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.