Wuthering Heights written by Emily Bronte, was a novel filled
with many
emotions and activity. Her characters
represent an on going
conflict between
love and hate. Upon the publication of the book
articles and
reviews were written regarding Brontes novel. Following her
death some of
these were recovered such as the following
written January
15 1848: " In Wuthering Heights the
reader is
shocked,
disgusted, almost sickened by details of cruelty, inhumanity
and the most
diabolical hate and vengeance, and anon come passages of
powerful
testimony to the supreme power of love-even over demons in
the human form.
The awomen in the book are of a strange fiendish-angelic
nature
tantalizing and terrible, and the men are indescribable out of
the book itself.
" The critic fills my complete
expectations for
what a review of
this book should be. It is, in a sense,
a blending
of elements that
make the book what it is. Both
atmosphere and characters
are filled with a
mystery that keeps the reader drawn to the book much
as some are
addicted to viewing day time soap operas.
One of the main elements of the story
that is mentioned in
the review is
cruelty. Cruelty has helped form some of
the
characters to be
what they are. When a young Heathcliff
is brought into
the Earnshaw
family, he is instantly disliked by Hindley Earnshaw. Hindley
hates Heathcliff
for intruding onto his family. He loses
his fathers love
and sets out to
destroy Heathcliff. Within Catherine's diary was written:
" I wish my father were back again. Hindley is a detestable substitute-his
conduct to
Heathcliff is atrocious. " (25) Hindleys hate toward Heathcliff is so
deeply felt, that
upon the news of Hindley receiving a son, Heathcliff
sets out to
torment the child as part of a plan to punish the Earnshaws.
The cruelties of Hindley toward
Heathcliff produces vengeance.
Heathcliff feels
the need to take revenge, and zeros in on Hareton Earnshaw
son to
Hindley. Heathcliff's evil influence is
felt upon the boy who
reflects the most
insensitive traits. He turns the young Hareton into a
brute for whom
has no respect or love for his father or for his education.
" He raised
his missile to hurl it: I commenced a soothing speech, but could
not stay the hand-the
stone struck my bonnet; and then ensued, from the
stammering lips
of the little fellow, a string of curses, which whether
he comprehended
them or not, were delivered with practiced emphasis, and
distorted his
baby features into a shocking expression of malignity. " (109)
Heathcliffs
cruelties toward Haerton is felt throughout.
He has become a
reflection of the
cruelty Heathcliff hides in himself, he has done to Haerton
what Hindley did
to him. In a strange sense Haerton clings to Heathcliff, and
treats him as if
he was a father.
The supreme power of love is a central
theme in the book. Bronte
produces a love
that is not so much romantic as it is powerful.
Heathcliff's
evil is projected
upon everyone in the story except Catherine.
Catherine had
from the start of
the story had a love for Heathcliff. " I ran to the children's
room; their door
was ajar, I saw they had never laid down, though it was
past midnight;
but they were calmer, and did not need me to console them. The
little souls were
confronting each other with better thoughts than I could
have hit on.
" (48) Here we can witness Catherine and Heathcliff comforting
each other in the
news of Mr. Earnshaw's death. For a time
it seems as if
Heathcliff could
be redeemed. And as they grew they
became more separate.
Catherine pledges
her love to Edgar Linton, a young gentleman from
Threshold
Grange. She has second thoughts about
her love. " I've no more
business to marry
Edgar Linton than I have to be in Heaven; and if the wicked
man in there had
not brought Heathcliff so low, I shouldn't have thought of
it. It would
degrade me to marry Heathcliff now: so he shall never know
how I love him;
and that not because he's handsome, Nelly, but because he's
more myself than
I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the
same; and
Linton's is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost
from fire. "
(82) Catherine admits that within her
heart she is not doing
the right thing.
After the death of Catherine,
Heathcliff never fully recovers
from the loss.
His love last to the point that seven years later he
decides to bring
up he coffin and embrace her one final time.
When he
tells Nelly what
he has done she deems his a wicked man who has no
respect for the
dead. Heathcliff replies that " I
disturbed nobody,
and I gave some
ease to myself. I shall be a great deal
more comfortable
now; and you'll
have a better chance of keeping me underground, when I get
there. Disturbed her? No! she has disturbed me,
night and day, through
eighteen
years-incessantly-remorselessly-till yesternight; and yesternight
I was tranquil.
" (274) Such as the review suggest shocking and disgusting
displays of human
nature. One could not be more shocked
than idea of
removing a corpse
from its grave to fulfill an undying love.
The book ends as Heathcliff dies. We
can see that the novel
revolved around
his life. He stands in the end
unredeemed. His soul was
forever locked in
between his love for Catherine and his hate for the
rest. Wuthering Heights can have a different
interpretation by anyone
who reads
it. There are the evident struggles
between love and hate, and
as we can see
through the end, love is stronger than hate.
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