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Emily Bronte First^ published^
in 1847, Emily
Bronte's Wuthering Heights ranks high on the list of major works of English literature. A^ brooding tale of^ passion and 1847 revenge set^ in the Yorkshire^ moors, the novel has inspired no fewer than four film versions in mod- em times. Early critics did not like the work, cit- ing its excess of passion and its coarseness. A sec- ond edition was published in^ 1850, two^ years after
the author's death. Sympathetically prefaced by her
sister Charlotte, it met with greater success, and the
novel has continued to grow in stature ever since. In the novel a pair of narrators, Mr. Lockwood and Nelly Dean, relate the story of the foundling Heath- cliff's arrival^ at Wuthering Heights, and the close- knit bond he forms with his benefactor's daughter,
Catherine Earnshaw. One in spirit, they are none-
theless social unequals, and the saga of frustrated
yearning and destruction that follows Catherine's
refusal to marry Heathcliff is unique in the English canon. The novel is admired not least for the power of its imagery, its complex structure, and its ambi- guity, the very elements that confounded its first critics. Emily Bronte spent her short life mostly at home, and apart from her own fertile imagination, she drew her inspiration from the local landscape-
the surrounding moorlands and the regional archi-
tecture of the Yorkshire area-as well as her per- sonal experience of religion, of folklore, and of illness and death. Dealing with themes of nature, cruelty, social position, and indestructibility of the spirit, Wuthering Heights has surpassed the more successful Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre in acade- mic and popular circles.
3 0 8 N o v e I s f^ o r S^ t u d e n^ t s
Emily Jane Bronte was born on July 30,^ 1818,
to Maria Branwell and the Reverend Patrick Bronte, in Thornton, Yorkshire, England. She was the fifth of six^ children, and^ the^ fourth^ daughter. The family moved to a parsonage in Haworth in 1820, and following the death of Maria Bronte in 1821, the children's maternal aunt came to care for them. In 1825 Emily was sent to join her sisters Maria, Elizabeth, and Charlotte at school, but after an epidemic at the school claimed the lives of Maria and Elizabeth, Emily and Charlotte returned home. Emily would remain at home for the next ten years. In 1826 Patrick Bronte gave his children a set of toy soldiers, and the children began to make up sto- ries about them. A realm in Africa, called Angria, was largely the inspiration of^ Charlotte and^ brother Branwell, but^ soon^ Emily and Anne^ had invented the Pacific Island of Gondal, which would figure in (^) poems and stories they wrote throughout their lives. Emily was uncomfortable with outsiders and made only brief, intermittent attempts to construct a life for herself away from the parsonage. An un- successful experiment as Charlotte's pupil in East Yorkshire that began in 1835 ended after a year. She was similarly ill-suited for a position as assis- tant teacher at Law Hill School near Halifax. In 1842, Charlotte and Emily traveled to Brussels, Belgium, intending to study languages, but returned home later that year because of the death of their aunt, who had left them what money she had. In 1845 Charlotte discovered a private note- book of Emily's poems and persuaded her to pub- lish a selection of them. Emily reluctantly agreed, and a volume of poetry that included "Remem- brance," "The Prisoner," "The Philosopher," and "Stars" appeared in 1846. It sold only two copies, but one critic was flattering. Wuthering Heights ap- peared in 1847 under the pseudonym Ellis Bell and was panned by contemporary critics, who objected to its coarseness and brutality. In contrast, Char- lotte's novel Jane Eyre, published the same year, was a runaway success. Emily produced one^ fur- ther poem in^ 1846; Wuthering Heights^ was^ her^ only novel. In 1848 Branwell Bronte^ died,^ in part ow- ing to his dissolute ways, which^ were a^ source^ of constant concern to^ his sisters.^ Emily^ caught cold at his^ funeral and developed tuberculosis.^ Refusing to seek medical treatment, she died on December 19, 1848. The lack of biographical material about Emily
Bronte makes her an enigmatic figure and her work
difficult to evaluate. The^ poems,^ in^ particular,^ suf-
Emily Bronte
fer from a lack of context, and ambiguous punctu- ation. Although the poems are often clumsy, they show flashes of the same originality that makes Wuthering Heights so compelling. Emily Bronte did not know success during her lifetime, but de- spite the initial failure of Wuthering Heights, she has proved a giant among writers.
Part I-Childhood Set on^ the^ Yorkshire^ moors^ of^ England, Wuthering Heights opens with the comments of Mr. Lockwood, the newly arrived tenant of Thrushcross Grange. He tells of his visit to Wuthering Heights, where he encounters his landlord and neighbor, Mr.
Heathcliff; Joseph, Heathcliff's pious and surly old
servant; Hareton Earnshaw, an ignorant and im-
poverished young man; and the beautiful Cather- ine Heathcliff, widow of Heathcliff's dead son. Rough weather forces Lockwood to spend the night. He finds several old books, the margins of which had been used as a childhood diary by
Catherine Earnshaw, mother to the current Cather-
ine. Perusing these pages, Lockwood learns about
the childhood adventures of Heathcliff and the^ first
V o I u m e 2
KXWIITGTN...
3 0 9
he wants to see if the same mistreatment will af-
fect Hindley's child as Hindley's abuse affected
Heathcliff.
Twelve years later, Isabella, near death, writes to her brother (^) and asks him to care for her son af- ter her death. (^) Edgar brings Linton home, but Heath- cliff immediately demands custody of his son. (^) He reveals to Nelly his plan to see his child ruling over both Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights.
Young Catherine, daughter of Catherine and
Edgar, is not told that her cousin is so close by, but
one day on a walk on the moor, she meets (^) Heath-
cliff and Hareton and is reacquainted with Linton.
Heathcliff tells Nelly that he hopes Linton and
young Catherine will fall in^ love and marry. He boasts (^) about how he (^) has turned Hareton, a natu- rally (^) intelligent boy, into an ignorant brute, while raising his own weak and selfish son up as (^) Hare- ton's master. When Edgar hears of his (^) daughter's visit, he does his best to impress on her the evil na-
ture of Heathcliff and the importance of avoiding
the Heights. Catherine nevertheless commences a secret correspondence with Linton, which only ends when Nelly discovers the love letters and
threatens to tell Catherine's father. Heathcliff, how-
ever, convinces (^) Catherine that Linton is dying of
grief because of their broken correspondence, and
Nelly reluctantly agrees to (^) accompany Catherine on a visit to the Heights. That visit leads to a se- ries of clandestine visits by young Catherine to the
Heights. Edgar puts a stop to the visits, but finally
agrees to let Catherine and Linton meet for (^) weekly strolls on the moor. During the second of these ex- cursions, Heathcliff, knowing that Edgar is near death, tricks Catherine and Nelly into (^) entering Wuthering Heights, where he imprisons (^) them and forces Catherine to marry Linton. Catherine con- vinces Linton to help her escape, and she (^) arrives at the Grange just in time to see her dying father. Dur- ing her absence from the Heights, Heathcliff (^) forces Linton to make Heathcliff the inheritor of (^) all of his and Catherine's property. After her father's death, young Catherine is forced to return to the Heights and tend to her dying husband. He dies shortly af- ter her arrival, and Catherine, impoverished and alone, is forced to stay on at the Heights.
The day after hearing this story, Lockwood visits the Heights and gives notice that he (^) will be
leaving for London. Returning months later to set-
tle some business, he finds Thrushcross Grange de- serted and (^) matters much changed at the Heights.
Hareton and Catherine, previously sworn enemies,
have fallen in love, and Catherine is aiding Hare-
ton in his attempts to educate himself. Nelly is now employed at the Heights, and while the lovers en- joy a walk on the moor, Nelly informs (^) Lockwood of Heathcliff's (^) death, which followed four days of starvation during which he was haunted by the vi- sion of his beloved Catherine. He was buried, as requested, next to Catherine, with the adjoining sides of the two coffins removed so that their ashes could (^) mingle, and the country folks claim that a person (^) walking on the moors will sometimes see the ghosts of (^) Heathcliff and Catherine wandering their old (^) playground.
Ellen Dean One of the novel's two narrators, Nelly is loyal but conventional, and reads very little into events. In his (^) introduction to Wuthering Heights, David Daiches (^) remarks on the contrast between the tone of the narrative (^) and the high drama of the goings- on of the story: "It is to what might be called the sublime deadpan of the telling that the extraordi- nary force of the novel can largely be attributed.... At no point does Nelly throw up her hands and ex- claim: 'For God's sake, what is going on here? What kind of people are they?"' For instance, af- ter Heathcliff has spent the night in the Linton's garden bashing his head against a tree trunk, Nelly notices "several splashes of blood about the bark of the tree, and his (^) hands and forehead were both stained; probably the scene I witnessed was a rep- etition of others acted during the night. It hardly moved my compassion-it appalled me; still I felt reluctant to quit him so." Nelly's familiarity with the actors is an important element of the narration, and a hazard of her station is that she must repeat- edly be the bearer of news that will move the ac- tion in a fateful direction. On the eve of Heath- cliff's return, for example, Edgar and the first Catherine look "wonderfully peaceful," and Nelly shrinks from having to announce Heathcliff, though duty compels her to, just as she shrinks later from having to tell Heathcliff of the first Catherine's death, but does. (^) Nelly has a mind of her own, and she does not hesitate to query the first Catherine about her reasons for marrying Edgar, or to sug- gest to Heathcliff at the end of the novel that he might want to (^) make his confession before dying. Nevertheless, the kind of passion that (^) exists be- tween Heathcliff and the first Catherine is far be- yond her imagination.
V o I u m e (^2 3 1 )
rimffm-I
Still from the^ film^ Wuthering^ Heights,^ starring Merle^ Oberon^ and^ Laurence^ Olivier, 1939.
Nelly Dean See Ellen Dean
Catherine Earnshaw
Cathy Earmshaw is six when her father brings
back with him from Liverpool not the whip she asked for but the seven-year-old foundling Heath- cliff, who is soon her constant companion. Cathy is a "wild, wick slip," beautiful, and "much too fond of Heathcliff." Though capable of sweetness, she likes "to act the little mistress," and it is the aware- ness of the social differences between her and Heathcliff that lead her, despite her love for him, to marry Edgar Linton, whom she finds "handsome,
and pleasant to be with." When Nelly implies that
her reasons are superficial, Cathy tells of her plan to use Edgar's money to help Heathcliff to rise. "It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff, now," she
tells Nelly, "so he shall never know how I love
him"; yet "he's more myself than I am.... Nelly, I am Heathcliff." Five months after Cathy's marriage to Linton, during which time Nelly observes that the couple seem to be increasingly happy, Heath-
cliff returns, transformed. Their "mutual joy" at
seeing each other again is undeniable, and from that point on Cathy lives with a painfully divided heart. She refuses to respond to Edgar's request that she
choose between the two men. Although Heathcliff
has the looks and manners^ of^ a^ gentleman,^ the^ re-
venge he plans is^ diabolical,^ and^ though^ she^ loves
him, Cathy is not fooled. "He's a fierce, pitiless, wolfish man...: and he'd crush you, like a spar- row's egg," she tells an infatuated Isabella. When Cathy and Heathcliff meet for the last time, she tells him, "You and Edgar have broken my heart, Heath- cliff! ... I shall not be at peace." She dies two hours after midnight, having given birth to a "puny, seven months' child."
Cathy Earnshaw
See Catherine Earnshaw
Frances Earnshaw Wife of Hindley. Dies after giving birth to Hareton.
Hareton Earnshaw
The son of Frances and Hindley Earnshaw,
Hareton, too, is initially targeted by Heathcliff as an object of revenge, and is degraded by him. But
Heathcliff develops a grudging affection for the
boy, favoring him over his own weakling son, Lin-
ton, and when Heathcliff dies, Hareton weeps over
his body. Nelly sees him as "owning better quali-
ties than his father ever possessed. Good things lost
among a wilderness of weeds." Hareton is, how-
3 1 2 N o^ v e I s^ f^ o^ r^ S^ t^ u d e n^ t s
of what David Daiches, in his introduction to Wuthering Heights, calls Heathcliff's "natural claims" to Cathy "over the artificial claim of her husband" is welcomed by Cathy, though the strain eventually kills her. Heathcliff^ cruelly^ exploits Hindley, Isabella, Hareton, the second Catherine, and Linton, his own son. "I have no pity," he tells Nelly. Yet when the first Catherine dies, he is in- consolable, bashing his head^ repeatedly against a tree trunk: "I cannot live without my life! I^ cannot live without my soul!" And he has an obvious af- fection for Hareton, despite his determination to de- grade the boy. Heathcliff is^ largely incomprehen- sible to those around him, seemingly human and inhuman, a walking contradiction. "Is Mr. Heath- cliff a man?" Isabella writes to Nelly, following her marriage to him, "If so, is he mad? And if not, is he a devil?" Toward the end of the novel Heath- cliff confesses to Nelly that he no longer cares for revenge: "I have lost^ the^ faculty^ of^ enjoying^ their destruction." As determined to join his "immortal love" as he once was to ruin his enemies, he tells Nelly that he feels "a strange change coming," and,
forgetting to^ eat, starves^ himself.^ Even^ death,^ how-
ever, does not compose his^ features,^ and Joseph^ re- marks that he looks as though the devil has carried him off.
Catherine (^) Heathcliff See Catherine Linton
Isabella Heathcliff
See Isabella Linton
Linton Heathcliff
Linton Heathcliff is the spoiled, weakling son of Isabella and Heathcliff. He^ is^ forced^ by^ Heath- cliff to marry the second Catherine Linton to^ se- cure for Heathcliff, at Linton's death, Thrushcross Grange. Nobody except the second Catherine Lin- ton likes Linton very much; the^ housekeeper^ at^ the Heights complains to Nelly that he is "a^ faint- hearted creature" who can't bear to have the win- dow open at night. His character serves the dual purpose of^ providing^ a^ mechanism^ whereby^ Heath- cliff can acquire Thrushcross Grange^ and^ re-create the Edgar-Cathy-Heathcliff triangle of the^ previous generation. Linton dies^ soon after^ his^ marriage^ to the second Catherine.
Joseph Joseph is the curmudgeonly, judgmental long- time servant at Wuthering Heights. He believes in
eternal damnation and the likelihood of everyone he knows being bound for it, and he scolds con- stantly in a sometimes difficult-to-follow Yorkshire accent. As in the case of the narrators of the novel, Joseph's authenticity anchors the wilder elements of the story. Winifred Gerin observes in Reference Guide to English Literature that "in creating such
a character as Joseph, Emily Bronte showed that,
undoubted visionary as she was, she also had her feet firmly planted on earth."
Catherine Linton Catherine Linton is the daughter of Cathy and Edgar, beautiful, like her mother, but cooler. "Her
anger was never furious, her love never fierce,"
Nelly remarks about her. Although forced by Heathcliff to marry Linton Heathcliff, she gen- uinely seems to care for her cousin. She is obvi- ously less a force than her mother, but spirited
nonetheless, and refuses to be cowed by Heathcliff:
"You are miserable, are you not? Lonely, like the devil, and envious like him? Nobody loves^ you- nobody will cry for you, when you die!^ I^ wouldn't be you!" Although^ Catherine is^ at^ first^ put^ off^ by Hareton's loutishness, the sheer bleakness of their existence propels them^ toward each other,^ and she teaches him^ to^ read.^ They^ fall in^ love,^ and^ the^ un- derstanding at^ the end of the^ novel^ is that^ they^ will
marry and go to live^ at^ Thrushcross^ Grange.
Catherine Earnshaw Linton
See Catherine Earmshaw
Cathy Linton See Catherine Linton
Edgar Linton Edgar Linton is all the things^ Heathcliff^ is^ not: handsome, refined, kind, and^ patient,^ although^ the first Cathy later describes Edgar^ and^ his sister^ Is- abella as "spoiled children, [who]^ fancy^ the^ world was made for their accommodation." When Heath- cliff says he wishes he^ had^ Edgar's looks and breeding, Nelly retorts:^ "And cried^ for^ Mamma at
every turn, and trembled if a country lad heaved
his fist against you, and sat at home all day for a shower of rain." On the other hand, Nelly observes that the first Cathy's spells of bad humor are "re- spected with^ sympathizing silence by^ her^ husband," and that Edgar has a "deep-rooted fear of ruffling her humor." Linton loves his wife genuinely, but he is ineffectual. Unable to get her to choose^ be-
tween himself and Heathcliff, he^ retreats to^ his^ li-
brary, oblivious^ to^ her^ distress^ until alerted^ to^ it^ by
3 1 N^ o^ v^ e^ l^ s^ f^ o^ r^ S^ t^ u^ d^ e^ n^ t s
Nelly. After his wife dies, Edgar sits all night be- side her body. Taking the measure of both Edgar and Hindley, Nelly remarks that Linton "displayed the true courage of a loyal and faithful soul: he
trusted God; and God comforted him." Hindley,
with the stronger head, proved the worse and weaker man.
Isabella Linton Like her brother Edgar, Isabella is perceived by the inhabitants of Wuthering Heights as spoiled. Having glimpsed them through a window quarrel- ing amid the splendor of Thrushcross Grange, Heathcliff tells Nelly, "We laughed outright at the petted things, we did despise them!" Nelly observes that Isabella is "infantile in^ manners, though pos-
sessed of keen wit, keen feelings, and a keen tem-
per, too, if irritated." On Heathcliff's return to
Wuthering Heights after the first Cathy's marriage
to Edgar, Isabella becomes infatuated with him, de-
spite Cathy's warning that he "couldn't love a Lin-
ton." At first indifferent, Heathcliff responds when he realizes he might gain control of her property
through marriage. Once she is committed to him,
he cruelly mistreats her. Despite the abuse, Isabella refuses to help Hindley in his attempt to murder
Heathcliff, though she has enough of a sense of
self-preservation to escape back to Thrushcross
Grange, where she crushes her wedding ring with
a poker. "I can recollect yet how I loved him," she
tells Nelly, "and can dimly imagine that I could still be loving him, if-." Pregnant, Isabella flees to London, where she bears Linton. She dies when Linton is twelve, after which the boy comes to live with Heathcliff at the Heights.
Mr. Linton Father of Edgar and Isabella. He is the owner of Thrushcross Grange.
Mrs. Linton Mother of Edgar and Isabella. She takes the first Catherine in for a short while and exposed her to fine clothes and social behavior.
Mr. Lockwood The other narrator of Wuthering Heights, Mr. Lockwood is, like Nelly Dean, conventional. But he lacks Nelly's perception, and appears even a little foolish. At first he judges Heathcliff to be a "capi- tal fellow," and later he fantasizes a liaison with the second Catherine Linton. Several critics have re- marked on his name as hinting at a "locked or closed mind." In his introduction to Wuthering Heights,
David Daiches describes his general timidity: "he had aroused the love of 'a fascinating creature,' but retreated in panic when he realized it." Mr. Lock- wood foreshadows the theme of cruelty that per- vades the novel, rubbing the wrist of the ghost of the first Catherine Linton across a broken pane of glass in an attempt to loosen her grasp of his hand. Mr. Lockwood serves to vary the narrative per- spective of the novel; his view of events in the pre- sent contrasts with Nelly's retrospective view.
Zillah
A servant at Wuthering Heights.
Love and Passion Passion, particularly unnatural passion, is a
predominant theme of Wuthering Heights. The^ first
Catherine's devotion to Heathcliff is immediate and
absolute, though she will not marry him, because
to do so would degrade her. "Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same, and Lin- ton's is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire." Although there has been at least one Freudian interpretation of the text, the nature of the passion between Catherine and Heathcliff does not appear to be based on sex. David Daiches writes, "Ultimate passion is for her rather a kind of recognition of one's self-one's true and absolute self-in the object of passion." Catherine's passion is contrasted to the coolness of Linton, whose "cold blood cannot be worked into a fever." When he re- treats into his library, she explodes, "What in the name of all that feels, has he to do with books, when I am dying?"
Revenge
Heathcliff' s devotion to Catherine, on the other
hand, is ferocious, and when frustrated, he con- ceives a^ plan of revenge of enormous proportions. Catherine's brother Hindley shares her passionate nature, though he devotes most of his energies to degrading Heathcliff. In some respects the passion that Catherine and Heathcliff share is so pure that it approaches a kind of spirituality. "I cannot ex- press it," says Catherine, "but surely you and every- body have a notion that there is, or should be an existence of yours beyond you." In the characters of Heathcliff and Hindley, who both feel slighted
in love, Bronte draws a parallel between the need
for love and the strength of revenge.
V o I u m e (^2 3 1 )
haunted by Catherine's spirit for eighteen years. At the end of the novel, after Heathcliff's death, Nelly reports to Lockwood a child's claim that he has seen Heathcliff and a woman walking on the moors.
Narration The power of Wuthering Heights owes much to its complex narrative structure and to the inge- nious device of having two conventional people re- late a very unconventional tale. The story is orga- nized as a narrative within a narrative, or what some critics call "Chinese boxes." Lockwood is used to open and end the novel in the present tense, first person ("I").^ When he^ returns^ to^ Thrushcross Grange from his visit to Wuthering Heights sick and curious, Nelly cheerfully agrees to tell him about his neighbors. She picks up the narrative and continues it, also in the first person, almost until the end, with only brief interruptions by Lockwood. The critic David Daiches notes in his introduction of Wuthering Heights the "fascinating counter-
point" of "end^ retrospect^ and^ present^ impression,"
and that the^ strength^ of the^ story^ relies^ on^ Nelly's
familiarity with the main characters.
Setting The novel is set in the Yorkshire moors of Eng- land, even now a bleakly beautiful, sparsely popu- lated area of high rolling grassy hills, few trees, and scattered rocky outcroppings or patches of heather. The lowlands between the hills are marshy. The weather is changeable and, because the area is so open, sometimes wild. The exposed location of Wuthering Heights high on the moors is contrasted with the sheltered calm of^ Thrushcross Grange, which is nestled in a soft valley.^ Both seats^ reflect the characters of those who inhabit them. The de- scriptions of both houses also reflect the influence of the local architecture at the time of Bronte's writ- ing, which often incorporated a material called grit stone.
Images and Symbolism Emily Bront8's poetic vision is evident in the
imagery used throughout Wuthering Heights.
Metaphors of nature and^ the animal^ kingdom^ are pervasive. For^ example, the^ first^ Catherine de-
scribes Heathcliff to Isabella as "an arid wilderness
of furze and whinstone," and as Catherine lies^ dy- ing, Heathcliff foams "like a mad dog." References
to weather are everywhere. A violent storm blows up the night Mr. Earnshaw dies; rain pours down
the night Heathcliff runs^ off^ to^ London and^ again
the night of his death. There are many scenes of raw violence, such as the bulldog attacking Cather- ine and Isabella crushing her wedding ring with a poker. The supernatural is evoked in the many ref- erences to Heathcliff as diabolical (literally, "like
the devil") and the descriptions of the ghost of the
first Catherine Linton. David Daiches points^ out^ in his introduction to Wuthering Heights^ that the ref- erences to food and fire, and^ to^ what^ he^ calls^ do- mestic routine, help "to^ steady"^ the^ story^ and^ to give credibility to the passion.
Structure One of the major strengths of Wuthering Heights is its formal organization. The design of the time structure has significance both for its use of two narrators and because it allows the signifi-
cant events in the novel to be dated precisely,
though dates are almost never given explicitly. The triangular relationship that existed between Heath-
cliff, Catherine, and Edgar is repeated in Heath-
cliff's efforts to force young Catherine to marry Linton, though its resolution is ultimately different.
On his arrival at Wuthering Heights, Lockwood
sees the names "Catherine Earmshaw, Catherine
Linton, Catherine Heathcliff' scratched into the
windowsill. In marrying Hareton, young Catherine Heathcliff will in turn become Catherine Earnshaw,
thus completing the circle.
The Victorian Age (1837-1901) England under the reign of Queen Victoria^ was in a prolonged phase of^ expansion. The^ Industrial Revolution saw the^ transformation of^ a^ predomi- nately agricultural economy to a^ factory economy. Millions would eventually flock to London in
search of the new jobs, but Emily Bronte grew up
in the last days of rural England. The tenor of the times was conservative, and sensitive to society's unwillingness to accept women as authors, Emily, Charlotte, and Anne Bronte all published under male pseudonyms.
The tempestuous climate of northern England
in Haworth, Yorkshire, left its mark on the Bronte children, whose fascination with the expanse and
storms of the moors is emphasized^ in^ the^ novel. For
Emily, who was never happy far from home, the
V o l u m e 2 3 1 7
Compare
&
Contrast
- Late 1700s: World economies are predomi- nately agrarian. 1847: England is in the midst of an Industrial Revolution whose effects will be felt worldwide.
Workers flock to cities from the countryside.
Today: World^ economies^ are^ increasingly
linked in a (^) "global community." Intercultural communication and cultural^ diversity in the^ so- called service economy are a^ direct^ result of ad- vances in transportation and communications.
- (^) Late 1700s: Life expectancy is short, owing to harsh living and working conditions. Death in childbirth is common.
1847: Medical advances and improved public
health and sanitation decrease maternal and in- fant mortality. Today: Though high-technology medicine of-
fers solutions to many medical problems, heart
disease and cancer remain major killers, there is no cure for AIDS, and many countries grapple with increasing costs of health care for aging populations.
Late 1700s: Inheritance in England passes from the father to the first-born male. A procedure called "strict settlement" must be invoked to by- pass inheritance laws.
1847: Full legal and economic equality for women is first championed in the United States by Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Today: Women worldwide have the right to vote, except in a few Muslim countries. In the United States, while the Equal Rights Amend- ment failed to obtain ratification, women in- creasingly bring successful sexual discrimination and sexual harassment suits against employers.
local moorland and valleys, and the grit stone ar- chitecture typical of the age were the basis for the setting of Wuthering Heights. Another influence on Bronte's writing was the folklore of the Yorkshire community. Tabitha Ack- royd, a maid in the Brontd household, was a rich source of stories about fairies and ghosts. Refer- ences to folk beliefs and rituals are scattered throughout Wuthering Heights, particularly with reference to the deathwatch traditional in York- shire, as when Edgar sits the entire night with Catherine's body after her death, or to rituals sur- rounding funerals such as "bidding," an invitation to accompany a body to the grave. Extending or withholding such an invitation^ gave some indica- tion of the state of family relationships.
Illness, Death, and Funeral Customs Owing to the unforgiving climate and poor heating, illness and death were common occur- rences in Yorkshire at the time the novel was cre- ated. Ill partly as a result of his stay at Wuthering Heights, Lockwood laments, "Oh, these bleak
winds, and bitter, northern skies, and impassable
roads, and dilatory country surgeons!" Emily Bronte's older sisters Maria and Elizabeth died of tuberculosis before they were fifteen, and in Wuthering Heights, Edgar and Linton also die of wasting diseases. Maria Branwell's death when Emily was only three may be the inspiration for the many motherless children in Wuthering Heights.
A period of mourning was formally observed
after the death of a family member. The appropri- ate period of mourning depended on whether the deceased was a close or distant relative. For ex- ample, a year's mourning was usually observed for a husband or wife, and a week for the death of a second cousin. In Wuthering Heights Nelly is "bid
to get mourning"-that is, to lay out dark clothes-
for Catherine, whose aunt Isabella has died. As the children of a minister, the Brontes felt the influence of religion both at home and at school. A fire-and-brimstone instructor may have been Emily Bronte's inspiration for Joseph, who can
barely speak a word that does not invoke hellfire.
Critics also suspect that this influence is at the root
3 1 8 N o v e I s f o r S t u d e n t s
ney Dobell and Algemon Charles Swinburne. "I
have just (^) read over Wuthering Heights," wrote Charlotte Bronte in her preface to the 1850 edition of her sister's book, "and, for the first time, have
obtained a clear glimpse of what are termed (and,
perhaps, really are) its faults.... Wuthering Heights must (^) appear a rude (^) and strange production ... in a great measure unintelligible, and-where intelligi- ble-repulsive." The preface was intended as (^) a de- fense of the writer and the work and must have achieved its aim, for the second edition of the novel was received more favorably. Algernon Charles
Swinbume, writing in The Athenaeum in 1883, ad-
mitted to the awkward construction and (^) clumsy method of narration "which no reader ... can un- dertake to deny," although these were minor faults. He was more troubled by "the savage note or the sickly symptom of a morbid ferocity," but was overall so impressed by the "special and distinctive character of its passion" that "it is certain that those
who do like it will like nothing very much better
in the whole world of poetry or prose."
A monograph by Charles Percy Sanger pub- lished in 1926 marked a major turning point in crit- ical appreciation of the sophistication and com- plexity of the writing in Wuthering Heights, and
today the novel is indisputably considered a work
of genius. That critics cannot agree whether the book falls more neatly into the Gothic or Roman- tic (^) literary tradition is (^) accepted as further evidence of the work's uniqueness. In his introduction to the novel, David Daiches argues that the central ques-
tion of Wuthering Heights is "Who and what is
Heathcliff?", a question Daiches argues can be an-
swered only by looking at the effect Heathcliff has on those around him. (^) While Daiches agrees with
the conventional view that the relationship between
Heathcliff and the (^) first Catherine is "curiously" sexless, he does find persuasive Thomas Moser's (1962) case for recurring sexual symbolism in the novel. Daiches echoes other critics in praising the book's narrative structure and other elements of its organization. He places special emphasis on the de- tails of everyday living, and descriptions of food
and hearth, that help to anchor the story and to make
it believable. "One of Emily Bronte's (^) most extra- ordinary achievements in this novel is the domi- ciling of the monstrous in the ordinary rhythms of life and work, thereby making it at the same time less monstrous and more disturbing." Tom Win-
nifrith, in the Dictionary of Literary Biography,
picks up on the idea of Heathcliff as a force of na-
ture (^) and attributes his attraction in part to his as-
sociation with the landscape and to his honesty,
however brutal. (^) This last idea highlights one of many ambiguities of the novel, a strength often commented on by scholars and critics. "Bronte's defiance of rigid categories and her refusal to di- vide people into saints and sinners," says Win- nifrith, "is very un-Victorian.... Heathcliff's cru- elty and Cathy's selfishness do not prevent them from being attractive. The Lintons are spoiled and
weak, but^ Isabella's and her son's^ sufferings and
Edgar's devotion to his wife win them sympathy." Winnifrith dismisses the oft-cited effort to fit the novel into an overall framework of storm and calm-that is, storm and calm opposed in the (^) per- sons of Catherine and Heathcliff, but fused in the union of Catherine and Hareton-proposed by Lord David Cecil in Early Victorian Novelists (1934) as too schematic. He argues (^) that some modern socio- logical interpretations ignore the book's enigmatic ending. Other modem critical articles on the novel, he says, "tend to be eccentric or to deal with only a very small section of the book." In an essay in Reference Guide to English Literature, Winifred Gerin describes the (^) message of "the (^) indissoluble nature of earthly love" as "profoundly metaphysi- cal," its original failure easily explained by its gothic atmosphere, no longer in fashion at the time of publication. Gerin attributes the novel's "curi- ous and lasting appeal" to the "unflagging excite- ment of the plot; the wild moorland setting; [and]
... the^ originality of the^ characters." She calls
Heathcliff s self-induced death by starvation "one of the most powerful and daring climaxes in Eng- lish fiction." "Whether it is right or advisable to create things like Heathcliff, I do (^) not know," wrote Char- lotte Bronte at the end of the preface to the 1850 edition. "I scarcely think it is. But this I (^) know; the writer who possesses the creative gift owns some-
thing of which he is not always master-something
that at times strangely wills and works for itself." It is English literature's gain that Emily lost her- self in her creation.
Donna C. Woodford In the following essay, Woodford, a doctoral candidate at Washington (^) University, explores how an examination of the patterns that recur through-
3 2 0 N o v e l s f o r S t u d e n t s
out Wuthering Heights provide a useful way of reading and interpreting the novel.
Wuthering Heights was the only novel Emily Bronte ever published, and both it and the book of poetry she published with her sisters were printed under the pen name, Ellis Bell, a name which Emily chose because she was afraid works
published under a woman's name would not be
taken seriously. Emily Bronte died shortly after
her book was published and just prior to her thir- tieth birthday, but her single novel remains one of the classics of English literature. Wuthering Heights is a complex novel, and critics have ap- proached it from many different standpoints. Fem- inist critics have examined the strong female char- acters and their oppression by and resistance to violent men. Marxist critics have pointed to the class differences that set in motion the primary
conflicts of Wuthering Heights, and psychoana-
lytic critics have analyzed the dreams that fill the
book. While all of these approaches are useful and
valid, Wuthering Heights is, above all, a book of
repeating cycles and recurring patterns, and per-
haps the simplest way to begin an examination of this book is by tracing the course and resolution of some of these patterns.
When Lockwood spends the night at the Heights, he finds the window ledge covered with "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." Indeed, the repetition and vari- ation of these four names, Catherine, Earnshaw, Heathcliff, and Linton, fills the book just as the writing fills the window ledge. The original Cather-
ine begins life as Catherine Earnshaw. In what
Terry Eagleton in Case Studies In Contemporary Criticism: Wuthering Heights calls "a crucial act of self-betrayal and bad faith," she rejects the oppor- tunity to become Catherine Heathcliff and instead becomes Catherine Linton. She then gives birth to another Catherine Linton, who enters the world only hours before her mother leaves it, and this sec-
ond Catherine first marries Linton Heathcliff, be-
coming Catherine Heathcliff, and finally, at the end
of the book, becomes engaged to Hareton Earn-
shaw. The cycle of names thus comes full circle as this final marriage will give the second Catherine the original name of the first. At the same time, Catherine's marriage with Hareton completes another cycle-the union of souls for which the reader has longed. The second
Catherine is in many ways a reincarnation of her
What
Do I Read
Next?
- The (^) Complete Poems of Emily Jane Bronte (1910) is a^ collection of Bronte's metaphysical poetry.
- The memorable heroine of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre (1847) finds love with her^ moody em- ployer, Mr. Rochester, but manages not to give up her^ independence.
- (^) George Eliot's Middlemarch: A (^) Study ofProvin- cial Life (1871-72) is^ a^ portrait of life in^ a^ small rural town. George Eliot was the pseudonym of Mary Ann Evans.
- (^) Frankenstein (1818) is (^) Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's gothic tale of destructive^ pride. Dr. Victor Frankenstein makes^ a^ living monster out of inanimate matter and is^ ultimately destroyed by his^ creation.
mother. Though she is^ softened by the characteris-
tics which^ she^ has^ inherited from her^ father, she^ has "the Eamshaw's handsome, dark eyes" and, as Nelly states, she has the same "capacity for intense
attachments" as her mother. Similarly, Hareton is a
gentler version of his oppressor and foster father,
Heathcliff. Though Heathcliff does his best to make
Hareton a tool of his revenge against the first Catherine's brother Hindley Earnshaw, he succeeds instead in creating a reproduction of himself. He re-
veals his own knowledge of this strange turn of
events when he tells Nelly, "Hareton [seems] a per- sonification of my youth .... the ghost of my im- mortal love, of my wild endeavours to hold my right, my degradation, my pride, my happiness, and my anguish." Thus, even more than^ the reunion of
Catherine's and Heathcliff's ghosts, the union of
their spiritual descendants gives the reader the im-
pression that a great wrong has finally been set right. In addition to being later versions of Heath- cliff and the first^ Catherine, Hareton and the sec-
ond Catherine are the last in a long line of orphans
and outcasts. In an article in American Imago Philip K. Wion^ has observed that the absence of mothers
V o (^) I u m e (^2 3 2 )
is significant that it is the "waif' not the woman
who appears in Lockwood's terrifying dream.
So the critical view of Catherine and Heath- cliff as Bildungsroman protagonists neglects these characters' inability to interpret experience realis- tically and face the limitations^ of adulthood.^ In^ fact, in terms of the first generation, Wuthering Heights is not a Bildungsroman at all, but an Entwickslun- groman, a novel of mere physical passage without
psychological development. Catherine^ and^ her
male soul-mate^ remain^ stubbomly adolescent from
beginning to^ end; granted, they are^ triumphant, re-
bellious, passionate characters, and^ Emily Bronte
is obviously celebrating the untamed and undisci- plined spirit of adolescent love. But in view of this first generation, Wuthering Heights is less a novel of development than a novel of arrested childhood. It is actually with Catherine's death in childbirth
that Bronte's Bildungsroman begins. In fact, the
second half of Wuthering Heights and the concern with young Cathy is a fascinating variation of the prototypic novel of female education in the nine- teenth century, a dramatization of the struggle to relinquish childhood for the duties of womanhood
in the most traditional, romantic capacity: marriage
with the man of one's choice. Cathy emerges from a relatively happy childhood and a lonely adoles- cence as an assertive, sharing, and contented adult who is prepared to accept the responsibilities (^) and limitations of marriage. Cathy's marriage to Hareton is in a sense a re- vision of her mother's unsuccessful marriage to Edgar Linton, and a significant role reversal of the traditional feminine Bildungsroman in which a woman can achieve intellectual and social ad- vancement only through marriage. For example, the elder Catherine looks at marriage as a means of achieving outward sophistication, as well as an es- cape from mental and emotional stagnation: Edgar is the man who will define her, who will shape her identity and give her status-"He will be rich, and I shall be the greatest woman of the neighborhood, and I shall be proud to have such a husband," she tells Nelly Dean. Catherine's selfish and short- sighted attitude toward marriage is not only in- dicative of her childish sensibilities, but under- scores the traditional theme of the feminine Bildungsroman-that is, the woman must seek knowledge by attaching herself to a knowledgeable
male. Bronte varies this theme in her description
of young Cathy's courtship with Hareton; instead
of marrying to be advanced, Bronte's true female
Bildungsroman protagonist marries in order to ad- vance the intellectual and moral status of the male.
In young Cathy, Bronte gives us a woman whose
acquired humility, patience, and affection yield
what promises to be a satisfying marriage and a
mutual broadening of experience. More than her mother, Cathy represents a successful passage through the difficult rites of adolescence: the search for self, and the sharing of self with others. If one looks closely at the novel, it becomes clear that Cathy and Hareton are not merely wa-
tered down versions of Catherine and Heathcliff,
as Richard Chase (^) suggests. Although the (^) strange, transcendental love of the first generation of the Heights is more stirring, more piquant than the set- tled affections of Cathy and Hareton, it is only be- cause their type of frenzied passion is so rare-and so typical of adolescence. It is well to ask why Catherine marries Edgar at all, considering her feel- ings for Heathcliff; her naive belief that she can have both Edgar-who represents culture and se-
curity-and Heathcliff, who is the embodiment of
sexual and natural energy, proves her complete in-
ability to understand reality outside of her own nar-
row perspective. When Nelly Dean suggests that
by marrying Edgar, Catherine will lose Heathcliff, she is incredulous: "Oh, that's not what I intend- that's not what I mean! I shouldn't be Mrs. Linton were such a price demanded! He'll be as much to me as he has been all his lifetime. Edgar must shake off his antipathy and tolerate him, at^ least. He will when he learns (^) my true feelings...." It is obvious that Catherine is entering marriage with the stub-
born adolescent sensibility that she can have her
cake and eat (^) it, too. Of course, this has (^) been her spoiled way of looking at life all along; many (^) times in the novel Bronte portrays Catherine as a selfish,
demanding, manipulative child. "I demand it!" is,
in fact, Catherine's favorite expression, and com- pletely consistent with the adolescent determina- tion to have everything. By contrast, young Cathy gradually develops a sensitivity towards the feelings and needs of others. This is most explicit in her devotion to her father, Edgar Linton-and a complete contrast to Cather-
ine's "naughty delight" in provoking Mr. Earnshaw.
The young Cathy tells Nelly, "I fret about nothing on earth except papa's illness.... And I'll never- never-oh, never, while I have my senses, do any- thing to vex him. I love him better than myself...." Cathy's comparatively happy childhood has cer- tainly influenced her idealized view of Edgar Lin- ton, and she is naturally submissive to patriarchal
authority. But Cathy is not without spirit; she ex-
hibits the typical adolescent preoccupation with love intrigues, and shares her mother's rebellious-
V o I u m e 2 3 2 3
ness and scorn for those who interfere with her plans. The important difference between the two
generations is in the nature of the rebellion; Cather-
ine's disregard for others- all others, except her
other-self, Heathcliff-has a cruel, manipulative
quality that takes pleasure in deceitfulness and in "punishing" others for their lack of devotion to her. Her many melodramatic "scenes" illustrate Cather- ine's acting talent in the service of narcissism: as a child, after an argument with Edgar Linton, she says to him, ". ..get away! And now I'll cry-I'll cry my- self sick!" and she proceeds to deliver a perfect fit
of weeping which softens poor Edgar's heart.
Catherine never outgrows these willful displays of mad emotion, and by feigning a fit to arouse her husband's concern, she ultimately brings about her own death. She begs Nelly to tell Edgar she is "in
danger of^ being^ seriously^ ill.... I^ want to^ frighten
him.... Will you do so, my good Nelly? You are aware that I am in no way blameable in this mat- ter." Catherine often uses Nelly Dean as an instru- ment for her guile: "... and remind Edgar of my
passionate temper^ verging,^ when^ kindled,^ on
frenzy." Certainly Catherine's last performance is magnificent, if unsuccessful, for even Nelly is star- tled by "the aspect of death" her mistress is able to
assume. This undisciplined and domineering
child-the little girl who wanted her father to bring
her a whip from Liverpool-fails to mature at all because she^ never learns^ to control her^ perverse^ ego-
tism. That in her last breath^ Catherine^ looks^ to^ Nelly
"like a child reviving" aptly suggests the adolescent spirit of^ the woman's^ rebellion,^ a^ fatal^ result^ of Catherine's last scene of "mad resolution." Unlike her mother's obsessiveness, young Cathy's rebellion is actually a healthy curiosity
about her relatives at Wuthering Heights. Certainly
it is not surprising that a young and intelligent girl who has not been beyond the range of the park be- fore the age of thirteen, whose only companion is her nurse, and whose only amusements are ram- bling on the moors and reading, should be eager to make new acquaintances. And of course Cathy passes through certain predictable stages of ado- lescence; but unlike her mother, she does pass
through, and restlessness, romantic love, and re-
bellion are only stages of her development. For ex-
ample, Cathy and Linton Heathcliff s "love affair"
is typical of^ the^ adolescent absorption with ro- mantic notions, and the fact that the relationship is somehow taboo makes it all the more alluring. Cathy exaggerates the importance of her love let- ters, weeping and pleading^ to^ Nelly^ "to^ spare one or two." Nelly Dean's common sense reply to the
mere suggestion of Cathy loving Linton is, "Lov- ing! Pretty loving indeed, and both times together you have seen Linton hardly four hours in your life!" That Cathy is able to open her mind to this objective, adult point of view is a credit to her ma- turity, and something the older Catherine never learned to do. In her relationship to Linton, Cathy begins to learn that her desires are complex and that her ex- perience of reality must be reconciled to actual re- ality-in other words, her view of Linton Heath- cliff as "a pretty little darling" must be reconciled to Nelly's less generous description: "The worst- tempered bit of a sickly slip that ever struggled into its teens!" In learning to distinguish between what she thinks she wants (Linton) and what she really wants (an energetic and empathetic companion),
Cathy begins to achieve the disciplined growth and
broad perspective which is the undertaking of the Bildungsroman protagonist. Simply the way she handles Heathcliff and her captivity at Wuthering Heights demonstrates an intelligent, unselfish, and practical kind of defiance which Catherine never displayed, because Catherine acknowledged only her own needs and desires. When Linton says, "You must obey my father, you must," Cathy replies, "I must obey my own," reflecting her grow- ing sense of responsibility. After her forced mar- riage, she is prepared to accept the consequences of her situation by loving Linton in spite of Heath- cliff-"You cannot make us hate each other!"
Cathy remains dignified and controlled, and speaks
"with a kind of dreary triumph: she seemed to have made up her mind to enter into the spirit of her fu- ture family, and draw pleasure from the griefs of her enemies." If Nelly's narrative makes Cathy's behavior sound reminiscent of the older Catherine's venge- ful fits, it should be pointed out that Cathy's "en- emies" are real, not fancied, conspirators. Heath- cliff at this point has kidnapped her, kept her from her dying father, abused her physically, and forced her to marry his sickly, peevish son. Cathy's situ- ation is wretched, almost hopeless; when Linton dies shortly after their degenerate union, she is left at Wuthering Heights with only Hareton and Heath- cliff. And here her^ bildung^ or^ education^ needs to be emphasized. Part of education and development is arriving at an understanding of one's value; this, I would argue, is the major undertaking of adoles- cence. The older Catherine never sees herself real- istically. She has notions of superiority and self im- portance that can be justified only in terms of her exceptionally passionate nature and her extraordi-
3 2 4 N o v e I s f o r S t u d e n t s
ing the "natural and elemental affinity" inherent in her love for Heathcliff. "Adhered to, (^) [love] is at once the source of joy and harmony; rejected or subverted, it becomes the fountainhead of enmity and strife." One cannot challenge Shannon's assertion
that thematically Wuthering Heights^ displays^ the
"destructive consequences of thwarted love"; but it seems both unfair and inexact to imply that the guilt devolves upon Catherine exclusively. More- over such an interpretation does not seem to be substantiated by a close reading of the literal and symbolic action of Lockwood's first dream. Shan-
non implies that the nature of the unpardonable
sin is merely hinted at rather than defined, and
that the^ reader is^ left^ to^ infer its^ nature^ from^ the second dream and^ from^ the^ the action^ that follows. In fact, however, through a^ curious kind of^ logi- cal paradox, the unpardonable sin^ is defined within the action of the dream^ itself.^ Not^ long^ af- ter Branderham's sermon^ opens Lockwood begins to fidget, laboring under the^ four^ hundred and ninety heads of discourse-each in^ itself^ the length of a separate sermon. Finally, when Bran-
derham reaches the^ "First^ of the^ Seventy-first"
Lockwood can bear it no longer; he rises and de- nounces Branderham^ as the sinner of the sin that no^ Christian^ need pardon [emphasis supplied]. Seventy times seven times have I (^) plucked up my hat and been about to depart-Sev- enty times seven times have you preposterously forced me to resume my seat. The four hundred and ninety-first is too much. Fellow-martyrs, have at him! Branderham's reply is equally significant as he
turns the congregation back upon Lockwood.
"Thous art the Man!" cried Jabes.... "Seventy times seven times didst thou gapingly contort thy visage- seventy times seven times did I take counsel with my soul-Lo, this is human weakness; this also may be absolved! The First ofthe Seventy-first is come [em- phasis supplied]. Brethren, execute upon him the judgment written...." Lockwood himself, in other words, commits (in the dream at least) the unforgivable sin in ac- cusing Branderham of that sin no Christian need pardon. That is, the unforgivable sin is to accuse another of committing the unforgivable sin-or, more simply put, the^ absence^ of^ forgiveness,^ of for- bearance, of mercy. Each man forgives the other four hundred and ninety times, as Jesus enjoins, but neither has the charity to^ forbear^ the^ four^ hundred and ninety-first offense; each then^ denounces^ the other, and chaos erupts-"Every man's hand was against his neighbour."
Moreover, it is manifestly forgiveness, and not, as Shannon suggests, sin that Jesus is talking about; Peter in using the verb sin refers to a personal of- fense, not to mortal transgression; and of course what Jesus is urging is perpetual forgiveness, per-
petual charity, only he phrases it in finite terms.
The relation of the dream and its Biblical source to the tragedy that follows would seem ob- vious. It is the want of forgiveness-or phrased positively, it is vengeance-that disrupts the moral and social order of Wuthering Heights. Hindley cannot forgive Heathcliff for usurping the love of his father; so once he is master of the Heights, he sees that Heathcliff is^ methodically^ humiliated^ and degraded. Heathcliff s degradation in turn enforces
a physical and psychological separation from
Catherine which preordains marriage to Edgar Lin-
ton. When Heathcliff acquires his fortune, he uses
the power it affords to avenge himself against Hind-
ley, whom he easily corrupts and destroys; against Hareton and Catherine, the children, who of course
are innocent; against Isabella, who is equally
blameless; and through all of these, against Edgar Linton, whom he hates not just as a rival but as an embodiment of everything effete and conventional that erodes Catherine's spirit and finally destroys
her. Father is turned against son, brother against
sister, servant against master, husband against wife,
lover against lover-"Every man's hand was against his neighbour." Catherine is really less a perpetrator than a vic- tim of this turmoil. She shares the guilt of course because her union with Edgar is the act which has- tens the tragedy. But hers is an error in judgment rather than a mortal transgression; she marries
Edgar in faith, naively assuming that she can pre-
serve her intense sibling affinity with Heathcliff and perhaps redeem him (and herself) as well. But neither man can forgive her for loving the other and what he represents. In his last interview with Catherine, Heathcliff tells^ her,^ "It is hard^ to^ for- give, and to^ look^ at^ those eyes,^ and feel^ those wasted hands.... I forgive what you have done to me. I love my^ murderer-but^ yours! How^ can^ I?"
Torn between the^ two men, who inspire^ contrary
impulses within her, she grows weak-almost as an act of^ will-and^ ultimately^ dies. When^ she^ ap- pears to Lockwood as a ghost and an outcast, his cruelty to her is merely a^ vivid^ physical image^ of the emotional torment she has been made to suffer during her mortal existence. Among those whom Catherine loves there is no one who can forgive^ her^ human^ error;^ there^ is
3 2 6 N o v^ e^ I s f^ o^ r^ S^ t^ u^ d^ e^ n^ t^ s
love abundant for her, but it is always conditional
love that demands and punishes. Young Catherine
and Hareton, we are led to believe, eventually come
to love with patience and understanding, but only after Heathcliff' s influence is removed. And Heath- cliff's rancor merely epitomizes the chief moral de- fect of all of the characters concerned. That defect would seem to be not so much the denial of love that Shannon suggests as love's failure to attain charity, to achieve moral fulfillments as well as
emotional intensity.
Source: Vereen M. Bell, "Wuthering Heights and the Un- forgivable Sin," in^ Nineteenth-Century Fiction, Vol.^ 17, No. 2, September, 1962, pp. 188-91.
Charlotte Bronte, "Editor's Preface to the New [1850] Edi- tion of Wuthering Heights," in Wuthering Heights, edited by David Daiches, Penguin, 1965, pp. 37-41. David Daiches, editor, in the introduction to Wuthering Heights, Penguin, 1965, pp. 7-29. Winifred Gerin, "Emily Bronte," in Reference Guide to Eng- lish Literature, edited by D. L. Kirkpatrick, St. James Press, 1991, pp. 300-02. Algemon Charles Swinburne, "Emily Bronth," in The Athenaeum, No. 2903, June 16, 1883, pp. 762-63.
Tom Winnifrith, "Emily Brontd," in Dictionary^ of Literary Biography, Volume 21: Victorian Novelists before 1885, edited by Ira B. Nadel and William E. Fredeman, Gale Re- search, 1983, pp. 55-67.
Miriam Allot, The Brontes: The Critical Heritage, Rout- ledge, 1974. A collection of criticism on the works of the Brontd sisters, including reprints of early reviews of Wuther- ing Heights and Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell and Charlotte Bronte's observations on her sis- ter's novel. Terry Eagleton, "Myths of Power: A Marxist Study on Wuthering Heights" in Case Studies In Contemporary Crit- icism: (^) Wuthering Heights, St. Martin's, 1992, pp. 399-414. Eagleton analyzes the novel in terms of class differ- ences in nineteenth-century England. Winifred Gerin, Emily Bronte: A Biography, Clarendon,
Gerin discusses (^) Emily Bronte's life and the effect of her environment on her work. Philip K. Wion, "The Absent Mother in^ Wuthering Heights" in American Imago, Vol. 42, No. 2, 1985. Wion suggests that the early death of Emily Bronte's mother accounts for Brontd's portrayal of orphaned characters in search of mother figures.
V o I u m e 2 3 2 7
