Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Classic. Gothic. Romance. Tragedy. Pretty Writing. 

Re-read, on the fancy new copy, for the first time since reading it in Honors English 10. 

Rating: 4.5/5

Pages: 328

Started: 25 June 2023

Finished: 28 June 2023

Summary:

    Catherine Earnshaw. Catherine Heathcliff. Catherine Linton.

    When Mr. Lockwood, a loquacious if overly forward tenant, moves into Thrushcross Grange, he quickly discovers that the Yorkshire moors are not the most scintillating of vacation spots. Affronted by the gloomy rudeness of his landlord, Heathcliff of the nearby manor of Wuthering Heights, and desperate for entertainment, Lockwood entreats his housekeeper Nellie Dean to tell him the story of his mysterious neighbors. 

    Catherine Earnshaw was a beautiful child but nasty, cruel and needy and capricious. When her father took in a strange boy during one of his travels, calling him Heathcliff, she felt nothing but consternation for his dark ways and ill manners. Yet slowly she befriended him, then fell into a tumultuous infatuation of equal parts dark dedication and childish folly. However it didn't take long for the disparity of class and manners to force the two apart, depositing Catherine in the gentle arms of Edgar Linton. 

    Though her story soon transforms from a cure for boredom to an engrossing tale that Lockwood finds himself unable to walk away from, Nellie tells the story of the two men's opposing forces, first on Catherine and then on the next generation. Eerie and desperate, full of love and loss and suffering, readers cannot help but be engrossed alongside Lockwood as the tragic yet hope-filled tale of Wuthering Heights unfolds. 

Thoughts:

    I loved this book when I read it for English my sophomore year; I remember chattering excitedly about new developments with other students in the halls, too eager to wait for the next class discussion. And somehow, I think I enjoyed it even more this time. I do often find re-reads to be more comfortable and enjoyable, but I felt that this book, more than most I've read for classes, was thrilling in addition to brilliant. Bronte created such intense feelings of suffering and drama and hope and romance that I found myself just as swept up in the story as I was over two years ago.

     Although I certainly had an easier time understanding the plot and untangling the language this time around, in comparison some of the other previously-read classics I've gone back to this year, I did not feel that my post-twelfth-grade-English brain did a much better job analyzing the book. While I am certain there are messages galore in the novel, and while I look forward to reasoning through some of them here in this review, I would argue that part of the beauty of this book is its immersive nature. It's a gothic work, a thrilling book, an exciting story to watch unfold. The artfulness, the messages, the complexity of the characters, does not feel contrived or forced. I feel the story comes first, and the messages are hidden inside, and I do not think that is an easy thing for an author to do. 

    I have so many thoughts on this book that, if I don't divide this review into categories, it will become impossibly convoluted, so: 

    Lockwood, our narrator, is a walking piece of irony and a hilarious example of the unreliable narrator. We first meet him as he is conversing with Heathcliff, and his reflections on the conversation go against Heathcliff's obviously sinister nature to such an extreme that it's a bit frustrating to read. The introduction is, however, a wildly effective way for the reader to quickly understand that Lockwood's views are not to be taken for truth; he is, in fact, a bit of a pompous idiot. Also: Is Lockwood bisexual? Because he says "The fellow [Hareton] is as handsome a rustic as need be seen. I took particular notice of him this time; but then, he does his best, apparently, to make the least of his advantages" (288). The man also talks about Cathy II being beautiful, but like. That sounds a bit like attraction to me. 

    Heathcliff is the Byronic hero--the other, the uncivilized, and yet the romantic. As an adult, his savagery of demeanor lends intensity to his love and pining, while his love excuses the undesirable edges of that intensity. (The Byronic hero as a child is, simply put, not like other girls. No, I will not elaborate). While I don't think his love excuses the harm he caused everyone around him (poor, poor Cathy II) I also think that his actions were done out of a twisted love, and that many of them were really quite romantic. On the flip side, Heathcliff is an othered character apart from his romanticism--he is described as having dark hair, dark skin, dark eyes, etc; whether he was intended to be a character of color or simply a character who looked other in addition to being mysterious and intense and lower-class, the juxtaposition of his intensity against Edgar Linton's blonde effeminate gentleness is startling. Heathcliff is also described as "close-handed," as in greedy, which possibly plays into several racist/antisemitic stereotypes.

    Catherine I is both a beauty and a brat. She is the epitome of the spoiled child, and for that reason is very frustrating to read at times. Juxtaposed against Zillah, the matronly housekeeper, Catherine is called a "little witch" (13). However, I think it should be recognized that the term "witch" has been used to take power away from protesting women, presenting them as evil and awful. Spoiled brat or no, Catherine fearlessly stood up to male authority figures such as Mr. Earnshaw, which I find pretty impressive. 

    Cathy II feels almost identical to her mother. An impressive example of nature versus nurture, Cathy II has a wholly different childhood and still ends up with a bratty countenance. She loves to fight with Hareton, the Heathcliff 2.0, and refused to listen to Nellie just as her mother used to. While it was frustrating to have to read more of that same bratty character, her similarity to her mother allowed the end of the novel to be hopeful instead of wholly tragic--she is able to break the pattern and allow love and lightness into Wuthering Heights. Even the writing seems to reflect the change in the manor once Heathcliff is one.  

    Nellie Dean is an excellent narrator and a horribly frustrating character. Unlike Lockwood, her opinions can usually be trusted, or else she will unabashedly announce that her opinions were wrong. Bronte framing the narrative in bursts through her story was brilliant. But no one freaking listened to her. Don't visit Catherine, Heathcliff. Don't go to Wuthering Heights, Cathy. Don't send letters, Cathy. Don't be rude, Hareton. Don't go over there again, Mr. Lockwood. And she was always right, and no one ever listened to her. She was the voice of reason, of caution, and every single rich and entitled character in the novel not just ignored her but pulled her into their machinations and chaos. Cathy got her kidnapped, for heavens' sake. Nellie was technically the only working-class character, and by narrating the story she was given a voice, but the ineffectuality of her actions in the story she told was a clear example of the overwhelming power of the upper class. 

    The Supernatural's involvement in Wuthering Heights is decidedly characteristic of the Female Gothic novel. There is never any explicit, provable supernatural events; instead the ghosts could technically be explained away by nightmares (in Lockwood's case) and heartbreak-inspired hallucinations (for Heathcliff). The appearance of the supernatural is certainly eerie, very spooky and fun and gothic. But I would argue that it's Heathcliff's lost love that creates the sensation of entrapment that is central to The Gothic Novel. He is isolated in Wuthering Heights, a manor past its prime, and he entraps others within the manor as a manifestation of his misery. He keeps young Linton trapped in misery the house to get revenge on Edgar, and then locks Cathy II into the house and forces her to marry Linton to get revenge on Catherine I. Heathcliff's gloom and miserably romantic agony are far more entrapping and spooky than the possibility of a ghost.

    Religion is more a plot device than a theme in the novel, although Bronte's distain for Christianity does come through in several ways. The first is Joseph, the only truly pious character. He spends long hours making everyone else suffer so he can give homilies and read scripture. Yet Joseph as a cause of suffering does not end there; he uses religion to justify the castigation of and violence toward every single child in the book. By presenting a religious character who so clearly eschews the biblical commandments to be kind and forgiving, Bronte gives an obvious example of the irony and hypocrisy so often present in religion. 

    Wuthering Heights is a Romance. While it is twisted and torturous for most of the book, I stand by my opinion that the novel, and Heathcliff in particular, is very romantic. He hallucinates his lover. He loves her to the grave. His love for Catherine I changes his life, changes how he sees the next generation, how he sees his neighbors, how he sees the whole world. He loves Catherine through her many imperfections; he loves her more than anything. 

•   "Two words would compound my future--death and hell--existence, after losing her, would be hell" (45). 
• "Oh Cathy, oh my life! How can I bear it?" (134). 
• "The entire world is a dreadful collection of memoranda that she did exist, and that I have lost her" (314).

    The Writing is absolutely glorious. Although the end-of-chapter lines leave something to be desired--they are usually disorientingly anticlimactic--the rest of Bronte's words are heaven. I saved a handful of quotes simply because they were too pretty to not write down: 

• "The spectre showed a spectre's ordinary caprice" (27). 
• "And saluted me with a querulous mew" (27). So silly. 
• "But no brutality disgusted her [Catherine I]--I suppose she had an innate admiration for it, if only her precious person was secure from injury" (147). 
• "The endless and shadowless hereafter" (161) Referring to death. 
• "Flinty gratification at a piece of difficult work, successfully executed" (181). This!!
• "Gathering fresh grief from reflection" (190). Also this!! 
• "Worst tempered bit of a sickly slip that ever struggled into its teens" (234). I want to use this insult someday.
• "I am swallowed up in the anticipation of its fulfillment" (314). Stunning, and also the reason why I try not to make bucket lists. 
• "I lingered round them, under that benign sky; watched the moths fluttering among the heath, and hare bells; listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass; and wondered how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers, for the sleepers in that quiet earth" (328). The last line, and so pretty, and also an excellent use of the semicolon.

    Ejaculated--yes, I unfortunately do believe this word deserves its own heading. I have a theory that most classics have a word, one specific one that is (over)used to the point of becoming attached to the book's overall aesthetic. Unfortunately this is the one that stood out to me from this particular classic. Bronte did an incredible job with most of this book, but I do believe her continued use of this word was an error. 

    And Finally: I am sure I missed so many thoughts during this read-through; hopefully I will be ready to re-read it again in a few years because this is a truly stunning work of fiction that I believe deserves to be both dissected and enjoyed. 

  

Words:

    Misanthropist (n) a person who dislikes humankind and avoids human society

    Sundry (adj) of various kinds; several

    Laconic (adj) using very few words

    Assiduity (n) constant or close attention to what one is doing

    Sagacity (n) the quality of having or showing keen mental discernment and good judgement

    Copestone (n) the highest stone on a building; the finishing touch or crowning achievement

    Snoozled (v) nuzzle

    Imprecations (n) curses

    Sententiously (adv) given to or abounding in excessive moralizing

    Impracticable (adj) impassible 

    Fastidiousness (n) the act of being extremely or excessively careful or detailed

    Ignominiousness (n) the state of being humiliated or degraded

    Paroxysm (n) a fit, attack, or sudden increase or reoccurrence of symptoms

    Slattern (n) slut or prostitute

    Appellation (n) an identifying name or title

    Heterodox (adj) contrary to or different from an acknowledged standard, a traditional form, or an established religion

    Succor (n) relief

    Pertinacious (adj) adhering resolutely to an opinion, purpose, or design

    Incipient (adj) beginning to come into being

    Saturnine (adj) cold and steady in mood; slow to act or change; the opposite of mercurial