“My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I’m well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of visible delight, but necessary.”
If anyone knows me well enough, then they know my favorite book of all-time will always always be Wuthering Heights. I’ve read it about 10 times since I first became interested in it by watching the movie when I was 11. It’s one of the few books I was inspired to read because of the movie. I was watching it while babysitting but had to leave for home before the ending. The movie was so intriguing and I couldn’t find it again on TV (where was Tivo when I needed it then?) so I decided to read the book to discover the ending.
The rest is history. Wuthering Heights has everything I’ve ever looked for in a story. There is love, consequence, revenge, mystery, darkness, and renewal. Before there was ever an Atonement, there was Wuthering Heights. This book follows the romance between Catherine Earnshaw (a high-society but free-spirited woman) and Heathcliff (a Gypsy orphan brought into the family by Catherine’s father). Although Heathcliff was part of the family, he was never considered to be blood relations by the Earnshaw children, Catherine (Cathy) and Hindley. Through a series of events, Heathcliff loses all rights to the Earnshaw household after the father dies and is forever treated as a lowly servant, not even allowed to sleep in the house itself. Despite all this hardship, there was a bond that could not be broken between Cathy and Heathcliff. What first started out as friendship turned into love.
If only it could have ended simply with love. But the story explores the fact that love does not conquer all. Cathy cannot bring herself to be with Heathcliff because of his low status in society. She denied herself their love to give herself security and safety by marrying an equally high-status man (Edgar Linton) instead. She admits “I've no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in heaven; and if [Hindley] had not brought Heathcliff so low, I shouldn't have thought of it.” Heathcliff, heartbroken, leaves an embittered man and returns years later to seek revenge. There is far more to tell but would not want to ruin the experience of discovering it for yourself.
Even though, Cathy chose the safe route, she destroyed her heart and the man she truly loved in the process. Who is brave enough to truly follow their heart? She fell into the trap of fear and expectations that we all face and she succumbed to them to her detriment. What would have happened if she had chosen Heathcliff? Would you even want someone that dangerously in love with you? Choosing Heathcliff would have made for a short novel but it would have shown true bravery and courage instead of the cowardice that actually happened and the lies, deceit, and treachery that spawned as a result.
Emily Bronte never married and she died a year after she wrote Wuthering Heights. This is the only novel she authored.
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