Is Wuthering Heights a proto-vampire story

[kev67]

I was just wondering whether Wuthering Heights was some sort of proto-vampire book when in the last chapter Nelly herself wonders whether Heathcliff is a ghoul or a vampire. I was surprised as I did not think vampires had been discovered till later. I have not watched any of the Twilight films (and I don't intend to neither) but it struck me there were some similarities between Wuthering Heights, Twilight, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and other vampire films and television series. Heathcliff can stand bright sunlight; bibles, wooden crosses, garlic and holy water might annoy him but would not be sufficient to ward him off; and although driving a wooden stake through his heart would kill him, so would other methods of execution. However, there are some similarities:


Heathcliff is evil (like most vampires).
Heathcliff and Catherine continue to walk the Earth after death and do not find rest.
Heathcliff has no hope of salvation, neither does he want it.
Heathcliff's idea of heaven is close to torment.
Heathcliff's love for Catherine is eternal (rather like some vampire love stories).
Heathcliff's love for Catherine is rather chaste.
Heathcliff is tall, strong, rather dark with long, black hair.
Heathcliff forms one point of a love triangle with Catherine as the apex (a bit like Twilight I believe).

[Charles Darnay]

Vampire stories became popular in the 19th century - Dracula and Camilla probably being the best example.

I would not call WH a proto-vampire story. It is a Gothic novel that has some fun playing around with certain Gothic tropes (kind of like Austen's Northanger Abbey)

[kiki1982]

As Charles said, vampire stories and the supernatural, such as ghosts, monsters, etc. became popular in the 19th century, but they gained popularity in the late 18th century already. Although it is maybe worth to remember that the Brontës more than other authors of their time incorporated a folkish element in their writing (although maybe not Anne, judging by her Tenant, that novel was quite traditional). If you take Hardy, for example, he incorporates nature and counry beliefs, but Charlotte and Emily Brontë play with it more. Emily in paticular, although she only wrote one novel, shows that she worked with that knowledge of the supernatural. Faeries (or fairies), elfs, sprites, will-'o-the-wisps, changelings and things were very much real to those people. I think the last case of murder due to such beliefs was already in the 20th century in Ireland (I think) where a husband was acquitted for killing his wife in the most horrendous manner (burnt her alive with the petrol from a kerosine lamp) because he thought she was a fairy. That's quite sad, but it shows that country folk in the deepest and darkest areas of the Celtic world were still very much focused on that and really did believe it was real. It is something people in London could not really gasp, I expect.



Heathcliff is evil (like most vampires).

I don't think he starts out as necessarily 'evil'. I think he becomes evil. How much Hindley had to do with that, I don't know.



[LIST] Heathcliff and Catherine continue to walk the Earth after death and do not find rest.

I don't know about that. It is true that she can't find any rest and keeps climbing the wall towards the window of Heathcliff's bedroom, but SPOILER NOVEL END the open window at the end and Heathcliff reachin out with his arm, suggest that both have found rest in heaven together. Even though he opens the window earlier, he cannot each her. SPOILER NPVEL END OVER


Heathcliff has no hope of salvation, neither does he want it.

I think there is hope of salvation and redemption. judging by the weird smile on his face (Nellie remarks this) close to the end and the weird turn in his ways. He is no longer abrupt and nasty, he even smiles! That's something he hadn't done since he had returned.


Heathcliff's idea of heaven is close to torment.

That might be because he is temporarily possessed in some way. If you take the Faust course devils and demons find the idea of heaven abhorrent, much as vampires are repelled by crosses, metal (I think too) and garlic. If you confront a possessed person with a Christian idea, they allegedly typically get scared. Similarly, when it comes to fairies and changelings (fairy babies looking like your baby which replace your baby to be educated by you and then be abducted later, I believe, aftr you've done your work), if you show them across, they start laughing. You might fid this ridiculous, but people really did these tests with their babies if they were in doubt. Baking bread in an eggshell was also popular. The point I a making is that it is not unthinkable that Heathcliff is posessed in some way.


Heathcliff is tall, strong, rather dark with long, black hair.

The fact he was dark and had dark hair in 19th century lit suggests from the beginning he is not going to be any good (same as the black horse), but it does not necessaily suggest he is evil or from another world per se.


Heathcliff forms one point of a love triangle with Catherine as the apex (a bit like Twilight I believe).


Then Twilight could have been inspired on WH. I haven't read Dracula, but there were piles of things like it. Frankenstein and Dracula were only the culmination (and maybe to some extent) the best and most timeless of that genre. They are now considered as the start of it for modern novels, but they had had a long tradition before them. Maybe the earlier ones were more focused on the supernatural and less on the human aspect of things. That's why Dracula and Frankenstein have stayed and the rest has somewhat faded.

[MementoMori]

Heathcliff is the quintessential Byronic hero. Heathcliff's not like a vampire, authors like Stephanie Meyer want their vampires to be more like Heathcliff. Even Polidori's Vampyre, which is arguably the prototype of the modern vampire, came after and was based on characters like Byron's Childe Harold and Manfred.

Funnily enough, I read Twilight when it first came out. If I remember correctly, the author makes a point of mentioning that Wuthering Heights is Bella's favourite novel. I think Edward mentions that he can 'relate' to Heathcliff.

[kev67]

I don't know about that. It is true that she can't find any rest and keeps climbing the wall towards the window of Heathcliff's bedroom, but SPOILER NOVEL END the open window at the end and Heathcliff reachin out with his arm, suggest that both have found rest in heaven together. Even though he opens the window earlier, he cannot each her. SPOILER NPVEL END OVER



I think there is hope of salvation and redemption. judging by the weird smile on his face (Nellie remarks this) close to the end and the weird turn in his ways. He is no longer abrupt and nasty, he even smiles! That's something he hadn't done since he had returned.



I doubt Heathcliff would find salvation and redemption, at least he would not get past St Peter. In the last chapter he refuses Nelly's suggestion to call for a minister and tells her: "I have nearly attained my heaven; and that of others is altogether unvalued and uncoveted by me."

Then there is the best bit right near the end where Nelly recounts:

'I was going to the Grange one evening - a dark evening, threatening thunder - and, just at the turn of the Heights, I encountered a little boy with a sheep and two lambs before him; he was crying terribly, and I supposed the lambs were skittish, and would not be guided.
"What is the matter, my little man?" I asked.
"There's Heathcliff and a woman, yonder, under t'nab," he blubbered, "un' I darnut pass 'em."
I saw nothing; but neither the sheep nor he would go on; so I bid him take the road lower down.'


So, I doubt neither of them are going anywhere.

[kiki1982]

I beg to differ. The fact he doesn't want a priest to confess to (which would line him up for heaven), maybe be baptised and receive the last rites by does not mean he rejects it all together.
Emily herself had a very puritanical and metaphysical view of God and would scorn anything that had to do with the church itself. Nellie also expresses this when she proposes to Heathcliff to get a priest of any denomintion 'to show [him] how very far [he has] erred from [the Bible's] precepts; and how unfit [he] will be for its heaven, unless a change takes place before [he dies]'. Heathcliff rejects the idea of a Biblical heaven, or an established heaven, so to say, but the thing he does not reject is the idea of heaven in itself. Indeed, he says he has seen his heaven and has escaped hell.
Emily's strange ideas led to her sister claiming that she stood silent in church and found all Christians wretches. That led to Emily being called a heathen, which she was clearly not. She only did not believe that priests or other people had anyting to do with your road to heaven and that God was in anything and everywhere (Rousseau-esque).

Heathclff's last days are reminiscent of Jean Valjean's death in Les Misérables where he sees an angel (thought to be Myriel) who will carry him up to heaven. Faust too is saved and carried up to heaven by angels. Although in Heathcliff's case it is clearly Catherine who has come to his bed (the pannelled bed where they were caught in their adolescence) and spent a kind of wedding night, judging by Heathcliff's pre-occupation later. The fact he doesn't eat may be a reference to the very old adage that love is a kind of illness (very prevalent in medieval literature, but it carried on later). He stares to the other end of the table, we may presume because she is sitting there. The riddle of who is with him on his nightly rambles and in the room is resolved a little later when he stays downstairs and walks the room, whispering 'a low term of endearment or suffering; and spoken as one would speak to a person present; low and earnest, and wrung from the depth of his soul.' By all means, it is like a honeymoon, only with a seemingly non-existent person.

Nellie also rejects the idea that Heathcliff and Catherine roam the neighbourhood in any way. Putting it down to silly supersticion of country folk, although she is not above it, apparently, because she doesn't like to be out alone at night, now... The fact remains that Lockwood 'wonder[s] how anyone could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth.' This idea crops up repeatedly and is dismissed every time in the same way.

[Jackson Richardson]

I beg to differ. The fact he doesn't want a priest to confess to (which would line him up for heaven), maybe be baptised and receive the last rites by does not mean he rejects it all together.

Yikes! Emily as the daughter of a pre-Tractarian Anglican vicar with Methodist sympathies would never have considered aural confession a standard necessary, nor known anything of any last rites. (The Book of Common Prayer does make provision for the Visitation of the Sick and the celebration of the Holy Communion at home, but they were not widely used. Communion for the reserved sacrament and anointing - both parts of the catholic last rites - would not have been practiced in the Church of England at that time.)

[JCamilo]

The view of WH as a evil-good battle is a huge mistake. It is more a late romantic work, where Rousseau ideas about education and the natural man are put in cheek by the Byronic Character in Heathcliff. He reacts against his inferior position in society, his lack of education and reacts like a rebel, destroying all in his way. But ultimatelly, he fails to reproduce the same "story" with the second generaiton, which is probally the only "redemption" in the views of Emily. Things in WH are mixed, grey like the scenary.

And this is certainly not vampiric in any sense (if anything, the ideas had more in commun with Frankstein).

[Jackson Richardson]

Deleted as irrelevant to discussion.

[kelby_lake]

I don't think it's about vampires. The supernatural has been around since literature began and what with all that Romanticism, it's a Gothic novel rather than a vampire one.

[kev67]

Maybe Heathcliff and Catherine are not vampires as they were, but maybe vampires as they have become in the last generation or so. Vampires used to be ugly people with fangs who flew around as bats, or young hotties who were really up for it. In the last generation or so, they seem to have become romantic, brooding presences with tortured souls and a sort of greyish tinge to their skin. Apart from Twilight, Heathcliff and Catherine remind me of Angel and Buffy, and Spike and Drusilla from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

[kiki1982]

Yikes! Emily as the daughter of a pre-Tractarian Anglican vicar with Methodist sympathies would never have considered aural confession a standard necessary, nor known anything of any last rites. (The Book of Common Prayer does make provision for the Visitation of the Sick and the celebration of the Holy Communion at home, but they were not widely used. Communion for the reserved sacrament and anointing - both parts of the catholic last rites - would not have been practiced in the Church of England at that time.)

The last rites (I am a Catholic, so I'm sorry if I presume here) or something similar would have been performed on a sick and dying person. What do you otherwise need a priest for apart from to pray for you? You can ask him to do that at home. Although it is probably not in the same form, and it is not considered a sacrament, it still has and had a place. It has been included as a kind of sacrament since the 20th century in The Book of Common Prayer, alhough the problem with its inclusion or exclusion is clearly that Anglicans do not agree on whether it is a sacrament or not. At this moment it is included as not a sacrament under the gospel.
As the Church of England, which Patrick Brontë essentially ministered for (whatever leanings he may have had), came from the Catholic Church, a lot more than the Lutheran Church, and all Christian churches have some way of reassuring the dying, I would suggest that taking confession, laying on hands and praying with the dying to receive God's grace is a fundamental part of a minister's job.

Whether you call that the last rites or not or whether you argue about confession or not is irrelevant, the point is that Heathcliff would have accepted faith in God, forgiven (by) his foes, confessed his sins etc. That at least is what is in my husband's copy of it. I don't suppose it is too different from what a Patrick Brontë would have done for a dying member of his congregation.

[kev67]

Nelly said any denomination of minister would do. I suppose that would include Anglican, Catholic, Baptist or Methodist or whoever was around.

[JCamilo]

Maybe Heathcliff and Catherine are not vampires as they were, but maybe vampires as they have become in the last generation or so. Vampires used to be ugly people with fangs who flew around as bats, or young hotties who were really up for it. In the last generation or so, they seem to have become romantic, brooding presences with tortured souls and a sort of greyish tinge to their skin. Apart from Twilight, Heathcliff and Catherine remind me of Angel and Buffy, and Spike and Drusilla from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

They just are not vampires. Ghosts and faeries were as popular and usual on gothic literature then (more popular even) and vampires just dint turn in bats back then or anything near it. WH makes references to WH, not WH makes references to a XX century literary fashion.

[OrphanPip]

The deathbed conversion would have been a recognizable trope to 19th century readers, usually the turn around would occur in the company of a priest.

[mona amon]

Well, Heathcliff says "as to repenting of my injustices, I've done no injustice, and I repent of nothing", so much for his redemption or remorse. Redemption requires judgement, so it finds no place in this marvelously neutral, non judgemental book.

The last lines of the book are among the most peaceful I've ever read, but it is the peace which comes from the complete removal of Heathcliff (and his offspring) from the scene by death, leaving Wuthering Heights and the Grange as if he'd never been. All his evil dies with him.

[Jackson Richardson]

T all Christian churches have some way of reassuring the dying, I would suggest that taking confession, laying on hands and praying with the dying to receive God's grace is a fundamental part of a minister's job.
Whether you call that the last rites or not or whether you argue about confession or not is irrelevant, the point is that Heathcliff would have accepted faith in God, forgiven (by) his foes, confessed his sins etc.

I would agree with you - it is what Nelly Dean is suggesting. As an Anglican with a strong catholic understanding Christianity perhaps I am particularly sensitive to the issues. I'm sure Emily would never have called such ministry the last rites. (I suspect Patrick Bronte would not have called himself a priest. There are plenty of Anglicans today who would naturally say "minister".)

Sorry for the pedantic digression.

[kev67]

Interestingly, I looked up Tuberculosis on Wikipedia and saw this reference to vampires.

^ Sledzik, Paul S.; Nicholas Bellantoni (June 1994). "Bioarcheological and biocultural evidence for the New England vampire folk belief" (PDF). American Journal of Physical Anthropology 94 (2): 269–274. doi:10.1002/ajpa.1330940210. ISSN 0002-9483. PMID 8085617.

It says:

American vampire folk beliefs, which were particularly strong in 19th century New England, contained some European
features. The New England folklore is consistent in its incorporation of tuberculosis and examination of the body of the
vampire for putative signs of life. Following the death of a family member from consumption (i.e., tuberculosis), other
family members began to show the signs of tuberculosis infection. According to the New England folk belief, the "wasting
away" of these family members was attributed to the recently deceased consumptive, who returned from the dead as a
vampire to drain the life from the surviving relatives. The apotropaic remedy used to kill the vampire was to exhume the
body of the supposed vampire and, if the body was un-decomposed, remove and burn the blood-filled heart or the entire
body.

and

The New England vampire belief in based on a folk interpretation of the physical appearance of the tuberculosis victim and
the transmission of tuberculosis. As the name consumption implies, the disease caused sufferers to "waste away" and "lose
flesh," despite the fact that they remained active, desirous of sustenance, and maintained a fierce will to live (Brown, 1941).
This dichotomy of desire and "wasting away" is reflected in the vampire folk belief: The vampire's desire for "food" forces
it to feed off living relatives, who suffer a similar "wasting away."

[OrphanPip]

I would agree with you - it is what Nelly Dean is suggesting. As an Anglican with a strong catholic understanding Christianity perhaps I am particularly sensitive to the issues. I'm sure Emily would never have called such ministry the last rites. (I suspect Patrick Bronte would not have called himself a priest. There are plenty of Anglicans today who would naturally say "minister".)

Sorry for the pedantic digression.

In terms of literary convention the status of the priest isn't entirely important, it could commonly just be a lay character represented as particularly virtuous. The main point is to dramatize the repentance to make it accessible to the reader. The late 18th century novels of sensibility often contained those moments. Withering Heights is responding to that convention by alluding to it but also deliberately omitting it.

[kev67]

This essay (http://www.csulb.edu/~csnider/brontes.html), "The Satan Imp: The Vampire Archetype in Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre" by Clifton Snider argues that both Heathcliff and Bertha Rochester are vampire archetypes, and that Catherine and Mr Rochester to a lesser extent share some vampiric qualities.

[Rachael Smith]

Whether or not Heathcliff is a vampire is explored in the text; Nelly -
’Is he a ghoul or a vampire?’ I mused. I had read of
such hideous incarnate demons. And then I set myself to
reflect how I had tended him in infancy, and watched him
grow to youth, and followed him almost through his
whole course; and what absurd nonsense it was to yield to
that sense of horror. ‘But where did he come from, the
little dark thing, harboured by a good man to his bane?’
muttered Superstition, as I dozed into unconsciousness.
And I began, half dreaming, to weary myself with
imagining some fit parentage for him; and, repeating my
waking meditations, I tracked his existence over again,
with grim variations; at last, picturing his death and
funeral: of which, all I can remember is, being exceedingly
vexed at having the task of dictating an inscription for his
monument, and consulting the sexton about it; and, as he
had no surname, and we could not tell his age, we were
obliged to content ourselves with the single word,
‘Heathcliff.’ That came true: we were.

[kev67]

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A nice bit of writing.

[Emil Miller]

The offices of Megacrap Entertainments.

‘Say Mort, I was messing around on the Internet yesterday and I came across this site called Literature Network Forums and, guess what? There’s some guy who’s suggesting that Wuthering Heights could be a proto vampire story.’
‘So what?’
‘Well it gave me another idea for a movie.’
‘Well you got it right on the nail with Downtown Abbey, Art; they simply fell over themselves to see it, so what’s the griff on the new movie?’
‘Well I’m thinking we could call it Withering Bites and set it in the Okefenokee Swamp; that way we could get alligators into the story as well.’
‘Sounds good but isn’t it supposed to be love story with some guy called Cliff Heath as the lead.’
‘Yeah, in the book he leaves his girl to come here for the big bucks but when he goes back she’s already got hitched to some other dude. But as it’s going to be set in the US of A, we could have him go to England instead.’
‘Good thinking Art but where do the vampires come in?’
‘Well this guy on the forum was suggesting that Cliff Heath is really a vampire but, not only that, they say that Rochester from Jayne Eyre is also a vampire. So what I’m thinking is that we could combine both stories and have Rochester’s wife as the queen of the vampires and get her to break out of her room and bite Cliff Heath’s dame and they all chase Jayne Eyre into the swamp but the vampires are attacked and destroyed by giant alligators that have been massively enlarged by Rochester who is really a mad scientist,’
‘Well its definitely got potential Art but who’s going to play Cliff Heath?’
‘Well I thought maybe we could get Arnie to play him and Bruce Willis as Rochester. Madonna could be Mrs Rochester, and Cliff Heath’s dame played by Hilary Swank with Jayne Eyre played by that Bonham Carter dame.’
‘I gotta hand it to ya Art; it sure makes those ***holes who keep going on about movies being dumbed down look stupid.’

[kev67]

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A rubbish bit of writing.

[Emil Miller]

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A rubbish bit of writing.

:lol:

[AuntShecky]

That "Withering Bites" satire/parody (reply #23) needs only one more thing: a couple of slobbily-dressed guys combing the estate for antiques to sell/pawn/ or refurbish -- then you've got yourself another hit series on The History Channel. Oh, and could you squeeze in a singing contest?

[Emil Miller]

That "Withering Bites" satire/parody (reply #23) needs only one more thing: a couple of slobbily-dressed guys combing the estate for antiques to sell/pawn/ or refurbish -- then you've got yourself another hit series on The History Channel. Oh, and could you squeeze in a singing contest?

'Hey Mort! There's some dame on that literature site suggesting that we make Withering Bites like the History Channel with a singing contest.'
'Let well alone Art, we don't want to ruin a great movie with superfluous rubbish.'

[Wayne Jr]

I just came across your post about Wuthering Heights and Vampire.
I recently skimmed through this book;

Demon-Lovers and Their Victims in British Fiction By Toni Reed

This might mention some connections between Heathcliff, Vampire, and Dracula.
This is very interesting book. This explore the motif of English old ballad, "Damon Lover" in Tess OTD, Wuthering Heights, etc.
If you haven't read it, I think you might like it.

[Elnorn]

I think, Heathcliff may not be a human. He sees humans as inferior beings, that's where his cruelty comes from.

To go into detail, We don't know where he came from. Mr. Earnshaw was unusually obsessed with him, he even risked his life for him. He was prone to pain, he felt it but he didn't make much of a problem out of it. To go further along the timeline, Catherine lost her consciousness in his arms and never recovered. Her corpse was still fresh after years. And what do you make of loosening the nails of her coffin and keeping the lid open? For her to get out easily when the time comes? Why did Heathcliff wanted to get buried next to her so bad, and most of all, he wanted the lid of his coffin unnailed too. He didn't want to have a service too as far as I remember. He just wanted to be taken next to Catherine and get buried. He even kept his eyes open to stare around while acting dead on the bed.
Consider that all story is narrated by certain characters in the book, they think realistic and have a realistic explanation for everything they have encountered. But the single vampire reference done by Ellen is quite enough for me to think that there are some unnatural things going on.
Remember the last sentences of the novel. The soil over Heathcliff's grave was fresh. Maybe two of them went out through the same way. Who knows?