Every time I pick up Wuthering Heights, whether it be for a literature class or simply indulging myself with a bit of pleasure reading, I am constantly reminded why Emily Brontë is my favourite writer. This is my fifth time reading her novel and still I find myself engaging with different aspects of the text each time I discuss it because her usage of evocative language frames the novel as if it were an elaborate piece of poetry. Besides having my heartstrings consistently tugged throughout the course of the novel, I was curious about Heathcliff’s profound assertion that “the dead are not annihilated” but rather torment the living. In chapter 33, when Heathcliff reflects to Nelly about the sudden change that has taken over the Heights with the alliance between Catherine II and Hareton, he confesses that “The entire world is a dreadful collection of memoranda that she did exist, and that I have lost her!” In my recent analysis of the text, I have come to the possible conclusion that the “dreadful collection of memoranda” Heathcliff refers to is the kindling romance between Hareton and Catherine II. 

Heathcliff sees in Hareton a younger version of himself, and while according to Heathcliff, Catherine II has nothing of her mother besides her eyes, he is still haunted by the circumstances in which he fell in love with Catherine E. in the first place. Heathcliff even goes so far as to warn Catherine II, “Your love will make him an outcast and a beggar” (Chp 33).  I’m particularly interested in unpacking the specific language used in this declaration to insinuate that Catherine II has the means to make Hareton an “outcast and a beggar” because it is reminiscent of Heathcliff’s own status in relation to Catherine Earnshaw. There seems to be a direct connexion between Heathcliff’s warning in Chapter 33 to Catherine’s complaint in Chapter 9, “I’ve no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in heaven; and if the wicked man in there had not brought Heathcliff so low, I shouldn’t have thought of it. It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now.” It’s critical to remember that during this declaration, Heathcliff listens until he hears Catherine confess her reluctance to marry him on the basis of status. This particular piece of information is important when trying to understand Heathcliff’s warning to Catherine II because he is aware of the turmoil and heartbreak that class status can force lovers to endure. 

Every time I finish this novel, I always find my heart aching for Heathcliff. Not out of pity, but out of empathy because he constantly torments himself by trying to seek out the one thing he desires most in the world: a love annihilated placed out of his reach. It’s inevitable that he must be miserable, for how does one live without one’s life, one’s soul- without dreaming of the sweet release and reunion that death promises.

The final chapters of Wuthering Heights reminded me of Thomas Carlyle’s Sartor Resartus because of the prominence of themes like romanticism and the supernatural in both texts. In Sartor Resartus, while Carlyle uses religious language, he is not having a religious conversation. Instead, Carlyle argues that we can find a source of hope and meaning in some new way that isn’t established religion. This conversation comes from romanticism which entails a scholarly embrace of optimism, the recognition of beauty in the natural world and a shift to turning to nature for spiritual meaning and some kind of alternative source of optimism and home in nature. In Natural Supernaturalism, Carlyle reflects this view when he asserts that nature itself is supernatural. He asks, ‘isn’t it a miracle that I can just reach my hand forward?’ He claims that we need not look further than ourselves to find the spiritual. In the research that was presented in class last week, we learned that Emily Bronte was raised evangelical, yet growing up, she was unaware of this. Throughout her youth, Bronte was surrounded by a lot of non-conformist communities which resulted in her own rejection of religion. Instead she thought of determination and hard work to be her guiding forces. Catherine and Cathy specifically seem to be characters that represent the Bronte’s views the religious and spiritual; both women seem to represent a rejection of traditional religious belief. At one point Catherine explains that in her dream she hated heaven and wished to go back down to earth. She instead finds her source of hope/spirituality/understanding in the moors. With regards to Cathy, the contrast between her and Linton’s ‘perfect days in heaven’ seems to clearly represent the conflicting ideas about traditional religion that occurred throughout the Victorian Era. Linton is a symbol of adherence to traditional religious practice and Cathy a symbol of some other alternative source of meaning/hope. Finally, Bronte’s inclusion of ghosts and spirits in the novel can be interpreted as rejection of traditional religion and a belief in heaven. Perhaps Bronte argues here that instead of heaven and hell there’s a spirit world that has a life of its own; perhaps nature is alive with spirits.

Wuthering Heights was a book I thoroughly enjoyed reading. In the last chapters, I found myself questioning a few of the characters. I almost looked at the ending as how Heathcliff’s everlasting wish for his life, that is to be with Catherine again, came true. And the entire books issues and arguments came back to where it all started. One theme that is prevalent throughout the novel is love, but overall the entire book seems like it was an everlasting struggle between love, power, and gender. I found a lot of repetition in the relationships throughout the story. For example, parallels can be drawn between Heathcliff and Catherines relationship with Cathy and Linton, and Cathy and Hareton. Love seems to be the underlying driving force for all the chaos, and when it does not go a certain way, the love is then turned into hatred and revenge, as we saw with Heathcliff. I think the patterns I have been noticing throughout the book are very characteristic of the Victorian era. In connection to some research we have done about the gender norms and hierarchical constructed power, we see this a lot in the novel. We spoke about the blurred boundaries between genders and we see this with many characters. For example Bronte gives voice to females in the book, where during this time period women did not have too much of a voice and were expected to behave in certain ways. Even up until the end when Cathy is abused by Heathcliff, it creates an interesting dynamic between the gender roles. Additionally, men were supposed to be these proper gentlemen which sometimes is not the case as well; this all linking to societal expectations of gender.  I feel like I kind of went all over the place in this connection, but my mind is overflowing with thoughts about the books and connections, reflecting both on how stereotypical and non-stereotypical norms are prevalent through the book.

At the time the events of Wuthering Heights were taking place, the idea of Romanticism was combating ideals of the Enlightenment. Romanticism was an alternate source for hope where the spiritual could be found both in the natural world and inside of us as humans.

As the story of Wuthering Heights came to a close, Heathcliff’s life that was so driven by revenge and scorned feelings, seemed to drift into a need for escape. He tells Nelly that he sees Catherine, “in every cloud, in every tree” (chapter 33, paragraph 46) and this memory of her haunts him and makes life unbearable. Heathcliff does not see hope in these natural images but instead reminded of his lost love. After leading a life so bent on revenge, Heathcliff finally sees his life has no true meaning without Catherine. Heathcliff also tells Nelly, “I tell you I have nearly attained my heaven…” (chapter 34, paragraph 57) which is to die and be with the love of his life.

This just reminded me of a quote from Carlyle’s Sartor Resartus where Carlyle claims that we are all spirits that take the form of a body that “…revel[s] in our mad Dance of the Dead- till the scent of morning air summons us to our still Home” (paragraph 22). Heathcliff lived a great portion of his life angry and vengeful until he felt a summon to his own heaven, one where Catherine would be. Hints of the natural world (the clouds that reminded Heathcliff of Catherine and the scent of morning air) appear in Wuthering Heights and in Sartor Resartus. Although Heathcliff dies, he hold onto the hope that he will be reunited with Catherine.

In the poem, “Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point,” the narrator mentions how there are many black things in the world that God created, yet for some reason, the people are seen as lesser or scarier than white people. Moreover, she includes how people say that African Americans “have no stars,” and “our blackness shuts like prison bars.” Furthermore, she illustrates how there are numerous other dark things in the world. She mentions, streams, frogs, and birds in her list of examples. Overall, her argument is that it is ridiculous to justify slavery and inequality by hating on someone’s skin color, when that color isn’t an issue when describing other living things; for some reason, it is an issue when it comes to humans proving how hypocritical that argument is. Consequently in chapter 34 of Wuthering Heights, Nelly is explaining her fear she was feeling of Heathcliff and remembers his “deep black eyes.” Additionally, she speaks of him in the present as an “incarnate demon,” perhaps a ghoul or vampire. She reflects on raising him, while remembering him as a “little dark thing.” If the narrator of the poem were to read these lines, she would perhaps point out the hypocritical nature of Nelly’s description. Notably, she would wonder why Nelly connects the dark physical attributes of a person to something negative and scary, while if the physical attributes were lighter in appearance, they wouldn’t even be mentioned. Hence, both these works of literature deal with the hypocrisy of connecting someone’s physical appearance, to something negative and scary.

As I was reading the remaining chapters of Wuthering Heights, the term “master” kept reappearing. In Chapter 30, the master tells Zillah to “walk out of the room” and “let [him] never hear a word more about him!” This statement proves how heartless Heathcliff could be since he did not care about the wellbeing of Linton. After recognizing this, I was reminded of The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point. In this text, the master mistreats his slaves through verbal and physical abuse. This is visible when the narrator mentions “the master’s look, that used to fall on my soul like his lash… or worse.” Both of these texts mention masters quite a bit, which causes me to assume that their presence was widely accepted during the time of Victorian Literature. Even though the meaning of the term slightly differs in each text, both of the masters dictate what other people are allowed to do. In many of the texts we have looked at, there always seems to be one person who controls everyone else. In my opinion, the obvious difference in power caused a great deal of inequality within society that still exists today.