Would you describe Heathcliff and Cathy's relationship as romantic?

That's romantic with a small 'r' in the sense of passionate love. They are bound to each-other by something profound and also lofty, but I don't know about it being passionately romantic. It makes me think they are (half) brother and sister. Their relationship isn't exactly as romantic as Elizabeth Bennet and Darcy, Margaret Hale and Mr. Thornton, Anna Karenina and Vronsky, Jane Eyre and Rochester etc. Something seems weird about their excess, like tearing them apart is tearing something created in the same womb...i.e something unholy to separate...but unholy to consummate romantically. Just my ideas...what do you think?

I'd say the are big R romantics. Remember romanticism was about peaks and troughs - Cathy & Heathcliffe loved one another but due to circumstances could not fulfil their love - so they are very much like Romeo & Juliet in this regard - lovers who do not consummate their love in this life, but find themselves together in the grave.

It has been a while since I have read the book but I think that the love between Cathy and Heathclif have this very wild/ passionate, almost primal sort of love for each other. I would say that there love does in some ways take on darker shades than the examples you have mentioned above. There is an almost love/hate dynamic to their relationship, their obsession for each other also drives them to torment one another.

I thought it was a very odd, chaste sort of love they had for each other. To me it is more like the love a parent has for a child than romantic love.

Big "R" romantic.

Nope. They might have been passionate about each other, but it was more unhealthy obsession than anything. I don't personally believe that love is that resentful and harsh. Their relationship was doomed because Catherine was too bitter, and Healthcliff was too selfish. And that's not romantic, or even love in my view.

Wouldn't that make more sense written as "That's not love or even romantic"?

There is no evidence that Emily, in her short life, ever had a romantic relationship, we can only speculate. Maybe a clue lies in her poetry which is more personal in nature than her novel Withering Heights.


Love and Friendship.

Love is like the wild rose-briar;
Friendship like the holly-tree.
The holly is dark when the rose-briar blooms,
But which will bloom most constantly?

The wild rose-briar is sweet in spring,
Its summer blossoms scent the air;
Yet wait till winter comes again,
And who will call the wild-briar fair?

Then, scorn the silly rose-wreath now,
And deck thee with the holly’s sheen,
That, when December blights thy brow,
He still may leave thy garland green.

The meaning of this poem is obvious—Love is a firework that ignites and shines briefly then fades whereas friendship lasts longer. Is this based on just her feelings of romantic love, or does it point to a personal brief soured relationship? We will never know, but this poem expresses her view that romantic love is false and therefore impossible to stand the test of time.

I'd agree with that Ennison but listen some passionate and tempestuous relationships are big R Romantic even if at root they are not the quiet satisfying experience that most people see as love. Heck there would be no Country and Western songs if Love was always nice and civilised.

But what do you mean by big 'R' romantic? I was making the distinction so as to avoid confusion.

Small 'r' romantic - romantic love (eros) and everything associated e.g. candle-lit dinners, surprise trips abroad your partner planned etc.

Big 'R' Romantic - an aesthetic movement in the arts in Europe generally , which in poetry for example is generally recorded as beginning in 1820s and ending in 1840s, and the poets of this movement were concerned with the emotions as being a true barometer of sensing the world around you, the power of the imagination, need to be close to nature and pastoral life and rejection of urbanised cities, importance of childhood and memories, experimentation with sexuality, expansion of cultural horizons by learning other languages and finding out about other cultures. In music the Romantic movement was said to be more from 1820s to 1900.

I.e Romanticism is a movement and when a person id described as a Romantic it means someone dreamy who may not want the trappings of a modern urban existence life, doesn't care that much for possessions and money, deeply emotional internally - it has NOTHING to do with falling in love, it just so happens the word is the same, except for the capitalisation.


I should have just said is their love the eros love or more like sibling love.

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Originally Posted by sandy14

I'd say the are big R romantics. Remember romanticism was about peaks and troughs - Cathy & Heathcliffe loved one another but due to circumstances could not fulfil their love - so they are very much like Romeo & Juliet in this regard - lovers who do not consummate their love in this life, but find themselves together in the grave.

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What do you mean Romanticism is about peaks and troughs?

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Originally Posted by totoro

Nope. They might have been passionate about each other, but it was more unhealthy obsession than anything. I don't personally believe that love is that resentful and harsh. Their relationship was doomed because Catherine was too bitter, and Healthcliff was too selfish. And that's not romantic, or even love in my view.

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Love can be all kinds of things, even when you are in really love with someone.

Ah you meant a literary artistic Movement. It's more big G gothic than any kind of romantic in that sense. Still with a leap of empathy I can see the big R romantic in the flying saucer can't-live-with-him/ can't-live-without-him relationships. I'd probably prefer not to be ducking plates though

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Originally Posted by totoro

Nope. They might have been passionate about each other, but it was more unhealthy obsession than anything. I don't personally believe that love is that resentful and harsh. Their relationship was doomed because Catherine was too bitter, and Healthcliff was too selfish. And that's not romantic, or even love in my view.

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"Unhealthy obsessions" are often romantic: Romeo and Juliet killed themselves (you can't get more "unhealthy" than that); Guinevere's obsession with Lancelot almost got her burned at the stake; Abelard was castrated; Elaine died of grief. In fact, all romances end badly (unless both parties die in the same car crash). The greater the romance, the greater the inevitable tragedy. That's the human condition.