Wuthering Heights

The 1939 film adaptation of Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte is a faithful adaptation with a few scenes from the book cut to make the film more wild and passionate than the book described. William Wyler was the director of the film with Laurence Olivier as Heathcliff and Merle Oberon as Catherine. A few details the producer from the film adaptation such as Heathcliff’s son, Catherine’s daughter, and Heathcliff’s wife remaining loyal to him by staying instead of leaving. At the end of the film, the director added the scene with Heathcliff and Catherine’s ghosts walking away to live their lives together in the afterworld. One columnist disagreed with this stating that Emily Bronte wouldn’t have liked that because Catherine’s ghost is there to make sure her daughter receives her inheritance. Nelly is the housekeeper of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange but in the movie her name is Ellen. Samuel Goldwyn also changed the time period of the movie from the late 18th and early 19th century to the mid-19th century because the clothes were more good-looking. The director and producer shortened the story to represent the wild love that Heathcliff and Catherine felt for one another. “Standing on the cliff, you and me forever”. Wuthering Heights is the story of Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw and their wild love for one another. Heathcliff is the orphan that Catherine’s father brought home to live with his family. Catherine took a liking to him but her brother Hindley hated him at first sight. The characters of Heathcliff and Catherine represents how relationships can be stunted by class, environment, and miscommunication.

One example of how relationships of a romantic nature are stunted is by class. In both the movie and book, Mr. Earnshaw found Heathcliff on the streets and brought him home to live with his children. In the book, Mrs. Earnshaw asked, “how he could fashion to bring that gypsy brat into the house”. Even Nelly called him it and placed him on the landing of the stairs and hoped he would be gone by morning. In the movie, Mr. Earnshaw brings Heathcliff home and Catherine is hesitant to welcome him but there is no sign of a Mrs. Earnshaw. In both the movie and book, Catherine and Heathcliff become best friends while Hindley is jealous of Heathcliff and doesn’t like him. Back then, Gypsies had a reputation for fortune telling, stealing, and prostitution and many people believed they were, “in league with the Devil”. Because of Heathcliff being of Gypsy descent, Hindley has no problem with reminding Heathcliff of this by calling him, “dog” “beggarly interloper” and “imp of Satan”. The Earnshaw family is of high class in the small community they live in with, “pure aristocratic blood”. As the children grow older a couple of things happen to change the course of events in the book: Mr. and Mrs. Earnshaw passes away, Hindley is the new owner of Wuthering Heights along with his wife and he makes Heathcliff become a servant. In the movie, Mr. Earnshaw passes away, Hindley is the new owner and Heathcliff becomes a servant. Because of the different classes, these young lovers are in, society already disapproves of their friendship. Imagine how it would be if they wed? In both movie and book, Catherine and Heathcliff go to their neighbor’s house, the Lintons. They are both caught but Catherine is injured by their dogs so she stays with them for some time. In the book, Catherine comes back home and laughs at his dirty face then the next day Heathcliff washes up for her and argues with Edgar Linton and gets in trouble with Hindley. In the movie, Catherine had told Heathcliff to run away and become rich to come back for her. When she comes home she is furious to find that he hadn’t left and calls him a “servant” and a “stable boy” with “dirty hands”. Edgar then comes into the house and Heathcliff walks out, not showing how Catherine’s words hurt him. Edgar and Catherine then argue about Heathcliff in which Catherine yells that she hates feeling Edgars “soft hands.” Both scenes from the story and book show how Catherine wants to fit in with people in her class but at the same time, she loves Heathcliff and wants to be with him. Heathcliff knows he’s lower class and he knows that he isn’t going to ever get to be with her but he forgives her harsh words and wants to be near her even if it is to argue with her. “Cathy, you’re still my queen”.

Another example of how relationships can be stunted is by the environment people live in. At first, everything seemed good in the movie and book, Heathcliff being adopted, he and Catherine become friends with the fighting between Heathcliff and Hindley. Then tragedy struck and Hindley became the master of Wuthering Heights and it all goes downhill from there. In the book, Hindley makes Heathcliff become a servant and work in the fields. Between Hindley’s temper and his wife passing which makes him more bitter, Wuthering Heights stops receiving visitors. People do not want to be around Hindley with his drunken and bitter reputation and Heathcliff because of his gypsy looks. In the movie, it fast forwards from Mr. Earnshaw’s death to Hindley and Catherine at the table with the former eating breakfast. The scene shows him punishing Catherine by not letting her eat while Heathcliff is cleaning the fireplace. Hindley isn’t in the movie often but when he is he drinks and says mean things to Heathcliff. Because of the environment where they live, Heathcliff and Catherine have to sneak away to the moors to be able to freely talk to each other and bask in their love. This isn’t enough for Catherine though because she does decide to marry Edgar Linton to advance in society. In both the book and movie, Catherine and Nelly/Ellen, the Earnshaws servant, have an intimate discussion about Catherine’s feelings towards Heathcliff and Edgar. Catherine says that she wants to marry Edgar because he will be rich one day and that he is young and handsome. She then goes on to say that it would disgrace her to marry Heathcliff but can’t deny that their “souls are the same”. Catherine sees the destruction Hindley does to himself and others and she wants to escape that. At Edgar’s house, it isn’t gloomy and people there are respectful and she feels at peace there. No matter how peaceful she is at Edgar’s house, a small part of her will always want to go back home to be with Heathcliff. She even tells Nelly that no matter what nothing will separate them. Catherine is desperate to escape her horrible home life that she would rather take Edgar’s peaceful environment than running away with her true love and living on the streets. ‘where the rubber really meets the road’ in shaping future relationships ‘is the way the parent treats the child and relates with the child. That’s the laboratory in which the child learns how to relate lovingly with other people”. In the book, Catherine is a spoiled child and she does throw a fit when she doesn’t get her way. This is no excuse for the way her brother treats her and Heathcliff and it is sad that a person like her has to run to another mans arms whom she doesn’t love to find peace. As she grows up and marries she does become a sensible woman and stops being selfish until Heathcliff comes back.

My last example of how Heathcliff and Catherine are kept apart is by their miscommunication and pride. Catherine continuously tries to find bad things about Heathcliff to prove her choosing Edgar over him. She says that Heathcliff has a bad temper and he is very prideful. Edgar is respectable, a pushover, and doesn’t have a bad temper. The love that Heathcliff and Catherine have for one another is full of passion and fire that consumes them both. Even Catherine tells her and Heathcliff have the same souls but that Linton’s “is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire”. “Your soulmate makes you feel entirely whole, healed and intact, like no piece is missing from the puzzle”. One example of how Catherine’s pride has hurt her and Heathcliff is by her avoiding “doing something that we know would be beneficial for us solely because it came from someone else”. Heathcliff suggests to her throughout the movie to run away with him, that everything would be better for them. She refuses to go with him saying that she doesn’t want to starve for food or live in streets. Catherine is too prideful to run away with Heathcliff because she would rather marry someone and use their influence to help Heathcliff instead of running away and being with him. Even when Heathcliff comes back rich, Catherine still refuses to be with him even though he did what she wanted to. In both the movie and the book, Heathcliff overhears the private conversation that Nelly and Catherine have about Edgar and Heathcliff. He hears almost everything they say but leaves before he hears her say that nothing would keep them apart and her true plan for Edgar. Her plan is to use Edgar’s status to raise Heathcliff up so that they can eventually be together without her reputation being degraded. Heathcliff runs away and in the film and movie Catherine runs after him in the rain and tries to search for him. She makes herself sick and eventually marries Edgar. After Heathcliff comes back, Catherine and Edgar find out that he is rich. In the movie, he says to Catherine that he was kidnapped as a child and that he is of high-class blood, a reference to their childhood games. It is clear that he is back to marry her but instead of choosing him she chooses to stay with Edgar even though she loves Heathcliff. When they argue she says hurtful things to Heathcliff about how she’s at peace with Edgar and Heathcliff likes to stir things up. While Heathcliff just tells her that she is treating him badly. In the movie, it isn’t until her deathbed that they are able to put aside their pride and finally confess to one another what we all knew: how much they love one another. “What right to throw love away for the poor fancy thing you felt for him, for a handful of worthiness. Misery and death and all the evils that God and man could have ever done would never have parted us. You’d be better alone. You wandered off like a wanton, greedy child to break your heart and mine” (Heathcliff to Catherine). The events leading up to Catherine’s death and her death itself causes a “cause-and-effect thought process” with Heathcliff because he turns into a bitter man and in the book he throws a knife at his wife and she eventually leaves him.

“Heathcliff, can you see the Crag over there where our castle is”. Heathcliff and Catherine represent how relationships are stunted by class, environment, and miscommunication. Back in the 1800s-1900s, the time setting of book and movie, it was almost impossible to marry someone of lower class without dealing with repercussions. In both the movie and book it was so easy for both of these lovers to slip out to the moors to laugh and fall in love with one another. In the moors, they were free from the heart ache at Wuthering Heights. They didn’t have to worry about social classes or receiving punishments for talking to each other. Unlike at Wuthering Heights where Heathcliff received harsh punishments and Catherine needing to escape from the manor she needed to call her home. Because of her conflicting feelings about her home and her needing to feel at peace she eventually pushes Heathcliff away when she says that it would be disgraceful for her to marry him. That was the last straw for Heathcliff. You see, every time she pushed him away, argued with him and called him awful names he still forgave her. He still defended her and stuck by her side because of his love and adoration of her. “If you ever looked at me once with what I know is in you, I would be your slave. Cathy, if your heart were only stronger than your dull fear of God and the world, I would live silently contented in your shadow”. It isn’t until Catherine is dying that the two of them are able to share their feelings with one another. If only they were able to marry and live under society’s thumb. In the movie, Catherine does beg Heathcliff many times to run away, get rich and come back for her. Heathcliff says that he wants her to join him and she scoffs and says she doesn’t want to live like a commoner, having to steal food just to survive. He does eventually come back with riches but by then she’s already married to Edgar. A man who gave her peace outside of her disparaging home, a man she settled for. “A life partner, on the other hand, can be a great supporter and long-time companion but is limited in his or her capacity to enrich your spirit”. Edgar doesn’t have the fire and passion that Catherine needs. Catherine needs someone who won’t let her walk over them or will make biting remarks back to her. She doesn’t need someone who isn’t as full of passion as she is. In the book, Heathcliff has visions of Cathy and then is found dead of sickness in Catherine’s old room. In the movie, Heathcliff runs out in the middle of a snowstorm after Catherine and the family doctor says that he saw Heathcliff walking with a woman. When he walked near them, he saw Heathcliff by himself and found out he died. The last scene in the movie is the ghosts of Heathcliff and Catherine walking away with joined hands. “They’ve only just begun to live”.

The 1939 film adaptation of Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte is a faithful adaptation with a few scenes from the book cut to make the film more wild and passionate than the book described. William Wyler was the director of the film with Laurence Olivier as Heathcliff and Merle Oberon as Catherine. A few details the producer from the film adaptation such as Heathcliff’s son, Catherine’s daughter, and Heathcliff’s wife remaining loyal to him by staying instead of leaving. At the end of the film, the director added the scene with Heathcliff and Catherine’s ghosts walking away to live their lives together in the afterworld. One columnist disagreed with this stating that Emily Bronte wouldn’t have liked that because Catherine’s ghost is there to make sure her daughter receives her inheritance. Nelly is the housekeeper of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange but in the movie her name is Ellen. Samuel Goldwyn also changed the time period of the movie from the late 18th and early 19th century to the mid-19th century because the clothes were more good-looking. The director and producer shortened the story to represent the wild love that Heathcliff and Catherine felt for one another.

“Standing on the cliff, you and me forever” (Catherine to Heathcliff). Wuthering Heights is the story of Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw and their wild love for one another. Heathcliff is the orphan that Catherine’s father brought home to live with his family. Catherine took a liking to him but her brother Hindley hated him at first sight. The characters of Heathcliff and Catherine represents how relationships can be stunted by class, environment, and miscommunication.

One example of how relationships of a romantic nature are stunted is by class. In both the movie and book, Mr. Earnshaw found Heathcliff on the streets and brought him home to live with his children. In the book, Mrs. Earnshaw asked,“ how he could fashion to bring that gypsy brat into the house.” Even Nelly called him it and placed him on the landing of the stairs and hoped he would be gone by morning. In the movie, Mr. Earnshaw brings Heathcliff home and Catherine is hesitant to welcome him but there is no sign of a Mrs. Earnshaw. In both the movie and book, Catherine and Heathcliff become best friends while Hindley (Catherine’s brother) is jealous of Heathcliff and doesn’t like him. Back then, Gypsies had a reputation for fortune telling, stealing, and prostitution and many people believed they were, “in league with the Devil”. Because of Heathcliff being of Gypsy descent, Hindley has no problem with reminding Heathcliff of this by calling him, “dog” “beggarly interloper” and “imp of Satan”. The Earnshaw family is of high class in the small community they live in with, “pure aristocratic blood” (Magnificat). As the children grow older a couple of things happen to change the course of events in the book: Mr. and Mrs. Earnshaw passes away, Hindley is the new owner of Wuthering Heights along with his wife and he makes Heathcliff become a servant.

In the movie, Mr. Earnshaw passes away, Hindley is the new owner and Heathcliff becomes a servant. Because of the different classes, these young lovers are in, society already disapproves of their friendship. Imagine how it would be if they wed? In both movie and book, Catherine and Heathcliff go to their neighbor’s house, the Lintons. They are both caught but Catherine is injured by their dogs so she stays with them for some time. In the book, Catherine comes back home and laughs at his dirty face then the next day Heathcliff washes up for her and argues with Edgar Linton and gets in trouble with Hindley. In the movie, Catherine had told Heathcliff to run away and become rich to come back for her. When she comes home she is furious to find that he hadn’t left and calls him a “servant” and a “stable boy” with “dirty hands” (Catherine to Heathcliff). Edgar then comes into the house and Heathcliff walks out, not showing how Catherine’s words hurt him. Edgar and Catherine then argue about Heathcliff in which Catherine yells that she hates feeling Edgars “soft hands.” Both scenes from the story and book show how Catherine wants to fit in with people in her class but at the same time, she loves Heathcliff and wants to be with him. Heathcliff knows he’s lower class and he knows that he isn’t going to ever get to be with her but he forgives her harsh words and wants to be near her even if it is to argue with her. “Cathy, you’re still my queen.”

Another example of how relationships can be stunted is by the environment people live in. At first, everything seemed good in the movie and book, Heathcliff being adopted, he and Catherine become friends with the fighting between Heathcliff and Hindley. Then tragedy struck and Hindley became the master of Wuthering Heights and it all goes downhill from there. In the book, Hindley makes Heathcliff become a servant and work in the fields. Between Hindley’s temper and his wife passing which makes him more bitter, Wuthering Heights stops receiving visitors. People do not want to be around Hindley with his drunken and bitter reputation and Heathcliff because of his gypsy looks. In the movie, it fast forwards from Mr. Earnshaw’s death to Hindley and Catherine at the table with the former eating breakfast. The scene shows him punishing Catherine by not letting her eat while Heathcliff is cleaning the fireplace. Hindley isn’t in the movie often but when he is he drinks and says mean things to Heathcliff. Because of the environment where they live, Heathcliff and Catherine have to sneak away to the moors to be able to freely talk to each other and bask in their love.

This isn’t enough for Catherine though because she does decide to marry Edgar Linton to advance in society. In both the book and movie, Catherine and Nelly/Ellen, the Earnshaws servant, have an intimate discussion about Catherine’s feelings towards Heathcliff and Edgar. Catherine says that she wants to marry Edgar because he will be rich one day and that he is young and handsome. She then goes on to say that it would disgrace her to marry Heathcliff but can’t deny that their “souls are the same”. Catherine sees the destruction Hindley does to himself and others and she wants to escape that. At Edgar’s house, it isn’t gloomy and people there are respectful and she feels at peace there. No matter how peaceful she is at Edgar’s house, a small part of her will always want to go back home to be with Heathcliff. She even tells Nelly that no matter what nothing will separate them. Catherine is desperate to escape her horrible home life that she would rather take Edgar’s peaceful environment than running away with her true love and living on the streets. ‘where the rubber really meets the road’ in shaping future relationships ‘is the way the parent treats the child and relates with the child. That’s the laboratory in which the child learns how to relate lovingly with other people”. In the book, Catherine is a spoiled child and she does throw a fit when she doesn’t get her way. This is no excuse for the way her brother treats her and Heathcliff and it is sad that a person like her has to run to another mans arms whom she doesn’t love to find peace. As she grows up and marries she does become a sensible woman and stops being selfish until Heathcliff comes back.

My last example of how Heathcliff and Catherine are kept apart is by their miscommunication and pride. Catherine continuously tries to find bad things about Heathcliff to prove her choosing Edgar over him. She says that Heathcliff has a bad temper and he is very prideful. Edgar is respectable, a pushover, and doesn’t have a bad temper. The love that Heathcliff and Catherine have for one another is full of passion and fire that consumes them both. Even Catherine tells her and Heathcliff have the same souls but that Linton’s “is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire”. “Your soulmate makes you feel entirely whole, healed and intact, like no piece is missing from the puzzle”. One example of how Catherine’s pride has hurt her and Heathcliff is by her avoiding “doing something that we know would be beneficial for us solely because it came from someone else”. Heathcliff suggests to her throughout the movie to run away with him, that everything would be better for them. She refuses to go with him saying that she doesn’t want to starve for food or live in streets. Catherine is too prideful to run away with Heathcliff because she would rather marry someone and use their influence to help Heathcliff instead of running away and being with him. Even when Heathcliff comes back rich, Catherine still refuses to be with him even though he did what she wanted to.

In both the movie and the book, Heathcliff overhears the private conversation that Nelly and Catherine have about Edgar and Heathcliff. He hears almost everything they say but leaves before he hears her say that nothing would keep them apart and her true plan for Edgar. Her plan is to use Edgar’s status to raise Heathcliff up so that they can eventually be together without her reputation being degraded. Heathcliff runs away and in the film and movie Catherine runs after him in the rain and tries to search for him. She makes herself sick and eventually marries Edgar. After Heathcliff comes back, Catherine and Edgar find out that he is rich. In the movie, he says to Catherine that he was kidnapped as a child and that he is of high-class blood, a reference to their childhood games. It is clear that he is back to marry her but instead of choosing him she chooses to stay with Edgar even though she loves Heathcliff. When they argue she says hurtful things to Heathcliff about how she’s at peace with Edgar and Heathcliff likes to stir things up. While Heathcliff just tells her that she is treating him badly. In the movie, it isn’t until her deathbed that they are able to put aside their pride and finally confess to one another what we all knew: how much they love one another. “What right to throw love away for the poor fancy thing you felt for him, for a handful of worthiness. Misery and death and all the evils that God and man could have ever done would never have parted us. You’d be better alone. You wandered off like a wanton, greedy child to break your heart and mine” (Heathcliff to Catherine). The events leading up to Catherine’s death and her death itself causes a “cause-and-effect thought process” with Heathcliff because he turns into a bitter man and in the book he throws a knife at his wife and she eventually leaves him.

“Heathcliff, can you see the Crag over there where our castle is”. Heathcliff and Catherine represent how relationships are stunted by class, environment, and miscommunication. Back in the 1800s-1900s, the time setting of book and movie, it was almost impossible to marry someone of lower class without dealing with repercussions. In both the movie and book it was so easy for both of these lovers to slip out to the moors to laugh and fall in love with one another. In the moors, they were free from the heart ache at Wuthering Heights. They didn’t have to worry about social classes or receiving punishments for talking to each other. Unlike at Wuthering Heights where Heathcliff received harsh punishments and Catherine needing to escape from the manor she needed to call her home. Because of her conflicting feelings about her home and her needing to feel at peace she eventually pushes Heathcliff away when she says that it would be disgraceful for her to marry him. That was the last straw for Heathcliff. You see, every time she pushed him away, argued with him and called him awful names he still forgave her. He still defended her and stuck by her side because of his love and adoration of her. “If you ever looked at me once with what I know is in you, I would be your slave. Cathy, if your heart were only stronger than your dull fear of God and the world, I would live silently contented in your shadow” (Heathcliff to Catherine). It isn’t until Catherine is dying that the two of them are able to share their feelings with one another.

If only they were able to marry and live under society’s thumb. In the movie, Catherine does beg Heathcliff many times to run away, get rich and come back for her. Heathcliff says that he wants her to join him and she scoffs and says she doesn’t want to live like a commoner, having to steal food just to survive. He does eventually come back with riches but by then she’s already married to Edgar. A man who gave her peace outside of her disparaging home, a man she settled for. “A life partner, on the other hand, can be a great supporter and long-time companion but is limited in his or her capacity to enrich your spirit”. Edgar doesn’t have the fire and passion that Catherine needs. Catherine needs someone who won’t let her walk over them or will make biting remarks back to her. She doesn’t need someone who isn’t as full of passion as she is. In the book, Heathcliff has visions of Cathy and then is found dead of sickness in Catherine’s old room. In the movie, Heathcliff runs out in the middle of a snowstorm after Catherine and the family doctor says that he saw Heathcliff walking with a woman. When he walked near them, he saw Heathcliff by himself and found out he died. The last scene in the movie is the ghosts of Heathcliff and Catherine walking away with joined hands. “They’ve only just begun to live”.

There is a lot we can learn from infants. Infants have control over their emotions. When they feel hungry, they cry. When we feed them, they stop. They react the same way when dealing with such feelings and emotions such as nausea, sleep, and even anger. The children know how to let their emotions flow and as soon as the emotion is dealt with, they let the feelings go. As life becomes more complicated, people tend to forget how to let thing flow and then let them go.

The older we get, the more we hold in the emotional baggage, allow ourselves to be possessed by them. Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights tells a very good story of the consequences of holding emotions in without ever releasing them. The characters in the book are so deeply enveloped into their emotions that they create prisons for their minds. Their own acts of hate and unkindness create these prisons; prisons that won’t let them escape from their misery.

From a very early age, the seeds of hatred are planted into Hindley. When the orphan boy, Heathcliff is brought home to live with the Earnshaw family, Hindley becomes immediately jealous when the love of his father goes into Heathcliff. Along with his sister, Catherine, the two work together to ridicule the orphan child of his disabilities, mainly his illiteracy. When Hindley’s father dies, he goes on to make Heathcliff’s life miserable. He treats Heathcliff as one of the servants and terminates his education. The hatred is spread into Heathcliff as he vows to seek revenge on Hindley.

While Hindley continued his abuse on Heathcliff, Catherine falls in love with the orphan child. However, Catherine had a personal ambition to find someone that would carry her away like an enchanted princess. She got this opportunity when she was allowed to enter the Linton house. Heathcliff, on the other hand, was told to go back home. While Catherine learned the ways of the rich, Heathcliff started his plan to seek revenge.

One of the interesting aspects of the book is the fact that Heathcliff started off with the typical romantic hero. He was the orphan child, destined to rise above the standards. However, Bronte doesn’t allow Heathcliff to transcend above his position in life. Throughout the novel, Heathcliff commits act of pure evil that is very hard for the reader to believe. He starts by killing a few dogs and goes on to create even more havoc. He tortures Isabella by testing her undying love for him. He even goes on to plan the use of his own child to seek revenge on his arch nemesis, Edgar Linton.

All the while, the one thing that caused all of his pain, all of his misery, never stopped haunting him. Catherine died from the love she had for Heathcliff. Her acts of unkindness towards him led to her misery which would eventually lead to her death. Heathcliff could never bury Catherine and he felt like her ghost was always around watching him, waiting for him to join her.

Heathcliff’s ultimate revenge would take place by destroying the love between Hareton and the young Catherine. He tried to recreate a love triangle between his son Linton Heathcliff, the young Catherine, and Hareton. However, the young Catherine reminded Heathcliff of his love for her mother so much, that his desire to fulfill his act of revenge soon disappeared. When he finally realized this, his anger, his rage, turned to misery. Like his love before him, he let the misery take over, which would lead him to his own death.

Heathcliff, along with many other characters in the story, were locked inside a cage they couldn’t escape. The lock was composed of love, hatred, revenge and misery. For the second generation of children in the story (Heathcliff, Edgar Linton, Hindley, and Catherine), the self-made prisons made for some very miserable lives and depressing deaths.

Catherine:

I was overjoyed at Heathcliffs return. He surprised everyone and just ‘turned up’ one night while we were eating.

I wanted Edgar and Heathcliff to get along now that they were older and (I hoped) maturer so I made every effort to get them talking, unfortunately neither had much to say to each other.

One of the things that most surprised me about Heathcliff was that his appearance had changed; he was well built, and stockier than when he had left.

I was so very pleased to see Heathcliff that I couldn’t sleep as I was so excited that one of my closest friends had returned.

Edgar became very annoyed and I realised I had always had an affinity for Heathcliff that could not be compared in strength to anything.

As I would not let Heathcliff go, Edgar and I grew further apart, and our arguments more frequent until one day I decided that I would feign illness to see if he still loved me. But instead of coming to sit by my side, he immersed himself in his books, as if trying to forget that I existed.

It hurt me in a way that I cannot describe. I felt as if the world had no meaning anymore – my husband did not love me, and I was at a place where I needed love and support most. It was only the intervention of Nelly that stopped me losing myself in a fit of passion for the moors.

I decided to show them that by ignoring my feelings, I would in turn hurt theirs; I would “break both their hearts by breaking my own”.

Edgar:

I was extremely surprised to see a ‘plough-boy’ arrive on our doorstep, only to be treated like a brother by Catherine. I was unsure what the fuss was about and confused as to why Catherine was so excited about the return of this runaway servant. Catherine wanted me to get along with Heathcliff but I knew the man when I was younger and had long decided to part myself from him.

He immediately disrupted the household and caused Catherine to have sleepless nights.

I saw a side of her that I had not previously seen. See seemed to talk endlessly about the old times and how they got on together. See would never talk to me properly, and when I even hinted that I did not like the fellow she flew into a rage and we would end up arguing. Heathcliff did not help matters one bit. He lay around aimlessly, preferring to watch and stir trouble if he could. I was not entirely bother by him though as anything that made Catherine happy, made me happy, and I tried as best I could to get along with him. Unfortunately, little did I know that he would cause our family to be ruined.

Isabella:

As soon as I met Heathcliff, I though he had a rough charm about him that I adored. I did not really know about his past, and that I did know I took with a pinch of salt, as I knew many people did not understand him. I wanted to know him better for a long time but my mother would hardly let him out of her site, let alone let anyone else converse with her precious friend. Eventually we agreed to elope together and only then did I see the real side of Heathcliff that I had come to cherish. He was an evil man. As soon as I realised I was pregnant I knew my life on the moors had ended and ran away to a place where I could start afresh.

Desires and fears seem so different, yet are at the root of each other. If you say, “l want to be loved,” it’s the same thing as saying “I’m afraid I won’t be loved. ” Bronte’s Wuthering Heights and Ford Madox Ford’s The Good Soldier manage to show how similar desire and fear truly are. Wuthering Heights is saturated with desire and fear and the two play off of one another in a way that makes them so homogeneous. Similarly, The Good Soldier draws on the desires of many of the characters and in turn the fears, which encapsulate them.

Both Bronte and Ford engage with these deas through the use of character, theme, and in a more generic way narration. Desire is linked most commonly with the romance novel, which is what The Good Soldier and Wuthering heights partially allude to. Many scholars classify Wuthering Heights as a gothic novel, even though the story centers around romance and relationships.. Wuthering Heights engages with the concept of desire from its opening pages. Bronte uses Lockwood’s desire for sociability or what could be looked upon as companionship, as an early device for a theme that is continued throughout the novel.

The opening lines show Lockwood’s opinion of Heathcliff: .. Mr Heathcliff and I are such a suitable pair to divide the desolation between us. A capital fellow! He little imagined how my heart warmed towards him when I beheld his black eyes withdraw so suspiciously under their brows, as I rode up, and when his fingers sheltered themselves, with Jealous resolution, still further in his waistcoat, as I announced my name. (Bronte, 1847,2000:1) The opening lines of the novel show Lockwood relating his first visit to Wuthering Heights, and his initial meeting with Heathcliff. This extract shows the reader how much Lockwood yearns for companionship.

The phrase suitable pair suggests that he and Heathcliff are quite similar. However we the reader know that this is far from the case. Heathcliffs abrupt and dismissive manner would be enough to deter any individual for want of his company, but this does not seem to perturb Lockwood. Lockwood continues to pay reverence towards Heathcliff coining him as ‘a capital fellow. Taken in its context this phrase suggests that Heathcliff is a first rate person. We can see that in this lonely secluded moor Lockwood seems to overlook Heathcliffs abhorrent nature in favour of his comradery.

If we take the less obvious meaning of ‘capital’ we can see that this word applied to Heathcliff is appropriate in the sense of someone who has the desire to acquire capital and Heathcliff is Just that, someone who wants to have money and land. Desires in The Good Soldier are similarly expressed through relationships. At the beginning of Dowell’s narration he states: If for nine years I have possessed a goodly apple that is rotten at the core and discover its rottenness only in nine years and six months less four days, isn’t it true to say that for nine years I possessed a goodly apple?

Ford, 191 5,2010:29) This quote encapsulates everything that is tlawed witn Dowell Narrating the story in retrospect Dowell is aware of all events that have passed, even if it is only through what he has been told from Edward and Leonora. The fact that Dowell compares the couple’s relationship to an apple gives one the impression that it is something that will not last for very long. The shiny nature of an apple is the couples’ fapde that Dowell does not wish to destroy.

Even after learning of Edward’s relationship with Florence he still thinks of him as the English gentleman’ and has a high opinion of im throughout his narration. Not only is Dowell’s desire that of stasis but also of nostalgia. He does not wish to think of the couples’ relationship as rotten but only as it was seen from the outside, unblemished and oblivious. It is ironic that Dowell should describe the couples as ‘ four people with the same tastes, with the same desires’ even though they are polar opposites of one another (Ford, 191 5,2010:29) .

Dowell is a passionless individual whereas Florence will go to any lengths to obtain her sexual desires. Edward and Florence share the same desire of adultery and social status. It would seem that both Dowell and Leonora have the same desire to help facilitate their partner’s secret affairs, although in Dowell’s case he is completely unaware of it. Ford uses Dowell’s naivety as a tool for his desire for things to remain as they are. In Wuthering Heights Bronte uses characterisation to build a foundation for a complex array of desires.

According to Phillip Hill “Desire is marked by the use of language and signifiers, and is a ‘lack for something that is missing: the object of desire” (Hill, 1997:65). Bronte uses Cathys desire for Heathcliff as one of the main focal points of Nellys narrative. Cathys demand is to return to her childhood relationship with Heathcliff. Out of this comes her desire to be with Heathcliff. She states ‘ he shall never know how I love him… because he is more myself than I am Once a desire is obtained then it is no longer remains the object of desire; another object will become substituted in its place

‘Fiction of this period is dominated by the characters’ need to escape from walls, boundaries and ideological restrictions. ’ How far do you agree with this interpretation of Wuthering Heights and your partner text? In Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte emphasises the ways in which characters are literally trapped, emotionally repressed, socially oppressed and intellectually guarded. Bronte portrays her character as determined to break free from their shackles and explores the theme in three key ways. Bronte satirises the church’s vain attempts to control the characters’ lives and curb their instincts.

Written in the 1840’s but set between 1770 and 1802, the novel also reveals the ways in which the industrial revolution was allowing people to undermine and overcome hitherto rigid class boundaries. Finally, Bronte depicts the ways in which women are challenging their traditional roles. Throughout the novels Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte countless comparisons can be made. Both novels are stories of love and how this powerful emotion was able to overcome countless obstacles.

These obstacles were lengthy struggles that characters within each novel were faced with and went through immense pain all for love. In the novel Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte portrays Christian morality and causes characters to feel claustrophobic with her frequent reiteration of religious ideas. The character of Joseph is a devout Christian and so symbolises all that is good about a characters morality, this is evident when Lockwood describes Joseph as having ‘ransacked’ the Bible for his entire life.

Whereas the character of Hindley for example conveys the opposite viewpoint and all that is bad about Christian morality when he orders Joseph to work ‘out of doors’ with the peasants. These religious ideas are highlighted in only the second chapter when Lockwood compares his first impressions of Wuthering Heights to a religious home and how he possibly feels claustrophobic when he claims it has a ’dismal spiritual atmosphere’, this immediately implies to the reader that perhaps the character of Lockwood is religious because he is almost comparing Wuthering Heights to a place of worship.

This is further emphasised in the sixth chapter when Heathcliff and Catherine run away to the moors and describe it as being ’in heaven’. This elicts to the reader that Wuthering Heights is like hell, and so they feel trapped, which insinuates at the idea of claustrophobia. Also, by describing it as this would show that perhaps Heathcliff and Catherine have had some sort of religious teaching in their upbringings due to their understanding of the ideas of heaven and hell.

Furthermore, in chapter seven Bronte’s use of the simile ‘like devils spies’ further questions the reader’s attitude towards Christian morality and the imagery of ‘purgatory’ is perhaps a metaphor for Wuthering Heights. This constant bombardment of religious diction reiterates and enables Bronte to present the idea of Christian morality in the reader’s mind. Moreover, in chapter twelve the thought of church being a burden on their lives and the fact that they are almost forced to believe in it is stressed when Lockwood says ‘not go to church’ and ‘bury me then throw the church over me’.

This sarcastic approach towards the church and Christianity in general shows the characters are perhaps growing tiresome of going to church and are conceivably just fed up with their humdrum lives. It also displays to the reader the typical life of an eighteenth century family in that they must go to church as regularly as possible and if they don’t then they are perceived as the black sheep of the family. This idea of people growing tired of the same old routine is repeated when Nelly Dean’s daily routine is expressed as ‘the chapel’ and ‘the only building she had entered’.

This underlines the idea of claustrophobia being withstood by the characters because other than Wuthering Heights the only other place to seemingly visit is the chapel. Therefore the characters lives more or less revolve around going to chapel and then coming back to Wuthering Heights again, which imaginably would be quite tedious. Both Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre explore the ideas of Christian morality with the use of ghosts. The ghost of Catherine appears to Lockwood whilst and Jane see’s visions of her uncle after being locked in her room.

However it could be argued that they explore different aspects of Christian morality because in Wuthering Heights the character the highly religious character of Joseph is perceived to be a kind and pleasant man, whereas the religious character of Mr Brocklehurst in Jane Eyre is portrayed as an unlikeable and obnoxious character. Another way in which Bronte gives the characters a sense of claustrophobia is the way in which she emphasises female entrapment throughout the novel. This is evident in only the fifth chapter when Lockwood expresses the idea of keeping Catherine separated from Heathcliff ‘keep her separate’.

This illustrates that Lockwood has no qualms about taking Catherine away from Heathcliff at a very early stage in the novel and so shows the immediate entrapment being suffered by Catherine under Lockwood’s authority. What’s more, in the very next chapter Catherine escapes Wuthering Heights with Heathcliff and together they ‘run away to the moors’. This idea that Catherine has escaped and is now enjoying the freedom of the moors could suggest that she has been trapped inside Wuthering Heights for some time and that running away is her rebelling against Lockwood.

Additionally, in chapters eleven and twelve respectively Bronte uses description such as ‘slammed the door’ and ‘laid alone’ when portraying the treatment Catherine is receiving whilst she is unwell. The fact that she is laid ‘alone’ seems to suggest that she is being summoned to her own bed and ordered not to get out. Also, due to the fact that Catherine is ill would mean she would be unable to perform simple tasks yet as she is depicted as being alone would imply there is no one there to help her.

Moreover, in chapter thirteen, Isabella finds comfort from hiding in Hareton’s room and describes it as ‘shelter’ from the rest of the house. This stresses the idea of claustrophobia within the novel as Isabella only really feels safe in just one room out of an entire mansion. Another example of where claustrophobia is portrayed through the theme of female entrapment is apparent in chapter fifteen when Catherine deliberates running away from Wuthering Heights forever ‘I’m tired of being enclosed here’ and she later describes Wuthering Heights as a ‘shattered prison’.

These choices of diction clearly illustrate a strong resent for living at Wuthering Heights as she is dead beat towards remaining there under the command of Hindley. Wuthering Heights is similar to that of Jane Eyre because in Wuthering Heights, confinement defines the course of Catherine’s life. In childhood, she alternates between the constraint of Wuthering Heights and the freedom of the moors and in Jane Eyre the character of Jane is treated as a slave and is often limited to just one room in her adopted parent’s house.

However they are different due to the fact that in the end Jane manages to overcome this female entrapment whereas Catherine never truly does. Throughout the novel of Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte is continuously depicting class restriction as one of the reasons behind many characters claustrophobic behaviour. This is most visible in the sixth chapter when Hindley orders Heathcliff to ‘labour’ and work ‘out of doors’. Hindley does not believe it is right that Heathcliff has come from a working class background yet has somehow managed to slip his way into living with the upper class residents of Wuthering Heights.

So now that Mr Earnshaw has died and Hindley has taken over the reins, he immediately uses his new found clout to deposit Heathcliff back with the working class. Furthermore, later on in chapter six, Heathcliff and Catherine are out exploring the moors and amongst their excitement and delirium decide to have a race. But Catherine loses because she is ‘barefoot’. The race could possibly symbolise freedom and that they can do whatever they want now there are little restrictions, in stark contrast to the claustrophobic atmosphere of Wuthering Heights.

Also, with Catherine being ‘barefoot’ gives the impression that although she is of an upper class background, when she is accompanied by Heathcliff she is seemingly converted to stereotypical working class behaviour. What’s more, in chapter seven, Hindley abruptly orders Joseph to leave dinner ‘send him to the garret’. This is palpable evidence that Hindley again is using his new found status to take advantage and single out the alleged lower class residents of Wuthering Heights.

Also, the way in which Hindley orders Joseph to be absent makes it seem as though it is the job of the servants to throw him into the garret, further emphasising the class restriction within Wuthering Heights. Moreover, roughly half way through chapter thirteen, Hindley persuades Isabella to go up to Heathcliff’s room and voluntarily lock herself in ‘be so good as to draw your lock’. This conveys Hindley as being forceful yet sarcastic in the way he patronises Isabella and shows that Hindley thinks himself a lot more highly than Isabella.

Also, the fact that Hindley is asking Isabella to lock herself in shows she has no preference and so perhaps Bronte is suggesting that Isabella feels claustrophobic whilst in Wuthering Heights. In addition, Hindley arranges a tutor to come and teach Hareton in chapter twenty to come from ‘miles away’. This perfectly demonstrates the idea of class restriction having a direct influence on claustrophobia. Firstly, the idea of being able to hire a tutor generally depicts an upper class family but by noting that he is travelling a fair distance highlights the isolation of Wuthering Heights from the rest of civilisation.

Wuthering Heights is about the grim love story between the sweet and sincere Cathy and the violent and primitive Heathcliff. Their love is predestined to a tragic end due to the difference in social class. This is similar to the relationship between Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester but whereas in Jane Eyre the main character of Jane is an orphan who is tormented by her aunt and cousins. She spends her childhood in an orphanage, where her individuality is suppressed, but finds a job in a rich house as a governess. Jane falls in love with the owner of the house, Edward Rochester, and ultimately lives happily ever after.

In Emily Bronte’s novel Wuthering Heights she depicts the balance of good and evil and does this so through her characters and their relationships with one another. Emily accomplishes this through her multitude of biblical allusions that depict the disolant road that older Catherine trots down, while Heathcliff and Edgar bash skulls for the hand of Catherine more than once. Each of these complex relationships take place with different intentions. One has selfish intentions while the other has pure hearted intentions.

This creates a veil of anticipation for each of the characters that is constantly strained and only creates more turmoil within the Wuthering Heights community. Thus love for the wong reasons ulitmatly end up in their imment self-destruction. Following along with the theme of love hate, greed and selflessness one of the most distinct characters in Wuthering Heights is Edgar. Even though his character is in a broad point of view dull he does exemplify qualities of true honest love for the older Catherine.

This unconditional love towards her later in the book creates friction with three of the main characters as him and Heathcliff bash heads more than once for the love of older Catherine. On one hand Heathcliff has devilish motivations for the hand of Catherine, while Edgar reveles that his love is unconditional, as shown here, “No mother could have nursed an only child more devotedly than Edgar tended her. Day and night he was watching and patiently enduring all the annoyances that irritable nerves and a shaken reason could conflict. In this little piece of the book tells a tale about the feelings Edgar has towards Catherine. First of all, naturally mothers are the ultimate care takers as they take care and nurture babies to health. So saying that, “No mother could have nursed an only child more devotedly than Edgar tended her. ” Is also saying that since a mother’s love is boundless and all focused on one child that that one child would receive so much love that it would be just overkill, but since it says Edgar took better care than a mother in that situation it only shows the honest and true love he has for Catherine.

In the second portion of the passage from the novel it babbles on about how Edgar tends to her every whim even though dealing with her as she through her ever Deeping depression and her ever increasing irritability; nothing less than ripping hair from a scalp with so much that the onslaught dug out even the deepest roots. Even though this he still loves her with unconditional love. Due to this Edgar sheds light on this novel through a biblical passage were it descibes the purity of affection in 1st Corinthians were it says, “Love is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. In this quote written by the apostle Paul through the words of god tell the true tale about love, and fits together like a puzzle when compared to Edgar’s affection. On the other side of the love triangle, focusing on Older Catherine and Heathcliffs relationship is one that’s been strained since their youth. This is due to the mishap that Catherine made when they were younger, and will come later in life to haunt her; this is the rejection of Heathcliff’s love due to the soul fact of this inferior intellect, even though she loved him too.

She later on in her life eventually regrets this as she marries Edgar on the soul fact of his social status, and as Heathcliff returns form his quest for knowledge arises once hidden emotions she had for Heathcliff as shown here, “ Oh, the evil is that I am NOT jealous, is it? ’ cried Catherine. ‘Well, I won’t repeat my offer of a wife: it is a bad as offering Satan a lost soul. Your bliss lies, like his, in inflicting misery. You provide it. Edgar is resorted form the ill-temper he gave way to at your comeing; I begin to be secure and tranquil; and you, restless to know us at peace, appear resolved on exciting a quarrel.

Quarrel with Edgar, if you please, Heathcliff, and deceive his sister: you’ll hit on exactly the most efficient method of revenging yourself on me. ” In this passage from the novel it contributes to the theme by adding a dynamic that hasn’t been seen befor this by adding a biblical refrence were it compares their relationship to Satan and offering him a lost soul. Satan is already a lost soul and king of evil so he wouldn’t want a lost soul to heal, he would only damage it.

When Emily makes this she shows the desperaty of their relationship that its lost and that no matter what it can’t be re-kindled. It also shows the inner most thoughts and feelings of Catherine and the feelings she has for him that once laid dormant but are now has arose. As the result of the two conflicting oppositions Catherine is plunged into a situation where she has to choose from, the man she married and made sacrid vows. Vows that in the bible describe the life long bond that the two parts reate and should never be broken unless sin was committed with another other than you husband/wife; in this situation though Edgar has stayed true to her, and has gone to hell and back for her. While on the other hand there’s Heathcliff, the love of her youth, the person who is likes her missing piece of her puzzle. That is until she denied him her love due to reasons that would be considered selfish. Now with the return of Heathcliff the spark is re-ignited and feelings that once lay dormant now arise to take strangle hold of here mind and judgment.

This conflicting affects so much so that her heart is torn into shreds and her mentality has shifted a broad overlook of life as if it’s one shade and that shade is black, as described by Edgar, “Catherine had seasons of gloom and silence now and then: they were respected with sympathizing silence by her husband, who ascribed them to an altar-ness, as she was never subject to depression of spirits before. ” By analyzing this passage it tells a tale of the life of Catherine. It helps to show that she wasn’t always depressed, and she never use to act like she does now; unfortunately that was until she married Edgar.

It also shows the dispare she now feels that her love is gone for good and she is stuck with a person who she doesn’t love. Bounded by the vows of marriage. This passage also shows the inner most thoughts of Catherine as she lays in bed stricken by guilt, depression in a life that Heathcliff isn’t apart of. Even though the love triangle of Heathcliff, Cahterine, and Edgar proves that love shouldn’t be towed with for selfish gains and that the outcomes with these intentions will invertably lead to ones imminent self destruction.

But it’s through the turmoil and the actions of the characters that it shows the complexity of love, that it should be through pure honest devotion that you should ever marry. Not for personal gain and not through love, this will invertably end up bad every time. In Emily Bronte’s novel Wuthering Heights Emily depicts the fundamental aspect of human emotions and actions towards the search for ones true love; she accomplishes this by giving us a ying and yang sineario in the novel through the eyes of both the older Catherine and younger Catherine.