Theme Of Nature In Wuthering Heights

The culture of set societal rules and conventions urges Catherine to be with Edgar, compelling her to be ‘the greatest woman of the neighbourhood’ due to them being relatively firm in their gentry’s status. This suggests the importance of her social status against the nature of her love for Heathcliff stating, ‘we would be beggars’, through employing the word ‘beggars’ the reader crafts the idea of her belief that she won’t survive without her status. Catherine admits ‘It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love him’ Thus implying a swelling sense of her vanity and pride; enough to enjoy the position she gains from being married to Edgar despite her admiration for Heathcliff, being ‘more than (herself) than (she is)’and

Wuthering Heights is a novel which deviates from the standard of Victorian literature. The novels of the Victorian Era were often works of social criticism. They generally had a moral purpose and promoted ideals of love and brotherhood. Wuthering Heights is more of a Victorian Gothic novel; it contains passion, violence, and supernatural elements (Mitchell 119). The world of Wuthering Heights seems to be a world without morals. In Wuthering Heights, Brontë does not idealize love; she presents it realistically, with all its faults and merits. She shows that love is a powerful force which can be destructive or redemptive. Heathcliff has an all-consuming passion for Catherine. When she chooses to marry Edgar, his spurned love turns into a

With the coming of age of Catherine and Heathcliff, the hapless families of Earnshaw and Linton brave the storms that brew between them and realize that they must rise up to meet what they have forced upon themselves. Foremost, the main characters, Catherine, Heathcliff, and Edgar are never quite as they appear to be, and are constantly changing in both dynamic and static ways. For example, Catherine is the one who changes the most. As she states, “In my soul and in my heart, I’m convinced I’m wrong … I’ve dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas: they’ve gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the color of my mind,” (p. 79). This expresses how she feels as if she has been

Yet, not only are the images of Wuthering Heights similar to that of Heathcliff, but both are described using similar adjectives. Wuthering Heights is illustrated as a hostile ‘grotesque’ dwelling, with ’strong narrow windows, deeply set in the walls, the corners defended with large, jutting stones’ (I, 1). This is similar to descriptions of Heathcliff: his ‘savage’ face has ‘brows lowering, the eyes deep-set and singular with black eyes withdrawn so suspiciously under their brow’ (I, 10). Heathcliff’s temperament is therefore exemplified and detailed through the setting in which he is shown, showing the relationship between the character and his setting.

Catherine and Heathcliff are very different, yet strikingly similar in nature. It is acceptable to recognize them as one. Catherine understands what Heathcliff needs and desires more that anyone in the world. They used to be partners in crime for crying out loud. Immensely so, chapter seven indicates their differences in appearance. Take for example this quote of Catherine, "there shone forth, beneath a grand plain silk frock..." This amplifies how elegant Catherine is portrayed. On the other hand, Heathcliff is described as a poor servant that was in "mire and dust, and his thick uncombed hair, the surface of his face and

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

1. As it deteriorates and dies, Heathcliff and Catherine’s relationship serves as a cautionary tale and a witness to love’s destructive nature. Their love for one another is an addiction. Catherine long for Heathcliff and states, “I wish I could hold you.. till we were both dead” (Brontë 357). Catherine understands their relationship as “a source of little visible delight, but necessary” (Brontë 183). She views herself as one in the same with her lover, “Nelly, I am Heathcliff” (Brontë 183). She is obsessed with him-- regardless of her relationship with Edgar, Heathcliff never ceases to occupy her thoughts. If she were to lose Heathcliff, she would effectively go through withdrawal; their love is an addiction. She wants possession of Heathcliff

With such an infamous knack for the art of the scorn and slander, it’s not much of a surprise that Catherine enjoys her gossip. While telling Nelly about Edgar’s Marriage proposal, with Heathcliff eavesdropping close by, Nelly asks Cathy why she would not marry heathcliff instead. Her response, “It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now” (Bronte 81), shows that she not only cares more about her social status and appearance, but that she disregards Heathcliff’s feelings almost entirely as she has, as if she were shopping, gone with the better deal. Once Heathcliff hears Cathy’s words, he becomes a changed man, and by no means for the

Wuthering Heights’s Catherine Earnshaw is infamous for her complex character, some arguing that she is egocentric and manipulative, others sympathizing with the difficult choices she is faced with. However, there is no doubt that she is innately childish. As Catherine grows older, her character is not changed; she remains juvenile and selfish, making everything a game that revolves around her and not empathizing with other characters and their needs - subconsciously or not. In a sense, her mindset never progresses past one of a child. As Sigmund Freud wrote in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, “What makes an infant characteristically different from every other stage of human life is that the child is polymorphously perverse” - an attribute which Catherine exemplifies throughout her lifetime. Her selfishness goes beyond the "ordinary self-centeredness" (Thormahlen 5) one might encounter in a regular adult - rather, Catherine directly affects her relationships with people through her "perverse" actions, and still does not recognize the harm in doing so. She exists in an irresponsible state, not perceiving that "she cannot have, and be, everything she wants whenever she wants it” (5) - and this is reflected in every single relationship she experiences. It is Catherine’s intrinsic immaturity and inability to progress from her childhood mindset that is the main catalyst not only in her in the other character’s

Through her family’s wealth, she has a very high social status. She is childhood friends with Heathcliff as they both enjoy being with each other. Her relationship with Heathcliff comes to an abruptly halt when she stays with the Linton’s for her heel to heal. While she is there, she underwent training to be lady like for the era she is in. Her love grows for Edgar while she is at the Earnshaw’s. Catherine comes to grasp she couldn’t marry Heathcliff as it would be degrading herself. “It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff, now; so he shall never know how I love him; and that, not because he’s handsome, Nelly, but because he’s more myself than I am” (81). Even though she feels like Heathcliff is her star crossed lover, her pride stops her from loving Heathcliff so she has to marry

Wuthering Heights follows the Romantic Movement, a movement within literature during the late 18th century with captured intense emotion and passion within writing as opposed to rationalisation. Emily Bronte’s main focal point within the novel is the extreme emotion of love and whether it leads to the characters contentment or ultimate calamity. This confliction of love is portrayed mainly through Catherine Earnshaw, a contemptuous, spoiled beauty whose metaphysical love for the protagonist, Heathcliff, will be tested by her disillusion of Edgar Linton and the social and financial benefits he

The events in a child’s life mold who he or she will one day become; for Catherine this was the day she and Heathcliff snuck out to the Thurshcross Grange and she injured her ankle. During her early years, Catherine was free spirited and was unable to understand or relate to her father’s serious attitude. In attempt to provoke her father Catherine,

Eventually Catherine and Heathcliff became friends again and fall in love with each other. Although it was obvious that Catherine loved Heathcliff, Catherine felt obligated to marry someone from the upper-class, like Edgar Linton, instead of a peasant like Heathcliff. When Catherine was with Edgar she was forced to act like a proper lady and suppressed her real personality; but with Heathcliff, Catherine acted like she always has. This depicted a Victorian woman’s struggle to hide who she really was to find a good husband.

Catherine and the Setting Love and heartbreak are two of the major emotions in Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. In Chapter IX of Wuthering Heights, Catherine cries after Heathcliff leaves, while a storm is brewing. Bronte uses setting to show how Catherine feels about the situation by using imagery, diction, and simile to demonstrate Catherine’s state of mind. Bronte uses imagery when she describes the storm. Nelly’s description of the storm’s start as a “very dark evening for summer” and “the clouds appeared inclined into thunder” are what represent the worry and agitation that Catherine feels.

In the novel, Catherine has a tendency to lose her head and become caught up in her day-dreams, fantasies, and nightmares. She consistently creates situations or ideas in her head that are much worse than probable in her real life. As K.A. Miller writes in "Haunted Heroines: The Gothic Imagination and the Female Bildungsromane of Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, and L. M. Montgomery", the ideals of what Catherine has read so much of has influenced her mind very powerfully, perhaps even dangerously so. Miller says that Catherine, “Has allowed what she has read, rather than the evidence of her own eyes to script her vision of life. This failure to exercise reason, alongside her imagination, jeopardizes her” (Miller 9). Catherine allows her imagination to be so thoroughly influenced by the gothic romances and novels that she reads that she consistently gets