Heathcliff

“My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath … I am Heathcliff – he’s always, always in my miund – not as a pleasure anymore than I am always a pleasure to myself – but as my own being”

“Wuthering Heights” (1847) by Emily Bronte (1818-1848) is indeed a deeply romantic novel as well as a novel of character presented with compassion. Let us examine excerpts fro the novel which justify this statement, for this is a tale that revolves around the childhood, the love and life of a variety of characters and it is important to consider these characters as it is they who enhance the romance, the character and the compassion within this great love story.

“Wuthering Heights” is a novel of romance. The depth and ferocity of love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff overshadow the more tender relationships between the other characters. For it is this relationship between Cathy and Heathcliff that makes the novel deeply romantic.

Cathy and Heathcliff share a unique bond that develops from childhood friendship and fondness for one another – “she was much too fond of Heathcliff. The greatest punishment we could invent for her was to keep her separate from him; yet, she got chided more than any of us on his account”. The curate might set as many chapters as he pleased for Catherine to get by heart, and Joseph might thrash Heathcliff till his arm ached, they forget everything the minute they were together again”, misery at the thought of separation – “… my misery arose from the separation that Hindley ordered between me and Heathcliff, to possessiveness and undying affection – “the crosses are for the evening you spent with the Lintons, the dots for those spent with me – do you see I’ve marked everyday?” “…Heathcliff kept his hold on her affections unalterably and young Linton with all his superiority, found it difficult to make an equally deep impression.

Cathy and Heathcliff are emotionally dependent on one another as Cathy declares “… 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 lightning or frost from fire”

“Every Linton on the face of the earth might melt into nothing, before I could consent to forsake Heathcliff”

Their deep love is eternal to the extent of not being vanquished even in death. The last words between Cathy and Heathcliff as Cathy is near her heath are passionate, frantic and emotional.

“I only wish us never be parted – and should a word of mine distress you hereafter, think I feel the same distress underground .. You never harmed me in your life”.

“You must not go!” she answered, holding him as firmly as her strength allowed. “you shall not. I tell you”. The romance of a lover willing to sacrifice his life for love, is evident as Heathcliff cries “hush, hush Catherine! I’ll stay. If he shot me so, I’d expire with a blessing on my lips”

The romance does not end with Cathy’s death as Heathcliff explains“… -what is not connected with her to me? And what does not recall her to me?

“Being alone and conscious two yards of loose earth was the dole barrier between us, I said to myself – “I’ll not have her in my arms again. If she be cold, I’ll think it is this north wind that chills me; and if she be motionless, it is sleep”

Wuthering Heights is also a novel of character.

“Having avowed that over much of Wuthering Heights there broods “a horror of great darkness” that in its storm-heated and electric atmosphere, we seem at times to breathe lightning, let me point to these spots where clouded day light and the eclipsed sun still attest their existence. For a specimen of true benevolence and homely fidelity, look at the character of Nelly Dean; for an example of constancy and tenderness, remark that of Edgar Linton. There is a dry saturnine humour in the delineation of old Joseph and some glimpses of grace and gaiety animate the young Catherine. Nor is even the first heroine of the name destitute of a certain strange beauty in her fierceness, or of honesty in the midst of perverted passion and passionate perversity” – Charlotte Bronte (1850)

Yet there lies a truly sympathetic, compassionate understanding of each character. Emily Bronte does not justify or excuse any action through authorial comment, but presents each character with a history that enables the reader to understand that neither for example Heathcliff, Hareton nor Linton can help what circumstances have made them become. She does not judge then. She only presents them – and that she does, with compassion.

George Washington Pech (in June 1848) comments : on Healthcliass’s language as being coarse in many instances i.e when Heathcliff describes to Nelly how Cathy was bitten by a bulldog - :I vociferated curses enough to annihilate any fiend in Christendom” and also when Heathcliff tells Nelly how Cathy was taken care of in the parlour of the Lintons :.. I intended shattering their great glass panes to a million fragments unless they let her of” “.. a dim refection from her own enchanting face – I saw they were full of stupid admiration” etc

Sydney Dobell too condemns the portrayal of Heathcliff.

“Heathcliff might have been as unique a creation. The conception in his case was as wonderfully strong and original, but he is spoilt in detail. The authoress has too often disgusted where she should have terrified, and has allowed us a familiarity with her fiend which has ended in unequivocal contempt” – Sydney Dobell (September 1850)

Yet the novel does present Heathcliff with compassion. For although Mrs. Dean describes him as rough as a saw-edge and hard as whinstone and warns Lockwood – “the less you meddle with him the better”, the description of Heathcliff’s childhood is such that one can understand the reason for hid dark nature – “He seemed a sullen, patient child, hardened perhaps, to ill treatment; he would stand Hindley’s blows without winking or shedding a tear, and my pinches moved him only to draw in a breath and open his eyes as if he had hurt himself by accident and nobody was to blame”

Hindely is portrayed as a wicked young man – “He drove him from their company to the servants, deprived him of the instructions of the curate, and insisted that he should labour out of doors instead, compelling him to do, as hard as any other lad on the farm.

Yet the portrayal is not devoid of compassion. “…the young master had learnt to regard his father as an oppressor rather than a friend, and Heathcliff as a usurper of his parent’s affections, and his privileges, and he grew bitter with brooding over these injuries.

Mrs. Linton begs that her darlings be kept apart from that “naughty, swearing boy”. Heathcliff and this enables the reader to understand Heathcliff’s alienation and humiliation. The innocence with which Heathcliff sincerely desires to be good truly heightens compassion towards Heathcliff whose consciousness of deprivation is further made clear.

“Nelly, make me decent. I’m going to be good”
“I wish I had light hair and a fair skin and was dressed and behaved as well and had a chance of being as rich as he will be!”

The violent atmosphere in which little Hareton is raised – “Little Hareton who followed me everywhere and was sitting near me on the floor, at seeing my tears, commenced crying himself and sobbed out complaints against “wicked aunt Cathy” which dreaw her fury on his unlucky head; she seized his shoulders and shook him till the poor child waxed livid” is self explanatory as we see his unfriendly response to Nelly Deam – “He raised his missile to hurl it. I commenced a soothing speech but could not stay his hand. The strong struck my bonnet”.

Isabella too is presented with compassion because of her infatuation with Heathcliff.
“… You know I liked to be there!” “I wanted to be with –“: with him...” is transformed after marriage to utter hatred. “I do hate him – I am wretched – I have been a fool!”

Linton is condemned by Nelly who describes him as the worst tempered bit of a sickly slip that ever struggled into its teens and happily won’t win twenty. Nelly says “…small loss to his family, whenever he drops off…” But Catherine’s compassion – “I knew now that I mustn’t’ tease him as he was ill; and I spoke softly and put no questions and avoided irritating him in any way” proves a sympathy towards Heathcliff’s feeble child.

There are some critics who would not agree that “Wuthering Heights” is a romantic novel of character and compassion.

“In spite of much power and cleverness, in spite of its truth in life in the remote nooks and corners of England, “Wuthering Heights” is a disagreeable story” – H.F Chorky (1847)

There are still others who are extremely harsh on this book.

“How a human being could have attempted such a book as the present without committing suicide before he had finished a dozen chapters, is a mystery. It is a compound of vulgar depravity and unnatural horrors, such as we might suppose a person, inspired by a mixture of brandy and gun powder, might write for the edification of fifth-rate blackguards” – unsigned notice of “Wuthering Heights” in “Graham’s Magazine” (July 1847)

Yet Wuthering Heights for the reasons discussed before, is a deeply romantic novel as well as a novel of character presented with compassion.

“It is not everyday that so good a novel makes its appearance; and to give its contents in detail would be depriving many a reader of half the delight he would experience from the perusal of the world itself. To it’s pages we must refer him then, there will he have ample opportunity of sympathizing – if he has one touch of nature that “makes the world kin” – with the feelings of childhood, youth, manhood and age, and all the emotions and passions which agitate the restless bosom of humanity. May he derive from it the delight we have ourselves experienced, and be equally grateful to its author for the genuine pleasure he has afforded him” – unidentified review of “Wuthering Heights” reproduced by Charles Simpson.

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