inability to integrate her emotions into her behavior shows its poisoning effects, she actually longs for her own death. The desire to return to childhood, the wish for regression and stagnation…” (Apter 179). These childlike attributes are what fuel her deviousness and natural tendency towards manipulation for the men in her life, for in the corrupted immaturity that inhabits her as a grown woman, she sadistically finds joy in the suffering of others. Catherine taunts Heathcliff with images of himself visiting her grave with wife and children, blames Heathcliff and Edgar for her death, and continues to see Heathcliff even though her husband Edgar explicitly tells her not to. She lives halfway between two romances with an “incapacity for significant action”, refraining from complete commitment to either man, and revels in their suffering at not having her entirely (Beversluis 71). It was

Catherine picked on him as a sort of flirt, whereas Edgar was straight mean and crude to him. Heathcliff is planning to get revenge on the two of them for isolating him as a child. Catherine and Edgar are married, and they are quite dysfunctional. Heathcliff plans to marry Edgar’s sister Isabella to make the wedded jealous. In the end, Heathcliff just feels isolated again.

2. Author and date Written: Emily Bronte author of Wuthering Heights wrote the book between October 1845 and June 1846