Young Catherine as Bridge Between Past and Future in Wuthering Heights

Introduction: The Past's Hold on Wuthering Heights

In Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, the past shapes events and sets the foundation for the future. All the characters are, to a degree, affected by the past. Heathcliff becomes singularly consumed by it — his love for Catherine never having been rightfully manifest or consummated, and he is forced to watch the love of his life marry and bear children with another man. His anger and despair so totally consume him that he cannot contain his rage, and he wreaks havoc on the lives of others, including his own son.

Yet there is no other character in Wuthering Heights who contributes more to the meaning of the work as a whole — through her connection with past, present, and future — than the younger Catherine. Young Catherine is named after her mother for a reason. She carries some of her mother's character traits even having never known her, since her mother died in childbirth. Catherine also barely heard of her mother because of the great pain that woman caused Edgar and everyone else in her wake. Whether due to genetic inheritance or to the persistence of history and the effects of atmosphere on her soul, the personality of young Catherine echoes that of her mother. Yet Catherine the younger differs from her mother in the very ways that make her character significant to the outcome of the story and to the fulfillment of its major themes, including redemption and the importance of genealogy.

Catherine Junior's Relationship to the Past

Catherine's relationship to the past is anchored in her name, her body, and her genes. She was born on the day her mother died, linking her forever to a bittersweet and paradoxical memory. For Catherine junior, the past holds no sway over her cognitively. Unlike Heathcliff, Edgar, or Ellen the narrator, Catherine is never able to know her mother. She is not biased by any direct opinion of her mother, and knows only that she carries half her mother's DNA. It is ironically because of this that Catherine junior awakens Heathcliff out of his hatred-filled stupor in his dying days.

Serving as a symbolic bridge between the world of the living and that of the dead, Catherine junior plays the unwitting role of linking past, present, and future. As he nears death, Heathcliff cannot help but notice how alike Catherine and her namesake mother look. The facial features that once gripped and ravaged him haunt him fully in the visage of young Catherine. He torments Catherine only slightly less than he does his own son Linton or his surrogate son Hareton. Yet Catherine is stronger than her mother and more able to withstand Heathcliff's hatred.

Young Catherine as the Fulcrum of Present and Future

Catherine therefore represents the potential of the present to serve as a bridge between past and future. She is perfectly poised to act as the fulcrum between the disparate elements and characters of Wuthering Heights. Appearing roughly halfway through the novel, young Catherine is literally the balancing point of the story. She bears some of her mother's characteristics, both physical and psychological. Heathcliff sees in her Catherine the elder's eyes and face, but it is more than resemblance alone: young Catherine is at times as arrogant and stubborn as her mother once was.

In the present, young Catherine forges a bond between the people who drove her mother to her demise. She represents the love shared between her mother and Edgar, which is why she also reminds Heathcliff of what he lost and the sorrows that ultimately doomed him. As the emblem of the present, Catherine also signifies the perpetuation of time through the land. The land and the family estates situated upon it become prevalent motifs and meaningful themes in Brontë's work. Through Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights themselves, the status of the family is communicated across generations.