Characterization and Doubling in Wuthering

Characterization and Doubling in Wuthering Heights

Charlotte Bronte's novel Wuthering Heights is one of the best examples of Romantic gothic literature. By creating realistic, yet larger-than-life characters, Bronte illustrates what it takes to make a novel live. We have love, compassion, a connection deeper than what the human soul can express, selfishness, anger, and revenge packed into in this story. The two characters driving the plot are Heathcliff and Catherine but what makes their story is so compelling is the fact that they are not dealing with normal emotions. Their love is otherworldly and their biggest mistake is not realizing this. The power and mystery surrounding their lives and love create the perfect plot and setting for the Romantic gothic novel. One way in which Romanticism is expressed is through extreme emotions and desires. Catherine and Heathcliff possess similar desires for each other but their personal selfishness overrides love and they end up doing more harm than good. They two character serve as doubles in this way. For every ounce of passion, they have an equal amount of egotistical desires and they collide on the highway of life. Powerful characterization and doubling allow Bronte to establish a solid groundwork for one of the most passionate love stories ever told.

Strong, passionate characters drive the emotional pace within the novel. Catherine and Heathcliff remain two of the most compelling and equally impossible characters in literature because they are so consumed with emotion they can hardly contains themselves and many times, do not. They are quite normal on one hand and quite extreme on the other. That we can relate to their extreme personalities makes them dear to us because we can see bits of ourselves in them. Bronte successfully employs Gothic romanticism to "portray the equally torturous, incomprehensible, and potentially dangerous alleys of the mind" (Brantlinger 309) adding that the novel "deploys a Gothic demonization of the foreign" (Brantlinger 309). Katharine Rogers agrees with this notion, asserting, "In the two generations, Bronte displays the grandeur of Romantic passion single-minded, uncompromising, capable of unlimited empathy, impervious to worldly considerations and at the same time criticizes it" (Rogers). Characters that are constantly in the readers' faces grab the reader and instantly make them want to know more about who they are. Bronte, with the complicated and imperfect characters of Catherine and Heathcliff, delivers the perfect Romantic gothic novel with the perfect wildly intense characters.

Romanticism is often best characterized by these strong emotions and ravenous desires. Catherine often seems like an exaggerated character because she is driven by her emotions. She is realistic enough, however, to make us believe in her and her passions. After her return to Wuthering Heights, she has a goal for her life and Heathcliff does not fit within that plan. There can be no doubt she loves him but love does not fit easily into her plan for the rest of her life, either. She wants the kind of life that Heathcliff almost guarantees she cannot have -- one with social standing and creature comforts. She is not fool about this and even admits to her feelings. She knows marrying him practically secures her in a life of poverty and want. It is seemingly easier for her to decide against marrying him and in that instant; she takes her life in another direction. It is worth pointing out the she does not feels as though she has a choice if she is to be happy. She knows love and she knows what she feels for Linton is a kind of love that will change over the years as the "winter changes the trees" (Bronte 74). She thinks she can handle this and decides to marry him despite the consequences and all the red flags she sees. Here we see how love does not conquer all. In fact, we see pure unadulterated selfishness pushing love on the back burner as if it were a common piece of garbage. The truly sad aspect of this situation is the fact that Catherine is completely aware of what she is doing and does not care because of her shallowness. She does not care to change one thing she has done in the least bit. To be Linton's wife would mean to be the "greatest woman in the neighborhood" (70) and this is certainly better than being a "beggars" (73) as Heathcliff's wife. Catherine also admits it would "degrade" her to become Heathcliff's wife, and this is why he would never know how she truly felt (72). Then she says, "Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same, and Linton's is as different as a moon beam from lightening, or frost from fire" (72). Catherine is a tragic woman. We want to like her but there is so much wrong with her and for the most part, it is her own fault. She is in a mess but she made the mess. She does not move out of her own way and continues to be torn between these two loves. Through her angst, we see the trouble we cause ourselves when we do not stop to think about the future and only want to satisfy our selfish emotions. Catherine loved Heathcliff but she was also greedy. In her mid, there was no way she could have both in this lifetime so she left the love of her life behind. She wants to be the wife of the man who can make her the greatest woman of the neighborhood but she still loves Heathcliff U.C. Knoepflmacher writes, "Catherine wanted to retain Edgar and Heathcliff, to live suspended between responsibility and freedom, civilization and eros, Victorian acquiescence and Romantic rebellion. Finding herself unable to span Edgar's social order and the life of instinct that she shared with Heathcliff, Cathy chooses to die, hoping to transcend a finite world of irreconcilables" (Knoepflmacher). In short, Catherine makes a world for herself in which she cannot live for long. She makes the mistake many people do, assuming she can feign her feelings and still be happy. She thinks she can find a happy balance and keep both of these men in her life and that simply is not possible. Even in our culture, we are still hoping we can have friends and lovers in our lives without the heart breaking apart at some point. What we continue to learn over the centuries is that love is complicated.

If Catherine is headstrong and difficult, then Heathcliff is as well. These two know they share a close bond. They have felt it and even consider themselves to be the same person. This feeling never leaves them and this is something neither one of them expected or planned their lives around. However, they do not treat this with the respect it deserves. Instead, they toss it around until not much of anything is left but raw feelings. Catherine was hoping that her new life with Linton would erase what she shared with Heathcliff and Heathcliff thought he could erase Catherine from his mind. However, it seems just the opposite happened. Heathcliff is not just influenced by but tormented by what happened with Catherine. His manhood was attacked and he felt insulted in a way that angered him. This anger fueled his activity for many years to come. He does not seem to do anything out of desire or pleasure but for revenge. Unfortunately, he becomes successful and he only uses it to cause hurt to those around him. He, just as Catherine does, acts as he does with no remorse or regret. The shadow of what he lost as a boy never leaves him as we see in his decisions. In moving forward with the power of love in the Romantic Fashion, these two people could never escape this connection regardless of how far they traveled -- even beyond death, this bond is strong. Bronte illustrates this when Heathcliff cries for Catherine's ghost to "Come in! Come in" (Bronte 33). With this scene, Bronte brings gothic aspects into the story by allowing something supernatural to exist between Catherine and Heathcliff. Their loves is powerful and unique and this is something they for granted for far too long. Heathcliff demonstrates what can happened when we do not allow ourselves to forgive and move on with our lives.

Catherine and Heathcliff's unique relationship explores the depth of love, regardless of how destructive it can be. Their love is what makes them linger in our memories. Both try to replace love with a poor substitute. It takes death to bring Heathcliff to pour out his emotions to her. As she dies, he says he could forget her as much as he could his own existence. (133) and after her death, he begs her spirit to haunt him, saying, "I know that ghosts have wondered the earth. Be with me always -- take any form -- drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! . . . I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!' (139). Perhaps the scene of Heathcliff digging up her grave eighteen years after her death is the most compelling because it represents the force of their love and how time or distance could not separate them. Cathy serves as a constant reminder with her eyes and Nelly even notices this similarity and how it upset Heathcliff. We read he "walked to the hearth in evident agitation" (254). Heathcliff is stricken with her loss noting even the floor captures her features. He says,, "In every cloud, in every tree -- filling the air at night, and caught by glimpses in every object by day, I am surrounded with her image!" (255). The two are clearly obsessed with each other but their obsession is unhealthy. We often want to think of the star-crossed lovers that have the happy ending but so many times this simply does not happen. Bronte, in remaining true to her era, [places these lovers in a world in which they simply cannot be together because of the outside forces nagging at them.

Bronte develops Catherine and Heathcliff's relationship by including the hate that emerges from years of hurt. A story of their love without including the negative feelings resulting from what they do to each other would not fulfill the Romantic and gothic tradition. As we have already discussed, these two individuals share an obsession with each other. It does not help that they are also inclined to bouts of anger. Their anger, of course, is fueled by love and passion but this does not make their arguments any easier. It takes not time for tension to emerge when Catherine returns from Thrushcross Grange. Things are different because things look and feel different to Catherine. Things have not changed so much for Heathcliff but Catherine has tasted the sweet life and wants more. She sees through different eyes and one of the first things she says to Heathcliff after being separated from him for so long is how he looks "very cross and black" (51). He is taken aback and hurt and does not take her hand. He refuses to take being laughed at and leaves the room angrily. These feelings are the beginning of something Heathcliff will not easily be able to reign in. he still cares for Catherine and those feelings make him hate and envy Edgar. He also swears to repay Hindley. From this moment on, Heathcliff is a changed man and his emotions direct his every move. His impetus and need for revenge drive much of the plot for the remainder of the novel. His desire for revenge is a mask for his live, which was discarded and never recovered. This hate and his subsequent circumstance bring Bronte's focus on the gothic.

Bronte successfully employs the use of doubles in the novel to emphasize the Romantic and gothic. Catherine and Heathcliff are the most obvious doubles with their selfishness. Our fist indication of how Bronte begins to use this aspect in the novel is when Heathcliff returns a different man. He is "intelligent, and retained no marks of former degradation" (84). Interestingly, Catherine is attracted to him. She dotes over him and even goes so far as accuse Edgar of whining when they fight. She is so fed up with his behavior she "got up and left him" (86) and confesses to Nelly she has "endured very, very bitter misery" (87). Heathcliff may be back but he is certainly different in the worst kind of way. He is nothing short of a monster. Mary Ward also writes the novel involves a "Romantic tendency to invent and delight in monsters . . . which has been said to be the secret of the whole Romantic revolt against classical models and restraints" (Ward). There is no doubt Heathcliff becomes the monster here and to illustrate his true nature he marries Isabella. Furthermore, he tells Catherine, "If you think I can be consoled by sweet words, you are an idiot; and if you fancy I'll suffer unrevenged, I'll convince you of the contrary, in a very little while!" (Bronte 97). He also indicates evil when he says, "The tyrant grinds down his slaves and they don't turn against him, they crush those beneath them. You are welcome to torture me to death for your own amusement, only allow me to amuse myself a little in the same style" (97). His treatment of Isabella reinforces our worst fears -- he is a monster. There can be no denying this. Of course, we know why he has chosen this lifestyle and we know that he and Catherine still love each other but these facts do not remove any doubt regarding Heathcliff's rotten nature. In addition, while he is a monster, we can understand why Catherine still feels attracted to him on some level because of their past. Not many people encounter people with whom they feel a special connection and for these two to realize it means they are "special" in a way. They know this about themselves but what they never realize is how they lucky they are to have experienced it.