Wuthering Heights
Out of many books that we read, some manage to stay with us but only a rare few have the power to keep pulling you back. Wuthering Heights is one such intense timeless classic.
Reading Bronte’s brilliant creation is like diving into the wild, passionate world of extreme emotions and destruction. She makes you love, loathe, fear, reconcile, experience deceit, abuse, violence so closely that you almost live multiple lives in that devastating setting through all the characters.
Wuthering Heights is a masterpiece that stems from the roots of human sentiments which is very carefully and cleverly woven with multidimensional angels – gothic, social, tragic, psychological and romantic. Apart from offering these multifaceted layers, its rich and honest display of human emotions make this novel relevant to the readers of any generation.
An outline of the novel and central characters:
The bond between the central two characters–Heathcliff and Catherine- is the emotional core of the novel. The story begins with their proximity, which later on leads to a friendship and later on brewing love between them. The story takes a turn and we see how Catherine chooses to marry the wealthier Linton despite acknowledging her deep-rooted love for Heathcliff. Thereafter arises the self-destructive storms of their unsettled feelings.
The early establishment of Healthcliff’s child abuse helps explain the man he grows into. His emotional struggle of being tormented and degraded by someone who he had considered a brother makes the character development psychologically compelling and credible. His hatred, horror, outrageous brutality has a base in his tormented past. It is Hindley’s abuse that leads to Heathcliff’s abuse, and Heathcliff, in turn, creates a monster of himself. As a reader, we have as many reasons to sympathize with Heathcliff as many as we have to despise him.
On each page, in each dialogue we experience characters appearing in flesh and bones. It makes you feel that you are trapped on the moors and you can see these characters screaming, mourning, suffering in front of your eyes.
Among the many characters, it is Heathcliff who evokes all sorts of emotions in the reader. His emotional complexity keeps you incurably curious. He can come across as appealing and repelling at the same time. We revel in his glorious attributes like his undying love for Catherine, his desire to prove his merit, his courage etc.; but the darkness that he carries within himself overshadows all his heroic qualities. He is vengeful, selfish, destructive and merciless. Even his dire, hopeless love for Catherine doesn’t stop him from bringing
miseries upon her. Healthcliff’s emptiness is strikingly loud. He is a nasty sociopath and sadistic lover buried under the burden of betrayal, unhealed past and lovelorn life. On the other hand, Catherine’s character grows from a free-spirited, rebellious, half-savage young girl to a woman with social position, ladylike demeanour and materialistic aspirations of civilization. She expresses her relationship with Heathcliff when she says, “Without Heathcliff, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger”. Justifying the duality of her
love, she tells Nelly: “My love for Edgar is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I’m well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I am Heathcliff”.
As she lives and even after her death, Catherine’s character continues to influence Heathcliff. Nowhere throughout the novel, does she exist as entirely as herself. She is always torn between dual choices until the end.
The only silver lining to this harrowing account appears in the capacity of Cathy’s daughter (Young Catherine) and Hindley’s son (Hareton) when they rise above the abuse showered upon them by the older generations. As readers, this is the only possibility of redemption we can sense.
Conclusion:
The novel is a rich, immersive and undeniably well-crafted agony of deep psychological resonance. Bronte must be a woman of few but powerful words. Her brevity leaves a lot for us to sink in. The poetic charm in the simple articulation of complex feelings lingers on you long after the page has turned.
The story-within-a-story format helps the reader enter this adventure step-by-step before casting a spell on one. The conversation – between the new tenant, Mr Lockwood and housekeeper, Nelly- transports us to the main story and marks our journey from an outsider to becoming a witness. You feel curious like Lockwood, angry like Heathcliff and you ache like Catherine.
In a nutshell, this work of art and imagination will land you in the 19th century. You will be in the wild moors witnessing and experiencing a pathological love affair, revengeful drama peppered with rich dialogues (and monologues) and a consuming plot. Bonus for you, if you love quotes because this book is a treasure of many gems!