Wuthering Heights - Essay Example

Heathcliff is ively a Heights figure opposing the Grange, and objectively a Grange figure undermining the Heights; he focuses acutely the contradictions between the two worlds.’ Discuss this statement about Wuthering Heights. Wuthering Heights is a story defined by two characters, Heathcliff and Catherine. In as such, Wuthering Heights on the surface appears like a story about romance mainly because the two main characters bear immense feelings towards each other1. However, a reading through the story informed by major literary theories, in this case deconstruction, helps bring to the fore complex themes that happen to be much more definitive. In essence, deconstruction entails an in depth reading of texts in a bid to show that every text has contradictory meanings as opposed to having one harmonious and logical meaning. In this regard, this study seeks to implore on the different meanings represented by the above statement and in doing so understand the binary meanings of the overall text2 (Rivkin & Ryan). Most importantly, it also cultivates great understanding in application of literary theory in this case deconstruction. Right from the start, specifically the title, it is quite apparent that Bronte wants to bring to the fore the idea of hostility. The title Wuthering Heights is a direct reference to a hostile point, hostility emerging from unrestricted exposure to whirling winds. At the same time, the discussion of activities and residents in Wuthering heights is checked by a reference to the Grange, a place of pure contrast. In doing so, the author creates two incompatible worlds and tries to demonstrate their struggle to be assimilated into a harmonious unit. The entire play now seeks to explain this struggle. As it emerges it is a representation of a tussle between social classes. The deaths, so common in the story, are a representation of the pain that comes with every attempt to achieve respect across a higher class. Based on the deconstruction literally theory the aim of this analysis is to define these struggles especially the hidden struggle between classes3. This is enabled by first explaining the essence of the residences and their part in defining class and then a look at the individuals and how they expound this struggle. Wuthering Heights is introduced as the residence of the Earnshaw's, and Thrushcross Grange is introduced as the serine residence of the Linton’s. In trying to decipher Heathcliff’s objectivity and subjectivity in reference to the two residences, it is important we first try to understand the residences. Most importantly, we try to define what they represent in order to attract a difference of opinion from the protagonist. Wuthering Heights has a definitive meaning, ‘Wuthering’ means subject to continuous gusty or violent winds, while ‘Heights’ refers to an elevated point, probably on top of a hill. In following the story, we learn of violent winds that continually clatter over the residence (Heights) in range (p.248); these are described to have roaring thunder, and enormous drops4. On the night, Mr. Earnshaw dies there is a huge storm that blows around the house one noted to have sounded “wild and stormy’5. In another context that tries to explain the standing of the Wuthering Height as a residence, the author describes it as a cruel one, where the tapered windows are deeply sunk in the wall, and the corners are guarded by enormous protruding stones (p.4). Additionally, the house has dangerous dogs, which attack Mr. Lockwood on arrival. The dogs are depicted as “robbing the wood of pheasants” (p.328)6. The standing of the house is also explained by the type of vegetation around it this is stunted firs appearing at the end of the house, further there are thorns, “gaunt thorns”. The use of the word “gaunt” inevitably shows the coldness of the residence. The scene and physical description of the residence paints Wuthering Heights as an unfriendly and hostile place. Besides the physical attributes, there is also the question of the residents; these are fierce and as hostile as the place. As described by the narrator, Wuthering Heights is the ‘perfect misanthropist’s heaven (p.4). One of the most notable lodgers of the place is Heathcliff. The narrator describes Heathcliff to have “black eyes that withdraw suspiciously under their brows”7 (p.5). Heathcliff spends his young life alienated mainly because of his ‘gypsy nature’ harbors bitterness towards the Earnshaws, particularly Hindley Earnshaw. Heathcliff spends a huge part of his time plotting revenge and seeking to destroy other people’s lives. His character and preoccupation with revenge shakes many, including Isabel who poses “Is Mr. Heathcliff a man? If so, is he mad? And if not, is he the devil?”8. In a way, he is the cause of Catherine’s death and the deaths of Hindley, Isabella and Linton can all be traced to Heathcliff. The other notable resident of Wuthering Heights is Catherine. Catherine’s ghosts are said to have haunted Heathcliff until his death9. Catherine gets married to Edgar, a Linton. However, besides her marriage to Edgar, she is unable to get over her feelings for Heathcliff, she eventually dies. The other resident is Hindley he was Catherine’s brother who is said to have “neither wept not prayed”10. He dies prematurely of alcohol poisoning after unsuccessfully trying to kill his emissary Healthcliff. The premature deaths and the spirit of vengeance characterize the atmosphere of Wuthering Heights, in totality the resident is depicted as dark and laden with negative atmosphere. On the other hand, Thrushcross Grange is a totally different place, a calm and serene resident, a complete opposite of Wuthering Heights. Grange is described as “beautiful, a splendid place carpeted with crimson” 11. For the reader, Grange presents a welcome break from the extremities evident at Wuthering Heights. As described, Wuthering Heights is set in a stormy place; in contrast, Grange is set in a calm place, in a valley surrounded by beautiful trees and a “wild green park”. The beauty of the Grange is also apparent to the residents of the Wuthering Heights, on first sight; Heathcliff describes the place as “a striking marvelous place” depicting a heaven. Besides the physical beauty, the residents of the Grange are also amazing the Lintons are described in charming words they are said to have “light hair” and “fair skin” 12. They are a courteous and reputable unit. One of the main residents, Edgar Linton, passes as a very kind, courteous, and a charming father. His politeness and courtesy is put to test when she discovers that his wife Catherine is still in love with Heathcliff, even with such knowledge he remains civil and still shows her love. The other resident is Isabella; she is described as a calm and gorgeous lady whose only lethal move is to marry Heathcliff. The two residents, which are the main settings of the story, are continuously contrasted. Right from the start of the story the reader is made aware of these opposing residents and gradually witnesses how the range and storms of Wuthering Heights disrupt the peace and calm of the Grange. The novel is founded on this struggle and contrast between the two residences13. The turning point for the Grange is the return of Heathcliff from his self imposed exile. His plot involves revenge against Hindley, subsequent takeover of the Wuthering Heights and finally a colonization of the Grange which remains an ultimate trophy for its beauty and serenity14. It is Heathcliff’s desire and actions in an attempt to reign over the two residents that give the rise of subjectivity and objectivity. In the subsequent part, we delve into the events and struggles that slowly define Heathcliff and which will ultimately describe his subjectivity to Wuthering Heights and objectivity to Grange. As noted from the beginning it is clear that no one could fail to notice that Wuthering Height is a tale of a strange, wild, love between two extraordinary characters, a passion made stranger for readers by Catherine’s incomprehensible assertions about her love towards Heathcliff15. However, the understanding of the novel seems to come more from those who link it with more mundane social issues which now can be seen as underpinning the complex plot. Major themes and constant elements in the novel are money, property and social status, which connect the novel with issues that commonly characterize life. It illuminates on the subject of social mobility and in extension social status. The life in Wuthering Heights is first seen in the original Earnshaw’s action, he is the father to Catherine and Hendley. The senior Earnshaw is a noble farmer who affords to send away his son for three years to attend college16. Earnshaw does this to retain the family’s respectability and to make his family socially acceptable to the local gentry. On the other hand, there is Heathcliff, he is a stray boy picked up by Earnshaw in Liverpool, he is considered a gypsy, a nomadic alien, and an outcast from society, he is also ‘nameless’ though he is ultimately given the name of Earnshaw’s late son. The new name is both his first name and surname and is legally no one’s child, lacking a legitimate father, even though he is at first considered part of the family when Earnshaw is alive the treatment changes ones Earnshaw dies. Hindley upon successfully inheriting Heights subjects Heatchcliff to torture and is considered nothing more than a servant. The relation between the Heights residents and that of the local owning gentry, the Lintons, is well represented by a dramatic episode in Catherine’s and Heatchcliff’s childhood. The two were driven by curiosity and the urge to witness the Linton’s highlife at close range they crept to the Linton’s and peered through the window to which they witnessed the Grange’s unfamiliar splendor17. This created in their minds, and that of the reader, a deep contrast between the rough and inhospitable Heights18. However, besides this clear demonstration of class and splendor the Linton’s, Isabella and Edgar, are seen quarreling and weeping over a dog. In Heathcliff’s mind, this creates an impression of an effete race made delicate by redundancy and self indulgence. On the other hand, Catherine has a different view, she is in agreement about the children’s feebleness, but she is also awestruck by the sophistication and lavishness of their trappings19. The secret visit is disrupted when Catherine is attacked by a vicious dog which brings to the Linton’s attention the presence of the two children. According to Heathcliff, the two receive different treatment Catherine is ‘Miss’ Earnshaw and once identified she is taken as one who is socially acceptable. Heathcliff is considered a villain, a frightful being, a gypsy who is not worthy of a place at the Linton’s. Heathcliff is hurled out by a servant while Catherine is given a worthwhile treatment her feet are washed by a servant and Mr. Linton serves her a tumbler of Negus. She is fed with cakes, and her hair is washed and dried, she remains a ‘pampered hostage’ as she recuperates from the ankle bite. Once she has healed Catherine returns home to Heathcliff’s disappointment. She has taken to the Linton’s lady like behavior. She is no longer a ‘wild, hatless little savage’ but carries herself as a dignified person, with “brown ringlets falling from the cover of a feathered beaver, and long cloth habit which she was obliged to hold up with both hands that she might sail in”20. Her experiences at Linton’s also alters her view of Heathcliff, an example is when she poses to Heathcliff, “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” (Chapter 7). Her preoccupation with the Linton’s persists and she starts mulling over a lifetime union with the family. This preoccupation means she becomes more and more overtly a fine lady to Mr Linton’ s liking, and to Heathcliff’s dismay as he continues to wallow in his own degradation, becoming surlier and dirtier. At this point, there emerges a clear cut difference of class for these two individuals who were inseparable in childhood. This shift creates a division in Catherine’s heart she is gratified by a life of luxury and refinement, yet her feeling towards Heathcliff makes her feel like the two are indivisible. Irrespective of this division she goes on to marry Edgar, not out of love but out of her desire to be ‘the greatest woman of the neighborhood’21. According to Catherine, she still has immense feelings for Heathcliff; however, she is continually bothered by his lowly social standing, she notes that ‘it would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now’ (Chapter 9). Heathcliff hears this and learns that the source of his loss of Catherine is not the absence of love but the gaping difference in class between him and Edgar. He is repulsed by this reality, and having held a lifelong grudge against Hindley for degrading him, such fury and need for vengeance now extends to Edgar a factor that fuels the dynamism that Heathcliff now demonstrates. Heathcliff soon disappears from the Heights and returns having made himself into a typical entrepreneur, a wealthy man who holds closely the source of his riches. He returns a shrewd person with an eye for any opportunity that would benefit him. However, he lacks any genuine ambitions to gentility and has no concern for a lavish life22. His newly acquired affluence is simply a weapon in his implacable armory. Since he has come to connect status and property and he now has money, he chooses to seize the opportunity to create a possible revenge on Hindley for degrading having degraded him ever since he became part of the Heights23. Hindley, had an insatiable appetite for gambling, his inability to control his gambling tendencies provided Heathcliff with a chance to turn the tide to his favor. Heathcliff does this by using his new social status to encourage Hindley to gamble recklessly. In childhood, Hindley had absolute power over Heathcliff, now Heathcliff secures power by offering Hindley liberal payment for permission to lodge in Heights24. Soon, he resides in the estate he hopes to own by taking over Hindley’s gambling debts. Upon Hindley’s death, his estate is wound up and sold to Heathcliff this subject the younger Hindley, Hareton, to degradation by Heathcliff. In this instant, he successfully revenges against Earnshaw for his role in making him feel a non entity in the community. Heathcliff’s new found wealth has significantly improved his facade, deportment and standing in the community. These novel attributes play a huge part in luring Isabella, Edgar’s sister, in doing so his courtship resembles that between his lover Catherine and Edgar. Edgar is not fazed by Heathcliff’s actions and he is totally aware of his intentions, to degrade a Linton in the shape of Isabella and also raise the possibility that, as her husband, he might inherit the Linton property in default of ‘heirs male’ (Chapter 9). This is one of the primary reasons why Heathcliff elopes with the infatuated and naive Isabella. It does not take long for Isabella to realize the real reason behind Heathcliff’s marrying her; this realization is termed ‘diabolical prudence’ in the text. On such realization, she takes off and settles in London where she bears Heathcliff’s son25. Isabella’s disappearance temporarily disrupts Heathcliff’s plan, but it is back in track one’s Isabella dies, and he gets a chance to claim his son, Linton Heathcliff. The child’s name is a blend of his enemy and superior with that of the man whom the Linton family called ‘nameless’. Through continuous tricks and maneuvers Heathcliff manages to get his weakling son to marry Cathy, Catherine’s and Edgar’s daughter. This sets Heathcliff in line to inherit the Grange despite his being ‘gypsy’ and lacking a legitimate father; his chance of inheriting the Grange is through his son Linton Heathcliff26. It is clear that by virtue of marriage Linton is entitled to anything that accrues to Cathy in the eventuality of his father’s death27. Heathcliff’s plan succeeds as Edgar dies without altering the will which he had hoped to, this clearly leaves his estate to Heathcliff. However, we later learn that it was not mere lack; Heathcliff’s underhand was in play as he had bribed the summoned lawyer to delay his arrival until after Edgar’s death. At this point, the Grange is by de facto under Heathcliff as his son was Edgar’s direct heir. Before long, Linton dies leaving Heathcliff under the direct control of the estate, at this point he now owns both the Heights and the Grange28. Through his shrewd tactics Heathcliff has demonstrated a less positive social mobility that was unusual at the time. Heathcliff demonstrates that upward mobility is possible not only through a combination of high-minded diligence and talent but through low-mindedness, ruthlessness, and opportunism at the expense of others. Throughout the novel, we see a man not driven by ambitions for wealth or status but one who uses these as a means of getting back at people who degraded him during his childhood. In entirety, Heathcliff shows no regard for life and shows no remorse in the death of those around him. Most appalling, his own flesh and blood, Linton, is merely a puzzle in his complex chess game with the prize being the Grange29. The only person spared in the entire play is Catherine, his ultimate love, the one he plays that may haunt him even in death. All the others are either a means or an end for his aspirations to revenge and seek satisfaction in seeing them suffer and humiliated in a similar way as when he served the Harnshaws and when he lost Catherine to the Lintons. Within this game, activated by his lowly social status, Heathcliff plays out subjectively as a Heights figure, having only recognized the Heights as his ‘family’. In this regard, he has nothing tying him to the Heights apart from servitude and need for revenge30. All in all, this is a bond which is to be used to oppose the growing influence of the Grange. This influence is seen in the Grange’s effort to have Catherine behave like them, a factor that greatly upsets Heathcliff and seeks to oppose their evident influence and power31. On the other hand, Heathcliff is objectively a Grange, having married Isabella a Linton. His son bears the name Linton meaning he is enjoined to the Grange by blood as opposed to the subjective bond linking him to the Heights. He uses this bond to undermine the Heights, to enforce their inferiority and ensure they wallow in misery in the same way he did in his childhood. This appears successful as in death, Hindley has nothing to his name and he is as lowly as Heathcliff was during childhood. In a final twist, irony, belated revenge serves a purpose he had never conceived, following his death, resulting from some form of fugitive suicide, Cathy and Hareton get married. This not only means that the degradation subjected to Hareton is nullified but also that Cathy inherits the Linton estate and the Heights and the Granges are united. In an attempt to summarize the twists in the play, and explain Heathcliff’s relation to the two classes, Grange and Heights, Terry Eagleton notes that ‘Heathcliff is subjectively a Heights figure opposing the Grange and objectively a Grange figure undermining the Heights’32. Bibliography Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights. London: Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1984. Bronte?, Emily. Wuthering Heights: A Kaplan Sat Score-Raising Classic. New York: Kaplan Pub, 2006. Eagleton, Terry. Myths of Power: A Marxist Study of the Bronte?s. Basingstoke [u.a.: Macmillan, 1999. Ingham, Patricia. The Bront·es. Oxford [u.a.: Oxford Univ. Press, 2006. Rivkin, Julie, and Michael Ryan. Literary Theory: An Anthology. Malden, MA [u.a.: Blackwell, 2004. Zima, P V, and Rainer Emig. Deconstruction and Critical Theory. London: Continuum, 2002. Read More