Love is the Root of all suffering in Wuthering Heights In what ways do you agree?

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‘Love is the Root of all suffering in Wuthering Heights’- In what ways do you agree?

Many people see Wuthering Heights as a novel about love. However, for some characters such as Heathcliff and Catherine, it can have a detrimental effect.

Isabella pursued Heathcliff as she saw him as a ‘hero of romance’. She was besotted by him and this made her overlook all his flaws and brutality thinking that deep down he was loving and could care about her. ‘She saw me hang up her little dog’ despite this cruel and careless act she still eloped with him. Her love for Heathcliff made her ignore these warnings. Further into the marriage, Heathcliff acts violently towards her and deliberately mistreats her – ‘I would turn her blue eyes black’. Eventually Isabella has to leave despite the fact she was married with a child to escape her suffering. She was brought up in an upper class family but ignored the social expectations of women because her suffering was so great.

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However, it can be argued that Isabella never really loved Heathcliff and it was just an infatuation commonly associated with Byronic heroes. As soon as she knew what Heathcliff was really like, she described him as a ‘beast’ and fled.

Catherine described her love for Heathcliff as the ‘eternal rocks beneath’ and of ‘little visible delight’ The word ‘eternal’ suggests she will always love him yet the phrase ‘of little visible delight’ shows that Heathcliff does not necessarily make her happy. Catherine and Heathcliff’s love is very destructive. Catherine says ‘I’ll break two hearts by breaking my own’ because Edgar ...

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