Wuthering Heights (Greatest love story ever?)

[Noelani]

*SPOILER ALERT* My review of the book: Clutching the rotting skeleton of one’s beloved is endearing, or is it? Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights is a Victorian romance, but don’t expect a courageous heroine of sound mind and soaring spirit as seen in Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. Wuthering Heights explores the theme of love and most significantly the tragic cycle of revenge which ensues when romance takes a turn for the worse. The male protagonist Heathcliff begins as a soft-spoken orphan taken into the care of the Earnshaw family. The spirited Catherine befriends the outcast Heathcliff in spite of her supercilious brother Hindley. Emily Bronte’s initial characterization of Heathcliff gives the reader the impression he’s a good-hearted boy who will overcome Hindley’s abuse. The passionate and sometime reckless Catherine appears to be an admirable savior to the pitiable Heathcliff, and the reader hopes the prejudiced Hindley will get his comeuppance! However, as the saying goes, the higher you build the further you fall. Through a tumult of unfortunate events and challenging circumstances Catherine must decide whether she will marry the wealthy well-bred Linton or her beloved Heathcliff. Here is where Emily Bronte reveals the characters' true colors. Catherine chooses wealth over love, and Heathcliff’s prepares to enact revenge upon Catherine. Emily Bronte creates raw characters which are relatable and detestable! Revenge is a universal temptress and seeing characters act upon this impulse reveals a darker side to human nature that’s not seen in the classic Victorian romance where underdogs surpass their stations and true love triumphs! Instead, Heathcliff’s revenge destroys both Catherine and himself as they both live without their beloved and Heathcliff endures indescribable loneliness after Catherine’s death. The book is certainly well written and includes dynamic dialogue and an intricate plot, but it also leaves a bad taste in the mouths of Jane Eyre followers who are accustomed to an admirable heroine and happy ending.

[MUMUKSHA]

...and Heathcliff’s prepares to enact revenge upon Catherine.

In fact he avenged himself on everybody else but Catherine, despite the fact that she was the one actually responsible for his pain. That is what I think makes different and redeems him as a lover at least because as a human being it doesn't seem like a possibility.

[wessexgirl]

In fact he avenged himself on everybody else but Catherine, despite the fact that she was the one actually responsible for his pain. That is what I think makes different and redeems him as a lover at least because as a human being it doesn't seem like a possibility.

He included Catherine. Surely his marriage to Isabella was to hurt her as well as Linton, (and Isabella).

[MUMUKSHA]

No, it wouldn't hurt Catherine because she believed completely in Heathcliff's love for her and Heathcliff knew that too. He did it for all the other motives except that of hurting Catherine.

[Yongen He]

A love story?

[Yongen He]

I don't think the theme of Wuthering Heights is a love story. No doubt, the emotion between Edgar and Catherine-Linton is love, but the passion between Heathcliff and Catherine-Heathcliff is too unique to be considered as ordinary love. The two heroes, Edgar and Heathcliff, are symbolic figures representing reality and art respectively. Catherine-Earnshaw’s selection between the two, in the story, is a visualization of Emily’s selection on her way of life. All the conflicts, love, passion, or revenge among the three characters are actually representing Emily’s inner struggles, only so implicitly. This story has nothing to do with general love, and there is no revenge or class struggle. The revenge is in fact a painful process of Emily on her way to her artistic world. It’s a work of romanticism and the whole story is Emily’s monologue. Read my blog for more on this idea if it interests you.

[Kasip]

I disagree...

Before I begin, I should say that Wuthering Heights is my favourite novel. I own an excessive amount of copies, (I buy one as a souvenier of each place I visit in their own language) and I have read it at least once a year, and once for every copy I have, since my first read at 16...So you may want to take what I say with a pinch of salt... but...

Wuthering Heights is one of the most epic love stories of all time. The whole point of the story is that love, true love, is not only timeless, and endless, but will overcome every obstacle, even death. It also makes an incredible point by showing how deadly a love such as that can be. The romantic, and epic stories which most admire have that happily ever after quality which, frankly, galls me. Yes, some are able to find their mate and be happy, they find a level of respect with one another and go on. But not all love is like that, and love on the scale as is represented here is incomparable.

I think what Bronte shows best is how selfish love can be. No one means to do it, and they especially do not want to make the one they love unhappy, but can that be helped? We demand a piece of a person, whether we intend to or not... We demand their time, their attention, their understanding, their caring. Now, the characters of Catherine and Heathcliff are incredibly selfish, this is obvious.... But when it comes to eachother? This is the only time they are ever able to find selflessness. even if only fleeting.

They are not likeable characters that is completely true, but they are compelling. Bronte is able to perfectly capture the flavour of the time in a way that a writer such as Austen cannot. Rather than whining, desperately and flat characters such as Austen's...(though I discount Pride and Prejudice which is...passable) Bronte creates passionate, strong, and demanding characters. We see Catherines love, her fierceness, and her desire for independence like no other woman of that age. But she is also torn. She must marry well to be comfortable, she must marry someone approved of by Hindley.... her choice was impossible. If she married Heathcliff she would have been happy, but damned, and it would have destroyed their love just as sure as marrying Edgar did.

Heathcliff? He is an incredibly difficult character to like, but who can blame him for being complex? An orphan who was abused, destroyed, and then cast aside not really by Cathy but by societies conventions? He is the ultimate Anti-hero. yes he does bad things, but if you want a Byronic Hero it is him. He is alluring, he dedicates his life to pleasing his love and is thwarted by returning too late. So he takes revenge on those who he feels have wronged him? Wouldn't we all want to? Remember, books exagerate characters and he is doing what we'd all want to, in an extremely hyperbolic fashion. I can't help but be struck by his grieving for his love. I think he is the triumph of the entirety of the final part of the novel.

And Edgar Linton? He always comes across initially as a weak character but his love is unquestionable. I think he is completely selfless in how he loves Catherine. He gives her all he can. Until finally he has to take a little bit for himself, he has to be a little selfish.... this is what finally kills her. More important though, is that he is selfish because of his brotherly love. Finally, he is selfless in Cathy, he dotes on his daughter and his love is unquestionable.

As a love story, Catherine and Heathcliff is timeless.... .But what is more important in this novel is the final love story and it's happily ever after. Bronte obeys convention in this comedic, rather than tragic ending... A true romance between Cathy and Hareton. Their love builds. It is built on equal terms. They both share knowledge and passions for eachother. Hareton gives his time to learn something Cathy loves, to read, and she gives him the love he has never had. Notably, both Hareton and Cathy overcome the very things that damned Catherine and Heathcliff. Hareton overcomes his abuse and ignorance, and Cathy is allowed to be passionate and independent like her mother desired. What is most notable however is that their love becomes conventional.... They are allowed to live happily ever after because although they have both independently chosen to love eachother and be together, with Heathcliffs death, they both have the opportunity to be well off, and marry in a way acceptable to society at that time.

Bronte here has created one of the most incredibly well constructed and thoughout love stories.... and it definitely is, a love story.

[Triumph2500]

'Wuthering Heights' is a savage story that shows the extent to which human emotions (eg love/obsession/hate) can grow and get beyond what most of us would think possible. It's also one of the most powerful and draining books I've read.

I can never comprehend how a novel of such power and violence could be produced by a woman of Emily Bronte's sheltered and unsophisticated situation. She lived in a remote parsonage with little exposure to the outside world and was of course extremely limited in dealing with anything other than 'polite' society by the restrictions imposed on women in the times she lived in.

[Andreea369]

WH is a complex love story.Of course it depends on what "love story" means to every reader.For me personally,it's just about love being the main theme.And love needn't be sweet and perfect.I think the story tries to show all the bitterness caused by love and that it can happen to distasteful characters as well.It's also somehow realistic,because strong pure love such as Catherine and Heathcliff's hardly ever exists and lifelong togetherness is nearly impossible...so if you love someone with your soul with no attached strings and he/she loves you back just as much,you have to be extremely lucky to be able to be together just as a normal couple.Distance almost always keeps you apart or society matters,like in WH.Also,love can play you like a toy.Once hurt by Catherine's insecurity and hunger for respect and wealth,Heathcliff took vengeance upon the people that had anything to do with Catherine's choosing Linton over him.Also,I think that Catherine was rather insecure of Heathcliff's love,especially when marrying Linton.She was a bit unaware of his love,although she could feel it.However,she's a woman,and us women need to be told something like "I love you" to actually believe it.Heathcliff has however no excuse for hurting Cathy (Linton) like that.It's true that most of the people would be angry or hurt in his situation and would probably snap at other people (especially the disliked ones),but he went over the line with Cathy.This and his grief after Catherine's death show how hot-blooded his love was.Ultimately,he dies out of despair and this is where the Catherine-Heathcliff drama ends and a new love arises,a weaker and more convenient one.It somehow shows what it takes to finally achieve happiness: sorrow and many deaths.

[Dunno]

I'm not really sure if it's any good answering a thread that's a couple of years old, i'm not really the "forum-type" of girl.

To the "not able to like" characters like Catherine or Heathcliff:
I think from all books I've ever read they are the most flawed characters i've ever took knowledge of. But the most touching part of this book is for me, that even though you'll hate Catherine for being so selfish and manipulative or Heathcliff for never letting go and sucking up so much hatred, i can't help but adore the love that ties them to eachother. where obviously the books revolves around, for me.

And it is a love story, if not just because of the consequences that their love finds, but also because of the way Catherine dies from a broken heart, never really letting her heart reply to her real love and the way Heathcliff loves her, putting aside her being his murderer, but says in the same sentence he can't love Catherines murderer (for me herself).

And for that era, instead of showing girls, what awaits them or that one is obliged to marry for money and namesake, Emily shows (and yes I agree, exaggerated, but still.) what consequences a broken heart can have for each side.

[kelby_lake]

Cathy and Heathcliff had the potential to have a love story but they strangle it with their own pride/selfishness. Mainly it's the fault of Cathy. Heathcliff may be the most 'cruel' character but had Cathy lived as long, she might have usurped that title. Heathcliff displays moments of tenderness, for all his brutality. Cathy never displays anything that is not monstrous selfishness, which is why she cannot be with Heathcliff.