Brontë’s novel is a three dimensional novel. By mentioning Catherine, we are talking about a complex character who confuses the reader. In which the reader cannot determine his feeling towards her. This character (Catherine) is playing two roles a ‘victim’ and a ‘victimizer’ in different situations during the events.. These two roles can be seen during Catherine’s actions and behaviours. According to this mixed and complex character, the following paragraphs will discuss Catherine’s both roles. It is important to understand the way Catherine described in the novel. Also, some of the characters become victims and fall preys to her behaviour as a victimizer. There are some reasons that make Catherine become a victimizer. In addition, explain the societal pressure and Catherine’s …show more content…
Does Catherine’s victimization justify her immoral actions? Does the reader feel any sympathy towards Catherine? These are some of the pertinent questions this essay tries to answer.
Each character in the novel has been described in different ways. Borg suggests that psychologically, Catherine’s character has been seen as a double character, this shows in Heathcliff and Linton’s characters. As if they are two different parts of her. (Borg, 2011, p:5). This doubleness is clear in the novel when Nelly explains her doubleness. That “Catherine has adopted a double character”(52). (Borg.,2011,p:5). In addition, she described as a child. This shows in her dairies which has been red by Lockwood in chapter three in the novel. The reader can understand her bevaviour as a child through events which have written in Catherine’s dairies. This helps the reader to see the truth about her character because it is written in her own words, without any narration intervention. Her rebellious actions are clear in her dairies. For example; when she writes that she hates lessons are giving to her and
In this book, the author, Charlotte Bronte, has chosen to take an almost autobiographical approach to the plot. At
Charlotte Bronte, in her most famous novel, Jane Eyre, carefully utilizes different characters to influence and shape Jane’s personality throughout the story. Bronte uses varied actions and emotions to do this, but one of the main actions is abuse. Though not in every setting in the novel, abusive tormenting people are spread throughout the story that change Jane and her future. These ill-mannered actions can completely change Jane’s mindset, personality, and life-story. In Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, cruel male protagonists alter Jane’s character through physical, psychological, and emotional abuse.
From this monologue analysis, it has been discovered that Catherine is a very dramatic and somewhat childish character as is shown because on page 91, Nelly says “…our fiery Catherine was no better than a wailing child!”(Bronte 91). Catherine acts very childish to shut herself in her room for several days because of argument with her husband. Also, her dramatic characteristic is shown because her monologue jumps around a lot in topics, from what happened when she entered her room to her anger at Edger to her sadness with grief, to her derangement, to again her anger at Edger. The knowledge of these characteristics can help perform the interpretation like how Catherine would act it out to Nelly, very dramatic and emotional. It can also be concluded
Another aspect which is relevant today and forever it shall remain relevant is selfishness. Catherine's selfish character was depicted when she wanted both Edgar and Heathcliff at the same time. In the beginning, she was introduced as a 'high spirited' character who was wild. However, she drastically changes throughout the book. When she hurts her leg and is forced to stay at Thrushcross Grange, she returns to Wuthering Heights as a well dressed and dignified lady. She was easily swayed to the superior lifestyle of the Lintons and began to look down upon Heathcliff. She even laughs at his rough and dirty appearance and says "I didn't mean to laugh at you. I could not hinder myself Heathcliff. Shake hands at least! What are you sulky for? It was only that you looked odd. If you wash you face and brush your hair, it would be alright. But you are
Catherine's pathetic ideal of a "picturesque" rendezvous is also the majority mentality at the time. Her realization of the cruel truth is but a glimpse of the futile art of war and
There are many parts of the book where we feel sympathy for Jane. In this essay I am going to discuss how Brontë creates sympathy for Jane in chapters one, two and seven. The main scenes include when Jane is treated cruelly by her cousin John, when she is
As seen through Bronte's two characters, Nelly and Edgar, both victims of Catherine's emotional displays, each has a different belief about her . Edgar is quick to forgive his beloved's ugly outbursts because of his own inability to perceive such an impulse since he completely lacks that himself. Nelly, on the other hand, having been witness too many times to Catherine's outbursts, is jaded and intolerant. Their completely opposite reactions are due to the contrast in the type of relationships each shares with the protagonist , and because of the basic differences in their own
Brontë shapes her female character in such a way that she deals with her “hunger, rebellion and anger” (Gilbert and Guber, 1979: 360), without entering into a visible conflict with society. Thus, Jane does not openly challenge the Victorian patriarchal system, because she knows how to encompass the imposed standards without letting them run her
Catherine shared with Hal information about her father’s notebooks, revealing that he has done what no one had before, which earned her trust. Their love for mathematics allowed for more emotional transparency between the two characters and enabled Catherine to reveal a side of her she had not shown before. Catherine’s character is full of complexity throughout the story. From her exceptional intelligence to selflessness, and emotional guardedness. The astuteness that Catherine demonstrates throughout the play allows for the vision of her father to make an appearance in the plot of the story.
The purpose of Bronte's novel is to demonstrate that women could go beyond the oppressive limitations of their environment and find fulfillment. Jane's cries for love are mistaken as evil outburst by those who wish to keep women repressed. Oppression of women was so great that women even in the home were expected to be nonproductive. The ideal or perfect Victorian women were ones who adopted an image of repose or idleness, basically to show the world they could. Nervousness and fainting were expected in women, and certain disagreeable topics or bad news could cause such traits to erupt. By trusting in her passion, by trusting in her own abilities, and by making her own decisions, Jane is able to overcome the agony all around her. Homeless, starving, and misjudged, Jane is
Catherine’s internal conflict is placed on a pedestal, emphasizing character development and growth as well as decline. Her choices throughout the book are a decision between reality and daydream, often resulting in the latter being chosen in an attempt to meet the expectations of other people. As Meyer pulls the reader into the Kingdom of Hearts, with its grandiose balls and talking turtles, Catherine’s
Catherine’s growth is evident in the very first line of the novel as it states “No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy would have supposed her born to be an heroine. Her situation in life, the character of her father and mother, her own person and disposition, were all equally against her” (37). Catherine’s lowly heroine figure is made known instantly so that her development is much more apparent at the end of the novel. From the start of the novel Catherine is not a typical heroine, she is unorthodox in all facets of her life including the status of her parents. Catherine is initially also an incredibly naive character and this fuels her
Bronte has purposefully rejected the idea of a conventionally beautiful heroine; she told siblings ‘I will show you a heroine as plain and small as myself’. As a reader we have more respect for Jane because of these virtues, she has more emotion and does not appear placid. She questions everything, which is unfortunate at Gateshead as Mrs Reed doesn’t ‘like cavillers or questioners…there is something truly forbidding in a child taking up her elders in that manner.’ Jane is shown to possess a strong and rich inner life, but we notice also how much she internalises and, when attacked, retreats and finds solace in solitude, in the world of art, and in contact with nature.
Catherine’s story begins with the description of her living in the village Fullerton where she has grown up with her family of nine siblings and her parents (who educated her over the years). It is then that family friends of the Morlands, the Allens, (a wealthy couple without children), proposal that Catherine comes along with them to visit the tourist town of Bath. Catherine is more than willing to take up the invitation but her expectations of the outside world are exaggerated due to her reading
It is the opinion of this essay that the character of Heathcliff evolves a lot more than the character of Catherine. When we first meet Heathcliff, he was found on the streets of Liverpool by Catherine’s father who then adopts him into the family as one of his own. This would have been a dramatic change for Heathcliff. Then after experiencing this quality of life until the death of the father he is then cast into the role of a servant/labourer by Catherine’s brother who despises him. Finally, when Heathcliff hears part of the conversation between Catherine and Nelly, he hears Catherine plans to marry Edgar Linton as she could never marry Heathcliff. “It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now”. (82) It is here Heathcliff leaves Wuthering Heights and returns three years later, a gentleman of means and of polite demeanour, not what you would expect from him. Here we can bring back the point that one’s environment dramatically affects one’s behaviour. Like Catherine, Heathcliff defies social norms expected of his gender. After he returns back from travelling having acquired great wealth and on the surface seems a changed man, he would be accepted into middle class society as he displays the characteristics expected of him. It is well described in the book to enforce the dramatic change in him for readers to understand how far he has come from