Analyzing the Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights

Emily Bronte is an author who was born in 1818. She is known for publishing her only novel, Wuthering Heights, in 1847 under the name of Ellis Bell, a year before her death. Her stellar work of art, Wuthering Heights, narrates her experience with both the Romantic periods, which lasted from years 1785 to 1830, to that early Victorian era, from 1830 to 1848 (Landers).

The Theme of Love in Wuthering Heights

The Wuthering Heights is a passionate story of a love triangle involving two family generations that intermarry. These families are the Earnshaws and the Lintons. The love tale includes a technique of a story within a story, and is narrated by two different characters. It is of importance to note that the two characters also happen to have different knowledge about the two families. One character has a profound knowledge of the families. Her name is Ellen Nelly Dean, while the other, Mr. Lockwood, is barely ignorant of the two families' history. The first love triangle is that of Edgar Linton, Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, whereas the second love triangle is the one involving Heathcliff's son, Linton Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw's daughter and nephew; Catherine Linton, and Hareton Earnshaw. In this narrative, it is quite apparent that Heathcliff is devoted to Edgar Linton's sister, Isabella Linton.

Lockwood is a well-heeled and cultured man seeking to be friends with Nelly Dean. He suffers a long illness caused by a storm in his attempt to visit Heathcliff, keeping him bedridden for a couple of weeks. Nelly, on the other hand, has been brought up by the Earnshaws and Linston families as a servant. Because of this, she has been in a position to deeply know the two families. For instance, in cases of family dramas. Nelly's views are however full of discrimination, for she very much dislikes Catherine Earnshaw and views her as a selfish and discriminative woman. Nevertheless, she likes and is in support of Catherine Earnshaw's husband, and highly rates him as a gentleman (E-notes).

Through these, two unreliable lenses are filtered. The love story of Edgar and Catherine, Heathcliff and Catherine and Edgar, and that of the second generation involving Hareton Earnshaw and Catherine Earnshaw. There is a direct opposite of character in the tale, where; Edgar is fair and does not show emotions for they are endorsed with other feelings. Nevertheless, he is referred to be a son to a courteous man. On the other side, Heathcliff has an empty past, he is considered negative and tends to be conflicted or rather unhappy about certain things or generally everything. The Wuthering Heights can therefore be described as an exposed, cold farmhouse that belongs to a gentleman. It is neatly arranged and thus considered to be a very important building in the neighborhood. The home has an enclosed park, warm fires, luxurious and beautiful furnishings. Instead of the home becoming a place of ease and happiness, it turns out to become a literary unbearable incarceration for the female characters, whereas sincerity and freedom is represented by the wild moors, a metaphor which is quite ironic (E-notes).

Romantic vs. Victorian literature

The Romantic period of literature best fits the description of Wuthering Heights. In the late 18th century, the Roman movement thrived, up to the first half of the 19th century. It celebrated sentiments, lack of control, and nature's way beyond reason and science. The title of the novel is derived from the Yorkshire word for withering, denoting cold and wild, and characteristic of romantic novels. Despite the Romantic Movement gaining currency in the 19th century, this as well was an era of stringent values and social morals. The Victorian period-basically named after the ruling Queen Victoria, has a reputation of encouraging upright deeds, and therefore it would be forbidden to act hysterical on the moors. The segregation in class amongst the working, middle and upper classes was on its peak, and the relatively novice middle class were bound to retain their place through enhancing their rifts between themselves and the working class. It was quite significant to know your position and what you could accomplish or not- a line which Heathcliff vividly murmurs about in Wuthering Heights (BBC).

According to Landers, he expounds that a typical example of the values of the Romantic era is well portrayed in the first of the love triangles in Wuthering Heights. The bond between Heathcliff and Catherine itself is a romantic act. Woe unto them for unending desire for one another, alleviated only by the final demise of both characters. The beings of Catherine and Heathcliff are entangled, although they have succumbed to their separateness. It is only through their reunion in the afterlife that they will reach their Heaven. Nevertheless, Catherine is still extremely attached to Edgar also. It is the ultimate coerced separation from Edgar that decimates her, for she no longer is united with Heathcliff, and once their separation with Edgar also happens he and Heathcliff brawl, she goes into a state of persistent medical disorder and impaired reasoning. She has nothing left to her, for she no longer has the self forced attitude of her by the society (that linked to Edgar), nor does she have her inborn self (that attributed to Heathcliff). The relationship is portrayed by the twisting of Heathcliff's black hair with Edgar's yellow hair together inside of Catherine's locket when she is buried.