Another great device for emphasising character by Emily Brontë is using physical appearances to define personalities.
Clothing is a main point on Heathcliff because right from the start he is always dressed in a way which displays how he is feeling or what mood he is in. When he is a young boy his clothes are ragged and dirty. His hair is also tangled and full of dirt, “dirty, ragged, black haired child…” Nelly even refers to him as being something from hell, “…as if it came from the devil.” This is a very strong remark. When Heathcliff returns, his way of dressing has changed completely. This is parallel to his lifestyle, which has also changed. He had gained wealth and so his clothes were much more elegant but they also still had a bad feeling about them. In the film he returns dressed in a black suit showing sophistication but also still some slight evil.
Linton at the other end, throughout the novel never changes. He is always portrayed as being delicate, elegant and neat. His manner of speaking and personality and clothing also never change. His clothes are very expensive silks etc, with tassels and other grand objects. He has fair, clean, neat hair and blue eyes.
Cathy has two different personalities to portray in clothing. When she is young with Heathcliff she is carefree about how she looks which is defined by her not caring about running free on the moors, “Her spirits were always…high…singing…laughing…a wild wicked slip…but she had the bonniest eye, the sweetest smile…fond of Heathcliff…freely…” As you can see she had a very wild strong personality and she was very fond of Heathcliff. When she falls and damages her foot her lifestyle changes dramatically. The time that she spends in Thrushcross Grange turns her into a real lady compared to her tomboy looks and carefree acts before. Upon returning in the carriage, the family first see her changes, “Why Cathy you look quite a beauty…like a lady now…”
Only minutes later she is ripping off the finery and returning to her old clothes. When she rips these off it is showing that she is discarding that personality and returning to her ‘Heathcliff’ way of life.
In this paragraph I will explain the way Cathy behaves when she is with both Heathcliff and Linton. Catherine and Heathcliff together both are very unrestrained, without rules. Their dressing is similar and they both run free in the large, open moor racing and riding, forever having fun. Even when they are older and Cathy has returned from the Grange for the first time she switches back to her old self and is childlike and energetic once more. In the performance of Wuthering Heights that we visited at the theatre, both characters danced freely and were very physical. They were always very close together during dance, emphasising their closeness.
The way Cathy acts when she is with Linton is opposite to how she acts when she is with Heathcliff as the two are sophisticated and dignified. It is as though Cathy is just imitating the ways that both the males live. Here, instead of the running and galloping on the moorland she switches to just sitting and strolling in the grounds of Thrushcross Grange having quiet conversations.
When wearing her satins and having the ringlets in her fine hair Cathy is in a different world and nobody else in her life matters. Again at the performance when Cathy dances with Linton they are very slow and distant showing that perhaps this is not who she wants to be dancing with and that her real way of life is distant from the one she is living.
The question that needs to be considered is, who is the real Cathy? I think that she is being her real self when she is with Heathcliff because that is how she grew up. It could be argued that it is with Linton however because upon marriage she had truly changed but I consider that this is just a front to cover up that it is just a fantasy life with Edgar in Thrushcross Grange.
In her conversation with Nelly, Cathy tries to compare Heathcliff and Linton, in her love for each of them. She speaks of the different feelings and thoughts of her relationships with them.
Firstly with Heathcliff, he and Cathy are in deep, passionate love together. Brontë uses nature to enhance the way Cathy describes her love for him. But declares that, “It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now…” Heathcliff hears this and so leaves Wuthering Heights. If he had stayed he would have heard the following part of the conversation, which is where Cathy uses nature for imagery. She uses this to say that she loves Heathcliff so much and that it is so strong and even indestructible, “My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary…” She also says that they are joined as one person, “…his and mine are the same…” also, “I am Heathcliff” This is a very strong phrase to use but resembles the vast amount of strong love she has for him.
With Linton, although Cathy loves him also, it is a different type of love that she has. Her love for Linton is very fragile, “My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I’m well aware, as winter changes the trees.” This is a metaphor, saying that the foliage dies or changes through time, which is what will happen with their love. She only loves Linton’s lifestyle and loves him because he loves her. Again to show us that their loves are different, Brontë uses two different types of mood and weather to resemble Cathy and Linton’s differences, “Linton is as different as a moonbeam from lightening, or frost from fire.”
In conclusion by using nature, mood, metaphors and other devices, Brontë can create an image from a conversation, which cleverly but clearly sets the differences for her love for the two men.
In this final paragraph of Brontë’s literary devices I will write about how she uses imagery, weather and the supernatural to symbolise the way in which both Heathcliff and Linton react to Cathy’s death.
After Heathcliff has bought Wuthering Heights, married Isabella and Catherine is with child, Catherine dies. Again the two main male characters react to this occurrence very differently. I will begin with the reaction of Edgar Linton.
Although he is not there when she dies when he finds out he is very controlled and it was very easy for him to accept reality, “…Linton had his head laid on the pillow, and his eyes shut…exhausted anguish…” The way he reacts to this is symbolic of how he is and how perhaps Cathy felt about him. He is not showing what he feels but those feelings, although not that strong are still there inside him.
Heathcliff, as usual shows his emotions. Instead of keeping it in he expresses his strong feelings passionately and as he is a bit of an extrovert he always speaks of his emotions to let everyone know what he is feeling. In this scene Heathcliff shows the most powerful and dark side of his emotions. Immediately after Cathy’s death he begins to show his anger at Nelly because she is upset about her death, “Put your handkerchief away…damn you all! She wants none of your tears!”
Bringing weather into the aspect when Heathcliff and Nelly are outside arguing, Brontë makes the weather terrible to show the anger and the evil atmosphere within them. It is cold, dark and there is a thunderstorm. As the storm progresses it is symbolic of what Heathcliff is saying and is about to do. Nelly tells Heathcliff that Cathy should wake in Heaven but Heathcliff’s reaction to this is very unexpected, “May she wake in torment! He cried…not in heaven…” He says that he wants her to be in Hell and later, “You said I killed you-haunt me then! The murdered do haunt their murderers, I believe.” He actually wants her to haunt him, “in any shape or form” he says. This is the first understandable aspect of the supernatural in the novel. This is because it all links back to the beginning where a ghost through the window grabbed the visitor. That ghost was Cathy so we realise that Cathy did haunt Heathcliff as he had asked.
After all this screaming about haunting he begins to show a different side of him never seen before. He seems almost evil, “He dashed his head against the knotted trunk; and lifting up his eyes, howled not like a man but like a savage beast…several splashes of blood…appalled me…” This shows extreme signs of madness and definite insanity. All this because of the loss of one person in his life but it was that person that he loved so much. Doing this to himself shows that he no longer cares about pain or being in this world because he would much rather be in Heaven or Hell with Cathy. Or if he doesn’t die he still wants to be with Cathy even if she is in the form of just a spirit.
At the beginning when Cathy does return to the moorland to haunt him the weather reflects that there is some supernatural/evil out there, “It gave no sign of being, but the snow and wind whirled wildly through, even reaching my station and blowing out the light.” So through Heathcliff’s pain, anguish and after leaving his abyss, years later he still loves Cathy and is still longing for her to be with him, “Cathy, do come. Oh, do-once more! Oh! My hearts darling! Hear me this time, Catherine, at last!” Cleverly Brontë had hinted at the presence of supernatural in the story by putting the future at the beginning of the book.
In conclusion I can say that while Linton is still in control of his emotions, Heathcliff loses control of his feelings and shouts as if he despises Cathy. We can see that the way each reacts reflects the way we could have expected, due to how they have been portrayed throughout the text.
To Conclude I can say that Brontë has successfully and effectively used all the types of imagery etc to symbolise each of the points made throughout the essay (speech, settings, weather…). The imagery that she uses is very effective to the reader and the novel can make people think beyond the storyline about what can happen if they were in situations like the characters have been in.
The most effective part of the story for me was the speech between Nelly and Cathy, where Heathcliff hears Cathy say that it would degrade her to marry him. This part appealed to me because it made me think about what could have happened if he had heard the rest of the conversation and if it would have been a good novel. I thought that it would most probably not have been very gripping or even that good if it were to have happened. Although it didn’t happen it still could keep the story as being powerful and evocative.
I think that Wuthering Heights is about love but there are many other genres’ that it could be, Revenge Spiritual or even a book about the Supernatural. Whatever the type if the storyline remained it would again still be an intensive, emotive novel.
