I believe that Wuthering Heights was such a beautifully written piece of literature. I have never wept more in any book either. I began reading this book believing that Heathcliff was the passionate hero; but I was shocked to find out his true nature. Althought he is the passionate one, he is not a hero in the way he treats others. I was very impressed with Wuthering Heights and I am going to read it again as soon as I possibiliy can.
Good, I'm not the only one!
I feared I was the only one who enjoyed this book enough to read it more than once! In fact, I read this book every winter. It's sortof hard to read it in the summer, I mean, the setting and all doesn't lend itself to blistering heat waves. Well, neither do the plot or characters! I would love some opinions regarding the parallels that I drew between the setting and the dispositions of the characters. It is pretty fascinating that that a description of the Heights could double as a description of Heathcliff and the whole Earnshaw clan. And I also picked up on how even the dogs reflected the violent nature of the story line. What do you think?
Loved it, I've read it 3 times so far. I have to say though, I don't think Heathcliff is all bad, I think he would have turned out a lot differently had he never loved Catherine.
I liked it very much too. I agree with you. When I started the novel, I also felt that Heathcliff will turn out as a kind hero but the story turned out to be unexpected.
I sang of leaves, of leaves of gold, and leaves of gold there grew.
Heathcliff is a byronic hero, which means that the reader is inclined to feel sympathy for him. Maybe he would be different had he never loved Catherine. But different for the better? I think not. His death is remarkable in that he is the only character who stood unredeemed in the end. He continued to persecute everyone around him and with respect to sympathy, his story is profound.
I love this book! I can't read it again though. It's very gut wrenching and painful to read. I loved that tormented feeling I had while reading this the first time, and I don't think I'll be able to feel that again if i re-read it.
"Deep in the fundamental heart of mind and universe...there is a reason."
- Douglas Adams
Hey guys go check out the forum I started on Heathcliff's 3 year absense. Check out the response I got!!!
I really liked the book from the stance that it is a beautiful work of art, but over-all I thought that it was super depressing and not realistic. For Catherine's misplaced love to have so effectedHeathcliff, I think is over the top. I mean, yes if I hear the one I love tell another that I am too gross and uneducated for me, I will be sad, but it wouldn't turn a person to such measures of cruelty that Heathcliff went to to get revenge.
I sure will go look at your thread sdr4jc.
am i the only person in the world who doesn't like this story? just wondering.look at the banana dance!
It's one of the few 19th Century Chick Lit (!) novels I really enjoyed.
wolfester I agree with you. I hated this book and don't plan on ever reading it again.
Can anyone tell me what this story is about?
Has all the trappings of a great work, I'd say. Singular plot, intriguing construction of story line, impressive language and best of all, the mind-blowing dialogues, especially Heathcliff's. This is the best: "The nuisance of her presence outweighs the gratification to be derived from tormenting her." (There is an assole sitting next to me who is relentlessly nagging me, - someone like the umble Uriah Heep in Dickens' David Copperfield - so I think I'll go have a fag just to get this leech off my back. How am I saying this if he is sitting next to me? Well, he can't read English!)
Last edited by caesar; 05-27-2006 at 09:15 AM.
It's surprising how well written this novel is, considering Bronte's age of death, she wouldn't have experienced half of the things she's writing about.
Though strangely, the dark aspect of the novel doesn't drive readers away like expected, it comples them to read on. It grips them until the end, where the reader is locked within the emotions of the characters, and sighs a breath of relief as Hareton and Cathy make up for the mistakes of Catherine and Heathcliff.
An amazing piece of writing, one of the best :P
Wuthering Heights, to me, is overrated. How come this piece of work is termed a classic and has stood through times? Is it simply because there were not much writers in the world before? Or that literature is predominantly western, especially in the academe?
I think that there were a lot of times when the reason is weak for certain characters to act as they have. For example, that Catherine would love such a cousin, against all odds, who's demanding and sickly and uninteresting. Emily Bronte wasn't able to convince me of Catherine's reason behind loving Linton Heathcliff; more so, to marry him under pressure, and even to say she would willingly marry Linton. As a reader, I didn't feel the love; only that the writer wants a tragic story. Even Catherine Linton's decision to accompany Linton Heathcliff to the house, resulting in their detainment in Wuthering Heights, was so plainly stupid. I didn't even feel bad for them that they were detained, coz it was just all stupid. And Heathcliff was so triumphant in all the evil that he has planned, it's actually like a telenovela.
The whole novel was atmospheric. Bronte was good in describing landscapes and making the reader feel how time crept ever so leisurely and slowly in those days. However, the tragedy of the story was not convincing. It didn't make me feel for the characters. I am from theatre and hence I can easily place myself in the characters, but in this book, I just felt so distant from them, even looked down on them. The pathos was so stupid. It's not intelligent tragedy. It is helpless, unthinking tragedy. The characters were tragic because they were so dumb to act as they had.
Heathcliff's wrath was so external. It was so vengeful that it's like food that's overly flavored you can't taste it anymore. The focus was so much on Heathcliff's anger and regrets that his character even became predictable- -even without depth. He seemed like a villain with no other preoccupation but to hurt others coz he was hurt too- -exactly like a telenovela. It's not much of the character, but of how it was written. In fact, I could say the plot and the characters were predictable as I was reading it.
Under another pen, the plot and the characters would have been given justice. It could have been a good book. But, to my judgement, it fell short.
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