Wuthering Heights
When Wuthering Heights was published it was blasted it’s contemporaries as
obscene. They railed that Catherine and Heathcliff were the most immoral and in
general worst people they had ever had the misfortune of reading about. Although
Wuthering Heights has taken it’s rightful place as masterwork of 19th century
literature and Emily Bront? has receive credit for her work, it is still
possible to see where the early attacks are based. Heathcliff especially behaves
in a very obtuse manner. The basis for this behavior is Heathcliff’s bizarre
love/hate relationship with Catherine. His frustrated desire to be with her
causes him deep personal pain, which he transfers to other characters in a
sadistic attempt to force them to feel that pain as well. Heathcliff and
Catherine’s relationship is neither stable nor in any way normal. Instead it is
full of violent emotions which are either soaring high or dashingly low, with
very little between the two. Catherine declares that she and Heathcliff
“Whatever souls are made of, his and mine are the same”(73).
Heathcliff desires nothing more than to be with Catherine, but their
relationship is undermined by the revelation that Catherine feels that “it
would degrade me to marry Heathcliff . . .”(73). Heathcliff was unsuitable
to Catherine because he is poor with no family. However, Edgar Linton has both
and for those shallow reasons Catherine marries Edgar betraying Heathcliff’s
feelings for her and her own feeling as well. Catherine had hoped to marry Edgar
but also to keep on loving Heathcliff as well, to “have her cake and eat it
too”. The violence, hatred, love, and passion of Catherine and
Heathcliff’s relationship is encapsulated in their “conversation” on
Catherine’s deathbed: He [Heathcliff] could hardly bear, for downright agony, to
look into her face. . . . She was fated, sure to die. ?Oh, Cathy! Oh, my life!
How can I bear it?'[Heathcliff speaking] . . . . . . . . . . . . [Catherine
speaking,]?I shall not pity you, not I. You have killed me? and thriven on
it, I think. . . How may years do you mean to live on after I am gone? . . . ..
. . . . . . . I shouldn’t care what you suffered. I care nothing for your
sufferings. Why shouldn’t you suffer? I do!’ . . . . . . . . . . . . [Heathcliff
answers,]?You know you lie to say I have killed you: . . . I could as soon
forget you as my own existence! Is it not sufficient for your infernal
selfishness, that while you are at peace I shall writhe in the torments of hell?
. . . . . . . . . . . . How cruel you’ve been?cruel and false. . . . . . ..
. . . . . I have not broken your heart?you have broken it; and in breaking it
have broken mine. . . . What kind of living will it be when ? oh, God! Would
you like to live with your soul in the grave?'(147-48) Love and hate are so
closely entwined that they are both expressed in a single sentence. No one will
call that exchange ?normal’ but it contains the essence of their
relationship. Despite the barbs of blame for the situation being thrown there is
no doubt that Catherine’s death pains Heathcliff to the very soul. Heathcliff
becomes determined to share the pain caused by Catherine’s betrayal and her
death. The victims of his deranged vengeance are Isabella Linton, Edgar Linton,
Linton Heathcliff, and Catherine Linton II. “The more the worms writhe, the
more I yearn to crush out their entails!”(140). Clearly a sadistic attitude
and one that makes it absolutely clear that Heathcliff’s marriage to Isabella is
a revenge on both Catherine and Edgar. The marriage of Heathcliff to her
sister-in-law is emotionally damaging to an already frail Catherine. Edgar, who
despises Heathcliff throughout the novel, is shock and very nearly disowns his
sister for marrying a ruffian like Heathcliff. So Heathcliff gets vengeance on
Edgar as well. Poor Isabella is caught with a man who does not, in fact never,
loved her. She writes Nelly, “”. There is another motivation for the
marriage: money. Though his marriage with Isabella Heathcliff has placed himself
in line for not just money, but Edgar Linton’s money. With Catherine and
Isabella’s deaths and the birth of Catherine II and Linton Heathcliff,
Heathcliff continues his manipulations into another generation. The forced
marriage between first cousins Catherine II and Linton, with all is a
accompanying duplicity, is a the final act of revenge. The subsequent deaths of
Edgar Linton and Linton Heathcliff leave Wuthering Heights and the Grange in
Heathcliff’s possession. The vengeance is complete: Heathcliff has everything
dear to Edgar, his property and his daughter; the younger Catherine, because he
could not control her mother and he may feels that shre should have been his and
Catherine’s daughter; and Hinley’s son is turning out to be another Heathcliff.
Complete victory for Heathcliff, but then a strange thing happens: Heathcliff
starts to mellow. He seems to realize that however complete his vengeance it
gets him no closer to Catherine, her shade still wonders the moors. Heathcliff
professes to Nelly, “she has disturbed me, night and day, through eighteen
years” (264). It is when Heathcliff prepares to spent eternity with
Catherine that he final finds peace, with her and himself. Catherine’s coffin,
buried for eighteen years, is dug up and a panel removed so Heathcliff’s
remains can mingle with her’s. With Heathcliff’s death there is at last
peace at Wuthering Heights. He and Catherine are together for all time. The
property, both Wuthering Height and the Grange have been returned to their
rightful owners Hareton Earshaw and Catherine II. Heathcliff had schemed to
leave her destitute, but she will end up with both properties after her marriage
to Hareton. A full circle has been completed and everything is as it should be,
finally.
