“I am now quite cured of seeking pleasure in
society, be it country or town. A sensible man ought to find sufficient company
in himself.”
Lockwood, Page 28
Although Lockwood is not a central
character in the novel's main plot, his need to be alone reflects Emily
Brontë's preoccupation with solitude. Appreciation for solitude is what
separates the people who live at Wuthering Heights from the civilized, quiet
world of the Lintons and Thrushcross Grange. In fact, the characters who most
like to be alone––Heathcliff, Catherine Earnshaw, and Hindley––are also the
characters who are most in touch with their own passionate emotions, for better
or for worse. Brontë seems to suggest that 'finding sufficient company in
[one]self' is the only way a person can truly know who they are and what they
want.
“We don’t in general take to foreigners here,
Mr. Lockwood, unless they take to us first.”
Ellen Dean, Page 46
Ellen's early admonition evokes
specific incidents in the novel––from Lockwood's disastrous first encounter
with Heathcliff, to his eventual decision to move to London because he can no
longer bear the unpleasant atmosphere of the moors. However, it also reflects
the extreme insularity of this society more generally. The novel focuses on two
families, the Earnshaws and the Lintons, and the people in these families only
interact socially with their servants and with each other. The introduction of
Heathcliff––a "foreigner," both in the sense that he is not from the
moors, and in the sense that he is not ethnically English––proves to be a
violent disruption to this isolated society.
“I wish I had light hair and a fair skin, and
was dressed, and behaved as well, and had a chance of being as rich as he will
be!”
Heathcliff, Page 56
Heathcliff's outlook on life as a young
boy contrasts sharply with the hardened, stoic worldview he will adopt later in
life. In a rare moment of emotional earnestness, Heathcliff admits that he
envies Edgar Linton. Some of the reasons for this envy are not surprising––like
many characters in Victorian novels, Heathcliff aspires to be improve his
financial situation. However, his desire for 'light hair and a fair skin'
suggests a veiled critique of English attitudes toward foreigners. Heathcliff's
origins are uncertain, but people often call him a "gipsy," which
suggests he has Eastern European features. This would have prevented him from
moving up in society at this time, even if he did amass as much wealth as Edgar
Linton (as indeed he does later in the novel). Although Heathcliff descends
into amorality as he gets older, Brontë suggests that this is not entirely his
fault––his rejection from society contributed to this outcome as much
Heathcliff's own choices.
“I perceive that people in these regions
acquire over people in towns the value that a spider in a dungeon does over a
spider in a cottage, to their various occupants; and yet the deepened
attraction is not entirely owing to the situation of the looker-on. They do
live more in earnest, more in themselves, and less in surface, change, and
frivolous external things.”
Lockwood, Page 61
The rugged, inspiring beauty of the
Yorkshire moors is one of Wuthering Heights's
central motifs. Just as the countryside inspires wildness––but also intimacy––between
Cathy and Heathcliff, Lockwood suggests that the rural lifestyle encourages
people to be more reflective and in touch with their feelings. Many Victorian
authors, including Thomas Hardy and George Eliot, wrote novels with rustic
settings. However, Emily Brontë is unique in her tendency to associate the
natural world with powerful, atavistic emotion. Although the countryside's
ability to bring out people's deepest selves can be frightening, Brontë
suggests that spending time in the country is necessary to have a full and
passionate life.
“My love for Linton is like the foliage in the
woods: time will change it, I’m well aware, as winter changes the trees. My
love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little
visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He’s always, always in
my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but
as my own being.”
Catherine Earnshaw, Page 82
Cathy's oft-quoted declaration of love
for Heathcliff incorporates many of the novel's important themes and stylistic
qualities. When she likens her relationships with Linton and Heathcliff to
different aspects of the natural world, Cathy reinforces the connection between
nature and deep emotion that Brontë introduced earlier in the novel. By having
Cathy refer to herself and Heathcliff as the same being, Brontë further
develops some questions about the self that she addresses elsewhere in Wuthering Heights. She raises the question of how far
the bounds of the self extend––can two people really be one person, as Cathy
suggests? She also refers to the question of how one gets to know oneself. When
Cathy talks about herself, she is oddly dissociated––she describes herself
using the same terms and syntax she would use to describe another person. This
suggests that we can only understand our minds by spending time with
ourselves––the same way we would get to know any other person.
“I surveyed the weapon inquisitively. A
hideous notion struck me: how powerful I should be possessing such an
instrument! I took it from his hand, and touched the blade. He looked
astonished at the expression my face assumed during a brief second: it was not
horror, it was covetousness.”
Isabella Linton, Page 140
Isabella's fascination with the knife
illustrates Brontë's interest in the relationship between gender and power. Up
until now, Isabella has been a somewhat passive character; she rarely thought
for herself and was always under the influence of Edgar or Heathcliff. Her
realization of the power she would get from wielding a weapon foreshadows her
violent argument with Heathcliff later in the novel. Although Heathcliff wields
the knife in that fight, Isabella's choice to leave him is the first instance
in which she truly thinks for herself. Isabella's shifting relationship with
power reflects Brontë's subversion of traditional gender roles––the knife is a
very violent, phallic object, and Isabella's choice to live alone and raise a
son by herself would have been highly unusual in the nineteenth century.
“No, no! Even if he had doted on me, the
devilish nature would have revealed its existence, somehow. Catherine had an
awfully perverted taste to esteem him so dearly, knowing him so well – Monster!
would that he could be blotted out of creation, and out of my memory!”
Isabella Linton, Page 172
The characters in Wuthering Heights repeatedly refer to Heathcliff's
evil "nature." Most of them seem to assume that people are born
either good or bad, and that individuals have little control over their
personalities or their actions. This worldview helps explain the characters'
preoccupation with physical appearances. For example, Heathcliff isn't allowed
to stay at Thrushcross Grange as a child because of his dark coloration, and as
an adult, Heathcliff scorns his son Linton because of the boy's delicate, fair
appearance. For Brontë, personality is just as immutable as physical
appearance, and there is usually a correlation between the two.
“And the best of it is, Hareton is damnably
fond of me! You’ll own that I’ve outmatched Hindley there. If the dead villain
could rise from his grave to abuse me for his offspring’s wrongs, I should have
the fun of seeing the said offspring fight him back again, indignant that he
should dare to rail at the one friend he has in the world!”
Heathcliff, Page 217
Here, Heathcliff's utter lack of
empathy becomes clear, demonstrating how much he has changed since Catherine
Earnshaw's death. Not only does he take a contemptuous attitude toward Hareton
and his admiration, but he can only think of his relationship with Hareton in
terms of how it would affect the long-dead Hindley. This shows Heathcliff's
morbid fixation with the past; he continues to dwell on the cruel treatment he
received from Hindley even after the older man has died and Heathcliff exacted
his revenge by becoming the owner of Wuthering Heights. This personality trait
will crop up again when Heathcliff continues to nurse his hatred for the
Lintons after Edgar has died.
“Let him dare to force
you ... There’s law in the land, thank God! there is; though we be in an out-of-the-way place. I’d inform if he
were my own son: and it’s felony without benefit of clergy!”
Ellen Dean, Page 274
This is one of the only times that a
character in Wuthering Heightsrefers to the
people and customs of the world outside Wuthering Heights and the Grange.
Besides passing references to Gimmerton, the nearest town, the characters seem
to live in complete isolation, which helps to explain their passionate
relationships and convoluted family trees. The fact that Ellen thinks of
seeking help from the outside world indicates both the direness of the
situation when Heathcliff imprisons her and Cathy at Wuthering Heights, as well
as her common sense relative to the other characters. This contrasts sharply
with Cathy's personality; despite her liveliness, the young girl cannot
conceive of a life outside her own insular community, and her greatest ambition
as a child was only to see the other side of the hill on the edge of the
Grange.
“Linton is all I have to love in the world,
and though you have done what you could to make him hateful to me, and me to
him, you cannot make us hate each other. And I defy you to hurt him when I am
by, and I defy you to frighten me!”
Cathy Linton, Page 284
Cathy's defiant stand against
Heathcliff's attempts to control her contrasts with the fear and subservience
he inspires in virtually everyone else in the novel: Hareton, Joseph, Linton,
and even Lockwood. Cathy Linton draws her strength and passion from love,
unlike Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, who are driven by deep, animalistic
urges and only seem to care about themselves and each other. Because of this,
she represents humanity and civilization in this noticeably wild, cruel
society. Her fierce determination to love someone––even if he
may not deserve it––speaks to the absolute necessity of love in the human
psyche.
