The Destructiveness of a Love That Never Changes Catherine and Heathclif’s passion or one another seems to be the center o Wuthering Heights, given that it is stronger and more lasting than any other emotion displayed in the novel, and that it is the source o most o the major conicts that structure the novel’s plot. As she tells Catherine and Heathclif’s story, elly critici!es both o them harshly, condemning their passion as immoral, but this passion is obviously one o the most compelling and memorable aspects o the boo". #t is not easy to decide $hether %ront& intends the reader to condemn these lovers as blame$orthy or to ideali!e them as romantic heroes $hose love transcends social norms and conventional morality. morality. 'he boo" is actually structured structured around t$o parallel love stories, the (rst hal o the novel centering on the love bet$een Catherine and Heathclif, $hile the less dramatic second hal eatures the developing love bet$een young Catherine and Hareton. #n contrast to the (rst, the latter tale ends happily, restoring peace and order to Wuthering Heights and 'hrushcross )range. 'he diferences bet$een the t$o love stories contribute to the reader’s understanding o $hy each ends the $ay it does. 'he most important eature o young young Catherine and Hareton’s love love story is that it involves gro$th and change. *arly in the novel Hareton seems i rredeemably brutal, savage, and illiterate, but over time he becomes a loyal riend to young Catherine and learns to read. When young Catherine (rst meets Hareton he seems completely alien to her $orld, yet her attitude also evolves rom contempt to love. Catherine and Heathclif’s love, on the other hand, is rooted in their childhood and is mar"ed by the reusal to change. #n choosing to marry *dgar, Catherine see"s a more genteel lie, but she reuses to adapt to her role as $ie, either by sacri(cing Heathclif or embracing embra cing *dgar. *dgar. #n Chapter +## she suggests to elly that the years since she $as t$elve years old and her ather died have been li"e a blan" to her, and she longs to return to the moors o her childhood. Heathclif, or his part, possesses a seemingly superhuman ability to maintain the same attitude and to nurse the same grudges over many years. oreover, Catherine and Heathclif’s love is based on their shared perception that they are identical. Catherine declares, amously, -# am Heathclif, $hile Heathclif, upon Catherine’s death, $ails that he cannot live $ithout his -soul, meaning Catherine. 'heir love denies diference, and is strangely ase/ual. 'he t$o do not "iss in dar" corners or arrange secret trysts, as adulterers do. )iven that Catherine and Heathclif’s love is based upon their reusal to change over time or embrace diference in others, it is (tting that the disastrous problems o their generation are overcome not by some climactic reversal, but simply by the ine/orable passage o time, and the rise o a ne$ and distinct generation. 0ltimately, Wuthering Heights presents a vision o lie as a process o change, and celebrates this process over and against the romantic intensity i ntensity o its principal characters.
The Precariousness of Social Class As members o the gentry, the *arnsha$s and the 1intons occupy a some$hat precarious place $ithin the hierarchy o late eighteenth2 and early nineteenth2 century %ritish society. society. At the top o %ritish society $as the royalty, ollo$ed by
the aristocracy, then by the gentry, and then by the lo$er classes, $ho made up the vast majority o the population. Although the gentry, or upper middle class, possessed servants and oten large estates, they held a nonetheless ragile social position. 'he social status o aristocrats $as a ormal and settled matter, because aristocrats had o3cial titles. embers o the gentry, ho$ever, held no titles, and their status $as thus subject to change. A man might see himsel as a gentleman but (nd, to his embarrassment, that his neighbors did not share this vie$. A discussion o $hether or not a man $as really a gentleman $ould consider such 4uestions as ho$ much land he o$ned, ho$ many tenants and servants he had, ho$ he spo"e, $hether he "ept horses and a carriage, and $hether his money came rom land or -trade5gentlemen scorned ban"ing and commercial activities. Considerations o class status oten crucially inorm the characters’ motivations in Wuthering Heights. Catherine’s decision to marry *dgar so that she $ill be -the greatest $oman o the neighborhood is only the most obvious e/ample. 'he 1intons are relatively (rm in their gentry status but nonetheless ta"e great pains to prove this status through their behaviors. 'he *arnsha$s, on the other hand, rest on much sha"ier ground socially. 'hey do not have a carriage, they have less land, and their house, as 1oc"$ood remar"s $ith great pu!!lement, resembles that o a -homely, northern armer and not that o a gentleman. 'he shiting nature o social status is demonstrated most stri"ingly in Heathclif’s trajectory rom homeless $ai to young gentleman2by2adoption to common laborer to gentleman again 6although the status2conscious 1oc"$ood remar"s that Heathclif is only a gentleman in -dress and manners7.
Doubles %ront& organi!es her novel by arranging its elements5characters, places, and themes5into pairs. Catherine and Heathclif are closely matched in many $ays, and see themselves as identical. Catherine’s character is divided into t$o $arring sides8 the side that $ants *dgar and the side that $ants Heathclif. Catherine and young Catherine are both remar"ably similar and stri"ingly diferent. 'he t$o houses, Wuthering Heights and 'hrushcross )range, represent opposing $orlds and values. 'he novel has not one but t$o distinctly diferent narrators, elly and r. 1oc"$ood. 'he relation bet$een such paired elements is usually 4uite complicated, $ith the members o each pair being neither e/actly ali"e nor diametrically opposed. 9or instance, the 1intons and the *arnsha$s may at (rst seem to represent opposing sets o values, but, by the end o the novel, so many intermarriages have ta"en place that one can no longer distinguish bet$een the t$o amilies.
Repetition :epetition is another tactic %ront& employs in organi!ing Wuthering Heights. #t seems that nothing ever ends in the $orld o this novel. #nstead, time seems to run in cycles, and the horrors o the past repeat themselves in the present. 'he $ay that the names o the characters are recycled, so that the names o the characters o the younger generation seem only to be rescramblings o the names o their parents, leads the reader to consider ho$ plot elements also repeat themselves. 9or instance, Heathclif’s degradation o Hareton repeats
Hindley’s degradation o Heathclif. Also, the young Catherine’s moc"ery o ;oseph’s earnest evangelical !ealousness repeats her mother’s. *ven Heathclif’s second try at opening Catherine’s grave repeats his (rst.
The Conict Between Nature and Culture #n Wuthering Heights, %ront& constantly plays nature and culture ag ainst each other. ature is represented by the *arnsha$ amily, and by Catherine and Heathclif in particular. 'hese characters are governed by their passions, not by reection or ideals o civility. Correspondingly, the house $here they live5 Wuthering Heights5comes to symboli!e a similar $ildness.
Moors 'he constant emphasis on landscape $ithin the te/t o Wuthering Heights endo$s the setting $ith symbolic importance. 'his landscape is comprised primarily o moors8 $ide, $ild e/panses, high but some$hat soggy, and thus inertile. oorland cannot be cultivated, and its uniormity ma"es navigation di3cult. #t eatures particularly $aterlogged patches in $hich people could potentially dro$n. 6'his possibility is mentioned several times in Wuthering Heights.7 'hus, the moors serve very $ell as symbols o the $ild threat posed by nature. As the setting or the beginnings o Catherine and Heathclif’s bond 6the t$o play on the moors during childhood7, the moorland transers its symbolic associations onto the love afair.
hosts
)hosts appear throughout Wuthering Heights, as they do in most other $or"s o )othic (ction, yet %ront& al$ays presents them in such a $ay that $hether they really e/ist remains ambiguous. 'hus the $orld o the novel can al$ays be interpreted as a realistic one. Certain ghosts5such as Catherine’s spirit $hen it appears to 1oc"$ood in Chapter ###5may be e/plained as nightmares. 'he villagers’ alleged sightings o Heathclif’s ghost in Chapter +++#= could be dismissed as unveri(ed superstition. Whether or not the ghosts are -real, they symboli!e the maniestation o the past $ithin the present, and the $ay memory stays $ith people, permeating their day2to2day lives.
