Cathy, catching a glimpse of her friend in his concealment, flew to embrace him. She bestowed seven or eight kisses on his cheek within the second, and then stopped, and drawing back, burst into a laugh, exclaiming⎯Why, how very black and cross you look! And how-how funny and grim! But that’s because I’m used to Edgar and Isabella Linton, (52).
At this point Catherine begins noticing the differences in her and his lives, where feelings were beginning to be outweighed by social class.
As Catherine matured, she began to act as if she were better than Heathcliff. She showed two faces, one face for the Linton, and the other for Heathcliff. Even though she still loved Heathcliff, she began to display her true colors as well.
Catherine and him were constant companions still, at his seasons of respite from labor; but he had ceased to express his fondness for her in words, and recoiled with angry suspicion from her girlish caresses, as if conscious there could be no gratification in lavishing such marks of affection to him,
(66).
Catherine flirts with him and teases him, but then her other feelings come out when she tries to prove to him how they are from two worlds: “What good do I get-what do you talk about? You might be dumb, or a baby, for anything you say to amuse me, or for anything you do, either” (67). Catherine plays with Heathcliff’s heart as a ping-pong ball, hitting it back and forth only causing him confusion and depression. The truth is that Catherine does love Heathcliff, but denies herself the love because of the pressures of her society and class. As she becomes older, she starts treating Heathcliff more and more as a servant, and not as her best friend, like he use to be while they were growing up. Not only is Catherine hurting herself immensely, she is breaking the heart of her love as well.
As the years went by and Heathcliff set out to become a gentleman, Catherine broke her pact with him. Catherine married Edgar Linton, not for true love, but for a motive. “If I marry Linton, I can aid Heathcliff to rise, and place him out of my brothers power” (79). Catherine only announces the physical aspects that may lure her to marry Edgar. She claims that he is handsome and pleasant, he loves her, he is rich and she should be the greatest and proudest woman of the neighborhood, (75-6). Catherine also displays her eternal love for Heathcliff in the same conversation, telling Nelly bluntly why she may not marry Heathcliff, even though it hurts her so much. “It degrades me to marry Heathcliff, now; so he shall never know how I love him; and that, not because he’s handsome, Nelly, but because he’s more myself than I am” (78). Catherine chose money over love, one of the most selfish choices she could have ever made.
Before Catherine died, she had one last encounter with Heathcliff. During this converse she apologizes to him for all of the hurt she may have brought upon him, she finally realized how important their love was, and how she may never rest in peace without his in return. “I’m not wishing you greater torment than I have, Heathcliff. I only wish us never to be parted- and should a word of mine distress you hereafter, think I feel the same distress underground, and for my own sake, forgive me!” (153). Concluding that scene the two finally stayed together, showing the world (Edgar), their love. While Catherine was on her deathbed, it seemed to be the only time she ever had enough courage to display her true feelings for Heathcliff. Catherine finally realized that she should have followed her heart.
Catherine and Heathcliff’s misfortunes, recklessness, willpower, and destructive passion are unable to undergo the eternal love they share. However, love is hardly the main theme of the book. It is difficult and possibly wrong to consider Emily Bronte’s classic, Wuthering Heights, as a romance novel. As Romantic authors tend to look into man’s inner nature, so did Bronte glimpse into the mind of Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw. What she came up with however, is hardly a social commentary on the human mind. These are two unique characters that must exist in their own world, not found in Liverpool. They had everything when they were together, the dreams, the hopes, the love, but society kept them apart. Catherine allowed others to get in the way of her eternal happiness, and so until the end they were both miserable. So was Wuthering Heights a true love story? To many it was one. Does true love exist? Catherine and Heathcliff certainly prove this, and finally is it mandatory for all love stories to have the happily ever after ending? It seems not.