Wuthering Heights

:For the song by Kate Bush please see Wuthering Heights

Critical Analysis

Analysis Foreword

The story is told using the first-person narratives by two quite minor characters, Lockwood and Nelly Dean. One might assume that this would mean an 'observers slant' on the events that unfold within the novel. Indeed, Lockwood appears to maintain a distance from the story he tells, Nelly, however, tells an empassioned tale which appears to stem from her involvement within it. Regardless of narrative voice however, part of the appeal of this novel, and the reason for its revolutionary position in the literary cannon is the passion that the reader encounters at every stage. There are many threads to the novel and many ways of reading it and what follows is by no means a definitive analysis but a starting point for discussion and exploration of the text, that deals with the idea of the text being both passionate and revolutionary.

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Analysis Main

One way of reading Wuthering Heights is to see it as a story about passion. Heathcliff and Catherine are passionate about one another. Their childhood friendship develops into a pubescent and eventual adult passion that remains unresolved. Their childhood friendship develops as a result of similarly passionate temprements that society cannot contain or control and therefore frowns upon. The love felt between Catherine and Heathcliff is so passionate that it eventually destroys them both. Only when passion is controlled and occurs within the right setting can it be answered and therefore be found to be fulfilling, as in the case of young Hareton and young Catherine at the end of the novel. Indeed some may argue that the reason that their relationship is even possible is because it is not founded on passion, but on true feeling and social match.

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The child Cathy is initially described as "too mischevious and wayward for a favourite" and was practiced in "grinning and spitting" to incite a reaction; certainly a pattern of behaviour that cannot be described as calm and becoming. The child Heathcliff on the other hand is described as "uncomplaining as a lamb" and portrayed as most obliging in his early days with the Earnshaw family. However, Heathcliff's presence is bitterly resented by Hindley and as a result Heathcliff is mercilessly bullied by him. It is this that turns the "uncomplaining lamb" into the dark tyrant of the latter part of the novel. Another point about Heathcliff that would not have escaped Brontë's readers is of course that Heathcliff was apparently from Gypsy stock, and therefore immediately seen as unpredictable, empassioned and untrustworthy. Futhermore whilst Heathcliff becomes a victim of circumstance and more and more empassioned, Catherine grows and gains control of her passions to the point that she will marry Edgar linton

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However, what makes this story remarkable is the power and emotion that Brontë bestows on her heroine; Heathcliff's desire to destroy Cathy and Linton is equally matched in Cathy's manipulation of Heathcliff. This novel centres around an all encompasing love between the characters of Catherine and Heathcliff and the consequences that occur as a result of their not being able to be together. This is perhaps best captured in the last meeting between Cathy and Heathcliff, as Cathy lays dying. Heathcliff is likened to the devil by many critics; he is dark and has a foreboding appearance. His love for Catherine is all-encompassing although he ruins her life and that of her daughter in order to avenge her betrayal, but how far is Catherine (and perhaps society) responsible for the situation that unfolds? The reader should be aware that at no stage through the novel are we given an 'unbiased slant' on events and the emotion never subsides; indeed, why would we want such detatchment? Surely part of the point of the novel is the rollercoaster that Brontë places us on when getting to know and love her characters?

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