Wuthering Heights: Heathcliff Under the Larch Trees

After Catherine's collapse when Edgar returns home from church to find her cradled in Heathcliff's arms in her bedroom, Heathcliff instructs Nelly to bring him word of Catherine's condition in the morning as he'll be in the garden under the larch trees.

Why did Bronte choose larch trees? Was there symbolic significance to larch trees? Was she just thinking of a group of larch trees she knew of and imagined it as a good shelter for waiting?

A quick Google search  for the significance of larch trees brought me to a website called woodland trust.org.uk where I found that larch trees are significant in that both male and female flowers can be found on the same tree. Maybe Bronte did choose the larch to symbolize the inseparable souls of Heathcliff and Catherine.

Also, the larch tree was used to ward off evil spirits and enchantment. Since Heathcliff could be pretty evil, maybe that's why Nelly didn't find him under the larch trees after all, but leaning against an ash tree instead.

That same Google search also found a website called ancient-wisdom.com which has a page on tree lore that is pretty interesting. In ancient folklore, according to the site, trees were used as symbols of birth and death and spiritual ceremony and growth. The ash tree in particular is a Druid sacred tree associated with magic for, among other things, karmic law! 

Is it coincidence or Bronte's deliberate choice that Heathcliff sacrifices his own blood on the trunk of the ash tree by smashing his head against it, more than once, as Nelly observes by the amount of blood, fresh and dried, as he prays aloud that as long as he is alive Catherine's soul, which he claims is one and the same as his, will never rest, but stay with him always?

 

Wuthering Heights: Who Decides What is Moral?

This morning I was reading Joel Stein's column, "I'm Making the Case For Public Shaming-Unless You Publicly Shame Me For Doing So," in the August 24, 2015, edition of Time in which he points out how social media has become a platform for publicly shaming one particular individual for doing something that is socially unacceptable, specifically, the dentist who killed Cecil the Lion. Before social media, public shaming wasn't as rapid or as lethal. That dentist's life is ruined. He'd have to leave the planet or move to a third world country to escape his notoriety.

What does this have to do with Wuthering Heights? People were church goers until recently. I mean everyone who was decent went to church. Not going to church was probably the first offense to be publicly shamed over. Only lowlife scumbags chose not to regularly go to church. Therefore, the church had the power to set social behaviors and decide what was moral or not. But a church with a tiny congregation like the one in Wuthering Heights can't reprimand or insult its richest members whose offerings benefit and probably support the church. The richest members would be the Earnshaws and the Lintons. 

So, in Wuthering Heights, it's Ellen (Nelly) Dean who is the moral guardian of the story as she scolds Heathcliff and Catherine for their behavior and disapproves of Hindley's violent drunken rages. She has no patience for Joseph's long winded hypocrisy either, but he ignores her as well.

Of course, no one listens to her advice because she's the help and her employers aren't going to base their life decisions on something the maid is advising. Therefore, if you were the lord of a manor, you were above the law and free from adhering to what was considered morally socially acceptable behavior as long as your offenses were carried out on your own land.

So, rich men could get away with pretty much anything without being publicly shamed unless the offense was toward another rich man. Wealth can't keep anyone from being publicly shamed in modern times, no matter how popular or wealthy the offender is and the media tells society what should be shamed and what shouldn't. In the words of Ozzy Osbourne, "the media sells it and you live the role."

Wuthering Heights: Heathcliff and Catherine's Bedroom Scene

I always get choked up when I read this scene and I've read it many times. Catherine's eager and expectant face as she hears Heathcliff searching the house for her bedroom after months of her being almost as emotionless as a zombie since they last parted. Then when he finds her, rushes to her, kneeling at her chair, enfolding her in his arms and he in hers, the both of them entwined together almost as one "bestowing kisses" for a full five minutes before speaking. Then she blames him and Edgar for killing her by their failure to get along so she can have a relationship with them both and that she should be the one to be pitied but they only pity themselves at the thought of her death. 

I love that Heathcliff calls her on it, reprimanding her for trying to lay a guilt trip on him that will last a lifetime while she'll be at peace in her grave. This dialogue takes place after she desperately rips a chunk of his hair out as he rises from his knee by her chair and he leaves bruises on her arm from his passionate grip. 

From the emotional excitement her heart beats so hard she can't speak until the beating levels out a little. Then she kind of alludes to her description of her relationship with Heathcliff as told to Nelly on that fateful stormy night at Wuthering Heights when she explains how she and Heathcliff share the same soul and share the same feelings as one. She tells Heathcliff she will not rest until he joins her and she will still feel everything he feels even though she'll be dead and buried. 

When Heathcliff is overcome with emotion and moves away from her, Catherine explains that she's looking forward to death as liberation from her life of imprisonment when her spirit will be free to pursue her passion and live where she'll be happy, presumably with Heathcliff at Wuthering Heights. And then they fall into a passionate embrace again, so intense that Nelly fears for Catherine's fragile health. When Nelly attempts to go to her aid Heathcliff scares her away.

I choke up again when Heathcliff gives the speech of how Catherine is to blame for her death because she consciously broke away from Heathcliff by marrying Edgar. He describes their love as something nothing, not even God or Satan could betray, but she did it intentionally to become Edgar's wife, Lady of Thrushcross Grange. He ends by saying that once Catherine's dead, he'll be living "with his soul in the grave." Now Catherine is the one wracked with guilt as she admits she made a mistake in marrying Edgar and that she's dying because of it.

When Edgar comes home from church Catherine refuses to let Heathcliff sneak back out of the house. Poor Nelly! What a horrible position she's in when Edgar walks in and sees Catherine in Heathcliff's arms in her bedroom! It's really no wonder Nelly momentarily hopes Catherine is dead. It's almost comical.

Imagine how shocking this scene must have been back in Victorian times when it was first published. It's pretty rude in the 21st Century, in my opinion. The first line of the next chapter reveals that Catherine was seven months pregnant with her husband, Edgar's baby, as well! 

Over the years I've heard some people suggest Heathcliff and Catherine's relationship is unhealthy and codependent while others, including myself, describe their love as the way they both describe it: soulmates. Some people don't believe there is such a thing as soulmates. What do you think?

Wuthering Heights: Catherine Earnshaw Linton's Hysteria

After the unexpected death of my first love a few years ago (we had broken up decades earlier), during some grief-filled reminisces it became clear to me how as inexperienced teenagers we are expected to make adult decisions that will effect the rest of our lives. Of course, at the time we don't worry about it since teenagers think they know everything. We don't heed or need any advice from adults since we think we know what's right for us and want to live our lives our own way.

Poor headstrong teenage Catherine got all starry-eyed over the idea of being the lady of Thrushcross Grange, capriciously ordering around a crowd of servants, wearing expensive clothes and jewelry, having great status in the village. Edgar was pretty cute too and bent over backwards to make her happy. How could she know that life is full of yearning for whatever we don't or can't have and you have to learn to prioritize and choose only the things your heart and soul really need because you just can't have everything. Catherine truly believed that she could have everything. Besides, Heathcliff had been gone for a couple of years without a trace. For all she knew he was gone forever making the decision to marry Edgar that much easier.

After Heathcliff's return she still believed that if they behaved as she wished, she could have them both. When she finally realized she couldn't have both Edgar, her husband, and Heathcliff, her soulmate she did what a lot of teenage girls do and locked herself in her room and refused to eat. Teenage girls are really good at self-destruction. I like the fact that she was five months pregnant at the time making it impossible to blame it on PMS. She was just a teenager who couldn't get her way.

When she finally let Nelly in after three days isolation, she was a physical and mental wreck. She realized what a mistake she had made marrying cute, but boring Edgar and longed to rewind the clock and be back at Wuthering Heights traversing the moors with her heart's desire Heathcliff. Now she was trapped in a passionless marriage with a baby on the way. Marriage was for life back then even if you lived apart like Isabella and Heathcliff, so Catherine's life was over as far as she was concerned and she looked forward to her physical death to escape the pain of never being able to live with Heathcliff at Wuthering Heights again. Without Heathcliff she was no better than a dead woman walking.

Gothic Birthdays: Emily Bronte

Emily Bronte, born July 30, 1818. She's is my favorite writer as author of Wuthering Heights,which is my favorite Gothic Romance. Her poetry is wonderful as well. Suffice it to say, she was a literary genius. A very petite literary genius.

According to the Norton Anthology, Literature by Women: The Traditions in English, Second Edition (1996) Gilbert and Gubar,  the carpenter who made her coffin had never made such a small one for an adult. It was five feet six inches in length and sixteen inches in width. I'm sure she was a little larger before becoming ill and wasting away with consumption, but she still would have been petite in my opinion. As far as I know consumption doesn't reduce height. She was a shy person, only comfortable at home and felt most liberated walking among the heather on the moors. I can relate to that! Gilbert and Gubar also state that she stubbornly got up and dressed the day she died and refused to see a doctor. I don't blame her as the doctor probably couldn't do anything but stick leeches on her anyway in those days.

Even though she died at the young age of 30, with the encouragement and posthumous promotion of her sister Charlotte Bronte (Jane Eyre), she made such a huge contribution to the world with her passionate prose and poetry. I for one am eternally grateful.

Wuthering Heights: Girls Just Want to Have Fun

Can you imagine how utterly boring it must have been to be a young woman of the leisure class in the 19th Century? It seems as though the Linton women spent most of the day sitting in the parlor or walking on the moors or in the garden. Sure, it would be great to have servants to do all the mundane household chores and be waited on hand and foot, but what else did they do? Even when they were sitting in the parlor, did they do needlework or maybe some reading or painting? Imagine being eighteen years old with nothing to do and no one to socialize with except your gentle, but boring, brother and his moody, bossy wife who got her own amusement by bossing around the help. 

It's really no wonder that when Heathcliff showed up all handsome and single that, in desperate need of excitement in her young life, was blinded by love and hormones. Of course, everyone warned her about his cruel streak and hatred for anything or anyone Linton, but she stubbornly refused to face the facts only to suffer for her mistake. Heathcliff hung her dog right in front of her! That should have been her first clue, and the only clue she should need, that everyone had told her the truth about him. 

You have to admire her courage and strength to escape his abuse, risking her death from exposure if not from his rage if he chose to pursue her after the sharp words she threw his way as she made her way toward the door.

Wuthering Heights: Catherine's Self-Imposed Solitary Confinement

I just love Emily Bronte!

After the scene in the kitchen when Edgar confronts Heathcliff regarding his romantic advances toward Isabella in the garden as reported by Nelly, Catherine flees to the parlor in anger feeling slighted when both men fail to behave the way she wants. Heathcliff is rude and insulting causing Edgar to order him off the property and punch him in the throat. Catherine blames them both for ruining the situation for her. She wants Heathcliff to behave in a manner that Edgar will accept and she wants Edgar to be welcoming and open to Heathcliff's visits. She actually believes that could work? When the men's natural feelings and override their desire to make Catherine happy, she is livid.

Edgar approaches her in the parlor and demands that she choose between Heathcliff and himself stating that she can't have both men. Her response is to throw a fit, which terrifies him until Nelly exposes Catherine as a fake by revealing that she had threatened to have a fit before he entered the room. Her manipulations foiled, Catherine storms to her room and refuses to eat or open the door for three days.

Is it a coincidence that Bronte has Catherine locked away for three days, the same amount of time Jesus spent in his tomb before his resurrection? At least he was unconscious. What would a person alone in a bedroom do for three days with nothing to do but stare at the walls? It must have been freezing in that room too with no fire or central heating. Not to mention the overflowing stinking bedpan. Maybe she dumped it out the window. Three days alone with nothing but her own distressed mind. Self-destructive behavior for a self-involved person.

Wuthering Heights and Victorian Mourning Customs

One of my many favorite scenes in Wuthering Heights is when Ellen Dean describes sitting in the drawing room guarding Catherine's body and she leaves the window open for Heathcliff to sneak in to visit Catherine's remains one last time. Although extremely disrespectful (but that's Heathcliff for you!), I couldn't help chuckling when Heathcliff removes the lock of her husband's hair from Catherine's locket, tosses it on the floor and replaces it with a lock of his own hair. Ellen only knows this happened when she finds Linton's hair on the floor and sees the drapery in disarray around Catherine's face. She retrieves Linton's hair, twists the two locks together and puts them both in the locket.

I thought the locket with a loved one's hair was a cool idea for a burial custom so I looked up Victorian mourning customs like the drapery Ellen describes. I know the story takes place in 1801 according to Lockwood's journal post, well before the Victorian era, but Emily Bronte was writing during the period, so perhaps she used some current elements in her writing. Some of the Victorian customs were probably used earlier as well. The lack of vaccines and other modern medicine made death more of an every day occurrence and not the almost taboo subject it is today.

Here are some 19th century English mourning customs I found on thefuneralsource:

• Hair lockets and other hair jewelry were also worn by the survivors made from the deceased's hair.
• Jet jewelry was made and worn just for mourning.
• Women wore different mourning attire relevant to the particular stage of mourning and also relevant to their financial situation.

Some other things I found:

Post-mortem portraits and photographs taken as keepsakes. Some photos had the corpse in poses with family as though still alive. Creepy!

From History.co.uk,:

• Just as Ellen and Edgar carry out in Wuthering Heights, a vigil was kept near the corpse during the days and nights leading up to the burial just in case the deceased wasn't really deceased. Where there's a corpse, there's hope. I would think the odor would be a good indicator as well.
• Covering all mirrors in the house after a death to prevent the deceased's freed-up soul from getting trapped in the glass. There was also a belief that if you saw your reflection in a mirror in a dead person's house, you might be next. This brings a whole new perspective to the scene soon before her death where Catherine doesn't recognize her emaciated self in the mirror in her room and Ellen drapes a cover over it to sooth Catherine's fears. She really doesn't recognize it as a mirror or her room at the Grange. She's crazy for Heathcliff.
• Families could hire mourners called Mutes to follow the funeral procession and/or hang around the house looking sad. Were meals included or did they have to provide their own lunch?

In recent times we have a quick wake, maybe; a funeral service, maybe; food and drinks to stuff down your grief so you can rush back to work to save yourself from being fired. My deepest condolences.

Catherine Earnshaw Linton: A Woman to Die For

Catherine, a spoiled selfish, domineering teenager, captured the hearts and minds of the most desirable young men in the neighborhood. Heathcliff, the poor but really hot guy, who she truly loved, and Edgar Linton, the wimpy rich society guy. They both declared Catherine to be the love of their lives. Catherine expected to keep them both and didn't see anything wrong with demanding that they share her affections. She believed she should be able to have them both at her convenience and that they should accommodate her wishes without complaint.

Every time I read Wuthering Heights I have a different opinion of Catherine. I've felt sorry for her for choosing money and position over love. I've felt disgusted at her mindless selfishness and blaming everyone else for her misery. Also, except for the whole dying young part, I've felt envious of her power to attract and sustain the affections of both men, regardless of her bad behavior. I've also felt anger toward her as a woman who had the best position a woman of her time and upbringing could have, but didn't appreciate it. 

Here's the best of what she had: the jewel, the gem, the gold ring; the love of Heathcliff.

Everyone else in the novel describes him as a goblin, a devil, inhuman, evil, a monster because of his perverse cruelty and violence and obvious inability to feel any compassion or empathy whatsoever. The only person he never harmed or threatened was Catherine. In fact, she was the only one who could persuade him to go easy on someone he wanted to hurt. She was special.

Isn't that really every woman's dream? To be the one special person, peerless, revered above all others throughout eternity by the man of her choice with the power to drive a man mad after her death and search obsessively for a glimpse of her ghost and look forward to the day when he will die and join her forever.

Wuthering Heights: Heathcliff Returns

In Chapter 10, Catherine is beside herself with delight when Heathcliff returns after three years absence. No one has seen or heard from him in all that time. Although newlyweds, Ellen explains that Catherine and Edgar are already solidly settled at Thrushcross Grange as man and wife, Catherine assuming her new role as mistress of the house and fitting in quite nicely except for spells of quiet sadness, which Edgar attributes to her illness that occurred after Heathcliff's disappearance and took the life of both of the elder Lintons.

Ellen's description of Heathcliff's physical improvements from rough dirty farm boy to handsome, fiery-eyed, athletic gentleman are a vivid constrast to Edgar's small, pale politeness. Catherine absolutely gushes at Heathcliff's unexpected presence much to her husband, Edgar's dismay. When Catherine leaves Edgar's side and her wifely duties at the tea table to clasp Heathcliff's hands while he callously exposes his negative feelings about their marriage, his plan to get even with her brother for his abuse and his admission that his years away to make his fortune were all for her, Edgar still struggles to act the polite gentleman even though he's been seriously insulted in his own parlor. 

Catherine, on the other hand, sits at the table with Heathcliff, completely ignoring her husband as though he doesn't exist and is so excited she can't eat or drink or keep her eyes off Heathcliff. Later, she can't sleep because of her ongoing rapture over Heathcliff's return and wakes Ellen to tell her how upset Edgar was at her wanting to discuss Heathcliff's vast improvements. She can't understand why her husband isn't happy for her happiness.

I imagine this was a pretty sexual and shocking scene when it was first published. Women weren't believed to be able to feel sexual excitement or passionate urges, but live their dutiful and oppressed lives with the main emphasis being making their husbands happy and comfortable. Catherine emotionally and physically ignores her husband as she glows with excitement over Heathcliff's presence. She even fears his visit is a dream that she'll be doomed to wake up from and soaks him in with all of her senses. She is high on Heathcliff.

This scene is one of my favorites from the book exposing the dull depressing, although leisurely, existence of the well to-do ladies of country society in England in the early 19th century. It hints at the lack of emotional, physical and sexual freedom they had in spite of their wealth and ease.

Wuthering Heights: 5 Pre-Burial Necessities

Although there are several deaths in the novel, Catherine Linton's death and funeral arrangements are the most detailed and allow us to learn a little about what a wealthy 19th century funeral was like. Here are five things required for a decent funeral:

1. Display the uncovered coffin in the drawing room, in case the deceased is not really dead. This    gives the recently deceased the ability to climb out of the coffin and avoid being buried alive.

2. Someone to sit with the body in case the deceased isn't really dead and regains consciousness. This type of body guard can watch for signs of life and give the recovering stiff some aid in either climbing out of the coffin or a glass of water, etc. They can also protect the body from vandalism or perverts.

3. Lots of flowers and potpourri to cover the stench of the rotting corpse.

4. Drapery around the face of the deceased. The wealth of the family probably determines how elaborate the drapery around the corpse and viewing room is displayed.

5. Adorn the corpse with a locket containing a lock of hair from a loved one.This way, a little piece of the loved one is with the deceased for eternity.

Wuthering Heights: The Heat in the Kitchen

Whether the action is taking place at Wuthering Heights or Thrushcross Grange, the most dramatic scenes that change the course of the story and alter the passionate relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine occur in the kitchen as told by Ellen Dean to Mr. Lockwood, the current tenant at Thrushcross Grange. Not only is the kitchen an important setting for displays of emotional outbursts and revelations, but the fire is always mentioned and always present in one form or another.

Possibly the most famous scene in the novel is when Catherine, unaware that Heathcliff is in the room, reveals to Ellen her engagement to Edgar Linton. After Heathcliff quietly exits in humiliation and heartbreak after hearing Catherine say it would degrade her to marry Heathcliff, she goes on to describe her deep and infinite love for Heathcliff as compared to her, mostly, superficial love of Edgar's status and money. The fire is strong with light and warmth until Catherine realizes that Heathcliff overheard the first part of her speech and has run off into the oncoming storm that strikes the kitchen roof causing bricks to fall from the chimney into the fire. Heck, yeah! Catherine, cold and soaked from standing exposed in the storm as she desperately called and searched for Heathcliff, insists on lying corpse-like by the dying fire until morning.

Fast forward three years to another "fiery" kitchen scene that alters the path of the story when Catherine pits Heathcliff against her now husband, Edgar, in the kitchen at Thrushcross Grange. Edgar is appalled at Ellen's news that Heathcliff had just forced a liplock on his sister, Isabella, in the garden and rushes to the kitchen where Heathcliff is being scolded by Catherine over the same incident. Edgar accuses Catherine of allowing Heathcliff to behave so abominably and she's insulted by Edgar's accusation. As Edgar gives Ellen the nod to get him some backup to have Heathcliff removed from the property, Catherine shoves Ellen out of the way, locks the door and throws the key into the fire forcing her husband to confront Heathcliff man-to-man.

The fire rages as Catherine and Heathcliff taunt Edgar over his physical display of fear and cowardice until Edgar unexpectedly punches Heathcliff in the throat! Once again, we see Heathcliff exit the kitchen in a rage, breaking the lock with a fireplace implement leaving Catherine in a raging fiery state herself as she races to the parlor, intent on punishing both of her men for the anguish and upset they've caused her. A spoiled nineteen year old Catherine now rants in some of the most beautiful prose ever written that her life is now ruined!

And just like Jesus in his tomb, three days pass before the story comes back to life with Catherine's realization that she can no longer remain in her half-dead, zombie-like existence, Heathcliff's revenge and Edgar's worse nightmare come to life.

Wuthering Heights: Heathcliff the Gypsy

Ellen Dean describes how Heathcliff came to live at Wuthering Heights. Mr. Earnshaw, on a trip to Liverpool, sixty miles from the Heights, found Heathcliff alone in the streets, speaking a foreign language. Rather than stay in the city to try to find his people, Mr. Earnshaw brought him home as though the little boy was a stray cat. His wife scolded him for bringing home another mouth to feed and wanted to be rid of him.

Bronte, by making Heathcliff a gypsy and not, for example, a white hired farm hand, allowed for more reasons for the Earnshaws and their neighbors to dislike him. It also accentuated Heathcliff's position as an outsider, forced into a household that didn't want him, by the master of the house whose decisions were final. Not only was he unrelated to them by blood and treated as a favorite son by Earnshaw, but he was dark skinned and, until he learned English, no one could understand his language. Soon, however, Catherine's heart opened to Heathcliff even more than her father's.

According to the website Gypsy Roma Traveller Leeds gypsies were historically hated in England and even put to death in the 16th century just for being gypsies. There were laws banning them from England. Apparently, gypsies were given the same low status as vermin in those days. It seems like they received the same treatment! Extermination or expulsion.

Mr. Earnshaw never adopted Heathcliff as a son, only as sort of a pet and even though Catherine described him as a soul mate, she chose to marry the wealth and status of Edgar Linton with the plan of keeping Heathcliff with her to improve his position as well as her own. She must have been thinking of Heathcliff in terms of a pet herself, since rules of marriage don't allow for wives to keep lovers in the house.

Would Earnshaw have adopted Heathcliff and given him a last name and a legal place in the family if he weren't a gypsy?

Wuthering Heights: Horrible Boss: Catherine Earnshaw Linton

Growing up with the Earnshaw children, Hindley and Catherine, wasn't too bad for Ellen (Nelly) Dean while her mother worked as the Earnshaw's housekeeper, but after Hindley and Catherine's parents died and Ellen took her mother's position after her death things went downhill fast. Once Hindley's wife died and he took up drinking he became violent and unpredictable. Nelly would unload his gun to avoid being shot. He held a knife to her face ordering her to open her mouth so he could shove it down her throat. There's a boss to die for!

Just before this scene Ellen was pinched and slapped by Catherine for not leaving the room when ordered. Then when Hindley's son began to cry as a reaction to Ellen's tears, Catherine shook him until he "waxed livid" and he was rescued by her future fiance and husband Edgar Linton, who received a head strike for getting in her way. All in a days work at Wuthering Heights!

That next day Mr. Kenneth the village doctor diagnosed Catherine with an almost fatal fever and prescribed that no one cause her to be upset for fear of a relapse that could be fatal. This gave Catherine permission to abuse the two house servants, Ellen and Joseph, without restraint. During her period of convalescence at Thrushcross Grange, she killed Edgar's parents by sharing her illness with them which only made her more disagreeable to work for. 

After three more years of abuse on the job, Catherine married Edgar and wanted Ellen to remain her servant and accompany her to Thrushcross Grange. Although Ellen did whatever she could to avoid the move, she was finally ordered by Hindley to pack her things and go with Catherine. 

Catherine Earnshaw Linton must be one of the worst bosses ever if Ellen Dean begged to remain Hindley's servant rather than follow Catherine to her new marital home. After Hindley held a knife to her, threatened to kill her and everyone in the house and was such a violent drunk that she had to hide his son from him and try to avoid his company in general, she would still rather remain his servant than Catherine's.That says a lot about how horribly Catherine treated her employees.

It's no surprise, is it, when Ellen says, "She's fainted or dead, so much the better. Far better that she should be dead, than a lingering burden and a misery-maker to all about her." After Catherine dies and Ellen describes the peaceful look on the face of Catherine's corpse, she feels peaceful herself. Her work environment had improved tremendously!

Wuthering Heights: A Comparison of Corpses

Ellen describes Catherine Earnshaw Linton's corpse as peaceful:

"Her brow smooth, her lids closed, her lips wearing the expression of a smile; no angel in heaven could be more beautiful than she appeared. "

Catherine had just suffered the torment of having a baby right after the mental torment of longing for Heathcliff and her life of freedom and love before her oppressive boring marriage to Edgar. Her suffering was over and her soul could find eternal happiness haunting the wild moors of her childhood.

When Ellen finds Heathcliff dead in his bed, soaked in rain from the open window she was startled by the eeriness of his corpse:

". . .Mr. Heathcliff was there--laid on his back. His eyes met mine so keen and fierce, I started, and then he seemed to smile. . .I could not think him dead: but his face and throat were washed with rain: the bed-clothes dripped, and he was perfectly still.. .I tried to close his eyes: to extinguish, if possible, that frightful, life-like gaze of exultation, before anyone else beheld it."

Did Catherine's ghost come for him finally? If he died while smiling in exultation, he must have been experiencing something that made his soul leap from his body and his heart suddenly stop.

I find it interesting and strangely comforting how people dealt with death during the 19th century when could people die at any time of life because of lack of the vaccines and medical advancements we take for granted now. People still mourned the deaths of their loved ones, but death didn't come as a complete shock like it seems to now unless the departed was extremely advanced in age. It was so sad when Heathcliff sneaked into the house to put his hair in Catherine's locket, except for the fact that he tossed Edgar's lock of hair on the floor to make room for his own. That was pretty rude.

Wuthering Heights: Favorite Heathcliff Scenes: Deathbed

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Since Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights is my favorite gothic novel, I read it every couple of years or so. Each time I read it I feel differently about each character and each scene depending on my mood or stage of life at the time. This time I'm really feeling the isolation of the characters from the rest of the world and how that might effect the way they behave toward each other. Because of the sensitivity I'm having to the isolation of the characters, Heathcliff is really standing out as the most isolated of all of them, whether by circumstance or his own anger and rejection of everyone except Catherine and Nelly.

During his final days, he even refuses to sit at the table for meals with the household inhabitants or allow them in the same part of the house except for the one occasion when he invited young Catherine to sit with him and scared her into hiding behind Nelly who was too creeped out to want to be in the same room with him for very long either. No matter how creepy his behavior during the last few days before his death, the strangest was the way he died alone in his room with a crazed expression on his face.

Lockwood retells Nelly's experience:

I peeped in. Mr. Heathcliff was there--laid on his back. His eyes met mine so keen and fierce, I started; and then he seemed to smile. [ ] I combed his long black hair from his forehead, I tried to close his eyes; to extinguish, if possible, that frightful, life-like gaze of exultation, before any one else beheld it. They would not shut; they seemed to sneer at my attempts; and his parted lips and sharp white teeth sneered too!

And then Hareton kissed the corpse!

This isn't my most favorite Heathcliff scene, but it's a striking one, no pun intended. I don't know if there is any description of a corpse in 19th century literature as vividly creepy as this one. What put that expression on his face at his time of dying? Did Catherine come to guide him into the afterlife or is it like annoying Joseph said, that the devil came to take his soul?

Wuthering Heights: Linton Heathcliff

Heathcliff and Isabella's son, a pretty, sickly little invalid who is so obnoxious that no one cares a bit that's he's dying. Even Nelly, the pillar of morality, or so she leads us to believe as narrator, has no sorrow toward his early death. He's such a sniveling self-centered manipulating selfish brat that Catherine's insistence on being his friend proves how dreadfully isolated and desperately lonely she is.

It's  great karma and even comical how different Linton is from his father Heathcliff. What payback for how horrifically Heathcliff treated Linton's mother Isabella as to have their son inherit all the ultra blond genes from Heathcliff's enemies the Lintons. Heathcliff's dark hair and gypsy eyes are in total contrast to Linton's severe blondness and blue eyes. Not only are the physical appearances of father and son completely in contrast, but their personalities are nothing alike either. 

Linton's been dying for most of his life, which is going to affect anyone's personality, but he overplays the helpless invalid role making himself a huge annoying burden on everyone and getting the sympathy of none except Catherine who is too innocent and naive to know any better. He enjoys taunting her and pushing her away and then reeling her back in using his illness to gain her sympathy until she labors to comfort and console him. 

My favorite scene involving Linton is when Heathcliff forces him to meet Catherine on the moors to lure her back to the house and trap her into marrying him. Linton is so near death that he can barely remain upright so he's reclining and trembling from fear and weakness on the grass as Catherine arrives. Then he's sobbing and begging her not to leave so be won't suffer the wrath of his father if he fails to lure her back to Wuthering Heights. It's such a pathetic scene that if he were a decent person, it would be heartbreaking. But since it's horrible narcissistic little Linton, it's funny, especially when Heathcliff enters the scene and "Linton had sunk prostrate again in another paroxysm of helpless fear, caused by his father's glance toward him, ." It's Three Stooges funny.

The only thing the father and son have in common is that no one can stand to be in their company. They are both good at alienating themselves from everyone, especially each other.

Wuthering Heights: Catherine Earnshaw Linton

Catherine, the only human being that Heathcliff loved and never physically attacked, or even restrained and oppressed. She was self-centered, spoiled, outspoken and lacked empathy, but she was the only one who loved Heathcliff. They were the same except for their gender, both ready to explode with passion and violence at the smallest provocation. No wonder Catherine died so young, what with all that fiery drama wearing out her heart. 

It's ironic that Heathcliff was such a misanthrope that he wanted to kill everyone in the novel at one time or another; however, the only person that he loved died first. Mr. Earnshaw died early on in the novel but Heathcliff didn't love him the way he loved Catherine. Even Catherine rejecting him to marry Edgar Linton to improve her social status and living conditions didn't cause Heathcliff to harm her. Instead he sought vengeance on Hindley for reducing him to the status of a yard boy. Then he sought vengeance on Linton for wooing Catherine away from him.

Catherine, unlike so many young women, knew that committing to a life with a dark brooding bad boy, would be a difficult penniless future. So many women fall for the hot bad boy believing that after they get married or after they have a baby, he'll suddenly become a loving provider. But all they get is a punch in the face for being a nag.Then he'll say it was her fault that he hit her. Of course, every girl wants to think that they're the only one special enough to make the bad boy turn good with their special brand of love, but it doesn't happen in real life. 

Love can work wonders, but it isn't magic, although it can seem magical at times. Catherine died of a broken heart of her own making while blaming it on Healthcliff and Edgar. Her emotional pain was worsened by regret that both men couldn't get along so she could have the best of both of them. She expected them to accommodate her bad decision in marrying Edgar like the self-involved adolescent that she was. Fortunately, they got it all straightened out in the afterlife.

Wuthering Heights: Isabella Linton

Pampered, sheltered and utterly bored, Isabella Linton aka Mrs. Heathcliff, is sort of a sideways Cinderella. In her desperate attempt to escape her boring, yet privileged existence, she blinds herself to the publicly known dark personality traits of her sister-in-law's handsome, confident friend Heathcliff and falls in love with him and elopes with him. Once married, he imprisons her in his rough, neglected house and treats her like a slave and a whipping girl to purposely degrade and humiliate her as an act of revenge toward her brother while he waits to inherit her property. Tag poor Isabella used and abused.

The first time I read Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte's one and only novel, I thought Isabella was a really stupid girl unworthy of any sympathy at all and even deserved what she got for being so stupid. However, I've read the novel several times over the years and it seems to magically change and I get something new out of it or my opinion or feelings change over particular scenes every time I read it. 

Everyone told Isabella what an evil person Heathcliff was, but she gave up everything and everyone in her life to run away with him. This reading, though, I felt sorry for her and realized she only behaved like a typical teenage girl, thinking everyone who was trying to warn her was wrong and only trying to destroy her chance at happiness. There were many times one of my daughters accused me of "being mean" and accused me of hating her and always trying to prevent her from having any fun when I would forbid her from doing something foolish or dangerous. Poor Isabella no longer had parents to guide her, just her wishy washy brother Edqar who, basically, did the same thing she did by marrying Catherine Earnshaw after witnessing one of her violent tantrums, even enduring physical abuse at her hands.

Imagine how boring Isabella's life was before Heathcliff reappeared on the scene. They sat in the parlor or walked in the yard every day except Sunday when they went to church. I would go insane living like that with no internet, TV or radio to keep me in touch with the outside world. Considering that, most any young lady would get all starry eyed and temporarily lose her mind if a handsome sharp dressed guy showed up. The excitement and adventure of first love and elopement would be very tempting and it would be easy to see only what you want and hope for passion and romance.

Isabella's prince charming turnouts out to be the prince of darkness after the marriage ceremony. Can you imagine what the wedding night was like?

Dear Heathcliff

Who better to ask for love advice than the greatest Byronic Hero of Gothic Literature ever? Do not take this advice seriously, it's for entertainment purposes only.

Dear Heathcliff,

I met this guy online a few years ago and we've been seeing each other ever since. We were living together for a while until I found out he was still seeing his ex girlfriend. In fact, they were even living together for a few months after we were first dating. They don't have any children or pets together so there's no reason for them to see each other at all. When I found out that I wasn't the only girl in his life after he said I was, I was very hurt and angry and moved out. Now he keeps calling me and begging me to forgive him and take him back. He says he's sorry and will give her up for good and that I'm the one he truly loves. I love him more than I've ever loved anyone and think of him as my soul mate. Do you think I should forgive him and take him back?

Lovesick in Lincoln

Dear Lovesick,

Your inability to perceive the situation as it truly is reminds me of my late wife Isabella. She too needed reality to knock her in the head several times before she would realize the truth of our relationship. Look at yourself in the glass and read your letter out loud to yourself. Imagine a friend is asking you for the same advice. How would you respond to that person? I hope you are now fully humiliated and are now aware of how weak your mind has been where this relationship is concerned.

When you moved out you should have moved on. If you love him more than you've loved anyone, you've made a big mistake. He does not love you and never will. If you think of him as your soul mate, your thinking is in error or you do not know the definition of soul mate. A soul mate is someone who is connected to you mind, body and spirit. This man is, obviously, keeping you and the other woman, and whoever else he wants, tethered to him with a leash of deceit. Therefore, the answer to your question is do what you want, I don't care.

Heathcliff

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