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Leonard
Woolf was a political theorist, author, publisher and a civil servant and
identified as a liberal intellectual and was in the habit of carrying 70
volumes of complete works of Voltaire in his luggage during his travels.
During his university career in
Cambridge his close associates were Lytton Strachey, John Maynard, Clive
Bell, E.M.Forster, Desmond Mccathry and Thoby Stephen.
They formed ‘Bloomsbury Group’
comprised of intellectuals of the calibre of Virginia Woolf who was the wife
of Leonard Woolf.
Just after his graduation In
the year 1904 Leonard Woolf came to Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) and became a
cadet in the Ceylon Civil Service under the British Colonial Administration.
First he served in the Jaffna
peninsula and later in Kandy and again in the year 1908 he was promoted
Assistant Government Agent of Hambantota district considered as the least
developed district in the country.
After serving three years in
the Hambantota district as the Government Agent out of seven years stay in
Sri Lanka, Leonard Woolf left Sri Lanka in 1911 and got married to Virginia
in 1912.
Woolf studied both languages of
Tamil and Sinhala which facilitated him in his communication with the
villagers of grass root levels.
An analytical study of Village
in the Jungle reveals Leonard Woolf's mastery of Sinhala colloquial
expressions of simple rural folk of Sri Lanka.
He has made use of expressions
of the villagers in conversation during their day-to-day activities and also
the filthy language when they lost their temper. ‘When the belly is empty the
mouth talks of rice.’‘Vesi! vesi mau ! (How Silindu reacted when his wife
Dingihami gave birth to twins of two girls the characters of Punchi Menika
and Hinnihami in the novel.)
In addition, Woolf’s
exceptional knowledge on Buddhism, Jataka stories, hinduism, superstitions,
rituals, traditions, customs and agricultural methods of the country helped
him in creating an authentic milieu to his tragic narration of ‘Village in
the Jungle’ published in 1913.
‘The Buddha said, kill not at
all, kill nothing. It is a sin to kill.
(This was the sermon given by
by the old man to Silindu on his way to prison after killings.) Woolf had
implied the effects of redemption taken place in the mind of Silindu just
after listening the basic tenets of Buddhism.
‘The Village in the Jungle’
(Beddegama) compiled by Woolf can be identified as a tragedy of vast
dimensions unfolding the stark reality of every facet of lives of rustic
communities exploited by numerous forces including outside influences.
It is not an exaggeration to
say that the reader of the novel ‘Village in the Jungle’ never feels leaving
it till the last page which is of highly emotive in nature.
Evil forces lurking in the
jungle, corruption rampant among the members of the administrative hierarchy
and superstitions, effects of fate, poverty and hunger, alienation,
exploitation and discrimination of simple villagers are the numerous themes
highlighted by Woolf in his novel.
‘A man may wash himself clean
of oil, but however much he rubs himself he will never rub off fate.’(Chapter
vii.)
Woolf had constantly
highlighted the corruption rampant among the peons, koralas and jail guards
who were in the habit of obtaining bribes even to provide some information as
experienced by Punchi Menika when she reached the Prison of Tangalla.
Mudalali Fernando tried to
obtain a sexual bribe from Punchi Menika to relieve their family of debts and
to offer her husband Babun a job as a gambaraya This was the situation during
the Colonial era in Ceylon but now in post independent Sri Lanka the
situation has become worst.
The novel can be considered a
treatise on the socio-economic study comprising every aspect of the lives of
the people of a remote hamlet in Ceylon under the British Colonial
Administration.
‘Beddagama’ was the name of the
village in the jungle and it originally comprised 10 wattle and daub huts and
at the end Woolf had given a vivid description of how the last house where
Punchi Menika lived in isolation disappeared.
When she was struggling for
survival in her hut all alone Punchi Menika reminisced on the evil powers and
devils reigning in the jungle.
This was constantly reminded to
her by Silindu whenever she was with him in the jungle.
‘Did I not often tell you of
the devils of the trees that lurk for you by the way?
I have stood by you against
them in the day. I have held you in my arms when they howled about the house
at night.’
Woolf had symbolically
portrayed the evil forces of the jungle and the effects of fate in his
narration.
‘When the end was close upon
her a great black shadow glided into the doorway.
Two little eyes twinkled at her
steadily, two immense white tusks curled up gleaming against the darkness.’
‘Appochchi, Appochchi’ she
screamed. ‘He has come, the devil from the bush.
He has come to me as you said.
Aiyo! Save me, save me! Apochchi!, were the last words of Punchi Menika.
Woolf had woven a closely knit
story based on a family alienated and discriminated by the rest of the
families of Beddagama.
Silindu was the protagonist of
the story and he and his two daughters Hinnihamy and Punchi Menika were
inextricably interlinked to the jungle and its evil forces, devils and its
wild animals.
In addition to the unseen evil
forces lurking in the jungle the outside intruders to Beddagama brought
endless problems to their family.
Silindu and his family were
fully aware of the nature of the jungle and lived along with the evil forces
and the devils suffering silently and never making an attempt overcome
them.Silidu mistakenly believed by killing of two intruders to his family could
put an end to all the misery.
Woolf had attributed misery,
sorrow and tragedy destroyed the peace and harmony of Silindu’s family and
the disintegration of the whole village to the outsiders who intruded
Beddagama in order fulfill their vicious desires.
Throughout the story Wolf had
given detailed descriptions about the abject poverty perpetual starvation and
the deaths occurred on daily basis due to the affliction of malaria.
This was the atmosphere that
pervaded the villagers of Beddagama in addition to the catstrophic effects
caused chiefly by the non- availability of rain water for chena and paddy
cultivations. ‘Usually the villagers lived entirely by cultivating
chenas.’(Ch. 1) ‘hunger and the fear of hunger always lay upon the village.’
‘It was only for a few months
each year after the crop was reaped that the villagers knew the daily comfort
of a fully belly.’
Woolf could gather vital
information during his frequent circuit visits to remote villages of
Hambantota district.
‘Village in the Jungle’ is based on his
diary notes he had made during his visits to the remote villages of Hambantoa
district.
His unique knowledge on chena
cultivation is evident by the authentic description given in the first
chapter of the novel. ‘In August every man took a katty and went out into the
jungle and cut down the undergrowth, over an acre or two. Then he returned
home. In September he went out again and set fire to the dead undergrowth.’
As a writer deeply involved in political ideology of Liberal Party and a keen
student of sociology, Woolf put into practice his knowledge when he assumed
duties as the Government Agent of Hambantota.
Even though he was a British
national he visited the remote village areas to gather firsthand information
of the issues affecting the marginalised rural communities of the Hambantota
district. Prof. Yasmin Goonaratne backed by her academic expertise on oriental
and occidental literature and cultural diversities has done a comprehensive
research on the conflict that emerged in between the two cultures which is
vividly portrayed by Woolf in his narration on Beddagama.
The themes depicted in the
novel bear some parallelism to the themes highlighted in the novels of
Rudyard Kipling, Joseph Conrad and E.M.Foster belong to the genre of British
Colonial literature.
Catherine and Heathcliff’s passion for one
another seems to be the center of Wuthering Heights, given
that it is stronger and more lasting than any other emotion displayed in the
novel, and that it is the source of most of the major conflicts that structure
the novel’s plot. As she tells Catherine and Heathcliff’s story, Nelly
criticizes both of them harshly, condemning their passion as immoral, but
this passion is obviously one of the most compelling and memorable aspects of
the book.
It
is not easy to decide whether Brontë intends the reader to condemn these
lovers as blameworthy or to idealize them as romantic heroes whose love
transcends social norms and conventional morality. The book is actually
structured around two parallel love stories, the first half of the novel
centering on the love between Catherine and Heathcliff, while the less
dramatic second half features the developing love between young Catherine and
Hareton. In contrast to the first, the latter tale ends happily, restoring
peace and order to Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange.
The differences
between the two love stories contribute to the reader’s understanding of why
each ends the way it does. The most important feature of young Catherine and
Hareton’s love story is that it involves growth and change. Early in the
novel Hareton seems irredeemably brutal, savage, and illiterate, but over
time he becomes a loyal friend to young Catherine and learns to read. When
young Catherine first meets Hareton he seems completely alien to her world,
yet her attitude also evolves from contempt to love.
Catherine and
Heathcliff’s love, on the other hand, is rooted in their childhood and is
marked by the refusal to change. In choosing to marry Edgar, Catherine seeks
a more genteel life, but she refuses to adapt to her role as wife, either by
sacrificing Heathcliff or embracing Edgar. In Chapter XII she suggests to
Nelly that the years since she was twelve years old and her father died have
been like a blank to her, and she longs to return to the moors of her
childhood. Heathcliff, for his part, possesses a seemingly superhuman ability
to maintain the same attitude and to nurse the same grudges over many years.
Moreover, Catherine and Heathcliff’s love is based on their shared perception
that they are identical. Catherine declares, famously, “I am Heathcliff,” while Heathcliff, upon Catherine’s
death, wails that he cannot live without his “soul,” meaning Catherine. Their
love denies difference, and is strangely asexual. The two do not kiss in dark
corners or arrange secret trysts, as adulterers do.
Given that
Catherine and Heathcliff’s love is based upon their refusal to change over
time or embrace difference in others, it is fitting that the disastrous
problems of their generation are overcome not by some climactic reversal, but
simply by the inexorable passage of time, and the rise of a new and distinct
generation. Ultimately, Wuthering Heights presents
a vision of life as a process of change, and celebrates this process over and
against the romantic intensity of its principal characters.
The Precariousness of Social Class
As
members of the gentry, the Earnshaws and the Lintons occupy a somewhat
precarious place within the hierarchy of late eighteenth- and early
nineteenth-century British society. At the top of British society was the
royalty, followed by the aristocracy, then by the gentry, and then by the
lower classes, who made up the vast majority of the population. Although the
gentry, or upper middle class, possessed servants and often large estates,
they held a nonetheless fragile social position. The social status of
aristocrats was a formal and settled matter, because aristocrats had official
titles.
Members
of the gentry, however, held no titles, and their status was thus subject to
change. A man might see himself as a gentleman but find, to his
embarrassment, that his neighbors did not share this view. A discussion of
whether or not a man was really a gentleman would consider such questions as
how much land he owned, how many tenants and servants he had, how he spoke,
whether he kept horses and a carriage, and whether his money came from land
or “trade”—gentlemen scorned banking and commercial activities.
Considerations of
class status often crucially inform the characters’ motivations in Wuthering Heights. Catherine’s decision to marry Edgar so
that she will be “the greatest woman of the neighborhood” is only the most
obvious example. The Lintons are relatively firm in their gentry status but
nonetheless take great pains to prove this status through their behaviors.
The Earnshaws, on the other hand, rest on much shakier ground socially. They
do not have a carriage, they have less land, and their house, as Lockwood
remarks with great puzzlement, resembles that of a “homely, northern farmer”
and not that of a gentleman. The shifting nature of social status is
demonstrated most strikingly in Heathcliff’s trajectory from homeless waif to
young gentleman-by-adoption to common laborer to gentleman again (although
the status-conscious Lockwood remarks that Heathcliff is only a gentleman in
“dress and manners”).
The Futility of Revenge
Revenge
is a central focus of Heathcliff’s life and, in fact, drives most of the
decisions he makes later in the novel. Though Heathcliff gains some bitter
satisfaction through causing pain for others, he does not achieve any
personal happiness. Instead, his single-minded pursuit of revenge leaves him
empty and exhausted. After being tormented by Hindley as a child, Heathcliff
becomes obsessed with the idea of getting revenge. By taking advantage of
Hindley’s debt, Heathcliff gains control of Wuthering Heights and becomes the
master of the house, a great irony considering he was once forced to work
there as a de facto servant.
Heathcliff
seeks further revenge on Hindley by raising Hareton, who should have grown up
to be a gentleman and a landowner, like a common servant, forcing on the boy
the same indignity Hindley had once heaped on Heathcliff. Heathcliff is fully
aware of his cruelty. As he explains to Nelly, he understands and desire
Hareton’s suffering: “I know what he suffers now, for instance, exactly—it is
merely a beginning of what he shall suffer, though.” Moreover, Heathcliff has
the perverse pleasure of knowing Hareton loves and respects him no matter how
badly he treats him.
Heathcliff
eventually achieves his entire plan of revenge, including marrying Cathy and
Linton so that he also gains control of the Grange. However, Heathcliff’s
death, alone and desperate for his lost love, represents the futility of his
struggle. Though he achieved his desired revenge on those, living and dead,
who had wronged him, he remains unfulfilled in his true desire—to be reunited
with Cathy, which can only be achieved in death.
Injustice Versus the Necessity of the Class System
Social
class is presented as an ambivalent theme in the novel. On one hand, Brontë
seems to argue that social class is an arbitrary distinction that prevents
people from being happy. On the other, she shows disruptions to social class
as negative forces that have to be eliminated in order for peace and order to
be restored. As a young child, the fact that Heathcliff is treated
differently simply because of his family background seems to be clearly
unfair. Nelly tries to console him by suggesting that he imagine the
background he might have: “I would frame high notions of my birth and the
thoughts of what I was should give me courage and dignity to support the
oppressions of a little farmer.” This consolation is particularly poignant
coming from a servant who also has to reconcile herself with her own class
position even though she is essential to everyone’s lives.
However,
while Brontë seems to be sympathetic to Heathcliff’s frustration with the
class system, she also implies that he goes too far when he tries to disrupt
it and insert himself. Nelly pointedly calls Hareton “the last of the ancient
Earnshaw stock” and later refers to him as someone who “should be the first
gentleman of the neighborhood.” When Heathcliff dies, Joseph thanks God that
“the lawful master and the ancient stock were restored to their rights.”
Interestingly, it is servants who express the strongest support for proper
inheritance and tradition. Peace and happiness are restored to both houses
only when Heathcliff and his son have passed away, and Hareton and Cathy are
united as the inheritors of the Linton and Earnshaw legacies. Heathcliff
achieves his vision of lying next to Cathy for eternity, but he has to be
wiped out of the class system if anyone can lead happy and peaceful
lives.
Of the major themes in Wuthering
Heights, the nature of love — both romantic and brotherly but, oddly enough,
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. Brontë's
exploration of love is best discussed in the context of good versus evil
(which is another way of saying 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 supercedes
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.
Heathcliff 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.
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