Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights, the creation of Emily Jane Bronte, depicts not a fantasy realm or the depths of hell. Rather, the novel focuses on the two main characters' battle with the restrictions of Victorian Society. Societal pressures and restrictive cultural confines exile Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff from the world and then from each other. The story commences in the desolate moors of Yorkshire, home of the estate Wuthering Heights. True to its setting, the novel develops Catherine and Heathcliff as mischievous children who wander the isolated bogs, separating themselves from the activities of Wuthering Heights. Catherine's childhood exile stems from her lack of compliance with the rules concerning the conduct of a Victorian lady. As a child, her father was too ill to reprimand the free spirited child. Therefore, Catherine grew up among nature and lacked the sophistication of high society. Catherine removed herself from society and, "had ways with her such as I never saw a child take up before; she put all of us past our patience fifty times and oftener in a day;...we had not a minute's security that she wouldn't be in mischief. Her spirits were always at high-water mark, her tongue always going--singing, laughing, a
However, Heathcliff's vengeance, "hit on exactly the most efficient method of revenging,"(103) himself on Catherine. Torn between the love of her life and the husband she dotes on, she dies from grief. Thus, in the years following Catherine's death, Heathcliff transforms into a diabolical monster whose only, "bliss lies...in inflicting misery."(103). Heathcliff deliberately manipulates Hindley's addiction to alcohol and gambling in order to draw the master of Wuthering Heights into debt. Therefore, with Hindley's death the estate reverts to Heathcliff because he holds the mortgage to the property. His actions refuted Victorian morals and exile him from the company of decent people. "I've no... business to marry Edgar Linton... and if the wicked man [Hindley] in there had not brought Heathcliff so low, I shouldn't have thought of it. It would degrade 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. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same; and Linton's is as different as a moonbeam from lightening, or frost from fire."(73)
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Approximate Word count = 1241
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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