Love in Wuthering Heights
The different types of live displayed in Wuthering Heights:
- Passionate love between Catherine and Heathcliff
- Socially acceptable love between Catherine and Edgar
- Forced love between Cathy and Linton
- The natural love between Cathy and Hareton
Quotes
"It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff, now; so he shall never know how I love him ; and that, not because he is handsome, Nelly, but because he is more myself then I am" v. 1, chap. 9, pg. 81
Characterisation, point of view -
Characterisation, point of view -
- Catherine's need to meet social expectations and marry within her own class forces her to marry Edgar, since he is sociably acceptable, compared to Heathcliff, whose marriage would degrade her. Another reason Catherine cannot marry Heathcliff is that Heathcliff is too much like herself, and their love, that of passion, is not necessarily seen as an acceptable one. Catherine is impacted by this external pressure into engaging in a loveless, or at least passionless relationship, which ultimately leads to suffering.
"If he loved with all the powers of his puny being, he couldn't love as much in eighty years, as I could in a day" v. 1, chap. 14, pg. 148
Conflict, hyperbole -
Conflict, hyperbole -
- Heathcliff highlights the fact that Edgar and Catherine's marriage is that of social necessity, rather than of love, like the relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine. Conflict is introduced as Heathcliff contrasts his excessive love of Catherine to Edgar's lack thereof. This provides evidence again that socially acceptable love has a negative impact on all those involved, leading to unfulfilling and loveless relationships.
"And that insipid, paltry creature attending her from duty and humanity! From pity and charity!" v. 1, chap. 14, pg. 152
Conflict -
Conflict -
- During Catherine's illness, Heathcliff claims the only reason that Edgar shows any concern for her is that he is duty bound, through their marriage, rather than for any love or compassion he should feel for her. Edgar and Catherine's social marriage is affectively loveless, leading to discontent between its participants.
"… converted at a stroke into Mrs Linton, the lady of Thrushcross Grange, and the wife of a stranger; an exile, and outcast, thenceforth, from what had been my world …" v.1, chap. 12, pg. 125
Point of view -
Point of view -
- Catherine herself recognizes the error of her decision to marry due to social expectations. She is now the wife of a stranger, a man who she has not romantic relationship with, and has now become an outcast the her previous world, that of a passionate love with Heathcliff.
"You (Linton) must try to love him (Heathcliff), as you did your mother, and then he will love you’" v. 2, chap. 6, pg. 189
Narrative Structure -
Narrative Structure -
- This social expectation of filial duty is pervasive even in a modern context, but Bronte is highlighting to us that in some extreme cases family values do not need to be upheld as Heathcliff obviously does not feel any love for his son.
"I don't want you Edgar - I'm past wanting you…return to your books…" v. 1, chap. 12, pg. 128
Metaphor
Metaphor
- The metaphor - 'return to your books' shows Catherine's inability to understand this social norm (that one woman cannot be ‘shared’ by two men for convenience’s sake)- Edgar is somewhat objectified. He loses all emotional connection with Catherine and is treated by her as a replaceable item, supposedly content with wherever it is placed and whatever role it must fulfil. Because of this, Catherine acts as catalyst for far reaching revenge on the part of Heathcliff.
"(Edgar’s soul) is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire" v. 1, chap. 9, pg. 74
Simile, Descriptive Language -
Simile, Descriptive Language -
- Bronte makes use of similes to strengthen the difference between the two characters but also the characterisation of Edgar as a weak, indoor and spoiled man compared to Catherine being free spirited, strong willed and rather brash. This illustrates the deleterious impact of social expectations on Catherine to marry against her soul.
"I am Heathcliff… Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same" v. 1, chap. 9, pg. 74
Hyperbole, Characterisation -
Hyperbole, Characterisation -
- These hyperboles further exemplify the effect of social expectations upon people’s behaviour as it even manages to break the unnaturally strong link between Catherine and Heathcliff.
"Thrushcross Grange has ‘crimson-covered chairs and tables, and a pure white ceiling bordered by gold,’ whereas Wuthering heights is a place to live for a ‘homely, northern farmer.’" v. 1, chap. 6, pg. 44
Setting, Descriptive language, Binary opposition -
Setting, Descriptive language, Binary opposition -
- These conflicting settings and descriptions further the gap between Thrushcross Grange and the Lintons representing Victorian values with strict morals and constrained behaviour, and Wuthering Heights and Heathcliff representing Romantic values of passion and extreme emotions.