Emily Bronte's novel, "Wuthering Heights," perhaps leaves the reader with more questions than answers. It touches on many themes that resonate with the reader, including social class, suffering and passionate uncensored love.
The deferred passion between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw is the dominant feature in the novel. At points it takes the story in unexpected directions.The symmetry of many themes which run throughout the book highlight and confirm the eternal nature of love, one is that of a final image of the peaceful and reconciled couple, Cathy Linton and Hareton Earshaw, they are a conventional couple, and very happy together, as Cathy teaches Hareton to read his eyes keep "wandering from the page to a small white hand over his shoulder, which recalled him by a smart slap on the cheek. " This action is done in a jovial manner, and has the nature of a conventional relationship, unlike Heathcliff and Catherine's.Catherine and Heathcliff's relationship is formed in childhood, and is first rebuked with Hindley's return to the Heights with his wife Frances.
He wishes to separate the pair and prevent the intimacy between them. Up to this point in the book the pair has had a strong childhood friendship, playing together on the moors and enjoying each others company, "the greatest punishment we could invent for her was to keep her separate from him. " When Catherine is twelve and Heathcliff is thirteen they seem to come even closer in spirit.Heathcliff mourns Catherine while she stays at Thrushcross Grange, "the notion of envying Catherine was incomprehensible to him but the notion of grieving her he understood clearly enough.
" To mourn someone this deeply at such a young age indicates an indisputable bond. As Heathcliff becomes older does he desire more from Catherine than she is willing to admit? Is this perhaps the reason she eventually marries Edgar instead? To escape the adult sexuality of Heathcliff?As Catherine spends more time with the Linton's Heathcliff seems to become more possessive, counting the days Catherine spends with him against days with the Linton's, "I've marked every day. " Catherine's choice to marry Edgar to supposedly better her social status can be questioned. There are likely to be a number of other reasons why she may have chosen to betray Heathcliff for Edgar; one being as an act of self denial. Catherine's marriage to Edgar and her rejection of Heathcliff is a rejection of herself and her humble lower class roots.
The marriage of Catherine to Edgar seems completely out of character. Edgar is affectionate, yet subdued in his nature, Catherine accurately describes him as "handsome," "pleasant to be with," "cheerful," and "rich. " Catherine is selfish, "a wild wicked slip...
her tongue was always going... and plaguing everybody who would not do the same. " and in her later years hysterical and difficult.In comparing Linton and Heathcliff's souls Catherine says "his [Heathcliff] and mine are the same and Linton's is as different as is moon from lightning or frost from fire.
Her choice may also have been because a relationship between herself and Heathcliff may have been seen to be immoral as they were brought up as brother and sister. The way the main characters are linked in Wuthering Heights also suggests and underlying theme of incest, although it was legal to marry your cousin in the 19th century the Linton's and Earnshaw's appear to become unnaturally related, through blood and marriage. It has also been suggested that Heathcliff is infact the illegitimate son of Mr. Earnshaw.
If this is the case then the relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff would be incest. In the scene where Catherine announces her decision to marry Edgar Linton to Nelly, she speaks of Heathcliff and her own souls being one. "I am Heathcliff. " "If all else perished, and he [Linton] remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he [Heathcliff] were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger: I should not seem a part of it. " "He's always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being.
This quote describes Catherine and Heathcliff as one person, just as sometimes we do not like ourselves Catherine does not always like Heathcliff but still needs him. Because of this deep intrinsic bond it can be argued that the pair will not have felt they needed to have a sexual relationship. Catherine acts very much like a jealous lover when Heathcliff returns and becomes the object of Isabella's affection, he also enraptures Catherine. Catherine and Nelly both warn Isabella about Heathcliff, is this so Catherine can keep him for herself?Catherine describes her childhood friend as a "fierce, pitiless, wolfish man. " The marriage between Isabella and Heathcliff is very unhappy, and from this point Heathcliff makes no contact with Catherine until her death. Heathcliff is brutal, cruel and sadistic in his treatment of Isabella, this is very likely to be because of his intention for revenge on the Linton family but could be as she is not the sexual partner he desired and he takes this anger for himself out on Isabella.
Heathcliff comes back to the moors and makes a declaration of his passionate love for Catherine to Nelly, "for every thought she spends on Linton, she spends a thousand on me! " Then in chapter 15 the couple is physically reunited before Catherine's death, in this time Heathcliff "bestowed more kisses than ever he gave in his life before. " There is a continuing conflict throughout the book between conventional religion and passion. Although it is not suggested in the book at any point, if Catherine and Heathcliff had had sex it would be completely justified as they as a couple go against the restraints of the 19th century. However, if a sexual relationship had been written about, their relationship would then clearly be on an earthly level and they may not be upheld as a classic literary couple.
Another passionate scene in the novel is where Heathcliff reveals he dug up Catherine's grave, wanting to see her face for one last time. Heathcliff has also planned how he should be buried with Catherine. He had paid the gravedigger to take out one side of Catherine's coffin so that when he is buried they can merge together. More than Edgar will ever be able to. Heathcliff is determined to "absorb" Catherine's corpse into his and for them to "dissolve" into each other so thoroughly that Edgar will not be able to distinguish Catherine from him.His plan transgresses the boundary between life and death and also beyond the romantic conventions of the 19th century.
This act could be interpreted to be perverse and on the verge of necrophilia. The imagery in chapter 29 is especially gothic. Throughout the books we are given hints of the supernatural, but here the report comes in great detail from Heathcliff; "her presence was with me. " This again highlights the deep bond between Heathcliff and Catherine, to believe you are "haunted" by someone generally implies there has been a strong bond in life.However, Heathcliff does not suggest their bond was sexual, if anything he believes they will be closer in death than in life.
Towards the end of his life Heathcliff anticipates death and waits for Catherine to take him away; "today I am in sight of my heaven," this heaven is on the moors with Catherine and again strays from the heaven of conventional religion. Heathcliff and Catherine finally achieve union and fulfillment in death. Catherine also recognises that her heaven is not a traditional one but rather one out on the moors with Heathcliff.In the delirium she suffered before death, she longs for that freedom; "I wish I were a girl again, half savage, hardy and free" She wishes to be an girl again, this suggests her love for Heathcliff as this time, before Hindley returned and perhaps when their bond was strongest, was innocent. It's as if their souls are somehow out of time and beyond the earthly world. Their love seems to exist on a higher plane; they are soul mates, two people who have a deep regard for each other which draws them together irresistibly.
Heathcliff repeatedly calls Catherine his soul. Such a love is not necessarily fortunate or happy and therefore does not necessarily mean they have has a sexual relationship. They are already "one" and do not need to have an intimate affair. Their love denies difference, and is strangely asexual.
The two do not kiss in dark corners or seem to be adulterers unbeknown to Edgar. Both died with looks of peace on their faces; Catherine with a look of "perfect peace" and Heathcliff with a "life-like gaze of exultation. "
