May 23, 2024 07:52 PM
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I have read this novel by Emily Bronte years back while in college. But I can still recall some aspects of the novel, as it made a deep impression on me. It is intense to say the least and resonates with the dark, deep side of love between the main characters, Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff. Set in the wilderness of the Yorkshire Moors, this backdrop recounts the emotional intensity between these two characters.
The untamed wildness of the Moors seeps into every aspect of the novel, making it a compelling story. Nature plays an important role in the novel, as the author is at pains to make a connection between the landscape and the depth of emotion between these two characters. The uncanny bond between Catherine and Heathcliff is brought out in one of the famous quotes from the novel, "He's more myself than I am", and the following quote, " Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same".
The narrator is one Mr. Lockwood, who arrives on the scene as Heathcliff's new tenant. It is through him that we get to know about the goings on in Wuthering Heights, which is a remote moorland farmhouse, owned by Heathcliff. The very word, Wuthering, expresses a significant provincial adjective descriptive of the atmospheric tumult to which the station is exposed in stormy weather. The characters behave in socially unacceptable ways, being violent and savage, laced with raw emotions.
Heathcliff, for instance, instead of welcoming Mr. Lockwood, asks him to "walk in", with "closed teeth", expressing the sentiment, "go to the Deuce". The power of the North wind howling on the Moor, rattling the windows and blowing over the edge, by the excessive slant of a few stunted firs, at the end of the house, speaks volumes about the untameable power of the destructive dark side of love, that we are exposed to as we turn the pages of this novel.
The female protagonist of the novel, Cathy(as Heathcliff) would like to call her, is at war with herself. She is torn between what she wants to do and what she is supposed to do. She knows that her love for her foster brother is improper but she is unable to shut him out completely even after her marriage to Edgar Linton. Her desire for affluence results in her unhappiness and her regret of her marriage to Linton. In her own words to Nelly Dean, the housekeeper of Wuthering Heights and the novel's main narrator, she declares her feelings for Edgar, when she says, Linton's soul and mine is as "different as a moonbeam from lightning or frost from fire". Physically, hers is a spirited personality, and described as being gorgeous and fiery with "dark curls and penetrating eyes".
Cathy thus presents a dilemma where she has to decide between romping around wildly with Heathcliff on the Moors or settling down with a socially acceptable marriage to the calm and withdrawn Edgar. The star crossed love between her and Heathcliff is then the primary focus of the novel which you can enjoy if you have a stout heart and can withstand the emotional roller coaster, that you experience while turning the pages of this novel.
