“You’ve made me afraid and ashamed of you,” and “”And you told me a deliberate untruth” Edgar wants to be superior towards her as men in Bronte’s time were dominant towards their wives. Whereas Heathcliff “When would you catch me wishing to have what Catherine wanted?” This shows the depth of Heathcliff’s love and the fact that he wants her to be happy also shows that he did not know about the dominance of men in society.
When Heathcliff first appears at Wuthering Heights, Hindley referred to him as an ‘imp of Satan’ and Mrs Earnshaw calls him a ‘gipsy’, he is associated with hell imagery and with the dark:
‘it’s as dark almost as if it came from the devil’ shows that Heathcliff possibly highlighted the darker aspect of Wuthering Heights and brought ‘hell’ into it. When Heathcliff returns to Wuthering Heights he says, “I’m in hell till you do!” when he asks Nelly to ask Cathy to meet him. This shows that he himself feels as he has a connection with hell as he refers to it himself. Edgar calls Heathcliff as ‘ploughboy’ and ‘run away boy’, this shows that he did not know how close Cathy and Heathcliff were.
Heathcliff and Edgar are both described differently physically; Heathcliff is described as a man whilst Edgar is described as a boy.
Edgar is portrayed as weak and seems to have no self-control:
‘as much as a cat possesses the power to leave a mouse half killed, or a bird half eaten’ this sets then impression that Edgar is in need of Catherine as he looks back at her (self control) and as he is compared to a ‘cat’ suggests he is a weak character. Heathcliff is a ‘tall, athletic, well formed man’ in contrast to Edgar who is ‘Slender and ‘youthlike’. Through Bronte’s language, we get the impression that Heathcliff has grown up in thoughts and feelings whilst Edgar is still ‘youthlike’.
Heathcliff is associated with landscape ‘bleak hilly, coal’ the fact that he is compared to landscape shows he is part of Wuthering Heights, ‘coal’ is essential for living, and suggests that Heathcliff is essential to Cathy for living. In comparison to Linton who is linked with feminists such as, ‘foliage in the woods’ which suggests that he is not a permanent part of her life, not ‘eternal’ as Heathcliff. Heathcliff humiliates Edgar ‘this lamb of yours threatens me like a bull’. Heathcliff is confident around Linton ‘its skull against my bones’ and not worth knocking down’ he feels he can hurt him a lot. The reader knows that he is weak, as he has to ‘fetch the men’.
When Cathy and Heathcliff make fun of Edgar it is, more aggressive and insulting than when Bronte compares Edgar to weak things.
Edgar always had what he wanted; it was not difficult for him to get something for example, money. In contrast to Heathcliff who has had to fight, for example when he wanted to exchange horses he blackmailed Hindley. Perhaps without his bad experience of childhood he would have been a better person.
Heathcliff and Linton have many differences according to their outlook, temperament because of their social background.
When Linton is angry he remains civilised, for example, when Cathy pinches Nelly he says ‘Catherine, love! Catherine!’ This shows that he remains calm and is willing to explain what she has done wrong, not get terribly angry with her (as a result of his moral upbringing). Linton gets jealous when he sees how happy Cathy gets when she sees Heathcliff on his return:
‘No need to be frantic’
This is because he has been married to Cathy and has never seen her as happy as she was when she met Heathcliff on his return.
Edgar is associated with gentler objects such as ‘honeysuckles’ which relates to his sweet personality and sets the impression that Edgar is soft and weak. This is proven correct as when he needs to evacuate Heathcliff from Thrushcross Grange he has to call two men. Heathcliff is very ‘evil’ towards Isabella as he refers to her as a ‘creature’ he says he will beat her ‘blue eyes black’ this is because he wants revenge on Edgar for taking Cathy away from him.
Environment and links to Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange are very successful in leading into Cathy’s dilemma. When Cathy describes her feelings about Linton to Nelly she gives the impression that she does not have everlasting love ‘moonbeam from lightening, or frost from fire’ the fire links with the passion and ‘frost’ shows that it is transient love. When Heathcliff leaves, Wuthering Heights Bronte uses pathetic fallacy so we can see the anger and can tell that Cathy is frustrated and anxious. It seems that the bond broken between Cathy and Heathcliff is irreparable which is expressed through the metaphor for Heathcliff and Cathy’s relationship, ‘split a tree’ this sets the impression that they are physically apart now, and Heathcliff is on one part of the tree and on the other part, is Cathy. Bronte uses further examples of metaphors, such as ‘full fury’, ‘violent wind’ and ‘thunder’ this highlights the anger and hatred between the characters.
Cathy is inwardly torn throughout chapters 7-9-11.
The reader gets the impression that Cathy does not know about her feelings for Heathcliff as after Linton proposes to her:
‘Doubtless Catherine marked the difference between her friends’
The fact that she calls them ‘friends’ means she does not know which one to call lover and therefore is not sure of whom to marry. Nelly questions her feelings when she is ‘disturbed’ and ‘anxious’, Cathy describes Linton as ‘handsome’ and ‘pleasant to be with’. This shows that she is unsure of the marriage; she knows she needs to make a decision and decides to marry Edgar, as he is rich:
‘If there be any, they are out of my way: I have seen none like Edgar’
This suggests that she marries Linton plainly for the reason that he is rich, she does seem to be confident but:
“‘Here! and here!’ replied Catherine, striking one hand on her forehead, and the other on her breast, ‘in whichever place the soul lives. In my soul and in my heart, I’m convinced I’m wrong!’”
she is physically confused about her feelings, she is unsure of what she has done; at this point she still does not know she loves Heathcliff.
Cathy initially makes herself ill, as she wants to ‘scare him’; Cathy is frightened of the choice she has to make again; between Edgar and Heathcliff. When she was separated from Heathcliff her past seven years became a blank
“the whole last seven years of my life grew a blank!” “My miser arose from the separation that Hindley had ordered between me and Heathcliff.”
She feels that she cannot stay away from Heathcliff and as a result feels death is the answer.
Bronte was very creative and her novel has a love triangle in it, but is much more interesting than a modern day romantic novel. These ideas make Wuthering Heights a remarkably extraordinary novel.
