|
It's also about the consequences of hatred, class prejudice, and racism. Catherine's daughter of the same name, is one of the more likable characters who is a rather spoiled naive child, who grows-up in the end. Catherine herself acknowledges as much when she says, "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." The story is not just about the consequences of obssesive love, however.
She manages to escape with her son until she dies. This novel deconstructs that concept by demonstrating the obssesive and violent longing between Catherine and Heathcliff. If you like complex characters, interesting storylines, strong female characters (something often lacking in romance novels) and are tired of over-the-top, cheesy, melodramatic, romances where two perfect people have a perfect relationship then I'd recommend this for you. Yet at the same time the reader is inclined to feel sorry at some points for all of them. The scenario that two people who mean everything to eachother is often held to be the ideal relationship. There is literally no one else in the world who matters to Heathcliff except Catherine and vice versa. The relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff is obviously unhealthy, which is exactly the point as many people, seem to forget. It is also about disillusionment.
On the otherhand, if you want something a bit more like a traditional lovestory, but still intelligent, I would recommend Jane Eyre. This is an extraodinarily rare type of story; As the titled review says an unsentimental romance story. All the characters except perhaps Nelly, the servent who narrates throughout much of the story, are shown being prone to avarice, vindictiveness, thoughtlessness, foolishness and self-absorption. Isabella Linton thinks Heathcliff is some kind of flawed, tragic hero marries him and quickly learns of his abusive nature.
That's not to say there isn't a happy ending, but that it takes a long and convoluted path, wrought with broken lives and bittersweet death. Bronte does a virtuoso job of moving between time periods and showing different generations of the Earnshaws and Lintons as the children of both have to deal with the legacy left them by the destructive failed love of Catherine and Heathcliff. Earnshaw brought Heathcliff home with him one day after finding him living the life of an orphan on the streets of London. The only one left out of this whole lovefest is, you guessed it, Heathcliff, and he leaves the windswept moors only to return years later to exact his revenge on both families Monte Cristo style. Boy, was I wrong. They see each other for what they are and love each other for what they are. Like I said, I was expecting a romance instead of a Shakespearean revenge tragedy.
Emily moves from present to past to future and back again during different chapters that really seems a more postmodern way of looking at things. I was really caught off guard by this book. Something else that really struck me about the novel was its haunting theme of sexual frustration. But that's just my take. I look at Catherine as a coward who recognized that Heathcliff was who she was meant to be with, but in her superficial thinking, she was more worried about marrying well (weren't all women of that time the same) than marrying for love.
She chose wrongly and a lot of people had to suffer for it. This book was far ahead of its time in terms of novelistic technique. Bronte even takes up the issue of racism in Wuthering Heights, as part of the reason Hindley and the Lintons look down on Heathcliff is because of his "dark gipsy skin". Up to that point, Heathcliff had always been treated as a member of the family, but afterwards Hindley treats him as nothing more than a common servant to be abused and made to work his hands to the bone. What Heathcliff and Catherine feel for each other is very sexual. I kinda suspect that maybe Heathcliff was a secret love child Earnshaw had with a mistress in the city. To me, I can almost see precursors to Faulkner's decaying nobility.
Lockwood, a man who is renting a house from Heathcliff many years after all this has gone down. Hindley too, gets married. At the heart of the book is a revenge drama carried out by a man so consumed by hatred that he makes Palpatine from the first Star Wars trilogy look like a nice guy. Instead, the tale is told by Nelly, a maid just a little older than them who was a witness to everything that happened. Now, from everything I knew about this book before I read it, I thought the novel was going to be a great love story full of romance and hugging and declarations of devotion. There isn't any idealistic or poetic flowers growing out of each other's imagination. Mr.
She tells the story to a certain Mr. If you had money or land you had to marry an equal or someone higher than you. Marrying for love was for peasants. And let's be frank, the supposed social mobility she craves doesn't amount to squat when you live out in the middle of nowhere in some backwater Gothic swamp. Heathcliff was raised from childhood with Catherine Earnshaw and her older brother Hindley, but Heathcliff was not related to them.
Heathcliff rapidly becomes Earnshaw's favorite, even more so than Hindley, much to the son's disgust, which fuels an intense hatred and jealousy that only gets worse after the elder Earnshaw dies. What turns Heathcliff into such a monster is that both he and Catherine know that they were meant to be together but she makes the decision to reject him based solely on improving her social standing. The main narrators of the story are not the two main characters. Catherine, the great love of Heathcliff's life, decides that he has nothing to offer her and instead marries Edgar Linton, the son of one of their neighbors. Wuthering Heights is about the relationship between two people named Heathcliff and Catherine.
And by abused, I do mean actual physical beatings. Neither of them were cannibals but I almost felt like if they could find a way to eat each other, they would have.
But this is a classic for a reason, read it. I read this paperback by the way Even with the handsome Matthew MacFadyen who plays Hareton in one movie and Mr. Just don't watch the movie adaptions they are bleh. I was completely submerged in the world that she created and tangled in the emotions and desires of its characters. So I'm definitely a fan of the romantics, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, and this book by Emily Bronte was by far my favorite bookwise. While I prefer the story of Pride and Prejudice, I wasn't as steeped in the story when I read it as I was with this classic novel about forbidden love. Darcy in the p&p movie with Keira Knightley.
Lockwood, who Ellen Dean tells this awful tale to. I had avoided them successfully for decades and then decided that perhaps I was missing out on some really great stories. I swear I wanted to cudgel the servant Joseph who spoke in a northern dialect and could only be understood by reading the notes to the text in the back of the book.I would have to place this book at the top of a list for 'Most Likely to Create Hatred of English Literature'. I thought the characters were absolutely horrid and rotten, the only exception being the innocent and unrelated tenant, Mr. 'Wuthering Heights', 'Pride and Prejudice' and 'Jane Eyre' rose to the top of the list.They all sounded like fabulous stories, everyone raves about them, the book jackets make them sound like the absolute be all end all for engaging fiction. The relationships were completely dysfunctional, violent, abusive and destructive. Perhaps, I have some sort of completely unrealistic expectations when it comes to the classics and my expectations set me up for failure.
If this is what people call romantic it is no wonder that 1 in 2 of all marriages fail. Perhaps. Jane Eyre being the exception of the three.I did LOVE 'Jane Eyre', love, love, loved it. You probably don't know I recently made a resolution to read some of the 'Classics'. So, I carefully selected some novels that sounded like great 'Classics' to read. However my strong feeling for both 'Pride and Prejudice' and 'Wuthering Heights' swing dramatically in the complete opposite direction.I really strongly disliked (okay, I hated) almost everything about Wuthering Heights.
I can not comprehend how this came to be called "one of the most romantic novels of all time". But I am going to stop searching out any more 'Classics' for the time being.One more hostile note that some of you will appreciate. Hi there, it's me again with another 'Classic'. And maybe they are for the vast majority of people, but not me. I have no idea who said that but in my opinion whoever it was should have their head examined.
I would recommend this book to everyone, 5 out of 5 The plot is so well writing, it keeps you guessing at every turn. It is set ing the moors of old England. She write the characters with such description, it is like they are right in the room with you. The theme has many interpretation, but I think the most noticeable is of the jealousy Heathcliff feels towards Edgar. It warns you of the dangers of jealousy and that i can drive anyone to the very brink of insanity. Cathy and Heathcliff are two lovers, but when Cathy marries Heathcliff's rival, Edgar Linton, he vows revenge on both of them. The antagonist is the vial, Heathcliff.
This book is written in the perspective of Nelly (Ellen) Dean. This book was one of the most intriguing, well written, passion filled, exciting, living you on the edge of your seat wanting more, creative books I have ever had the pleasure of reading. Wurthering Heights by Emily Bronte is a great book. The protagonist of the book is without a doubt, the narrator of the story, Nelly Dean. She is the care taker to Cathy through out the book, and one of Heathcliff's close friends.
|
