Of the
major themes in Wuthering Heights, the nature of love, both romantic
and brotherly but, not erotic, applies to the principal characters as well as
the minor ones. Every relationship in the text is strained at one point or
another. Bronte’s exploration of love is best discussed in the context of good
versus evil or love versus hate. Although the polarities between good and evil
are easily understood, the differences are not that easily applied to the
characters and their actions.
The most important relationship is the one between Heathcliff and
Catherine. The nature of their love seems to go beyond the kind of love most
people know. In fact, it is as if their love is beyond this world, belonging on
a spiritual plane that supersedes anything available to everyone else on Earth.
Their love seems to be born out of their rebellion and not merely a sexual
desire. They both, however, do not fully understand the nature of their love,
for they betray one another: Each of them marry a person whom they know they do
not love as much as they love each other.
Contrasting the capacity for love is the ability to hate. And
Heathcliff hates with a vengeance. He initially focuses his hate toward
Hindley, then to Edgar, and then to a certain extent, to Catherine. Because of
his hate, Heathcliff resorts to what is another major theme in Wuthering Heights, revenge. Hate and revenge intertwine with
selfishness to reveal the conflicting emotions that drive people to do things
that are not particularly nice or rationale. Some choices are regretted while
others are relished.
These emotions make the majority of the characters in Wuthering Heights well rounded and more than just traditional
stereotypes. Instead of symbolizing a particular emotion, characters symbolize
real people with real, oftentimes not-so-nice emotions. Every character has at
least one redeeming trait or action with which the reader can empathize. This
empathy is a result of the complex nature of the characters and results in a
depiction of life in the Victorian Era, a time when people behaved very
similarly to the way they do today.
Wuthering Heights explores
a variety of kinds of love. Love on display in the novel includes Heathcliff
and Catherine's all-consuming passion for each other, which while noble in its purity,
is also terribly destructive. The love between Catherine and Edgar is proper
and civilized rather than passionate. Theirs is a love of peace and comfort, a
socially acceptable love, but it can't stand in the way of Heathcliff and
Catherine's more profound and more violent connection.
The
love between Cathy and Linton is a grotesque exaggeration of that between
Catherine and Edgar. While Catherine always seems just a bit too strong for
Edgar, Cathy and Linton's love is founded on Linton's weakness,
Linton gets Cathy to love him by playing on her desire to protect and mother him.
Finally, there's the love between Cathy and Hareton, which seems to balance the
traits of the other loves on display. They have the passion of Catherine and
Heathcliff without the destructiveness, and the gentleness shared by Edgar and
Catherine without the dullness or inequality in power.
Written when gender roles were far more rigid and
defined than they are now, Wuthering
Heights examines stereotypes of masculinity and
femininity. Emily Brontë constantly contrasts masculinity and femininity, but
not all of the comparisons are simple; sometimes boys act like girls and girls
act like boys. Edgar Linton and Linton Heathcliff,
for instance, are men, but Brontë frequently describes them as having the looks
and attributes of women. Likewise, Catherine Earnshaw has
many masculine characteristics; even though she is outrageously beautiful, she
loves rough, outdoor play and can hold her own in any fight. She is a complex
mix of hyper-feminine grace and loveliness and ultra-masculine anger and
recklessness. Heathcliff,
with his physical and mental toughness, has no such ambiguities—he is
exaggeratedly masculine and scorns his wife Isabella for her overblown
femininity.
Emily
Brontë seems to favor masculinity over femininity, even in her women. In
general, she portrays weak, delicate characters with contempt, while she treats
strong and rugged characters like Heathcliff, both Catherines, and Hareton,
with compassion and admiration, despite their flaws.
Understanding the importance of class in
eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain is essential to understanding Wuthering Heights.
Generally, at the time, people were born into a class and stayed there: if your
parents were rich and respected (like Edgar's), you would be, too; if
your parents were servants (like Nelly Dean's), you probably would
be too. Social mobility, the idea that you can change your class status.
In
Brontë's novel, however, class distinctions are constantly changing, much to
the confusion of the characters. There are two primary examples of this: Heathcliff and Hareton.
Because no one knows anything about Heathcliff's background, they all treat him
differently. Mr. Earnshaw adopts
him and treats him like a son, but the snobby Lintons refuse to socialize with
him. When he disappears for a few years and comes back rich, the characters
struggle even more over how to approach him—he now has money and land, but many
of them still consider him a farm boy. Likewise, Hareton has a hard time
gaining respect. The son of Hindley,
Hareton should be the heir to Wuthering Heights. With land and standing, he
ought to be a gentleman. However, Heathcliff refuses to educate him, and
everyone else mostly ignores him, so his manners (a very important indicator of
class status) are rough and gruff. Only when young Cathy helps educate him does
he achieve the class standing to which he was born.
Yet
while Heathcliff's revenge is effective, it seems to bring him little joy. Late
in the novel, Cathy sees this, and tells Heathcliff that her revenge
on him, no matter how miserable he makes her, is to know that he,
Heathcliff, is more miserable. And it is instructive that only
when Heathcliff loses his desire for revenge is he able to finally reconnect
with Catherine in death, and to allow Cathy and Hareton, who are so similar to
Heathcliff and Catherine, to find love and marry.
Nearly all of the action in Wuthering Heights results
from one or another character's desire for revenge. The results are cycles of
revenge that seem to endlessly repeat. Hindley takes
revenge on Heathcliff for taking his place at Wuthering Heights by denying him
an education, and in the process separates Heathcliff and Catherine.
Heathcliff then takes revenge upon Hindley by, first, dispossessing Hindley of
Wuthering Heights and by denying an education to Hareton,
Hindley's son. Heathcliff also seeks revenge on Edgar for marrying Catherine by
marrying Cathy to Linton.
Yet
while Heathcliff's revenge is effective, it seems to bring him little joy. Late
in the novel, Cathy sees this, and tells Heathcliff that her revenge on him, no
matter how miserable he makes her, is to know that he, Heathcliff, is more miserable.
And it is instructive that only when Heathcliff loses his desire for revenge is
he able to finally reconnect with Catherine in death, and to allow Cathy and
Hareton, who are so similar to Heathcliff and Catherine, to find love and
marry.
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