Romantic philosophers proposed that every person or entity had its own individual universe that only the person or entity itself could observe. This Romantic self was desperate to connect to others and yearned for love, a mutual connection between two understanding parties that could allow the lonely self to access a universe outside of its own. If the longing to love and connect with this other person was a legitimate desire from the person’s true energy, then Romantic philosopher William Blake would say that it was pure and correct and must be followed. Tragically, many people fail to understand their energies and chase after what they think they want but what will bring no real joy to them. To truly love and connect to another, one must …show more content…
When Catherine I returns from Thrushcross Grange, she is unrecognizable to Heathcliff because she has evolved into a more complete version of herself that he cannot accept. Cathy I tries to embrace Heathcliff in a hug and, as William Blake would say, momentarily touch souls, but Heathcliff adopts a “black”, “cross” expression, because the Catherine I that has returned is not the Catherine I that he wanted back (Brontë 42). Heathcliff’s “shame and pride [throw] double gloom over his countenance, and [keep] him immoveable” (Brontë 42). He stares at the girl he thought was his other half and cannot find anything familiar under the perfect dress and neat coils of silken hair. Heathcliff is “immoveable” in that he will not be swayed to the new Cathy I’s side, even if she contained this version of herself within all along. He mistakenly thinks that he is only in love with the Catherine I whom he thought he knew, rather than the person that Catherine I actually is, which includes Thrushcross Grange’s influence. By forcing Cathy I into the walls of his perception, Heathcliff erases her personhood completely. While Heathcliff clings to the Catherine I that he remembers, Cathy I believes that if she belongs partially at Thrushcross Grange, then he must as well. Cathy I likes the person she became at Thrushcross Grange because she always had some Grange in her
Her every need is taken care of. Later, when she is confronted by Heathcliff, she is reminded of Wuthering Heights and begins to miss the place she once was so eager to leave. Catherine begins to see the Grange as superficial and confining, and at first she is only annoyed by this, but eventually the suffocating enclosure causes Catherine to lash out at her husband and all the Grange represents. Catherine, aware of her incestuous attraction to Heathcliff, believes the Grange is destroying her, and because of her disgust of the Grange and her sense of guilt, it does. In the process, Edgar too must suffer Catherine's pain because of his love for her.
Harsh, wild and unforgiving; the Yorkshire moors on which Emily Brontë played, provided the backdrop and catalyst of turmoil in her most tragic book Wuthering Heights. Born in 1818 in rural England, Haworth she lived in the heart of these wild, desolate expanses which provided her an escape where she truly felt at home and where her imagination flourished. Along with her sisters and brother, the Brontë children in their pastimes would often create stories and poems largely based on their playful ramblings in this environment.
The curious life Emily Bronte, author of Wuthering Heights and a collection of poems, has been highly analyzed alongside those of her sisters and fellow writers, Charlotte and Anne, for decades. Born in 1818, Emily was the fifth of six children born to Patrick and Maria Bronte. Her father was curate of Haworth parsonage in Yorkshire, England, a home for local clergymen, where Emily spent nearly all of her life. The lonely parsonage offered few companions for Bronte besides her family, but included a large library which consumed her childhood. Bronte never married, and much of her later life was filled with caring for her alcoholic brother, Branwell. This solitary life and experience with Branwell seems to have heavily influenced Wuthering Heights, the only novel written by Bronte, which centers on a similar setting of isolated, lonely households and contains a heavily alcoholic character.
Presently, society is constructed in such a way that the upper class and the lower class cannot work to change places unless they are extremely fortunate. The ladder of society has always existed in this manner, and many authors have chosen to explore what pushing the constraints of a set society will do. In Wuthering Heights, a novel by Emily Brontë, the social constraints of the community in which the characters live, are constantly being pushed as the characters change social classes, through marriage and hard work, and in the treatment of other characters. The actions are often motivated by a superficial impression; many interactions between the characters are based on the influence of social classes, and the changes that shift the characters from one social class to another which Brontë occurs as an overlaying theme in the story. Brontë illustrates the differences in the classes using the literary devices of imagery, symbols, dialogue, and irony. A change in the social class for a certain character leads to a change in the interactions with that character.
In the book Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, Heathcliff has taken it upon himself to seek revenge against anyone who mistreated him. While doing so, his cruel acts lead to the demise of the first generations of Earnshaws, the family who adopts him. Although his animosity is aimed to one it becomes out of control, it spreads to everyone like a disease of cruelty and heartbreak. Unfortunately a bitter childhood and betrayal of the heart turns a kind soul into an evil sour man searching for vengeance. The avengement of Heathcliff brings on the rage and corruption to the Earnshaw – Linton families tearing through the first generation.
Vengeance unleashes its utmost immoral behaviors in its perpetrators. And although its success brings temporary happiness, it ultimately rewards remorse. In the novel, Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte, the current tenant of Thrushcross Grange learns the history of the events that took place on the Yorkshire moors: the intense, dramatic romance between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, her betrayal of him, and Heathcliff’s resentful vengeance on the innocent heirs. In conversations of Bronte’s classic, Wuthering Heights, questions about the book’s meaning inevitably emerge. While many argue that the book focuses on love, others assert that the nature of redemption lies at the heart of the
Bette Davis said, “When a man gives his opinion, he 's a man. When a woman gives her opinion, she 's a bitch.” Feminism was always looked at as women fighting for the same rights that men have always had. A lack of feminism is just the opposite. Someone losing their femininity by allowing themselves to conform to men, to break the bond every women has gone through to break the barriers. In Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, Catherine shows her flaw in femininity over how her conformity to every man to show society 's 'norm ', her quest for money and not love, and she is foolish for thinking men can rule her life.
“It is a tale of usurpation, revenge, and a devilish, preternatural passion that tamer beings can scarcely recognize as love.” (Duclaux)
Wuthering Heights is a perfect example of how both denying and fulfilling a desire can lead to danger. Desire is a fascinating concept because it encompasses a multitude of things in life. You can desire someone in the sense of loving them or wanting to be with them. You can also desire to do good in the world or have a desire for a specific job. It is by no means a simple subject to talk about, especially accompanied by danger, an equally complex idea. The idea of danger can be physically, mentally, and emotionally straining as well as societal. For example, being in danger of being harmed, being in danger of becoming depressed, or, you could even be in danger of losing your status in society. The idea of losing you status or your family name was an enormous concern during the later 1700s and early 1800s which is when this book takes place. The characters in Wuthering Heights give numerous examples of how indulging or not indulging in desire can have equally toxic outcomes. In Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte uses the character relationships to demonstrate how desire, fulfilled or not, is dangerous by showing the consequences of desire.
Primogeniture in 18th and 19th century England stemmed from the patriarchal structure within society and families. Married women did not have status outside that of their husbands. Husbands had legal and domestic agency over their wives and their household. Women were expected to submit to their husband’s wishes, and could not vote, own or control property. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë examines these elements of 18th and 19th century English society with examples of relationships in which women were treated as the property of men, and how as a result, women were denied the legal status to own and have agency over property.
In "Wuthering Heights," we see tragedies follow one by one, most of which are focused around Heathcliff, the antihero of the novel. After the troubled childhood Heathcliff goes through, he becomes embittered towards the world and loses interest in everything but Catherine Earnshaw –his childhood sweetheart whom he had instantly fallen in love with.—and revenge upon anyone who had tried to keep them apart.
In the haunting book Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, love, rejection, and revenge are the main topic points of this composition. Rejection is a very large factor in this book: Catherine rejects Heathcliff because he is poor, to marry Edgar for money, and she ends up rejecting him as well. But all that is on Heathcliff’s mind is Catherine’s rejection of him and the revenge he wants to get on Edgar and Hindley. Throughout the book, Heathcliff’s want for the love of Catherine and his feel of rejection with her get stronger and stronger as well when Catherine’s ghost ignores him. Though rejection is the theme and revenge is a large portion of Wuthering Heights, a main key point is love. The love Catherine has for Heathcliff, the love Catherine has for Edgar’s money, Edgar’s love for Catherine, and Heathcliff’s love for Catherine. Heathcliff’s entire existence is wildly obsessed with Catherine and her ghost after she passes. Although Wuthering Heights does have some lighthearted moments, rejection and a dark love, revenge, and the psychology behind it all are not happy-go-lucky. The characters in this novel all experience rejection, love, and revenge in different ways but Heathcliff and Catherine, whose passion for one another is an over abundance, are the characters who experience the most somber feelings of love and rejection which later cause the need for revenge.
Catherine’s life is shaped by her lack of independence and her inability to gain control. She is entirely dependent on the dominant male figures in her life that guard her freedom. She is confined by the limitations that are set in place by men, unable to defy their power. Rebelling in such a way would threaten her position within the household that she lives and potentially ruin her respectable reputation. This dismissal and rejection by men would eventually lead to Catherine’s death, which becomes evident in her later decision to challenge her assigned role in the hierarchy of gender. As a young child, Catherine and Heathcliff spent a lot of time together; they were practically
Terry Eagleton once stated that Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë “is ideological because it represents a ‘world view’- it represents conflicts without being fragmented by conflict itself” (Wuthering Heights: AS & A2 York Notes). This quote perfectly embodies Wuthering Heights from a deconstructive perspective, which involves a very thorough reading of texts in an effort to demonstrate that every text has contradictory meanings, rather than having one pleasant and rational meaning as in most literary cases. As a result, analyzing a text through deconstructive criticism helps reveal the intricate themes that are considerably more definitive in comparison to the theme that one sees on the surface. In this sense, the key purpose of this analysis is to unearth the numerous different meanings of the text as indicated in the previous statement and through that understand the “binary meanings” of the text as whole (Analysis of Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë).
While at Thrushcross Grange, she grows infatuated with Edgar, despite her love for Heathcliff. Edgar came from an upper class family as well and took care of her when she was in a dog accident. This leads to her acceptance of Edgar Linton’s marriage proposal despite her statements regarding her love for Heathcliff. Heathcliff overhears unfortunate passages of Catherine's discourse and disappears for a period during which he mysteriously makes his fortune and changes irrevocably from the person he was. Vengeance consumes him, and Heathcliff attempts to destroy the lives of those who wronged him, (as well as their children). Ultimately, Heathcliff’s bitterly executed vengeance is effaced by a love between Hareton and Cathy that mirrors Heathcliff’s own love for Catherine. Hareton is Catherine’s nephew and Cathy is Catherine’s daughter, which makes the two first cousins.