I really enjoyed reading the novel Wuthering Heights as I’ve never read something quite like it. While reading the last few chapters I couldn’t help but question a lot of the characters motives throughout the story. Heathcliff practically killed himself by not eating and it was all justified in the end because for years he had longed to be reunited with Catherine, his ‘one true love.’ However, many of Heathcliff’s and Catherine’s actions towards each other raise the question of whether or not they were truly mean to be together. It became more and more clear to me that the constant competition and jealous between Catherin and Heathcliff is not something that is healthy in a relationship. Although relationships require a lot of work and sacrifice, it seemed like neither of them were willing to risk it all to be together. Both Catherine and Heathcliff appear to be very self-centered characters and in a way you can say that they were made for each other in that regard. Being a woman myself I could help but feel that Heathcliff treats the women in his life quite terribly, especially Isabella. Even after he married her, all he could think about was being with Catherine and he was upset he couldn’t have her. This in particular made me think about the poem we read called “The Runaway Slave At Pilgrim’s Point” by Elizabeth Barret Browning. The poem is narrated by a female slave who had fled from her abuse and cruelty that she has endured. In the poem she talks about another slave she knew who she was in love with but was separated from him. This all reminds me of Isabella and Heathcliff and even a little bit about Heathcliff and Catherine. In Isabella’s case, she actually cared for Heathcliff in the beginning and hoped he would eventually grow to love her but instead he grew more hateful and bitter and treated her horribly which led her to escape his terrible treatment. In Catherine’s case, she loved Heathcliff and he loved her but Catherine chose Edgar which drove Heathcliff to seek revenge on Catherine by marrying Isabella, Edgar’s sister. In a way this could be seen as mental abuse by Heathcliff who wanted to see Catherine hurt by his decision to marry. I think there is a sort of cycle of abuse throughout this novel, and we even see it towards the end when Heathcliff refuses to eat and the starvation ultimately kills him. The characters in this novel not only treat each other poorly but they have no value for their own lives. It’s a sad conclusion to come to but at least at the end of the novel, with Heathcliff’s death, there might be a chance for their children to break the horrible cycle of abuse. 

One connection I made was between Wuthering Heights and The Chimney Sweeper was the parallel between Heathcliff and the chimney boy. Heathcliff and the young boy have many similarities. The boy in The Chimney Sweeper is described as a “black thing among the snow” who is crying and being asked where his parents are. We also see Heathcliff facing a similar situation, Heathcliff is an orphaned child defined by his skin color and seen as devilish. Both are rejected by their families and society. The line from The Chimney Sweeper “They clothed me in the clothes of death” describes how both characters are destined to a miserable life ultimately resulting in death. Neither character ever knows love and they are both forced to face life’s hardships alone starting at a young age. The line “Who make up a heaven of our misery” is similar to how Heathcliff tries to make his miserableness disappear by trying to force Catherine to love him to take away from his pain, even being buried next to her after his death. Both characters are seeking happiness and acceptance, unable to find either.  

Wuthering Heights may end on a relatively hopeful note, but that does not erase how wholly heartbreaking the novel is. One of the most dismal aspects of the story being the way that Heathcliff becomes what he once hated: a tyrant, and one that seems to be far worse than Hindley. This structure, a depressing story with an ending that betrays the tone of the rest of it, reminds me of Shelley’s poem, “England 1819″. Not only that, but I cannot help but feel that Heathcliff, at the end of his life, can be described by the poem as well. Heathcliff is the country of England in which everything is going wrong. He is the ” old, mad, blind, despis’d, and dying king,” and yet, he is also that person “starv’d and stabb’d in the untill’d field.” Hate and suffering has made him into that hated and dying king, but a false king at that. It was a role that he never fit into, and really never wanted. So though he was the master of both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange at the time of his death, he died as the lonely orphan boy he once was. And yet out of all of this, that “glorious phantom may burst to illuminate our tempestuous day;” Hareton and Cathy go on to live what could have been between Catherine and Heathcliff, as Heathcliff is laid to rest, finally with the person he loves for the rest of eternity in “that quiet earth.”

In the poem, “The Steam King” one passage in particular reminds me of Heathcliff’s decline and eventual death. “Those hells upon earth, since the Steam Kings birth / have scatter’d around despair; / For the human mind for heaven design’d, / With the body, is murdered there.” For Heathcliff, he has considered the moors hell on earth, ever since Catherine passed away. From the beginning, with their tumultuous relationship continually causing his high emotions, that regularly ended in despair. Also, at the end, he starts to refuse food, and spend his last days alone. Presumably, he was in a state of despair, but also like the third line his mind was designed for Heaven, which he considers to be Catherine. Although more indirectly, he does murder himself in a way. As he assures that Nelly knows his burial wishes, stops eating, and stays to himself, he lets himself die. Heathcliff’s happiness revolves solely around Catherine, and ever since her passing, he has lived in a deep sadness that spiraled continually. The last line of that stanza also specifies that the body has died, which is interesting because Catherine’s ghost is always looming, and after Heathcliff’s death, his is also spotted among the moors. 

Something that has always fascinated me about Wuthering Heights is the strange, all-consuming cycle that rages across generations; wrecking one entirely and nearly destroying the second. This cycle’s presence within the narrative of Brontë’s novel is cemented by the repetition of names and the persisting antagonistic relationships between Earnshaws, Lintons, and Heathcliffs. Indeed, once Catherine dies, her role is filled by her daughter, Catherine, who bears the last name Linton, who, in turn, falls in “love” with Linton Heathcliff, himself more reminiscent of his given name rather than his surname. At the same time, an Earnshaw, Hareton, begins to pursue a Linton, Catherine. The actions of this second generation eerily parallel the destructive decisions made by their predecessors and create a suffocatingly cyclical narrative experience for readers of the novel. This perception of time, crafted by Brontë, is arguably a pessimistic one, for it seems to cede that despite the passage of time, nothing really ever changes. While Wuthering Heights appears to end with a glimmer of hope as Catherine and Hareton enter a seemingly stable relationship, a Linton is still paired with an Earnshaw, a recipe that the reader knows is ultimately one for disaster.

This cyclical and cynical view on time exists in conversation and in tension with Thomas Carlyle’s perception of time as is espoused in his work, “Natural Supernaturalism.” Carlyle first muses that time is an illusion, a stance that aligns with what Brontë seems to be arguing within her novel. Carlyle goes on to advocate for a more positive perception of time and urges his readers to “pierce through the Time-element” and “glance the Eternal.” He also proposes that despite distinctions between past and future they both “are” and are therefore a part of the present, a part of the “Everlasting NOW.” This idea is compatible with Brontë’s as her depiction of a relentless cycle that does not change, grow, or decline linearly also essentially collapses past, present, and future. However, the lens with which Carlyle views this collapse of time is far more positive, as he believes that this is the way in which his readers will be able to glance not only the Eternal but God, as well. Brontë, on the other hand, seems to condense time into one stagnant cycle in order to present her readers with some grim truth concerning human nature. Thus, while both Carlyle and Brontë are proponents of atypical and compressed perceptions of time, they each are capable of producing different sensations for their readers that are respectively optimistic and disillusioned.

Upon finishing Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, I thought of the poem “The Cry of the Children”, by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Browning’s poem focuses on child labor, and the children she writes of are robbed of their childhood, not unlike the way Linton is robbed of his. These injustices are due to adult agendas with one selfish purpose. In terms of child labor, that agenda is, of course, rooted in exploitation and the drive to make money and be successful at any cost. In Linton’s case, Heathcliff is the adult with the agenda; he is hungry for revenge, and Linton suffers at his hands both directly and indirectly. In class, we discussed Browning’s metaphorical use of young animals and plants, perhaps with the intent of emphasizing the innocence of the children in the poem or with the intent of juxtaposing the seemingly more peaceful life of, for example, a young fawn with the corrupted one of a child forced into long work hours, missing out on their youth. I feel that Linton could fit into this poem as well as any troubled child, because everything about his existence seems to be miserable, right down to his poor health. Even Browning’s mention of “the country of the free” reminds us that, while Linton was technically free, he was so overwhelmingly controlled by Heathcliff, even in his temporary, superficial romance with young Catherine, that he was unable to make choices of his own volition; his life was dictated by other people. The very situation into which he was born was such a terrible one, messy and already full of complicated, jealous, and hateful relationships. Much like the poem’s children are slaves to the work that has been forced upon them, Linton is slave to his previously estranged father’s manipulations.