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Transcending the Past in Emily Brontė's Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights is situated in a remote area, surrounded by the wildness of the Moors, while Thrushcross Grange is the model of sophistication wit hits cultivated park. The inhabitants of both reflect the nature of their homes. Wuthering Heights is subject to the stormy weather and winds raging through the moors as are the Earnshaws, who are its inhabitants, subject to passion and violence. Thrushcross Grange, its opposite, is inhabited by more civilized people, the Lintons, who are peaceful and refined as their residence suggests. As the passion and violence of the first generation of the Earnshaws have accumulated to such an extent that destruction of the two homes is inevitable, the second generation of both houses is faced with the difficult task of salvaging what is left of the two families.
Cathy Earnshaw has been attracted to splendour and status of the Lintons from the time when she first met them. She confided in her nurse Ellen that her reasons for marrying Edgar Linton are born out of love for Heathcliff in order to raise him out of slavery and poverty. She also asserted that to marry Heathcliff would degrade her because of his low status. This statement exposes her childish egocentricism, which dominates her behaviour toward others. Another example of her egocentricism is when Heathcliff comes back after three years of absence, and she insists on Edgar's receiving him in spite of their rivalry in the past. In addition, her disposition towards materialism also plays a major part in her decisions, as she makes it clear in her dialogue with Heathcliff: "-you are too prone to covet your neighbour's goods: remember this neighbour's goods are mine" (106). The imbalance in the psychological make-up in Cathy leads to extremities, such as very high spirits when she is happy, and rages and fits when she is angry or distressed. Her high passions become fatal to the point where she gives herself over to self-destruction.
Young Catherine, on the other hand, has inherited both her parents' good character traits. From her mother, Cathy, she has received strength, courage, and her love for the moors. Her father, Edgar, has passed on to her his calmness, tenderness, and peaceful nature. Catherine is also more than her parent's child: she also is compassionate, and clearheaded in adversity. She does not make the same mistake as her mother when she was trapped in Wuthering Heights and treated badly by Heathcliff. She could have made Mr Lockwood her lover and flee the place by marrying him, since he was charmed by her good looks, and even had thought of the idea of marriage, were it not that she continued treating him uncivilly. Catherine resists the lure of wealth and grandeur, which Mr Lockwood represents, and chooses to stay in her miserable surroundings. She even sets herself to educate Hareton, and eventually marries him, someone who is considered inferior and backward by others. Her decision is quite the opposite of her mother's, who refused to marry the "inferior" Heathcliff.
Hareton, who was brought up by Heathcliff as a savage, nevertheless, shows a greatness in his character which is capable of rising above his low status, contrary to the assumption of Heathcliff that "he'll never be able to emerge from his bathos of coarseness, and ignorance" (217). Heathcliff projects his feelings on to him: "I can sympathise with his feelings, having felt them myself" (217). However, Hareton is not as revengeful in nature as Heathcliff. When Hareton proudly shows Catherine his accomplishment in spelling his own name on the door, and received her derision for it, he does not turn to bitterness and revenge. In contrast, Heathcliff's character suggests a dark nature and he displays such great passion in revenge that lasted twenty years. Yet, Hareton resembles him in strength and courage, which Heathcliff's son, Linton, lacks.
On the whole, the love between Heathcliff and Cathy is reincarnated through the love between Hareton and Catherine. They are given a second chance, as it were, to put right the wrongs the former ones made. Since Hareton and Catherine are endowed with the better qualities of their parents, and of their own, they succeed in rising above the faults of their predecessors, and thus are able to achieve happiness in their lives, and what is more important is that they have proven themselves able to survive any storm the future might bring, together. All in all, they have finally succeeded in bringing about a successful marriage between the two natures of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange.
Work Cited
Brontė, Emily. Wuthering Heights. Ed. Pauline Nestor. London: Penguin Books, 1995.
Copyright © 1997 Jill Li. All Rights Reserved.
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