In “Agnosticism and Christianity,” T.H. Huxley defines the principal behind agnosticism as the belief that “it is wrong for a man to say that he is certain of the objective truth of any proposition unless he can produce evidence which logically justifies that certainty.” I agree with this definition and think there is a certain intelligence behind admitting one does not know all there is to know, and simply cannot with the limited information provided to us in life on this Earth. While it is not a direct 1:1 parallel, this line reminded me of Wuthering Heights and got me thinking about the degrees of certainty held by characters in Bronte’s novel—for example, Catherine Earnshaw is certain of her love for Heathcliff, but she is also certain that marrying Edgar Linton is the right course of action for advancing her place in society. These two certainties do not jive well with each other, and it makes me wonder whether or not Cathy as well as other characters in the novel would have lived much happier lives had they not operated in such extreme degrees but rather embraced uncertainty and a lack of knowing. If Cathy had taken this path and not been so set in her ways, perhaps she would have made her peace with the Heathcliff situation and not let it haunt her into adulthood. Instead, we have a cast of characters haunted by the intensity of their past and mistaking that intensity for certain-ness, which ultimately means they cannot move forward. They are married to these faulty ideas out of stubbornness or self-assuredness, and as a result, the quality of all these entangled lives and relationships suffer.

In Darwin’s second paragraph of the On the Origin of Species excerpt, he defines and gives examples of the “struggle for existence,” which animals and plants both compete against weather, each other, and competitors to survive, but to add a dual quality, things also are dependent upon each other. This struggle for existence can be superimposed on Wuthering Heights in relation to the characters and their challenges. The obvious example, is Heathcliff starting out being treated poorly by Mr. Earnshaw to becoming wealthy and owning Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights, and then his eventual demise in becoming ill, to put it simply. Heathcliff did not accomplish this all on his own, he depended on young Cathy marrying Linton Heathcliff, Edgar Linton dying, and Linton Heathcliff’s inheritance from his uncle which he willed to his father, Heathcliff upon his death. The key to struggling to exist and still being successful, is knowing when to depend on others, and when to not. A further example is the Catherine, Edgar, Heathcliff, and Isabella conglomerate. Heathcliff depends on Isabella to fall in love with him so he can get revenge on Catherine and Edgar. He charms her at first and they marry, but he could not depend on her to stick around too long because she eventually got fed up with the abuse, and escaped. With Nelly, he has to depend on her to send a letter to Catherine for him. If it was any other servant that Heathcliff depended on, his letter may not have slipped past Edgar and gotten to Catherine. People need connections with each other in order to survive and succeed, and likewise, so do animals and plants, but even with our connections, we may still struggle. Sometimes the outcome, like with young Cathy and Hareton, will be positive; the shade-bearing trees and the shade plants flourish together. Other times in life, like with Heathcliff, the end will be tragic, as some plants just can’t get enough moisture, and begin to wilt before death.

The idea of dependence is explored in great depth in both Darwin’s writings as well as Chamber’s writings. We see the idea that one thing cannot exist without another thing. There is a plan for development before it happens. In Darwin’s writing we see him mention that a plant in the desert will be entirely dependent on moisture as well as a mistletoe being dependent on the apple and the trees. This brings us back to the idea that all plants and animals are interconnected which is a topic that is visited in both pieces of writing. We see a concrete example of this in Chamber’s piece of writing where he is describing some similarities that may go unnoticed amongst the different species. He gives us the example of the human species in comparison to species that have a tail. He explains that these two different species had different plans for development. A human could have possibly had a take if their development lasted longer, however it comes to a stop when there is simply a cluster at the lower back. This is why we can see this connection amongst all species because this is not a coincidence that we see this small similarity. Another way we see these two writers compare to each other is when they both leave room for further research. Understanding that everything is subject to change with the more information that you obtain. Both writers also refer to the “Vegetable kingdom”, this was another similarity that stood out in word choice that could be owed to the time in which they were written. This is a similarity in a word that can change the way we think about the writing, at first glance when I saw this word I was thinking something different than what the writing was intended to be about. This is why word choice across the different texts are very important aspects to point out.

First, it should be noted that Charles Darwin was not the eminent proponent of social Darwinism, and it did rise later on in the century, but the connection is too choice to not be made. With that said, there was a specific line that drew me to connect the two texts, and it reads from E.P.’s “The Many and the Few” as this, “Ye noble rulers of our land-oh! Where have ye had birth?/ For we must be, ye God-like men, of other, baser clay.” This poem was written before Darwin’s magnum opus, and before the advent of Social Darwinism, but it is a good avenue for exploring how birth relates, and will continue to relate to social and economic status. Indeed, the notion of ‘baser clay’ played a large role in Social Darwinism, as the theory posits that genetic makeup factors heavily into the class hierarchy, and that people poorer than the wealthy deserved their status. Indeed, the poem itself rejects this notion, and questions the proposition that one is marked from birth for a certain station. Additionally, the idea of Social Darwinism began gaining steam during the actual conceptualization of Darwin’s own theory. This can be reasonably said by Gosse’s credit to Agassiz for gathering data that helped to further ground the study of evolution. To wit, this is important because Agassiz was a notable practicer of phrenology, (which is the study of skulls) and it can thus be noted that some of the data that helped ground Darwinism may have grounded Social Darwinism as well (the data Agassiz collected on skulls was proven fraudulent). As for tying it back together, the notion of the few having right to rule over the many seemed to be under harsh fire in a lot of the literature we read, and it seems that there were many in the upper elite that used Darwin’s concept of evolution in a controlling fashion so as to mask their rule in a scientific validity (that of course was false).

In Charles Darwin’s, On the Origin of Species By Natural Selection, it states; “…a plant on the edge of a desert is said to struggle for life against the drought, though more properly it should be said to be dependent on the moisture.” This quote is explaining the different perspectives when looking at life. Some would say a desert plant struggles for life in a drought while others would say that desert plants are dependent on moisture. This quote reminded me of Catherine and Heathcliff’s relationship in the novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. In a way, Catherine can be compared to the plant Darwin talks about in the quote stated prior. Without Heathcliff in her life she is like a desert plant, struggling against the drought. Like a plant is dependent on receiving moisture to stay alive, Catherine is dependent on Heathcliff’s love to keep her alive. There is one point in the novel when Catherine is talking to Nelly about Heathcliff and she says “Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He’s always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being.” No matter how hard Catherine tries not to be depend on Heathcliff he is such a big part of her life that it’s almost like she needs him in order to survive in this world. This is also true for Heathcliff as we see how much Catherine’s death affected Heathcliff as a person. After Catherine died, a piece of Heathcliff died along with her. It wasn’t until Heathcliff’s own death that he was finally able to be at piece again, knowing that he would be reunited with his love Catherine. 

I really enjoyed finishing the novel “Wuthering Heights”. I think a few themes I thought about it towards the ending are that revolving around love, wealth, and class. For example, Heathcliff treats Catherine horribly throughout the novel, but once she dies, he becomes of obsessed with her, and even talks to her ghost. Catherine, though, falls for Heraton before she dies even though he is not of the same class as Heathcliff. I found this interesting because Heathcliff feels so much better than everyone else throughout the novel, even though in the end, he doesn’t “get the girl”, but he does get the Grange, and that is much more important to him anyway.

Once the novel turns back to present and we as the reader are reminded of Lockwood being told this story, I began to wonder if Heathcliff felt guilty for the way he acted in his life. I feel as though Heathcliff’s honesty about his story would lead him feel sorrow for the way he treated people. Especially since in the end, although Heathcliff ends up with the grange, he is alone. This idea of thinking about materialism over love and happiness reminds me of the ideals of Thomas Carlyle. Carlyle writes that the obsession with class and wealth leads to the destruction of ones self, and I think this is something Healthcliff realizes as he enters his old age.

I wanted to explore the death of Linton Heathcliff, in relation to Catherine and Heathcliff, while cross-referencing Harriet Martineau’s Society in America. Heathcliff plays a tricky and manipulative game involving Catherine, who is the central piece in his move to access Thrushcross Grange. When Heathcliff trapped Catherine at Wuthering Heights when her father was dying, she became emotionally vulnerable and susceptible to Heathcliff manipulating her into a marriage with Linton. Martineau’s discussion on “The Political Nonexistence of Women,” (TPNW) does not only reflect American society, but Victorian England as well. As Martineau states: “Governments decree to women in some States half their husbands’ property; in others one-third. In some, a woman, on her marriage, is made to yield all her property to her husband; in others, to retain a portion, or the whole, in her own hands.” (TPNW, Paragraph 4). In relation to Catherine’s situation, if she was unmarried, the property bequeathed to her would remain in her hands until she married and would transfer over to the husband for “safekeeping,” but since Heathcliff forced her to marry Linton, it became his property upon Edgar’s death. Step one: complete. The other phase kicked in when Linton was dying and Heathcliff was able to get Linton to bequeath his access of Thrushcross Grange to Heathcliff who was “[claim] and [keep] it in [Linton’s] wife’s right” (Chapter 30, Paragraph 19), which in reality, means that Heathcliff has the property. Technically speaking, the property still belongs to Catherine, but that last tidbit of Heathcliff maintaining it for Catherine, is the loophole that allows him to have it. Catherine, having neither money nor friends for she is in an isolated area, has no choice but to comply. This points out how the Victorian period politically is still not fulfilling the true “consent of the governed” for if it did, Heathcliff could not have been able to take Thrushcross Grange so easily. Certainly, Heathcliff still could have manipulated his son into dedicating his will to Heathcliff, but Linton Heathcliff would not have had Thrushcross Grange in the first place. There seem to be some claims about how Emily Brontë’s work is ‘different’ or treats female characters differently, but this is a prime example of how it falls into a stereotypical (for the time) instance of how society used to work.

One aspect of Wuthering Heights that is deeply interesting is the accruement of wealth and status, and the subsequent disillusionment with these material objects, by both Cathy Earnshaw and Heathcliff. To wit, the accruement of wealth and status by both Cathy and Heathcliff are cruel and passionless. While the rise of Cathy and Heathcliff’s rise to status is deeply different, they both fell into the praxis of Rural Victorian’s rubric of success (but more so Catherine than Heathcliff). Moreover then, Cathy’s debate with Nelly is the best representation of how the interpellated idea of capitalist success succeeds against primordial and passionate emotions. In that, Cathy’s choice of the safe route is exactly what the system had in mind for her, as the combination of both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange is the best outcome of wealth generation. Indeed, this practice of marrying the people who border your land was a well-known tactic in Victorian England to maintain and extend the status quo. The focus then turns to Heathcliff. Indeed, Heathcliff takes the more atypical route to wealth in Victorian England, although, when you think about it his story of pulling himself up by the bootstraps and making something of himself is about as typical as you can get. Yet, his rise is not detailed, and without any evidence, that section of his life cannot be used to prove his interpellation into capitalist society. However, the preceding events (i.e. his overhearing of Catherine’s conversation indicating the success of interpellation) of his life can be. Indeed, once he hears that he must be wealthy to achieve what he wants, he springs fully into the maneuverings of gaining wealth in a capitalist society. Moreover, his subsequent actions show how indebted his into this gain, as he purposefully rends families apart from each other to gain more wealth. This is, of course, thematically done under the auspices of his passion for Cathy, but it can also be read as him learning that gaining wealth is alienating and detrimental when in conjunction and confronted with maintaining and supporting families. The sad part in all of this however is the ultimate failure of entering the capitalist society for both Cathy and Heathcliff as neither of them get their ultimate desire, and both are worse off for letting themselves be interpellated into capitalism (although, one usually does not have the choice to ‘let themselves’ be interpellated).

When I was reading the passage, some of the imagery Emily used to describe Heathcliff reminded me of the text of William Blake’s poem “The Chimney Sweeper”. One moment that specifically stood out to me was when Bronte described a conversation between Nelly and Heathcliff in Chapter 33 during his impending illness. Nelly asked Heathcliff if he was afraid to death, to which he responded, “With my hard constitution and temperate mode of living, and unperilous occupations, I ought to, and probably shall, remain above ground till there is scarcely a black hair on my head” (Paragraph 53). Here, Bronte is using Heathcliff’s black hair as an indication of youth. When Heathcliff does not have black hair on his head, he will be an old man. However, contrary to Heathcliff’s claims that he will die an old man with gray hair, he dies of starvation at mid life. The Chimney Sweeper mirrors this with the quote, “A little black thing among the snow: Crying weep, weep, in notes of woe!” In the days before Heathcliff’s death, he is distraught over the relationship between Hareton and Cathy. He dies in his bedroom, following his pleas to be with Catherine. Nature, specifically wind, enters the room when his window is open.  

Furthermore, the line “Because I am happy & dance & sing / they think they have done me no injury” can be connected to Heathcliff’s happiness toward being reconnected with Catherine. When he dies, Nelly even notes that he “seemed to smile” (Paragraph 64). When Heathcliff dies, he dies without redemption, and barely anyone is at his funeral because they all see him as the one at fault. This can be seen in the poem’s quote, “They think they have done me no injury” (Paragraph 10). Heathcliff, once a child servant, dies at a young age similarly to the main character in the poem, and no one seems to give him their attention.

When continuing to read Wuthering Heights we can see a strong parallel between Catherine and Cathy. I wanted to relate this back to discussing if Emily Bronte put woman in a position of inferiority for the novel’s story line or just because this is what was normalized for the times. Was this parallel between mother and daughter one that was written in on purpose or did this just happen naturally. I was very interested in this connection between the Catherine’s and what motivated the author, Emily Bronte, to write the novel this way. There is also the interesting fact that Catherine did not raise Cathy, she died when she was giving birth to her, this is why it is interesting to the reader that there is such a connection between they way Catherine acts and what happens to her and they way that Cathy acts and the things that happen to her. In the story we can even recall the section where Nelly compares the two and says how much Cathy reminds her of Catherine. Simple things such as how they act towards people and there specific personality traits she can see in both characters. We also see there there is some sort of physical resemblance between the two as well. There are few cases where Nelly brings up the physical resemblance and we can also see this in the attitude change that Heathcliff has with Cathy when she starts to remind him more and more of her Mother.

After becoming interested in this aspect I did some research on the side and noticed that a lot of people pose the argument that Catherine and Cathy actually differ from each other in many ways. When finding interesting connections amongst these texts, it is interesting to do some further research to see if there are different opinions on these connections. Now, I can see that on the surface there are many similarities es but as you go deeper their may be many evident differences. At first glance when reading it seems as if there is almost an intentional parallel between the plot lines and character developments of Cathy and Catherine. I would be interested in understanding if this was done for a particular reason, or if this is just how all the woman were to be written.