Emily Brontë – Wuthering Heights

Synopsis

Wuthering Heights details the expostulated love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff – the former being an upper-class woman destined to be with a man of her class and the latter being nothing more than a poor foundling with no background. Heathcliff’s arrival to Wuthering Heights signifies the start of his and Catherine’s obsessive relationship with one another which only strengthens as they spend more time together. However, their opposing social statuses prove too difficult to ignore as the lovers are soon driven apart. Despite their separation, their love continues to grow erratically. Both in life... and in death

Likes

Despite being taken in by Mr Earnshaw and raised with Catherine and Hindley from a young age, Heathcliff always remains an outcast. This foreshadows the notion that no matter how close Heathcliff got to Catherine, he would never reach her, suggesting that their love was prohibited before it had even begun and that what they were chasing was always unattainable. Due to this, it would be fair to assume that these differences would only draw them apart as they grew older, but Brontë uses their circumstances to fuel the love they have for each other, demonstrating the desire we have not only for the things we can’t have, but also for that which may be harmful to us. As a result, Brontë makes good use of their disagreeable backgrounds to push their unusual love which may not have had the same effect had they shared a similar upbringing

Dislikes

I was quite lost when I started reading the book as I felt that I had missed something. It was as though I needed to know some information beforehand as I didn’t understand what was happening. This caused me to often google what was going on because despite re-reading several passages, it was difficult to make sense of it (but that might just be me!). However, only once I decided to persevere did things start falling into place. Nonetheless, I believe that the book could have been structured differently so that my knowledge and understanding was being gradually built upon as opposed to having the most relevant information I needed distributed in random places

The story is told from the first-person perspective of Mr Lockwood, the new tenant of Thrushcross Grange, who meets Heathcliff and is intrigued by his nature. To find out more about this mysterious man, he asks house staff, Ellen Dean, about his landlord’s past. Ellen obliges and relays all she knows about Heathcliff’s history which causes 95% of the book to shift from Mr Lockwood’s narrative to Mr Lockwood listening to Ellen Dean’s narrative. Consequently, Mr Lockwood becomes a useless character quite early in the book as he does not contribute much at all. Furthermore, it doesn’t make sense to me why Ellen would tell a complete stranger such a detailed history of Wuthering Heights. Lockwood acted as nothing more than a nosey neighbour and the book should have been in the first-person narrative of Ellen from the beginning as she was the one telling the story. Moreover, it was often confusing to know when Ellen was relaying past conversations, or she was responding to Lockwood’s present inquisitions as the transitions to demonstrate the different dialogues were not always obvious

For a book that portrays the crazy and obsessive love between Catherine and Heathcliff, the writing style was disappointingly bland. Brontë used simple and matter of fact language to suggest that she was stating things as they were, but I could not pick up on much emotive language. This caused me to not care for any of the characters and limited my understanding of their thoughts, feelings and reasons for their actions. The lack of emotive language also limited my understanding of how things got to this point as their declarations of love such as Catherine exclaiming, “I am Heathcliff!” seemed like a random outburst. I really wanted to appreciate the love the two had for each other, but the writing style prevented me from doing so

Brontë could have really delved deeper into Catherine and Heathcliff’s relationship when they were both at Wuthering Heights. Ellen said that they were always together, but it would have been nice to know what type of relationship they had and their dynamics. As far as I was concerned, they seemed to be close friends who never had a romantic relationship until Catherine proclaims that Heathcliff is “more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same” and that “He’s always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure . . . but as my own being”. When I read this, I was quite confused as I might have guessed that they fancied each other but not much alluded to either party having such powerful feelings. There wasn’t a transition period to allow these feelings to build up as they seemed to have exploded from nowhere. Although this may have been the intended effect, I don’t think was very effective. Due to this, their passion for one another did not make sense to me and appeared arbitrary, so I would have appreciated a stronger build up for these outbursts and the proceeding events

General Thoughts

Lockwood was such a useless character. I could have really done without him and wished that Ellen had told the story from the beginning. A friend suggested that it would have made more sense for Ellen to recount the events to one of the children, which I wholeheartedly agree with. The history of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange was none of Lockwood’s business, yet he was informed of it in such depth. This story really should have been told to Cathy as it was her mother’s and Heathcliff’s history, both of whom she was familiar with

There was a time that Catherine was pregnant and Heathcliff was clinging onto her, yet nothing was mentioned of her pregnancy. Suddenly, the reader is informed that Catherine gave birth the next day when she was 7 months pregnant. This was just bizarre to me as Heathcliff should have noticed and been very upset that the woman he was so madly in love with was bearing another man’s child. But it was swept under the rug and as a reader, I just had to accept it. Very strange

Hareton was the only character I felt bad for. He was done such a disservice by Heathcliff who didn’t let him get educated which greatly hindered him as he got older. Additionally, he was forced to be under the company of Joseph, worsening his character and causing him to be barbaric. Despite this, he truly did want better for for himself and I’m glad he was getting that towards the end

Reading Joseph’s idiolect was challenging to say the least. I do not believe that he needed to speak as much as he did. I struggled through almost every word he uttered, and it was a pain having to flip back and forth to find the translation of what he was saying

I really wanted Heathcliff to be so much better than he was. He wasn’t dealt the best hand in life and was poorly treated by Hindley at Wuthering Heights. Instead of returning as a better man after his 3-year absence, he came back so mean, nasty and full of hate. Everything he did was an act of vengeance: taking everything from Hareton, marrying Isabella, getting rid of Ellen, etc. Even once those he hated were dead, his revenge still continued. He was such a bitter man

Rating

This book was not an enjoyable read for me. The writing style, although simple, did not appeal to me and made it very difficult to understand the characters or feel much towards them. My lack of affinity towards the characters prevented me from developing much of an interest in the story and I felt that the erratic and turbulent love between Catherine and Heathcliff could have been better reflected

Based on this, I would give this book a 2.5/5

Would I recommend?

I read this book during a period where I was exploring classics so was interested in further expanding my comfort zone. Although I’m glad to have read this book as there’s always something to be learned from every book, I unfortunately would not recommend this book due to my lack of enjoyment

Favourite Quotes

‘”Why canst thou not always be a good lass, Cathy?” And she turned her face up to his, and laughed, and answered, “Why cannot you always be a good man, father?”’

‘He had room in his heart only for two idols – his wife and himself: he doted on both, and adored one, and I couldn’t conceive how he would bear the loss’

‘He replied audibly enough, in a fashion which made my companion vociferate, more clamorously than before, that a wide distinction might be drawn between saints like himself and sinners like his master’

‘”He is not envious but emulous of your attainments”’