Wuthering Heights

First things first, Wuthering Heights is a fiction novel written by Emily Brontë. The incidents take place in a gloomy atmosphere, it can also be defined as the setting, named as “Wuthering Heights”, in which determines the overall plot of this novel. Brontë mostly uses the “first person” perspective because the readers mostly see the personal “I” throughout the novel especially in the first chapter. The narrator tells the story by himself (Mr. Lockwood). So, that is why the author uses personal “I”. When it comes to the setting again, it creates a gloomy atmosphere in the first chapter as well as in the whole novel.

In Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, nobility in action is difficult to obtain, because of this, Heathcliff is viewed largely as a manipulative tyrant among outside peers and observers. He was not, however, a totally evil man throughout the novel as, although his execution is morally grey, his ultimate motivations could be considered noble, or even selfless. He acted solely for the benefit of others he loved in his life; improving himself for Catherine, comforting Catherine in her last moments, and preparing his son’s future to be financially effortless. Brontë wrote Heathcliff to act questionably due to the love he felt for his immediate family to show motive is paramount in action, and although Heathcliff’s execution may be dark, his motives and person are partisan.

Emily Brontë, known for her novel Wuthering Height, was inspired for her writing through her siblings from a young age. Brontë was born in Yorkshire, England in 1818. She had one younger sibling, Anne, and four older ones, Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte, and Patrick Branwell. When Brontë and her family moved to Haworth in West Yorkshire, Maria and Elizabeth both died of tuberculosis. Emily was raised in the rural countryside in solitude, which provided a background for her Gothic novel, Wuthering Heights. When Emily, Charlotte, and Patrick were younger they would act out stories creating a fantasy realm in the rural countryside. (Krueger, Christine). In the 1840s, the three sisters, Emily, Charlotte, and Anne, had written poetry throughout

“It is a tale of usurpation, revenge, and a devilish, preternatural passion that tamer beings can scarcely recognize as love.” (Duclaux)

Catherine was unhappy during the first several months of her marriage to Edgar. Nelly compared Catherine to a thorn, before telling Lockwood that “I observed that Mr. Edgar had a deep-rooted fear of ruffling her humour” (Brontë 95). Such a fear of upsetting someone would not be necessary if they were happy. She went on to say that Catherine had experienced periods of “gloom and silence”, which Edgar attributed to her pregnancy (Brontë 96). Catherine’s mood did not shift until Heathcliff’s unexpected return from his

Separate from Heathcliff and Catherine’s interactions with each other, the former’s desire for vengeance for the injustice done to him with the latter’s quietus are inflicted on those who most remind him of the love he lost. One particular scene in which Heathcliff walks in on Cathy teaching his nephew to read has Nelly remarking on how

Catherine even reveals to Nelly that her love for Linton is temporary and false, whereas her love for Heathcliff is as eternal as “the rocks beneath” (70). Her decision shows her naivety, therefore demonstrating the destructive features of the women of the time.

This was how he showed his affection, yet it only lasted as long as Catherine had lived. Close to her death “he gnashed at [Nelly], and foamed like a mad dog,” greedily gathering Catherine to him. Nelly didn’t feel as if she “were in the company of a creature of [her] own species” anymore. Even in Heathcliff’s habitual attraction, he made it appear in a form of aggression. His emotions, compared to the other characters, are portrayed more drastically. Even Mr. Lockwood’s first encounter with Heathcliff leaves him feeling that “a tiger of venomous serpent couldn’t rouse terror in [him] equal to that of which” Heathcliff wakens. It seems the thing Heathcliff is most protective about is himself. He uses his inhumane behavior to scare off anyone unwilling to handle it, leaving him completely alone in his time of death.

The catalyst of this whole story was when Catherine got bitten by a dog at Thrushcross Grove and was forced to remain there. She returned home to Wuthering Heights a changed woman. No longer the mischievous little girl that loved to get in trouble with Heathcliff, she was a polite young lady interested in Edgar Linton. There are three definite divisions in the book, before Heathcliff and Catherine go to Thrushcross Grange, the time immediately after she returns, and life after she marries Edgar.

“A loving heart is the truest wisdom” says Charles Dickens. Having a heart that is able to love portrays the most wisdom and is relevant to modern day and Great Expectations. In Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, the readers are introduced to a boy named Pip that goes to London because a benefactor funds his journey to become a gentleman. Pip later finds out this benefactor is a convict who he met several years before. Pip is in love with a girl named Estella who he met as a young boy at Miss Havisham’s, Estella’s mother, house. Pip has confessed his love to Estella multiple times, but she continues to say that she does not love him back. Pip thinks of her in everything he does but, eventually admits that he no longer loves her. Dickens

Revenge is one of the prominent and stronger issues when it comes to justice. Most of the people when they don't get justice the first thought that cross their mind is the word "revenge". They try to get their own justice. As we see in the novel of Wuthering Heights, that is what one of the characters representing the role of Heathcliff did in the novel, he took revenge.

Love manifests in multitudinous varieties; no two loves are identical and one person can even love different people in radically different ways. In her Gothic novel Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë offers disparate depictions of love and its effects through Catherine’s affections for Heathcliff and Edgar.

Wuthering Heights is not just only a love story but a novel with great contradiction amongst the relationships of the characters. Emily Brontë has written a classic novel using several different types of tone and diction based on who was telling the story of Wuthering Heights. Not only was the novel written in a narrative style of writing but also in the form of a journal told by Mr. Lockwood. Reading the words of Wuthering Heights from both Lockwood and Nelly’s perspective gives the reader a better grasp of the true significance of Wuthering Heights.

Despite the vampire myth having such a seemingly new connotation, the story of the vampire and its interaction with its surrounding culture has been evident in all societies dating back to the beginning of literature. In the nineteenth century, many were involved in writing vampire lore, from John Polidori’s novella, The Vampyre (1819), to the works of the romantics, Coleridge, Shelly and Keats, who all wrote about characters with vampire-like qualities. (Nelson 94) In 1847, the epic of the vampire was taken down in a new light, by Emily Bronte, in her novel Wuthering Heights. The story follows the vampiric symbiotic relationship between the characters Heathcliff and Catherine, and how each portray different aspects of the legend of the vampire, creating a new take on the century old tale. Through this Bronte makes a commentary on the social structure of nineteenth century society.

Wuthering Heights is a great literary work which keeps the audience exited while going through the novel. Some novels are monotonous in the way they are written and lack ideas to keep the novel move forward but this novel is an exception. Author keeps the audience guessing throughout this novel and that is one of the fundamental reasons for acceptance of this book even by the audience of this generation. Wuthering Heights basically revolves around its two main characters Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff .The novel portrays the emotional and destructive love between its two central characters mentioned above. Catherine and Heathcliff's love heads to a totally different direction as we move forward the novel. Even though beginning of the novel shows the love to be true and unconditional it changes rapidly to infatuation from Catherine the female lead character in the novel. This change of attitude actually makes the novel exiting and it ultimately leads the way to one of the main themes of the novel –revenge. I would be focusing on the significance of the theme ‘revenge’ in this work by Emily Bronte.