Wuthering Heights Sparknotes

Catherine Earnshaw: A woman confused about her own identity and her love, ultimately led her to choose status and power over love. In fact, since the commencement of Catherine’s story, the readers are able to see that her character transforms from being high-spirited and rebellious into a “proper girl.” This notion of a “proper girl,” is derived from the standards that society sets. There is a particular way in which one acts, due to its class or status. For instance, Catherine exhibits this in Chapter 9, when she informs Nelly, “

A variety of narrative devices can be utilized by an author to enhance a story. One such device that uses ambiguity to create powerful effects is the supernatural, which is “[divided] into three categories [...one of them being the uncanny,] in which [a] rational explanation of the supernatural phenomena is possible” (Lodge 212). In order to make a rational explanation of a supernatural event more believable, typically a classic rhetoric of the uncanny will use first person narration and discourse in a documentary form to make the story seem predictable, and therefore more believable (Lodge 214). Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights” uses the uncanny to create a double interpretation of the ghost scene in chapter three where the reader can accept either a rational or supernatural explanation to the events that occurred.

Heathcliff resents her scorn. He desires to regain her approval. He attempts to be “decent” and “good” for her sake (Brontë 40). However, his attempt to be decent fails miserably. He resents the attentions that Catherine gives to Edgar. Catherine would rather wear a “silly frock” and have dinner with “silly friends” than ramble about the moors with him (Brontë 50). Heathcliff keeps track of the evenings Catherine spends with Edgar and those that she spends with him. He desperately wants to be with Catherine. When Catherine announces to Nelly her engagement to Edgar, Heathcliff eavesdrops, but leaves the room when he “heard Catherine say it would degrade her to marry him” (Brontë 59). Catherine has spurned his love, choosing Edgar over him. Heathcliff cannot bear this rejection. The love he possesses for her transcends romantic and filial love (Mitchell 124). He feels that he is one with her (Mitchell 123).

Nelly's own reaction to Catherine's violence in this scene is representative of someone who knows Catherine's true character, having lived in the same house with her all their lives. Nelly knows only too well Catherine's propensity for using emotional persuasion and has no patience for it. In fact, Nelly's refusal to stop cleaning in front of company reflects a certain antagonism toward Catherine; Nelly admits that she "relished mortifying her vanity now and then." In response to Catherine's pinch and slap, Nelly exclaims, "Oh, Miss, that's a nasty trick! You have no right to nip me, and I'm not going to bear it." Nelly is as intolerant to Catherine's emotional abuse as Edgar is in denial of

As we know Nelly is not fond of Catherine at all. She knew how emotional she was and Nelly felt as if Catherine would use her emotional fits to get her own way. Nelly felt as if Catherine was arrogant as she said "I own I did not like her, after her fancy was past; and I vexed her frequently by trying to bring down her arrogance;

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

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

In chapter nine, she discloses her fear that her dream may be a warning of what will become of her if she neglects her heart’s desires and succumbs to her obsession with wealth by marrying Edgar Linton. Distressed and in search of consolation, Catherine asks her maid, “‘Nelly, do you never dream queer dreams?’” (Brontë 49). Catherine proceeds to say, “I’ve dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas: they’ve gone through me, like wine through water, and altered the colour of my mind” (49). The simile used here, “like wine through water,” is symbolic of herself and her obsession.

Nelly’s views consist of her thinking that Catherine uses her overwhelming emotions to get people to sway in her convenience. She also believes that she gets almost whatever she pleases in life. In no way does Nelly believe for a moment that Catherine uses her intelligence to help her against other people. But she believes that her emotions alone let her control other people by getting what she wants by throwing fits.

She wanted Nelly to leave them alone and when she wouldn’t Catherine pinched her hard and slapped her. When Catherine realized Edgar saw what she did Nelly says “ She dropped down on her knees by a chair, and set to weeping in serious

Here, she tells Nelly that marrying Heathcliff would degrade her, and she would’ve married him if he wasn’t a disgrace to marry. She also says “Nelly, I see now, you think me a selfish wretch; but did it never strike you that if Heathcliff and I married we should be beggars? Whereas, if I marry Linton, I can aid Heathcliff to rise, and place him out of my brother's power?” (Bronte 87). Catherine believes that by marrying Edgar, she could help Heathcliff with his financial state and free him from Hedley. However that doesn’t happen, because Heathcliff overhears the part where she tells Nelly that it would degrade her to marry him and he decides to leave Wuthering Heights.

Also adding to the fact that the two manors are better understood as two different worlds. Even though Catherine grew up in Heathcliff’s world, her move has caused her to change making their love impossible to pursue. Since then, she comes to spend more time with Edgar while cutting time to be with Heathcliff. She explains to Nelly her reasons for taking Edgars hand in marriage “the ground under his feet, and the air over his head, and every- thing he touches, and every word he says—I love all his looks, and all his actions, and him entirely, and altogether” (Bronte) It is undeniable that her love for Edgar is based off his prestige and not entirely for who he is.

Catherine is a beautiful woman, but she gets mostly everything she wants and is sometimes arrogant. She has an uncontrollable attraction for Heathcliff but her social ambition pulls her towards Edger. She basically makes the lives of the men that love her suck. That may not effect Nelly's beliefs because she hasn't had a love affair with Catherine like Edger has. Nelly and Edgar's beliefs about Catherine are obviously very different throughout the story.

The description of the setting of Wuthering Heights is described so thoroughly, which emphasizes the gothic tradition in this book. It is 1801 and Mr. Lockwood, a new tenant at Thrushcross Grange, writes in his diary that he has rented a house in the Yorkshire countryside, or New England. After he arrived there, he visits his landlord, Mr. Heathcliff. Heathcliff lives

With this description, Catherine emphasizes the social values of the eighteenth century through her willingness to defy authority and reason, pitting her against the strict societal expectations of the era. However, the exposure of Catherine to Thrushcross Grange as she stays at the manor to recover from the injury to her ankle, prompts a transformation in her romanticist character that openly explores the cultural values of the Yorkshire Manors. The civility of the Lintons in Thrushcross Grange transforms the once-defiant and youthful Catherine into a mature and well-groomed lady that develops an internal conflict between her love for the well-mannered and wealthy Edgar Linton and the lowly Heathcliff. In Brontë’s novel, Catherine emphasizes her characterization in a scene where she laments this internal conflict saying, “I've no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in heaven; and if the wicked man in there had not brought Heathcliff so low, I shouldn't have thought of it. It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love him” (Brontë