Wuthering Heights Revision
The Theme of Love
Focus Questions
‘Love is at once a source of joy and strife in the novel.’ Comment on Brontë’s presentation of love in
the light of this statement.
‘The story of Wuthering Heights is one of love and its self-destruction.’ How far do you agree?
Question Analysis
Love: self-evidently the topic here, statement seems to refer to only C-H (possible evaluation / critique
of statement then?) but should apply to C-Edgar, Hindley-Frances and 2nd generation lovers
At once: Important, balanced discussion necessary but not just a case of saying that joy exists in love
and strife also exists – possibility for original argument here (eg. the relationship between joy and
strife)
Source: ‘the cause of’
Joy and strife: Integral to the discussion but not absolutely necessary since actual question demands
‘Brontë’s presentation of love’. Strife is evident between C-EL, C-H and H-EL but also the 2nd
generation (to a lesser extent). Joy appears open to definition, since joy is rarely presented? What is
obvious is that the concept of love is privileged over many things in the text (eg. H’s pursuit of class is
secondary to his love / spite)
Presentation: Don’t forget analysis of linguistic and literary features; evidence cited should be analysed
as far as possible, but not in excessive detail
Self-destruction: This is not so much about strife between lovers as it is violence committed unto oneself
How far do you agree: Even if you fully agree, the essay should be at the very least on love. If you wish to
contest the claim, you must address how it is not love (still not advised)
Wuthering Heights Revision
The Theme of Love
Context
Love, like the novel itself, evokes a “plurality of meaning”
- Complicated and open to interpretation
(i) Romantic love – the intense, “all-consuming passion” between Catherine and Heathcliff
(ii) romantic love – the romance and courtship that leads to marriage (Intro xiv), epitomised in
Catherine-Edgar relationship (also exemplified in Cathy-Linton and Hindley-Frances)
- Love is inextricably tied to division of the text into a gothic romance in Vol 1 and a socialrealist Victorian novel in Vol 2
Love in Wuthering Heights is rendered by joy and enmity, harmony and strife
- In the gothic romance mode, love is inseparable from pain and suffering
- In the social-realist mode, strife and enmity are resolved by love
A Source of Joy
The love between Catherine and Heathcliff is one of childhood, presenting both the relentlessness and
innocence of nature
Love is where Catherine and Heathcliff find each other and themselves:
- “I only wish us never to be parted” (2.1)
- Paradisiacal image of a “heaven so beautiful” between Catherine and Heathcliff (1.5)
- Yet, the pleasure and joy of love is possibly more “necessary” than a “source of… visible
delight” (1.9)
Joy is presented in the “natural”, passionate physical expression of love evident throughout
- The Hindley-Frances relationship is depicted as a “foolish” one by Nelly: “like two babies,
kissing and talking nonsense” (1.3)
- Catherine and Heathcliff, even on the brink of tragedy, engage in “frantic caresses” (2.1)
- Catherine “flew to embrace him; she bestowed seven or eight kisses on his cheek within the
second” (1.7)
- Sadness, when shared between lovers is “purifying” and a source of life:
“their faces hid against each other, and washed by each other’s tears.” (2.1)
“My great miseries in this world have been Heathcliff’s miseries… my great thought in living is
himself” (1.9)
A Source of Joy and Strife
Love as a creative emotion is indistinguishable from love as a destructive force:
- Heathcliff “welcome[s]” Catherine’s “torture”, promising to “cut his throat” if Catherine
wished him to marry Isabella (1.11)
- Physical passion in the novel is presented as brutal and crippling
Catherine “seized his hair, and kept him down.” (2.1)
Heathcliff leaves “four distinct impressions left blue in the colourless skin.” (2.1)
Nelly witnesses a “wild vindictiveness” in Catherine’s cheek (2.1)
It is because of their love that Catherine and Heathcliff come into conflict, portrayed via verbal
violence
- Catherine: “I care nothing for your sufferings. Why shouldn’t you suffer?” (2.1)
- Love can be both heaven and hell: HC accuses C of treating him “infernally” (1.11)
- No line in the text is perhaps as violent as “It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff” (1.9),
where Catherine in one stroke rejects and abuses her “lover”
Wuthering Heights Revision
The Theme of Love
When lost, love is always overwritten by violence and cruelty in the text
- Even Edgar, typified by Nelly as meek and mild, becomes capable of physical violence,
promising to “crush [Heathcliff’s] ribs in like a rotten hazel-nut” (1.11)
- The plot after Catherine’s rejection revolves around Heathcliff’s retaliation:
Heathcliff takes revenge against Edgar by abusing Isabella, Cathy and Linton
Love then is a symbiosis of joy and strife, and is doomed to failure
- All relationships in the text, excepting Catherine and Hareton, end in tragedy
- Catherine’s declaration that she is “wearying to escape into that glorious world” evinces both a
desire to be together and separate from Heathcliff
- Love, as an elemental, tempestuous force, “devours existence” (2.19)
Love in Wuthering heights is largely unfulfilled and unresolved but Catherine and Hareton’s
relationship transcends strife
- Hareton’s “honest, warm, and intelligent nature” is complemented by Catherine’s “sincere
commendations”
- Their marriage is symbolically on “New Year’s day” (2.20), a sign of hope
“the novel is far from a story of perfect love, but rather the exploration of both the tenacity and
the impossibility of such desire. Accordingly, there is never a consummation of Cathy and
Heathcliff’s love”. Instead, their reunion at Catherine’s deathbed is remarkable principally for the
thwarted and desperate nature of the exchange… And throughout the rest of his life Heathcliff is
consumed with frustration, finding himself both literally and figuratively haunted by the endless
deferral of satisfaction.” (Introduction, Penguin Classics)