(Chapter 1-8)
New year with new partner--Julia. Thanks for reading this book with me.
Although I planned to read Jane Eyre for January at first, after knowing that Wuthering Heights is a book about cruel love and the darkness of humanity, I switched to reading this fantastic book.
Wuthering Heights has a very traditional Victorian setting, with noble characters' names like Catherine Earnshaw and a small mansion as the place where the story happens. It is a story about the violent love between three people: Catherine Earnshaw, a beautiful but ruly upper class girl; Edgar Linton, a soft-hearted, young gentleman; and Heathcliff, a passionate yet resentful gipsy servant man who has loved Catherine since childhood. Although these three characters form the plot, the story is told by a bystander called Mr. Lockwood, a tenant of Heathcliff twenty years after the love story begins. Mr. Lockwood witnesses the cruelty and rudeness of the old Heathcliff when visiting him in the house of Wuthering Heights, in the beginning of the story. Lockwood also sees a ghostlike mid-age lady named Cathy in the dungeon of the house. Both him and I are so attracted by the weirdness of the haunted house and the unfriendly people, and thus Lockwood turns to Catherine Earnshaw's nanny and Heathcliff's servant Mrs. Dean for more details of what has happened in the past. Then Lockwood is told by the nanny that Heathcliff is a gipsy child adopted by Catherine's father more than thirty years ago, and that Heathcliff is bullied by Catherine's brother Hindley Earnshaw and other upper-class people like Edgar Linton and the servant Joseph. In the last chapter I read (Chapter 8) it was told that the ruly mistress Catherine has ambiguous relationships with both Heathcliff and Edgar, and that the mistress and Heathcliff's friendship keeps worsening as time passes since Heathcliff is growing more repulsive and repulsive against everyone in the world and turning into the thirty-years later anti-social Heathcliff.
Most of the story plot in Wuthering Heights are flashback, but it does not bother my interest in the characters' relationship. I find particularly stuck in the character Heathcliff, because of his twisted personality. He bullies Hindley Earnshaw when the old Master Earnshaw is still alive, and after the master passes away Heathcliff is revenged even more fiercely and severely by the grown-up Hindley, which drives him into a resentful and wicked man, as Mrs. Dean quotes in Chapter 7, that young Heathcliff says, "I'm trying to settle how I shall pay Hindley back... I hope he will not die before I do." Despite the fact that I usually pity the villain, I think the seed of Heathcliff's twistedness is planted in his heart since he was borne and that he deserves his punishment by Hindley Earnshaw. However I wonder if I am the only one who thinks like this, and therefore, I want to ask, do you think Heathcliff is borne wicked and deserves to be punished, or do you think he is just spoiled by the old Master Earnshaw and that Heathcliff was borne innocent?
(Chapter 1-8)
ReplyDeleteHi James, I’m also very excited to read Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. This novel devolves into the destructiveness that comes from love, the cruelty of humanity, and precariousness of one’s social standings or class. Also, while I was doing a little research on the background of the book as well as the author. I found out that wuthering was a local adjective used to describe the fierce and wild winds that blow during storms on the moors. I think that this ties in perfectly with the dark and gloomy atmosphere which seems to permeate many Victorian novels.
Now to answer your question, I do not think that Heathcliff started off with purely evil intentions but, I think that his unfortunate circumstances as a child and his subsequent bullying by Hindley drove him to his current state. I think his environment shaped him into the harsh, cruel, and powerful man whom Mr. Lockwood meets in the start of the novel. I think everyone is born with a seed of evil or twistedness, as you put it, yet Heathcliff did not deserve his punishment from Hindley. He did nothing wrong in the beginning, I believe that Hindley was taking out his own issues on Heathcliff perhaps, his own emotion abuse from his father was the cause for his behavior. Master Earnshaw did spoil and favor Heathcliff and he ignored his own son this probably spurred Hindley’s slave-like treatment of Heathcliff.
The quote that stood out to me the most in my reading was when Lockwood discovered the name scratched into the ledge he slept next to: “This writing, however, was nothing but a name repeated in all kinds of characters, large and small—Catherine Earnshaw, here and there varied to Catherine Heathcliff, and then again to Catherine Linton.” This quote establishes Lockwood as the outsider trying to discover the secrets behind Wuthering Heights and its inhabitants, former and present. He represents us as the reader, he is trying to discover the same mysteries we are. He also serves as the narrator for the book, do you think he will be a reliable narrator? Or would you prefer to have the entire book in flashbacks told from each character’s point of view? I really enjoy reading books from many point of views so I can have a more complete view of the world the book is set in.
(Chapter 9-17)
ReplyDeleteAnswering your question, I would rather read a story told by different characters in different points of view, as I think it does enable me to make a more neutral judgement, if Julia you are really interests in such kind of a story I would recommend you to read the Japanese story In a Grove. It is a murder story told by different witnesses of contradictory points of views, and I think it is the best short story I have ever read in my life.
However, back to Wuthering Heights, although the story is mostly told by Ellen Dean and narrated by Mr Lockwood, I am pretty satisfied with the neutrality of the narration, since Ellen and Lockwood do not add any comments on the history of Mr. Heathcliff, as she has pointed out herself in Chapter 17, saying to Mr Lockwood and us, "But you'll not want to hear my moralising, Mr Lockwood: you'll judge as well as I can, all these things; at least, you'll think you will and that's the same." Emily Brontë intentionally avoided adding open life lessons in the narration of the story. Although it may be harder for her to convey the theme to the readers, it allows us to judge each character independently freed from any bias and get the life lessons by ourselves, and thus I really appreciate the style of narration of Wuthering Heights, and I think it is relatively more neutral than other stories I have read.
Back to the story plot, the love triangle develops further as Catherine Earnshaw marries Edgar Linton and Heathcliff comes back as a new gentleman after fleeing Wuthering Heights. Conflicts arise when Heathcliff takes revenge on the Earnshaw family and Edgar, Heathcliff's love enemy. Heathcliff steals Isabella Linton's heart and breaks it, turns Hareton Earnshaw into an evil kid, and brings sufferings to Catherine and Hindley Earnshaw and indirectly causes their deaths. The love triangle somehow ends with Catherine's death, but Ellen does not make it clear whether the next generation, including Hareton Earnshaw and the young Cathy Linton (daughter of Catherine and Edgar), are going to undergo further sufferings or not. I finishes these nine chapters so fast since I really cannot stop reading as the dramatic plot progresses, and I feel particularly bound as I read through the deaths after Heathcliff's arrival. All those dead characters somehow deserve their fate because they all have flaws in their personalities and they made bad decisions, but I wonder, if someone is to take the blame for the tragedies, who is going to take the most. Catherine, because she abandons Heathcliff? Heathcliff, because he takes revenge on innocents, and somehow starts the entire conflicts for bullying Hindley Earnshaw? Hindley Earnshaw, because he mistreated Heathcliff and twisted his personality? Or anyone else like Joseph? I personally think it should be Heathcliff, but I would like to listen to your opinion.
(Chapters 9-17)
ReplyDeleteHi James! Thank you for the book recommendation, I really enjoy reading murder mysteries, so I will be sure to check it out. It is interesting that you pointed out that all the characters that died made bad decisions that lead to their own deaths, because that is what I wrote about in my Hamlet essay. To answer your question, I think the person most responsible for these tragedies is Heathcliff because he is the one who comes back seeking revenge. Yet, I cannot put all the blame onto Heathcliff because Hindley and the Linton family demote him from his status as an adopted son. They cause the rift between Catherine and Heathcliff in the first place, they also treat Heathcliff very cruelly without any cause. Although, Catherine herself, the woman who supposedly loves Heathcliff the most in the world rejects him too because he cannot offer her the position or the wealth that Edgar can. In the following quote from chapter nine she sums it up:
“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. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same, and [Edgar’s] is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire.”
Catherine admits that Heathcliff and her are soul mates and she loves him yet, she still chooses to except Edgar’s proposal because of familial and social pressures. Honestly, it is so frustrating when characters do things like this, they know they love someone and they can never be truly happy with the other person but, they selfishly choose to abandon the person they love and marry someone else who they can never truly love. However, I would have to put most of the blame on Heathcliff because at the end he is the one who acts on his revenge.
Okay, to wrap up my section I want to discuss Heathcliff a little more. His role in the story seems to be somewhere in between a hero and a villain, when he comes back to Wuthering Heights he takes revenge on the people who wronged him, and hurts some innocents while doing this (i.e. Isabella) yet, he does all of this because of Catherine’s betrayal and the love he still has for her. Due to him acting because of his love for her many people sympathize with his plight, do you think he is somewhat justifiable in his actions? Or do you think he should be completely condemned even if he has a broken heart?
(Chapter 18-26)
ReplyDeleteI somehow sympathized with Heathcliff when I was reading through chapter 9-17, as all he did at that time was simply cheating his love enemy's sister, Isabella Linton, which could be justified by his jealousy for Catherine Earnshaw. But as I read through chapter 18-26, where he seized the custody of Linton Heathcliff, his son with Isabella, mistreated and used him as a tool to take away the Linton's family property by marrying this only son with Catherine Linton, and taught this son to humiliate Hareton Earnshaw as a revenge to this poor servant-boy's father, I lost all my sympathy for him. First of all, I do not think Heathcliff had undergone any real trauma in his childhood but simply some despises from Hindley Earnshaw. Without such blessings as being adopted by the old Earnshaw Heathcliff would have been dead already. And second, Heathcliff did not know any love, not even for Catherine. His so-called "love" for Catherine eventually killed her. All Heathcliff did was exerting pressure on Catherine and revenged on her family for nothing. Third, Heathcliff turned the talented Hareton Earnshaw into a beast, and taught Linton Heathcliff the once light-hearted young child to humiliate Hareton. Heathcliff ruins two innocent youths' lives just for some unreasonable hatred for the world. And fourth, he even uses his dying son as a tool to take over the Grange, and somehow hurries his son's death (so that he as the father can take over the son's property).
Among all the reasons I listed, the third and the fouth explains the best why I cannot forgive Heathcliff. In his conversation with Ellen Dean about ruining Hareton Earnshaw in Chapter 21, Heathcliff said, "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!". The real deplorable villain Heathcliff did everything he could to bring sufferings to the world only for some petty affairs in his childhood. To me he is not only unjustifiable but condemnable.
So I have expressed all my anger for Heathcliff, what about you? After reading through chapter 18-26, do you have any new feelings for Heathcliff?
(Chapters 18-26)
ReplyDeleteHi James! First off, to answer your question after reading through chapters 18-26 I have grown more disgusted with his actions. Although, I can understand where his need for revenge comes from, I do not think that it justifies his terrible actions at all. In these chapters, we saw Heathcliff’s revenge take over him, it is now the driving force behind all of his actions. He takes his revenge on his bullies by punishing their children. He manipulates their children, who are complete innocents in this whole affair, he even goes as far as manipulating his own child in his plot.
“My son is prospective owner of your place, and I should not wish him to die till I was certain of being his successor. Besides, he's mine, and I want the triumph of seeing my descendant fairly lord of their estates; my child hiring their children to till their fathers' lands for wages. That is the sole consideration which can make me endure the whelp: I despise him for himself, and hate him for the memories he revives” (20.43).
He doesn’t even love his son enough to keep him out of his evil plot. Young Catherine and Linton are purely pawns in Heathcliff’s game of revenge. All he wants is to take over the Grange and he does not care who he will have to hurt in order to achieve his goals. For all these reasons this is why I am completely disgusted with Heathcliff, his revenge has gone beyond its intended targets and onto their children who are oblivious to its cause.
Something that I found interesting when reading these chapters was the generational foiling of the characters, Young Catherine’s bullying of Hareton mirrors Catherine’s taunting of Heathcliff. I found this really interesting that Bronte would mirror the characters in their own children. I think this serves as a remaindered that the issues that plague the parents often occur in the lives of the children as well. Another theory I have is that Heathcliff is purposefully trying to manipulate the children into reliving his childhood, so he can relive and reshape their childhood so he can live vicariously through them. What do you think was the intent of the author in having their children’s lives mirror their parents?
(Chapter 27-34)
ReplyDeleteHi Julia! Finally we have finished this great book! I felt as great as when I finished Crime and Punishment at the moment I flipped the last page of Wuthering Heights. It is really one of my all-time favorites and I have so many thoughts about it that I want to share. But first of all let me answer your question first. I agree that Bronte intends to reflect on Catherine and Heathcliff's childhood when writing about young Cathy's bullying of Hareton, but I don't think Heathcliff means to relive his life through the two young people. I think, first, if Heathcliff were, he would not have mistreated Hareton and Cathy. And second, I see in Heathcliff only his violent love for Catherine and his hatred of the world (mainly because of his miserable childhood), and repeating the misery does not enable Heathcliff to relive. I believe, that the only reason Heathcliff mistreats the two young people are for revenge on Hindley and Edgar. However, I agree there is intent in Bronte to reflect the old's lives in the youngs, and the reasons behind this are that Heathcliff's revenge on the youngs and his later retrieval of his conscience complete his complicated life (like the deaths of Gertrude and Ophelia complete Hamlet's life for love), and that the romance between Hareton and Cathy in the end serves as the perfection of Heathcliff-Catherine tragedy, a bettered, regretless version. Though seen as one of the greatest English tragedies, Wuthering Heights would not be complete without the happy ending of young Cathy and Hareton, because life is a balance of joy and sadness, and stories are used to reflect on life.
I remember I was in great disgust of Heathcliff when I was working on my third entry; but after finishing the book, my hatred for him fades and I start to pity him and appreciate his eternal love for Catherine. Although Heathcliff's personality is awful, his love for the one he loves is also awfully great, and this love finally triumphs over hatred and stops him from taking further revenge. This decisive moments happens in Chapter 33, when Heathcliff was going to murder Cathy, "His black eyes flashed, he seemed ready to tear Catherine in pieces, and I was just worked up to risk coming to the rescue, when of a sudden, his fingers relaxed, he shifted his grasp from her head, to her arm, and gazed intently in her face..." Heathcliff releases Cathy because his love for Catherine comes up to his mind again, after looking into Cathy's Catherine-resembling eyes. Though violent (his love kills Catherine), Heathcliff's love is so tremendous that it overwhelms all he tribulation, anger and pride he had. Because of this, I realize that Heathcliff is not that ultimately bad as I perceived, and I choose to forgive him. What about you Julia? Do you forgive Heathcliff for his love and his final conscience?
Chapters (27-34)
ReplyDeleteHi James! I am also really excited to have finished reading this book, it was an interesting read and I am glad we got to discuss it over this month. Now to answer your question, I do think that Heathcliff has changed in the later chapters of the novel. Nelly speculated that he changed because of all the constant reminders of Catherine that haunted him, and I think that is true. Catherine reminds him of the love that still remains in his heart for her, and that love is still very strong and I believe that it conquered his quest of hate filled revenge. He loses his desire to carry out his revenge on Young Catherine and Hareton, I really admire this shift in Heathcliff. Although, I cannot completely forgive his past actions because they were horrible things, and just because someone is treated poorly that gives them no excuse to turn around and do the same thing to other people. I agree with your statement that Heathcliff is not as bad as you perceived him to be yet, I think he allowed his hatred to lead him too much and not his love that he once felt for Catherine like he should have.
Okay, now I want to discuss the ending of this book, near the end of Heathcliff’s life he describes to Nelly how he sees Catherine in the entire world:
That, however, which you may suppose the most potent to arrest my imagination, is actually the least, for what is not connected with her to me? and what does not recall her? I cannot look down to this floor, but her features are shaped on the flags! In every cloud, in every tree—filling the air at night, and caught by glimpses in every object by day, I am surrounded with her image! The most ordinary faces of men and women—my own features—mock me with a resemblance. The entire world is a dreadful collection of memoranda that she did exist, and that I have lost her!
This quote shows that everything Heathcliff does or has is surround by Catherine, he cannot escape her present. He now starts to see her in his “entire world”, this is a drastic shift from seeing her in her daughter. He appears to have a growing delusion, which ultimately haunts him till his death where he believes that they will be united again and finally be in peace. His death marks the beginning of a happy ending not only for Young Catherine and Hareton but also for Heathcliff and Catherine.