Wuthering Heights - Essay Example

Wuthering Heights Although the Victorian Age is typically identified as a time of sweeping social change as the effects of the Industrial Revolution developed a healthy middle class and made it possible for even those born very low on the social scale to find a means of attaining a suitably high status, there remained traces of the old ways and social structures, especially among the old families and nobility. The conflict between the old traditions and the new reality took place mostly in the urban areas of the country, but, by the middle 1800s, had sufficiently infused the culture of the countryside as well. As women began to question their social and personal roles in life as well as their increasing ability to take control of their own destinies, the question of romantic love as compared to marriage for position began to take center stage in the literature produced in that time. An example of this debate can be found in the novel Wuthering Heights, written by Emily Bronte in 1847, as it is expressed in the character of Catherine Earnshaw. In the novel, Catherine is seen as a willful, independent, half-wild girl raised without the benefit of polite society or traditional feminine influences. Despite this strong nature and independent lifestyle, however, she nevertheless finds herself wrestling with the traditional idea of marriage for position and the concept of marriage for love. During the Victorian period, women were beginning, for the first time in history, to make choices for themselves as opposed to merely following their father’s or eldest male relative’s directives as new options became available to them through the growth of the cities. While changes were slow to come to the higher social classes, change was evident in the reasons by which they selected their marriage partner. Even as far in the country as Catherine lives, there existed a struggle between the traditional idea of marriage for family positioning, the emerging concept of marriage for personal gain and the also newly emerging concept of marriage for love. This struggle is most succinctly outlined in a speech Catherine makes to her maid in chapter nine: This is nothing, cried she: I was only going to say that heaven did not seem to be my home; and I broke my heart with weeping to come back to earth; and the angels were so angry that they flung me out into the middle of the heath on the top of Wuthering Heights; where I woke sobbing for joy. That will do to explain my secret, as well as the other. Ive no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in heaven; and if the wicked man in there had not brought Heathcliff so low, I shouldnt 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 hes handsome, Nelly, but because hes more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same; and Lintons is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire. In this impassioned confession, Catherine expresses the conflict of her age as well as the limit of her perceived choices in life. As a member of an old and respected family, she knows she must marry rather than seek employment, but her marriage options seem contained to just Heathcliff or Edgar, rather than any other gentleman of the region. In the consideration of Edgar, Catherine demonstrates both the need to honor time-honored tradition as well as the need for personal material gain. In seeking a match of equal or greater significance than her own family name, which had recently undergone significant reduction at the behavior of Hindley, Catherine’s marriage to Edgar could be seen as a means of bringing honor back to the family line, if not the name itself. Edgar’s family is of an even more well-respected line than her own, especially given the present circumstances, and she has experienced luxury and gentility in Edgar’s home that she never knew prior to her stay there. This concept, together with Catherine’s already described love of comfort and self-indulgence, introduces the idea that Catherine is marrying for personal benefit rather than family honor. Lacking a responsible elder male of the household, it is Catherine herself who makes the decision regarding whom she will marry. She knows she does not love Edgar with the same depth of passion she feels for Heathcliff as she states herself later in this same chapter, “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 also expressed in her comparison of Edgar’s soul, and his passion, to that of a moonbeam and to frost as they compare against such exciting elements as lightening and fire respectively. Yet, she determines to marry him because he alone can provide the financial resources necessary to help Heathcliff overcome the poor upbringing he has had as a result of Hindley’s treatment. Edgar alone can provide her with the luxurious crimson upholstered room she first viewed from the parlor window and he alone who can impart to her the air of respectability she longs for. However, she does not rule out the possibility of beauty in this alliance, as moonbeams were often associated with romance. The comparison with frost, though, further cools her impressions of Edgar, making it clear that this alliance would be little more than a business arrangement as far as her heart was concerned. Despite her decision, however, Catherine knows she is bonded to Heathcliff with stronger ties than mere convenience, comfort or social position. Her passion for him is compared with lightening and fire, a distinction between herself and Heathcliff cannot be made in her mind and the mere mention of a separation from him elicits a wrathful speech on its impossibility. “My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I AM Heathcliff! He’s always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being. So don’t talk of our separation again: it is impracticable.” Further proof that Catherine’s feelings for Heathcliff run too deep to ignore rests in her frank appraisal of him when she learns her sister-in-law Isabella, nurses feelings of her own for the scoundrel. In chapter 10, Catherine speaks to Susan in Isabella’s hearing, “Tell her what Heathcliff is: an unreclaimed creature, without refinement, without cultivation; an arid wilderness of furze and whinstone … He’s not a rough diamond – a pearl-containing oyster of a rustic: he’s a fierce, pitiless, wolfish man … and he’d crush you like a sparrow’s egg. … I know he couldn’t love a Linton; and yet he’d be quite capable of marrying your fortune and expectations: avarice is growing with him a besetting sin.” Yet it was not this aspect of his nature that kept Catherine from marrying Heathcliff to begin with. Instead, it was her assessment of his low position at the time she was making her own choice. Despite her love for him, Catherine cannot bring herself to marry below her station. Certainly, physically she can marry Heathcliff and psychologically she can marry Heathcliff, but socially, it would be a disaster to her own sense of honor and dignity. In addition, she is sure that if she were to marry Heathcliff, the two of them together would be like beggars. She has had a taste of what it is like to be among the spoiled gentry, complete with attendant maids and other servants, and has no real desire to see herself placed at the bottom of the social order, with no servants and no luxury. She does, however, consider that perhaps she can use the money and privilege gained from an alliance with Edgar to better Heathcliff’s position, making him eligible for marriage in the event that Edgar’s frail constitution might free her for the eventual realization of her fantasies. Although Catherine does not seem to be able to find a resolution between her heart and her mind, her author, Emily Bronte, seems to have come to some conclusions of her own regarding which inner voice the women of her time should heed. While Catherine is able to find a semblance of happiness living in the Linton home, she only marries Edgar after a prolonged absence by Heathcliff, from which she has no expectation that he will ever return. Upon his return, she shows more spark of life in her character and her actions than has been displayed throughout her entire marriage to Edgar. In deference to her happiness, Edgar reluctantly agrees to allow Heathcliff to visit the house. But, upon the interest of Isabella in the ruffian, Heathcliff is banned from the property, sending Catherine into an hysteric fit from which she never fully recovers. Her last conscious moments are spent in Heathcliff’s arms as she finally confesses her love to him openly, a love he had already been well aware of, and makes him a promise that their souls will be forever entwined regardless of which side of the grave either of them inhabit. The tormented life of Heathcliff since the death of Catherine further illustrates the support for deciding in favor of passion while the unhappy life of Isabella illustrates the need for discretion in ensuring that this passion is returned. To be sure the point is well taken, Bronte adds the charming story of Catherine Linton and Hareton Earnshaw, duplicates of the older Catherine and Heathcliff in many respects, with the one difference that these two individuals were willing to ignore social restrictions and work toward each other in response to the feelings they had for one another. Of the entire novel, these two, willing to explore the passion they feel for one another, emerge as the only truly happy and truly successful characters of the story. The conflict seen in the character of Catherine presents the traditional view of marriage as a means of improving a family’s social position, the concept of marriage as a means of gaining personal wealth and the concept of romantic love leading to a happy life. As the story unfolds, however, it turns out that marriage for family weighs as less of a consideration in her decision to marry Edgar than her own comfort, but that even this does not purchase her the happiness she seeks. While she is able to find a semblance of happiness, her confessions to Nelly as well as her reaction to Heathcliff’s return reveal that this happiness was shallowly felt at best. Likewise, Heathcliff’s attempt at marrying for family in his union with Isabella fails miserably because of his own recognition that Isabella could never fill the hole in his heart left by Catherine’s absence. Unlike Catherine, though, he is unwilling to play the part or take comfort where he can. Finally acknowledging openly the bond between them as Catherine dies, and her haunting memory drifting through the remaining pages of the book wherever Heathcliff goes, serves to remind the reader constantly of the disaster brought about by the willingness of each to ignore their passion and pursue other careers. With Bronte’s addition of the story of the younger Catherine and Hareton, the point is made emphatically clear. The two younger people are able to achieve happiness because of Catherine’s willingness to ignore social customs and labels and Hareton’s willingness to relinquish typically male duties such as bookkeeping to those who understand it better than he that makes their upcoming nuptials possible and promising. While women might have been forced to marry for name in the past, and might be tempted to marry for comfort in the future, it is only through a marriage of reciprocal passion that an individual can hope to achieve the kind of happiness and fulfillment most seek. Works Cited Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1942. Read More