Wuthering Heights

Universidad Veracruzana
Facultad de Idiomas
Licenciatura en Lengua Inglesa
Love-Passion in the novel
Wuthering Heights
Tesis
Que para obtener el título de:
Licenciada en Lengua Inglesa
Presenta
Dulce Corazón Madrigal López
Asesor de Contenido
Víctor Hugo Vásquez Rentería
Asesora de Lengua
Paula M. Busseniers Elsen
Love Passion in the novel Wuthering Heights
Introduction
Chapter I: Love passion
Denis de Rougemont and the Love passion
George B and the heart eroticism
Igor Carusso: the passion and the death mechanism
Pascal Bruckner and the idea of being happy
Chapter II: Love Passion Literary Origins
English Literature S. XIX (author, works, characteristic)
Victorian Epoch
Romanticism
Emily Brontë and Wuthering Heights
Chapter III: Passion-love: Heathcliff and Catherine in Wuthering Heights
Passion: Heathcliff
Love: Catherine
Love as fatality
The exile of Heathcliff
The resentment. (envilecimiento)
Catherine: Illness , suffering and death
Conclusions
2
Introduction
Love is as ancient as the first human being who appeared on earth and has been
one of the principal causes of the behavior of human beings. Love may be a feeling
that takes humans to experience unexpected emotions in their lives. It can take
them to madness; also it might take them to feel other sentiments such as hate,
resentment, or frustration, which may be the reasons why some people take
decisions that can be evil or harmful not just for them but also for the ones they
love.
Therefore, Man has studied and expressed himself about love, hate, sorrow, joy
and other feelings in arts, such as literature, music, painting, etc. For instance, in
Literature, many authors have written works about love stories, where the princess
needs to be saved from the dragon by a prince who would be her real love.
Nineteenth century authors such as Jane Austen, Emily Brontë, or Henry James
wrote love stories that were closer to what really happened in the aristocracy of
their society. They narrated the story of an impossible love between a prince who
fell in love with a poor girl from their kingdom and the problems they had to face to
be together even if the entire society considered this union wrong. Also there were
authors who mixed socio- economic, political and other problems in a real love
story. An example of this genre in literature is the classical play Romeo and Juliet
by William Shakespeare. The story is apparently offensive, cruel, plain and with an
unhappy ending for those who were used to reading love stories. There have also
been stories that have marked an important era in the history of a specific place in
the world. Stories such as Tristan and Isolde, Romeo and Juliet, or Pride and
Prejudice, have been studied from different points of views. As an example of this,
the philosophical approach can be mentioned in order to understand the behavior
of the human being when in love. Other writers have also focused on this topic but
from different points of view or, in other words, philosophy in which is possible to
considered love as a topic. Many authors have made hypotheses about the
reasons why human beings may create chaos, develop madness or adopt other
characteristics that apparently differentiate a person who is in love from another
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who is not. In literature there are various titles and narrations about love such as,
Romeo & Juliet (1597) by Shakespeare, Babylon Revisited by F.Scott Fitzgerald
(1931) and Snows of Kilimanjaro (1936) by Ernest Hemingway. These novels may
be an example of the love passion relationship which is implicit in the different
stories.
Romeo & Juliet is a love story in which we can find the classical story about
a girl (Juliet) who is part of the aristocracy because she is the daughter’s king that
fell in love with a man (Romeo) who is a simple worker from the town. Romeo
meets Juliet and they fall in love at first sight, then he starts to find ways to see her
and be together for at least a few minutes. But they are always hiding because in
that age it was not acceptable that a rich girl had a relationship with someone who
had not the same social and economic status. The king was aware of their
relationship and he tried to poison the boy; however, the boy knew about the king’s
intentions so he pretended to drink the poison, but when Juliet saw her love lying
down she thought he was dead so she decided to drink the poison, killing herself.
Romeo realized what she had done and decided it was not worth living without her
so he took his own life with a dagger.
This tragic story covers another part of the history of the human being, another
epoch and another kind of love. This kind of love cannot be accomplished because
of the problems they have to face (social, economic, political, and moral, etc.)
according to the time in which it takes place. This relationship is the one that
makes people believe that love can do anything and that it is beyond death even if
the result of this love is death (physically). Besides, it is said that love conquers all.
Romeo and Juliet’s story not only shows the consequences of acting against the
socially rejected but also, as Dennis De Rougemont said, “we need a myth or story
that can express the fact that love has his dark side in which passion is linked to
death”(Amor y Occidente,1993). Shakespeare may have tried to demonstrate that
love is not always the happy solution that humans are always looking for in their
lives. According to what people say about the play of Romeo and Juliet the author
of this play is not interested in portraying the pretty side of love, but the power and
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the passion in the story. A closer look at this play suggests that love in Romeo and
Juliet seems to be brutal and violent. The principal characters are completely in
love; however, this ends with death. It also suggests that both of them were
connected to passion and that they also know it carries death. To put it differently,
it may be necessary to quote again Dennis de Rougemont, when he says that this
“passion love is the restrained pleasure for death” (Amor y Occidente,
1993,pag.52). It is a desire disguised as fatality that they felt. It is something that
seems to be hard to understand but that brings chaos to their lives.
Babylon Revisited is one of the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald. He wrote the story of
a couple who lived a party life style. Charlie and Helen were in a wild relationship
and both of them lived passionately, fast and with frenzy, also they had a child.
Charlie was in love with Helen but the story suggests that he was dating a woman
at the same time he was with Helen. Furthermore, Charlie saw Helen kissing
someone else at a Bar. Thus Charlie ran away after seeing her. Helen died from
pneumonia. She was drunk when she arrived home but Charlie was asleep and he
had locked the door and there was a storm outside and she did not survive.
Sometime afterwards, Charlie loses the custody of her child and then he recovered
himself in order to gain her custody back. The story developed the process that
Charlie has to face in order to have his child back and how the party life he had
was still interfering to fix the past in order to improve his future with his daughter.
F. Scott Fitzgerald is an author who wrote fiction stories but he also seems
to portray the social and historical events in Europe at a certain time. The author is
also known as other authors for the importance and power of love as topic in his
literature.
Babylon revisited is a story that deals with many topics but in this
particular case it is necessary to choose the suggested and hidden story of the
relationship between Charlie and Helen. The author gives some details which can
be clues to foresee the real history about them. The party life style they lived
contained not just love but also disorder. Igor Caruso said that passion creates
disorder but that it also brings with it the effective result of death (La separación de
los amantes,2007:189).
The love story between Charlie and Helen is another
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example of the novels, myths and stories about the love that leads to death and
suffering. It is unnecessary to explain that the madness in their relationship was the
cause of the death of Helen and by the pain that Charlie felt when he realized that
he was not able to be by her side after seeing her betrayal but despite of this he
also knew that he needed her to live so the pain was something that drives him
crazy. The result of that night was the expected death of Helen. It is expected
because as George Bataille said “if the lover cannot be possessed, he sometimes
thinks about causing her death; frequently he thinks about killing her or losing her.
Among other things he wishes his own death” (El Erotismo, 2008:25). So it may be
that in some way Charlie wanted Helen to be dead.
The Snows of Kilimanjaro is a short story by Ernest Hemingway. It talks
about a rich girl who feels lonely until she falls in love with a guy who likes to travel,
writes and goes hunting. Helen is a widow who is bored with her life and is also
scared to be alone. She is looking for someone who is interesting and adventurous
(not someone like the rich men that she has been having affairs with). So then, she
meets Harry, with whom she is completely in love and who is a Men who likes to
travel, write and go hunting on Safaris. The girl follows him to the jungle and there
he starts to change his behavior with her. He seems to be bored and tired of being
with her and listening to her and she is always trying to do her best with him, make
him feel comfortable and loved. They are always having quarrels because he starts
to show her how much he hates her and she is always trying to be pleasant with
him. He even mistreats her. This short story seems cruel because love makes
Helen suffer for someone who is not interested in her. But in the end, the story
suggests that in the letter that Harry wrote, it can be noticed how Charlie really felt
about being in Love. Before Charlie met Helen, he was completely in love with
someone else, someone, he will never be together with again. It can be assumed
that Charlie was also suffering because of love and that may be the reason why he
felt that life had no sense and why he uses Helen to avoid being alone although he
hates her.
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This short story is not just about love but I was really interested in this part
because, readers may sometimes have an idea about what real love is and that it
should end happily ever after. This story shows a different view of how love can
change somebody. It is not real love what Harry feels for Helen, he hates her and
he wants to tell her every moment that he does not want her with him by his side
because in some way he feels that Helen has bought him with her money and he
feels disgusted by the idea. Harry also accepts death and thinks it is painless and
better than remain alive. He wishes that he had written more about his life. On the
contrary, Helen is in love with Harry and she seems to suffer with his bad behavior
but even she cries and is offended by him. She believes he loves her even though
he says he does not. This love is poorly, tired, indisposed and it may also be
correct to say: a mad love. Harry was in love with his wife many years before he
met Helen and because he lost her, he seems to be in some kind of agony and
pain. It can be seen as a kind of “death” that Harry feels in his soul. Igor Caruso
talks about the different processes that humans face when they lose someone they
love. Caruso says that there are some mechanisms when someone “died” (La
separación de los amantes, 2007:20). Additionally, the author says that
“aggressiveness is a defense mechanism because it seems to allow the
disappearance of this sense of identification (love becomes hate) but at the same
time, it also allows to join itself”. This may be the reason why Harry has always let
Helen down and insulted her with painful words. And despite the fact that he
knows he was not able to love her as he loved his wife he still shared his last
moments with Helen. Moreover, it is important to mention that Caruso wrote about
the characteristics of “death” that someone may suffer. He said that one of the
main characteristics is resignation (2007: 29-115). Harry’s behavior indicates that
he accepts to die even though Helen is supporting him all the time. Harry just
wishes to be dead because he thinks that life has no sense. He resigned himself to
death and even though he knew he felt nothing for being alive he really wanted a
physical death.
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In brief, this research is about the love passion relationship in the novel of
Wuthering Heights. It is divided in three chapters. The first chapter is about the
works of some authors considered appropriate to develop the characteristics of the
love passion relationship. The second chapter is about the historical and social
context of the novel of Wuthering Heights and a brief biographical text of Emily
Brontë and its possible relation to the novel. And finally the third chapter is an
analysis of Wuthering Heights focused on the relationship of the principal
characters: Heathcliff and Catherine and how this relationship might be related with
the different definitions of love passion and its characteristics. The objective of this
research is to demonstrate that Emily Brontë develops the novel of Wuthering
Heights based on one of the most popular topics in the history of literature: love
passion. As it is said before, this topic has been written about in different contexts
and historical times in some classic novels. In this particular case, this study is the
analysis of one of the most important English novels of the nineteenth century and
describes how this novel presents some characteristics that many authors define
as the passion love relationship is. This analysis contains the explanations and the
relation between the authors’ hypothesis about love passion and its characteristics
in the relationship of Heathcliff and Catherine.
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Chapter I
Love without fear and trepidation is fire without flame and heat,
day without sun, comb without honey,
Summer without flowers, winter without frost,
sky without moon a book without letters.
Chrétien de Troyes
Love Passion, Heart Eroticism, Death Mechanism
This chapter is divided in four sections. The first three represent different views of
love passion according to three different writers, de Rougemont, Bataille y
Carusso, that I considered appropriate to explain the triumph of (un)happiness in
Wuthering Heights and that are known for their studies about love passion or
“tempestuous relationships”. Each section starts with the characteristics of passion
love, the most important ideas of the authors about this topic, and how they named
this sentiment. The last section presents an interpretation of happiness as
described in the work of Pascal Bruckner, which may contribute to a clearer view of
happiness as conceived through the suffering of passionate lovers.
Denis de Rougemont and Love Passion (1906)
This author studies love passion in the myth of Tristan and Isolde, in order to
illustrate with examples how the history of love has been one of the most important
topics due to the numerous books that deal with love and death, and have become
classics in English literature. The Tristan and Isolde Myth is an Irish myth which is
about an orphan boy who is brought up by his deceased mother's brother, the king
of Cornwall, who sends him to kill a giant. During the fight the giant wounds him
with a poisoned sword. Without any hope of survival, he is shipped to Ireland, only
with a sword and a harp, in search of the Queen of Ireland who has the remedy
that can save his life but he introduces himself to the queen with another name
because the giant that wounded him is the brother of the queen. When he arrives
there, princess Isolde looks after him and heals his injuries. Later Tristan is sent to
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look for the future wife of the King but instead he goes to Ireland and there he
fights against a dragon and is wounded once more. Isolde takes care of Tristan
again but she discovers that Tristan was the murderer of her uncle. Nevertheless,
Isolde forgives him and they both go to the land of Mark. During the trip both are
thirsty and the maid mistakenly gives them to drink a poison which was the
"destruction and death which will not leave those who take it at any time of their
life". Then, they confess their love for each other and surrender to it. After this, they
face a number of problems. They are condemned to death for adultery, but they
manage to escape. Time passes and they are separated on several occasions.
Finally, when Tristan is mortally wounded awaiting the arrival of the Queen of
Cornwall, the only one who can cure him, Isolde jealously lies to Tristan and does
not tell him that the Queen has arrived. Finally, Tristan dies in Isolde’s arms.
(1993, pp 26-29). Denis de Rougemont focuses on love and also on passion, the
feeling that leads the lovers to commit the unimaginable actions for the ones they
love. The author goes beyond this and talks about love by saying that: “En
realidad, como todos los grandes amantes, se sienten enajenados, ‘más allá del
bien y del mal’ (1993:40), in other words, the love which carries passion can
transcend beyond death.
In his book El amor y Occidente, the author explains that the term Roman1
refers to those stories that are based in love. But de Rougemont wrote his book
studying those stories in depth and analyses how occidental people are attracted
to literary works that do not have a happy ending but that are about impossible
love, adultery and passion. He develops his work by taking what he considers to be
one of the first stories in literature and an example of romanticism, the myth of
Tristan and Isolde. Henceforth, the work of de Rougemont is going to be about the
characteristics of a novel (or Roman) that has duality and provokes suffering in
1
The Roman is the term which was adopted in the XVIII century in Europe in countries as England, France
and Germany, to refer to the stories that talked about the individual or the human being and that has to do
with something emotional, romantic or fantastic. Some of the most important authors of Romans were
Charles Dickens, Friedrich Schlegel, Emily Brontë, and George Eliot.
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lovers because of the passion they feel and the situations they have to face in
order to be together. Furthermore, the author explains that another of the principal
characteristics of the roman is the constant separation and reunion of the lovers
(1993:44). Additionally, he states that “En la pasión no sentimos ya lo que se sufre
si no lo apasionante.” In other words, “the passion of love means tragedy” (1993:
16).
The author posits that the separation of the lovers is the result of their own
passion and the love that they feel for their passion more than their satisfaction or
the love for their “live objects” (1993:42). Lovers are “in love” with the idea of
suffering for someone, more that being in love with the person by their side.
Lovers who feel this passion do not miss an opportunity to become separated from
their partner and if there is no obstacle they will create it. For this reason it might
be stated that the love that implies suffering is difficult to understand in a
relationship, because lovers find a kind of happiness in the tragedy they suffer. The
idea of being in love with someone who provokes suffering to the loved one and
fights against anything or anyone even themselves is incomprehensible to many
people but to others, as Denis de Rougemont expresses it, love is Fury: “Así a los
que están enamorados hay que perdonarlos por enfermos.” (1993:62).With this in
mind, it is appropriate to define then what passion is according to Denis de
Rougemont. On three occasions he refers to passion, with increasing detail. First,
he describes it as “Es aquello que se sufre”, then he calls it “un deseo reprimido de
la muerte” and finally, he summarizes it as “gusto reprimido de la muerte” (1993,
pp. 42-52). Thus, it is now necessary to seek for a definition to describe love that
carries passion, in other words, to determine what passion love is according to this
first author.
The author defines love passion as the “Deseo de aquello que nos hiere y
nos anonada por su triunfo” (1993:52). He explains in his work that occidental
people do not admit being attracted by this feeling even when they are in close
contact with tragedy. Moreover, the perfect alibi for passion is the filter, which has
been described by de Rougemont as “Es aquello que permite decir a los
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desgraciados amantes, ya ves que nada puedo hacer puesto que es más fuerte
que yo.” (1993:49) and consequently fatality guides lovers and their deceitful acts
to the mortal destiny they desire. Rougemont compares these actions with the
action of a stone that is thrown without aiming at a specific objective but
nevertheless goes directly to the unconscious target. He says: “Es verdad que se
apuntaba al blanco pero la conciencia no ha tenido tiempo de intervenir y desviar
el gesto espontaneo” (1993:49). Therefore, it can be said that the lovers in a love
passion relationship are always unconsciously seeking suffering.
George Bataille and The Heart Eroticism (1987)
In addition to what Denis de Rougemont says about a passion love relationship
and its characteristics, another author who uses different terms for this kind of
relationship is George Bataille. El Erotismo is the title of his book that talks about
love and passion combined in a relationship. This is a study about the erotic
behavior in human beings and its characteristics. In his work he not only deals with
physical eroticism, what he calls eroticism “in bodies”, but it is also about “heart
eroticism”, the term George Bataille uses. The author explains how he is going to
talk about “body eroticism”, “heart eroticism” and “sacred eroticism”.
First of all, the author defines the term eroticism. In his view, “Es la
aprobación de la vida hasta la muerte” which is similar to the idea of Denis de
Rougemont that love passion results in death. A definition of the three kinds of
“eroticism” clarifies the different points of view of both authors. Bataille defines
body eroticism as “una violación que confina con la muerte” (1987:22). He
describes it as the process of being in the normal state of an erotic desire which is
the human being dissolution. The author says “Este término está vinculado con la
actividad erótica donde en el movimiento de disolución al participante masculino le
corresponde, en principio, un papel activo; la parte femenina es pasiva, y es
esencialmente la parte pasiva la que es disuelta como ser discontinuo” (1987:22).
In the second place, Bataille states that sacred eroticism is the continuity of
the human being which is revealed to those who pay attention to a solemn rite, to
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the death of a discontinuous being. Additionally he claims that it is the experience
that can be achieved beyond death. According to Bataille, the principal
characteristic is that in sacred eroticism, the absence of the divine 2 object prevails.
Even though, Bataille did not refer to the love passion relationship as “love passion
relationship”, he did explain that heart eroticism “no necesita del erotismo de los
cuerpos se desprende de él. Lo básico es que la pasión de los amantes se
prolonga, en el dominio de la simpatía moral, la fusión mutua de los cuerpos. La
prolonga o es su introducción[...] pero para quien está afectado por ella, la pasión
puede tener un sentido más violento que el deseo de los cuerpos” (2008:24). In
other words, in a relationship a purely physical attraction is not essential, but what
is vital is the lovers and the pain that they suffer because they are in love and feel
a mutual passion between them. Bataille then, refers to “heart eroticism” as the
“love passion” that lovers may experiment in a relationship. Moreover, the author
emphasizes the violence in a relationship:
“Hasta la pasión feliz lleva consigo un desorden tan violento,
que la felicidad de lo que aquí se trata, más que una
felicidad de lo que se puede gozar , es tan grande que es
comparable con su contrario, con el sufrimiento. (2008:24)
It is important to point out that Bataille talks about a “happy passion”
because he believes that passion in its own essence carries happiness. In this
case it can be helpful to mention “La Euforia perpetua” by Pascal Bruckner, which
is about the different possibilities of being happy by achieving what people
consider can give them that peace and prosperity. Bruckner expressed that
happiness may be considered something difficult to understand and also that for a
long time it has been manipulated by society. Happiness for Pascal Bruckner can
be distinguished according to people’s necessities. If people accomplish or obtain
what they are lacking, then they are going to reach the happiness they were
looking for.
2
According to George Bataille the term Divine is identical to the term Sacred. Both refer to the discontinuity
of the God being. (La discontinuidad de la persona de Dios).
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Similar to Denis de Rougemont, Bataille demonstrates that in heart eroticism
(love passion), one important characteristic is the meaning of death for the lovers.
Bataille said that the possession of the loved one does not mean death but death is
something that somebody can find in seeking the possession of the loved one.
(2008:25). However, the author stresses that “if the lover cannot possess his loved
one, he may sometimes think of killing him or her; the lover would frequently prefer
to kill or lose the loved one, which is to say he wishes its death”. Thereupon,
Bataille declares that the lover’s passion provokes a “death halo” or, in other
words, “if the union of the lovers is a result of passion then it asks for death, it asks
for itself the desire of murder or suicide” (2008:25). The heart eroticism of George
Bataille is the relationship between lovers that asks for death and suffering. The
idea of being together while suffering for love makes them essentially happy. The
author claims that death is the most violent event which rips us out of our obstinacy
to be discontinuous… and then he said “Solo la violencia puede ponerlo todo en
juego” (2008:21). As for George Bataille’s characteristics of love passion, he first
considers it not as a relationship of love passion but as one of heart eroticism.
Then, he defines what passion in a relationship is and how it carries happiness.
Later on, he says that passion hides a wish for death to vivify the relationship and
finally the author states that the rupture of being discontinuous is the one that
maintains people in anguish and that can suggest a more eminent reality.
Igor Caruso: passion and the death mechanism (2007)
Igor Caruso was a psychoanalyst and an existentialist that wrote La Separación de
los Amantes. The author based his study in the various sorts of death that a human
being can suffer. He says that one of the most painful situations for people is the
loss of their loved ones. But he adds that his study is not about physical death but
about phenomenological, psychoanalytical and anthropological aspects of the loss
and death in people’s lives. It claims that there are death mechanisms that people
have to face when they suffer a kind of death. First of all, it is required to mention
that Caruso finds death in several situations that he explains immediately after.
The situations that the author describes are: the separation of people who still live,
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the separations of the people that still love each other, the meaning of separation
in our cultural society, the final separation and the bilateral separation.
For the purpose of this study, it is necessary to explain what Igor Caruso
develops as the ‘separation of the people that still love each other’ (2007:8)3 and
also the characteristics of love passion according that may be compared with those
mentioned by the authors already studied. First of all, Carusso defines the term
passion as “un intento de permitir el triunfo a los intentos parciales reprimidos”,
(2007:14). He also claims that passion is a spontaneous and anarchist answer to
death. It is also a disorganized and liberating answer to the oppressive culture that
has to condemn it to death, repression and mutilation. Moreover, Igor Caruso
describes passion “as sorrow and mortification, something that carries death”
(2007:188). Caruso’s research focuses on the separation of the lovers and also on
the characteristics of passion. In his study of the separation of the lovers there is a
germ of mutual release or else there is no place for a real separation. The author
compares the pain of the lovers that are in constant separation with a chronic
illness that constitutes a long and a painful process characterized by mutual
friction.
Moreover, there is an increase of rebellion or resignation and people
acquire an ephemeral attitude with all the existing, including the presence of their
loved ones (2007:188).Caruso based his chapter of the separation of the people
that still love each other on Freud’s death instinct theory and develops his
hypothesis from it that he denominates as “Los mecanismos del morir” or “Death
Mechanism”.
In the first place, there is “La catástrofe del Yo”. In this process there is a
conscience of death because two people that were together have been separated
and then there is a loss of the loved object. The author describes that if people try
to avoid this kind of absolute death they have to activate protective mechanisms. In
this case, there are three mechanisms that are considered important to analyze the
passion love relationship and the consequences of the separation of the lovers.
“Psychoanalytic studies have proved that affliction contains aggressiveness which
3
Separación de personas que aún se aman. Caruso Igor, La Separación de los Amantes 2007.
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is the cause of the devaluation of the absentee” (2007:10); in other words, the
lovers devaluate the person they love. Aggressiveness is the first protective
mechanism and is the cause of this devaluation; therefore, there is no more
personal identification with the object 4 and as a result of this protective mechanism,
love becomes hate. The second mechanism is indifference. The author shows that
this indifference is unconditionally present and that it provokes repression and
conscious rejection. The last one named “ La Huida hacia adelante” explains that
there is a kind of escape in order to look for pleasures, that is, many people believe
that they have to look for a substitute. About this Caruso says: “It kills its best,
when there is already a replacement (substitute) for the dead” (2007:11).The
passion in lovers’ relationships, according to Caruso, creates disorder and
alienation (2007:187), because lovers center their lives in their passion and are
carried to death by their death instincts. Alienation is another important
characteristic of love passion.
Pascal Bruckner and the idea of being happy (2008)
Pascal Bruckner is a French philosopher and author of the book La Euforia
perpetua (2008), which is about the idea of happiness in society. Pascal claims
that there are many necessities that people need to fulfill in order to be happy. For
this reason it is important to focus on what Bruckner says about happiness in
human relationships. For instance, he claims that there are two determining fields
which are part of the blessedness of the human being: sexuality and health
because both can be tested and are the target of continuous attention. It is
explained in Bruckner’s book that lovers are always testing their happiness.
Lovers, according to the author, ask for tangible evidence of their passion and
sexuality. The methods that lovers use in order to test their happiness is to start
with simple caresses to perversions and shivers; “they test their marriage or their
union, they test their pleasure, compete with other couples, show them exhibitionist
reliefs in order to obtain a distinction and in this way lovers try to appease the
condition of their feelings” (2008:60). Besides, the author states that during the
4
Igor Caruso uses the term Object to refer to the loved one. He also uses the term absentee.
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time the body was repressed in the name of faith and because of this, currently in
the West, it has created a kind of phenomenon because this repression was
absolved, and people enjoy this freedom at present in an exaggerated form,
instead they enjoy it with innocence. Therefore, humans transfer this prohibition to
the pleasure essence. Caruso has also stated that occidental people have a
singular idea of pleasure and happiness and that happiness is not always morally
frowned on because sometimes people’s pleasure is difficult to be socially
accepted and also difficult to be accepted by themselves.
Bruckner reminds us that “people are always seeking to reach their
happiness and that if they are not happy, they are in disagreement with their lives,
which provokes a decline” (2008:62). The Decline is another characteristic that is
present in love passion relationships. In spite the fact that the author says that
people who are not happy suffer a decline, it is necessary to remember that in this
kind of relationship lovers are always looking for it because that is what passion
implies. It leads to death; in essence, it leads to lovers’ decline. Finally, Bruckner
adds: "A long time ago, the happiness of the majority abandoned the kitsch
territories of the romantic novel, of the Kiosk literature. Now it is tough, demanding
and inflexible " (2008:65). The literature throughout history has been considered
the most attractive art for many people and that is the reason why this research is
focus on one of the principal topics, the love passion.
And as Bruckner just
mentioned, this literature is not about happy ending but it is attracted because the
stories demonstrate the part of the human being that have been difficult to accept.
In my personal opinion, after having analyzed these four authors, it can be
highlighted that all of them are in agreement with the idea that passion love takes
lovers to death and that the main characteristics of these tragic relationships, in
novels as well as in real life, are constant separation, alienation, indifference,
suffering, and the idea of vivifying their love by testing themselves and their
passion despite the fact that they have to suffer in order to reach their “happiness”.
It is important to be open to the different ideas of happiness because, as Bruckner
says, the idea of happiness is in constant change and has been limited by society.
17
Occidental people may have a taste for death (physical or spiritual) but this love
that alienates and makes people suffer is intense. They accept it because in the
end they reach that love that is constantly vivified by separations and the problems
they face because they surrender to their passion.
18
Chapter II
Death and vulgarity are the only two facts in the nineteenth century
that one cannot explain away.
Oscar Wilde
Love-passion Literary Origins
This chapter is a brief historical review of the XIX century in English literature. It is
about Romanticism and the Victorian age as well as their principal authors and the
works that are considered the most important. In addition, it presents a summary of
Emily Brontë’s life in order to contextualize the novel and the facts that affected the
author’s life to write the novel of Wuthering Heights.
English Literature XIX century
The XIX century the world was in constant change because of the industrial
revolution. In the study of Peter Sinclair it is said that in England there were
different events that might impact the development of the English literature. At this
time, science and economy developed rapidly. New political movements appeared,
such as absolute idealism, dialectical materialism, nihilism, and nationalism. As
well as the creation of the Bills that revolutionized the laws of the working class
(2009,pg3). The development in medicine was the consequence of the precarious
conditions of the employees and also to the migratory phenomenon. For this
reason in one of the Bills of 1830’s-40s it was established laws of public health and
safety mandates. In Arts, neo – gothic architecture appeared, as well as
romanticism realism and naturalism. In painting, landscape-painters became
successful. Moreover, Sinclair claims that in the XIX century there were great
19
philosophers and writers as Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, and
others. The socialism began to accelerate as well as, the industry. The expansion
of trade was big opportunities to immigrants have a job in mines and industries.
The colonization around the world and the advances in Technology made England
a potential and prosper empire in the world (2009, pg 4).
In addition to those reorganizations in the English country, the literacy works
were developing. In the Study of George P. Landon about XIX century writers, it is
states that writers and movements of the XIX century were in constant evolution
due to the several events that occurred in England. That is the reason why in
literature the novel adopted new ideas and appeared movements like the
romanticism, the realism and the naturalism (2004, pg 8). Society, particularly with
women rights was severe. Helena Wojtczak study explains the woman and men’s
roles. As the author says, “woman sole purpose was to marriage and reproduce”
(2002, pg 5). Woman who remained single was socially condemned and people
feel pity for her. Also women receive less education than men; they used to work
from early age and they were forced to work in small ranges occupation jobs. If
women owned, inherited or earned properties when they married automatically
belonged to their husband. On the contrary, men had the opportunity to work in a
wide range of well positioned jobs. Moreover, Men had the right to force his wife to
have sex and childbirth; it was socially accepted that men spends his wife’s
inheritance with prostitutes and mistress and if their women were not agreed and
unhappy with there was nothing they could do it.
Fathers, husbands, even
brothers had the right to punish any sign of women rebellion.
Due to those
situations women had to be their husband’s subjugation. Wojtczak states that
“Fitting in rather uncomfortably, even hypocritically with this state of affairs was the
concept of woman as a goodness placed on a pedestal and worshipped” (2002 pg
6).
Society development was not for many years as it is described. It was
increasing and people start to obtain rights in due to the creation of new
regulations: “During the early to mid-nineteenth century the social order was being
20
challenge and a new philosophy was emerging, imbued with ideas of liberty,
personal freedom and legal reform” (Wojtczak, 2002 pg. 2).Even tough, in English
nineteenth literature the women low status and precarious conditions of work have
been analyzed.
Romanticism
To begin with the romanticism is necessary to define the term romantic and study
the origins of the word. First of all, according to De riquer y Valverde in the study of
“La Historia de la Literatura Universal” it is said that “a definition of romantic
mentality do not has sense because if there is a main characteristic of the term is
its ambivalence, ambiguity easily structural in polar dualities” ( 2003:5). But also
there is another possible definition to the romanticism “the romanticism is the
epoch of the imagination but also in some cases that imagination characterizes for
being an imagination of the reality itself..” ( 2003:5). There are several forms, to
attempt to define the romanticism but the best idea to know the term and this
epoch is to describing the romanticism, its main characteristics and the principal
authors and literary works. The romanticism was a literacy movement which its
characteristics were the fantasy and also about the author’s descriptions and
perspectives. It is says that “ – El personaje romántico- y ahora el autor sabe ya
que no es sino personaje- se oye y se mira desde fuera al hablar y unas veces se
entusiasma y otras veces se decepciona a sí mismo en esa autocontemplación”.
(2003:6).
Also, the romanticism conceives the bourgeois class as the perfect kind of
human being although sometimes it hates him in a masochist form, that is to say,
sometimes it was a protest against the bourgeois because of its clothes and its
costumes and attitudes ridiculous this protest was in fact, a protest against the
human reality in general. Not just it was an emotional bourgeois expression but
also it was used as means of protection against the rationalism 5 which was an
5
The rationalism was a philosophical movement that attempt to be the system of thought that emphasizes
the role of reason in the acquisition of knowledge; also it states that knowledge is the source of reason and
rejects the idea of sense because they might be deceiving.
21
intellectual weapon of the new social class. The term Romantic or Romanticism
referred to the emotional romantic, natural and ordinary although in “1798 the
French Academy Dictionary joined both senses, literary and natural, of
Romantique[…]” (De riquer y Valverde, 2003:12). The author who coined the term
Romantic in its strict sense was Friederich Schlegel. Hence the term romantic
“refers to all the movement in literature o literary creation, in poetry” (De riquer y
Valverde, 2003:12). In the meantime the term had a standard use. On the contrary,
in England the term Romantic referred to the passionate, emotional and fantastic.
The romantic epoch in England was from the 1787 to the 1832 and in that
time was also the Reform bill. While in France the realistic epoch was around 1830
until the last decade of the XIX century. The realistic refers to the reflection of the
real and moreover in this time the classic novel in the universal literature was
created. The French novel started to be the “individual novel”. ( 2003:11)
Since 1830 France is evident what was already evident in
England: that literature has only the bourgeois ideal as
typical reader - if there is any aristocrat or begins to be
some commoner who read have to do it from the
bourgeois mentality.
(De riquer y Valverde,2003 :377)
The literature started to increase the readers’ numbers due to this kind of
literature but some authors as Balzac turned against the bourgeois class because
of the pressure and because it was a kind of rule that this classic novel had. The
realistic novel also showed a background in which the society was against the
individual and also it was presented the adultery situation in the bourgeois
marriage. In this epoch the woman is someone who had no freedom and activities
and it is said that because of that she had an empty- headed which make her
dream with a lover who could be her salvation and, at the same time, her hidden
rebellion. The realistic novel is then “an analytic and critical attitude in front of the
social panorama” (2003:381).Besides, the literature for the bourgeois was more
attractive than theater and poetry. Among the best known authors of this epoch
were Charles Dickens who wrote novels such as Oliver twist (1838), David
22
Copperfield (1849), and Bleak House (1852) in which as critics said he uses
symbols to give more meaning to his novels. Charles Dickens had many readers
and his works have been the most known in literature even he was forced to write
a “happy ending” to his novels. There were other important authors in the literature
of XIX century as William Makeapeace Thackeray, who wrote novels which were
about sentimental development and irony; The politic Benjamin Disraeli the man of
what was called “romantic feudalism” (2003:437), wrote novels that had to do with
social analysis during the years the Victoria Queen was ruling the kingdom, better
known as the Victorian epoch. Wilkie Collins who was better known for his work:
the moonstone, in which develops a fantastic lecture. His works were about the
ecclesiastic world and the disregard to the religious; he used the satire and irony
about the Victorian novel6.Another writer who created literary works about religious
was Mary Ann Evans known as her pseudonym George Eliot7. Authors as Jane
Austen and The Brontë sisters were known for their classic novel and their
particularly manners to describe society and the bourgeois class. The Brontë
sisters write their poems and novels with a particularly style in which the characters
were
constructed
in
hardness
plot
and
appeared
as
“terrible
figures,
incomprehensible, brunettes men with a hypnotic gaze and unknown origin”.
(2003:439). The literature in the Victorian era or the late nineteenths was about
social advancement which takes many forms for example the financial issue which
appears in Great Expectations (1861) book by Charles Dickens, or in marrying as
in Charlotte Brontë book Jane Eyre (1847), and also in education which attempt to
improve the “proper” behavior which provided the period with its stereotype.
Oscar Wilde was one of the writers who used satire in order to write against
these proper stereotypes and about the idea of being an English man of the epoch.
(M. Kirschen,n.d,pg 4). Furthermore, according to Sinclair the Victorian literature
also was characterized because novels where written in prose and had more
6
The Victorian novel refers to the literature period in which the queen Victoria reign the England in
Kingdom (1837-1901).
7
Women who wrote in the XIX century had to use a pseudonym in order to publish their works because in
that epoch women were not important figures. This also was used because women writers wanted her
works be read and taken seriously.
23
success with the middle class lectors. Consequently the publishing industry
increased and most of the stories where serialized in the newspapers in which
lectors could follow a weekly basis novel. Important authors such as Trollope,
Flaubert, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy and many others were part of this literature period.
(2009, pg 7)
The Victorian Era
The Victorian Epoch covered the period from 1837 to 1901 in the United Kingdom.
This epoch was the peak of the industrial revolution and the British Empire. Its
characteristics are the constants changes of the cultural sensibilities and political
issues since the Reform bill in 1832. The Queen Victoria lasted 64 years in the
power which was the longest reign in the British history. During this period there
were political, economic, cultural, industrial and scientific changes. ( Landow, n.d,
pg 7) .In the research of George P. Landow about the Victorian era, it is says that
when the Queen Victoria ascended to the reign, England was agricultural and rural
and when she died England was completely industrialized. The country was
connected because of the construction of the railways that joined small
communities to the big cities. Also, during the Victorian epoch there were changes
in women rights because they gained the right to inherit property after the marriage
and also they could practice the divorce and fight for custody of her children.
Similar to what Helena Wojtazack says, Landow emphasizes the
development in politics, economy and international trade. Moreover, the British
exportation had also a positive impact in the economy; some exported products
were steel, iron and coal. English and migrant people worked. The common image
of the Victorian epoch was a bourgeois society and middle class, although the
bourgeois class recognized itself as “middle class” because the “upper class” was
the royalty. Del Col, L. affirms that the common middle class and lower middle
class tried to emulate the upper class being shopkeepers, businessmen, doctors,
lawyers and businessmen. The working class, poor, had large numbers of
domestic workers. To summarize, the Victorian epoch was the best and the worst
for the United Kingdom; although they had the best change with the industrial
24
revolution they also suffered during the transition in order to reach the
technological and scientific advances and become one of the world power country.
(n.d, pg. 9).
In literature, as Landown says, the writers of novels and poets conserved
the idea of express the spontaneity, sincerity, originality, intensity, and alienation.
Moreover, authors, write their works with two new forms: the autobiographical and
the autobiographical fictions ( Alligham, nd, pg 11). The narrative technique of the
Victorian literature was similar to the romanticism; the narration was in third or first
person who tells the story from its point of view. Furthermore, Alligham states that
The Victorian novels reflected the manners and the life as it was but combined the
satire and fiction. Also the supernatural characteristic was used by some
authors.”Because fiction was associate with pleasure rather than intellectual and
improving content, the general denial of the fictional nature of a short story was a
necessary antidote to the common prejudice against reading fiction. The Victorian
editors for the most part regarded their publications as socially improving as
vehicles for disseminating knowledge about culture , science , history , religion and
politics, so writers often attempt to suggest that their stories were reminiscences”
(Alligham, nd, pg 5).
Some of the greatest and principal British practitioners were Charles
Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Kipling Stevenson, Jane Austen, Elizabeth Gaskell,
Charlotte Brontë, W.M Thackeray and George Elliot. According to Landown, in his
essay about the novel and the inner world in the Victorian age, many Victorian
writers employed the fantasy and a structure of a subjective world of daily reality
(Landown,nd,pg 4). The Victorian novel characteristic is the fantasy in the inner
world. The importance to Victorian writers was to claim that the inner world of the
human psychology and its subjective experiences had primary value. Novels as
Jane Eyre (1847) combined the fantasy and the objectives experiences in the inner
world (human psychology).Also, according to Keen: “Associated with the
development of mid-nineteenth century realism, ‘social fiction’ is the broadest of
the terms encompassing industrial novels, condition of England novels and social
25
problem novels. By most account, the social problems novel of the 1830s, 1840s
and 1850s loses impetus when the moment passes and chartist initiated by the first
Reform Bill and late Victorian novels still grape with social problems”. (nd. Pg 9).
Emily Brontë and Wuthering Heights
Emily Brontë was born in Yorkshire in 1818 and she died in 1848. Her father was
Patrick Brontë, a priest who married Maria Branwell. He was Irish poetry writer
and he had six children. Mr. Brontë is said to be a selfish and intimidable man and
also he is said to might be violent and severe. In 1821 her wife died of cancer and
Patrick Brontë persuaded her sister in law to take care of his children and live with
them, nevertheless the mother image for the Brontë children was their servant
Tabitha Aykroyd who can be speculate to be the prototype of Nelly Dean in
Wuthering Heights. The Brontë family lived in Haworth Parsonage which was as
William Maughman describes “Era una pequeña casa de arenisca en la cresta de
una empinada colina por la que se desperdigaba hacia abajo la aldea” (1992:242).
Emily life’s was the ordinary life of a nineteenth century female, she lived on the
moors and she wrote poems about love passionate and her stories was more
rugged and emotions more raw because her life on the moors.
The Brontë siblings received private education from her aunt. Emily was
attracted by literature since she was a little child as well as her sisters and brother.
Emily wrote poetry and made a literary sequel with her siblings. The personality of
Emily, as Maugham describes, was full of contradictions “she was severe,
dogmatic, sullen, choleric but also she was devout, respectful, patient and gently
with the one she loved” (1992: 256). Furthermore, Peterson claims that Mr. Brontë
had a special manner to educate his children and that this may be shown in the
characters of Wuthering Heights: “Mr. Bronte raised his children to be hardy and to
scorn conventional notions about food and dress. Catherine was always ready for
‘a scamper on the moors’, even on a ‘floading with rain’. Catherine seems to have
scorned conventional dress” (1992:9). Emily’s brother, Branwell Brontë, was
considered the most intelligent and brilliant of the four siblings and Mr. Brontë look
after his education. He tried to become a successful a painter but the failures made
26
him to become alcoholic and addicted to the opium. Emily looked after him until he
finally died.
With this in mind, it is necessary to analyses, according to Daphne Merkin,
that the relationship between Emily and her brother Branwell was beyond a sibling
relationship. It is suggested that, both had a possible incestuous relation. “After
charlotte given up on him as a bad egg, Emily continued to stand by her older
brother, claiming him down and getting him to bed during his drunken outburst.
This aspect of Brontë family life led to speculations about a possible incestuous
aspect to Branwell and Emily’s relationship, especially in regard to its being the
model for the relationship between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff”.
(2004:19).Meanwhile, her sister Charlotte was forced to get a job in order to
support her family and became a governess. It is said that charlotte wanted to get
married and she wrote a letter to Mr. Brontë in which she tried to introduce his
couple but Mr. Brontë let her know that he did not accepted the relation because
“her partner did not has enough money and he told her that if she married him it
would degrade her and she would wasted and that if she wanted to marry Mr.
Brontë hoped that she does in a different way” (1992:255).The author of Wuthering
Heights picked up real situations and also the same phrases that were used in her
familiar moments. For example, the relationship between Charlotte and Mr.Nicholls
that was not approved by Mr. Brontë and in which it is mentioned before, Mr.
Brontë let Charlotte knows how he rejected her engagement. This idea of the
impossible love might be taken from this familiar situation.
I’ve no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have
to be in heaven; and if the wicked man in there had not
brought Heathcliff, so low I shoudn’t have thought of it. It
would degrade me to marry Heathcliff, now; no he shall
never know I love him, and that, not because he’s
handsome, Nelly, but because he’s more myself than I
am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are
the same, and Linton’s is a different as a moonbeam from
lightning or frost from fire. (1999, p.87)
27
Charlotte supported to publish her sisters novels and after Emily’s death, she wrote
a preface in 1850 and Wuthering Heights started to receive real recognition. Her
work was praised for cleverness and power.
More than 150 years and many cultural upheavals later,
Emily Brontë’s novel remains almost blindingly original,
undimmed in its power to convey the destructive potential
of thwarted passion as expressed through the
unappeasable fury of a rejected love.(Merkin , 2004, p.16)
The literary work of Emily Brontë was not to be expected to have success in
XIX era however there are many positives critics and literary essays of Wuthering
Heights. Merkin states : “Whether this quality of being intractably unlike other
novels… is a good or a bad thing is a puzzle that continues to engage the novel’s
readers every bit as much as when it was first published in 1847, causing, with a
few exceptions, consternation and outright hostility among Victorian readers”.
(2004:13)The novel of Wuthering Heights for some authors has been an
autobiographical novel that shows Emily brontë’s life and also the classic Victorian
epoch. There are many situations in the novel that are reference to Emily’s life. For
example, the possible incestuous relationship that is speculated between Emily
and Branwell and that it is suggested in the novel as the Catherine and Heathcliff
relationship; which it is necessary to point out that Mr. Earnshaw never explained
where was the precedence of Heathcliff and as reader it can be deduct that
Heathcliff attempt to the bastard son of Mr. Earnshaw. And as a result, in this
hypothetic comparison, Catherine Earnshaw was Heathcliff half-sister. The violent
personality of Mr. Brontë was one of the many characteristics that Emily presented
in the novel. It contains constant fights and severe punishments that were imposed
to their characters and also stable and hostile relation among the family members.
Emily Brontë reflected her life’s experiences and even though it is a literary
romantic book it is also a book which contains a big part of the literature history. It
can be assume that despite the possible rejection that her book might had in XIX
era, Brontë presents the habits and limits of men and women and she develops her
story combining different aspects of her family personality and the reality of the
Victorian kingdom.
Emily’s personality might be demonstrating in Heathcliff
28
character. Both are unsociable, shy, passionate severe even violent but deep
inside themselves they were noble with the ones they loved. It might be say that
Emily expresses again herself to the lector when she wrote:
Nelly, I am Heathcliff - he's always, always in my mind not as a pleasure, any more then I am always a pleasure
to myself - but, as my own being. (1999, p. 88)
The author may seem to relate her work with her personal life and as some
writers in mid-century the work of Emily Brontë can be an autobiographical novel
combined the supernatural and romantic aspects. Even though, as it is said before,
the recognition to Wuthering Heights took a long time, and many writers have been
criticizing Emily Brontë’s work. In the study of Melani L. she states that “ critics are
still arguing about the structure of Wuthering Heights and that for Mark Schorer it is
one of the most carefully constructed novels in English but for Albert J. Guerard it
is a splendid, imperfect novel which Brontë loses control over occasionally”(2009
pg. 4).Furthermore, Melani L. says that Lord David Cecil could write in 1935 that
“Emily Brontë was not properly appreciated; even her admires saw her as an
‘unequal genius’. Cecil, as Melany claims “countered this view by identifying the
operation of cosmic forces as the central impetus and controlling force in the
novel”. Another important writer who judged Emily’s literary work was Virginia
Woolf.
She looked out upon a world cleft into gigantic disorder
and felt within her the power to unite it in a book. That
gigantic ambition is to be felt throughout the novel –a
struggle, half thwarted but of superb conviction, to say
something through the mouths of the characters which is
not merely “ I love” or “I hate” but “we” , the whole human
race” and “you, the eternal powers…” the sentence
remains unfinished.
( 2009, pg 6)
Wuthering Heights structure has been analyzed from different points of view.
For example Cecil, according to Melani, argue that “Because Emily was concerned
with what life means she focused on her character’s place in the cosmos, in which
everything –alive or not, intellectual or physical– was animated by one of two
spiritual principles: the principle of the storm, which was harsh, ruthless dynamic
and wild and the principle of the calm, which was gentle, merciful passive and
29
tame”. This analysis of Cecil might be related with the duality that was appropriate
for the Romanticism and also that may has to do with Brontë’s personality.
However, the description of the society in Wuthering Heights is also described by
several authors. Melani premises that “Catherine affirmation ‘I am Heathcliff’ is for
de Beauvoir the cry of every woman in love, in her feminist, existentialist reading ,
the woman in love surrenders her identity for his identity and her world for his
world; she becomes the incarnation or embodiment of the man she loves, his
reflection, his double. The basis for this relationship lies in the roles society assigns
to males and females.” (2009 pg 10). In addition to what this authors says, Joyce
Carol Oates in his essay of The Magnamity of Wuthering Heights, claims that “as
an historical novel, published in 1847, ‘narrated’ by Lockwood in 1801-1802,and
encompassing an interior story that begins in the late summer of 1771, it is
expansive enough to present two overlapping and starkly contrasting tales: the
first, and more famous, a somewhat lurid tragedy of betrayal erected upon a
fantasy of childhood (or incestuous) romance; the second, a story of education,
maturing and accommodation to the exigencies of time” (1983 pg 3). Also he
compares and related Brontë and Melville novels with one of the most known
literary author in history:
[…] Both Brontë and Melville draw upon Shakespeare for
the speeches of certain of their principals (Heathcliff being,
in the remarkable concluding pages of the novel, as
succinctly eloquent as Edmund, Lago, Macbeth) , but it is
Brontë novel that avoids the unnatural strain of allegory ,
and gives a local habitation to outsized passions.(Oates,
J. 1983, pg 5)
This second chapter is a briefly explanation about the important characteristics of
the author’s social context and the possible relation about the author life and the
characters of Wuthering Heights, as well as the factors that may be implied in the
novel according to the human being behavior in the XIX century combined with the
romanticism, which was an important literature movement. Furthermore, it is
important to reinforce that the novel of Emily Brontë was not completely accepted
by the readers of the mid-century; Even though, throughout literature history the
30
novel has become one of the classic literary works which structure and
characteristics have been analyzed and study by many authors.
31
Chapter III
Passion-love: Heathcilff and Catherine in Wuthering Heights
Love carries passion only for those who dare to feel violent love and suffering.
Passionate love is the intense and great love that somebody can experience, but
also, it is out of human control, it can control the soul of the lovers and moreover it
can take them to death. Lovers may feel like living dead. If they do not feel this
necessity of pain and sorrow in order to prove themselves that love is real then it is
not a love-passion relationship.
Wuthering Heights is considered a Victorian novel because of its structural
characteristics of the nineteenth century novel: it represents the manners and life
as they were, the male and female roles in society, people’s economic interest to
achieve status in society, adultery in marriages, the intense and passionate
feelings of the characters, the duality (god and evil), the use of symbols to give
more meaning to the story and the supernatural and fantasy genres. The literature,
according to Goethe in his work about the romanticism, was an “expresión
emocional de la burguesía ascendente frente a las estilizaciones formalistas de la
aristocracia o como medio de oscurecimiento defensivo contra el racionalismo
crítico que era arma intelectual de la nueva clase” ( 2003:8).The irritation and hate
against society are some of the characteristic feelings that many writers of the
Victorian literature show in their works. As the studies of the previous authors
mentioned in this research describe, life in the Victorian century was difficult
despite the Industrial Revolution. Society was severe, puritanical and mainly full of
prejudice. Many authors describe in their novels the social panorama, the suffering
and people’s effort to belong to a high social status. People used to be strict with
their education, life was hard, competitive, and they were always worried about the
32
stereotype of being English in which men work and had well positioned jobs while
women had to do to the housework or work in agriculture and look after their
children. Also women had no right to give their opinion about politics or any other
social issue. They lived under their husband’s authority even when they were not
happy with their marriage. The analysis of women’s role in the nineteenth century
can be related to the status and roles of the women in the novel of Emily Brontë;
Wocjtzak describes that fitting in rather uncomfortably, even hypocritically with this
state of affairs, was the concept of woman as a goodness placed on a pedestal
and worshipped.
In the novel Wuthering Heights there are many scenes where Mr. Earnshaw
is the only character in the Earnshaw family that appears as the one who rules the
house. It is suggested that there is a family, a Mr. and Mrs. Earnshaw and their
children, but the author never mentions the wife, Mrs. Earnshaw. She never talks in
the novel or gives and opinion, even when Mr. Earnshaw takes to their house a
mysterious child (Heathcliff) after he comes back from his trip. Then, Mrs.
Earnshaw dies. At one point, reference is made to another woman who seems to
be Hindley’s wife, Frances. This character is short-lived in the story. Readers can
notice that she is Hindley’s wife even though she does not give opinions or make
decisions while she is married. Then she catches an illness and dies. For this
reason it can be demonstrated that the author, in the novel, represents the role of
women in the nineteenth century family and how, in some situations such as the
arrival of Heathcliff in the Earnshaw family, she attempts to suggest a possible
infidelity of Mr. Earnshaw to his wife. Heathcliff might be a bastard, which seems
an exemplary representation of adultery in the Victorian age. Although Mr.
Earnshaw has a family and a wife, he is allowed to present the child of another
woman in their house and Mrs. Earnshaw does not say anything about it. Readers
may say that even though Mrs. Earnshaw knows that her husband had a child with
another woman she was not allowed to complain. Apart from illustrating education
and attitudes in Victorian society, Emily Brontë also describes her own feelings and
the feelings of people around her in her characters.
33
Sobre este trasfondo de la gran lucha entre la sociedad y
el individuo, se comprende la excepcional importancia del
tema del adulterio […] La mujer, sin libertad ni actividad,
queda así en un vacio donde tiende a soñar con la gran
evasión del amante como salvación y, a la vez, como
rebelión, aunque sea oculta .
(Goethe, 2003: 381)
As was explained before, Emily’s life was difficult. She suffered because of
the family events during her life. It can be said that this is the reason why she turns
out to be passionate and severe but also hard working and patient at the same
time. The structure and characteristics of the novel seem to reveal that there are
autobiographical data present.
Estoy dispuesto a creer que encontró en las historias de
misterio, violencia y horror de los escritores románticos
alemanes algo atractivo para su propio carácter ardiente;
pero creo que encontró a Heathcliff y a Catherine
Earnshaw en las profundidades ocultas de su propia
alma.(Maugham, 1992:267)
This study focuses particularly on the love-passion relationships in the novel
of Brontë as well as on those aspects that reflect the feelings that characterize
passionate characters. In the first place, one relationship that can be considered to
show love-passion is the one among Cathy Linton Earnshaw, Linton Heathcliff and
Hareton Earnshaw. Cathy Linton thinks she is in love with Linton Heatchcliff when
they are separated by their parents. Both Cathy and Linton meet one day but there
is no real connection between them. They like each other but it is interesting how
their relationship changes when their parents prohibit their friendship and Cathy
says that she is in love with Linton and they have to be together even when their
families do not allow it. Cathy’s sudden declaration of love can be interpreted as a
tantrum. Cathy’s attitudes are described as passionate and stubborn because she
is not in love with Linton but the situation that separates her from Linton makes
Cathy go against her father’s decision and suffers because of the idea of having
this impossible love.
I didn’t! I didn’t! sobbed Cathy fit to break her heart. I
didn’t once think of loving him till’–
34
Loving! Cried I, as I scornfully as I could utter the world.
Loving! Did anybody ever hear the like! I might just as well
talk of loving the miller who comes once a year to buy our
corn. Pretty loving, indeed and both times together you
have seen Linton hardly four hours, in your life! Now here
is the babyish trash. I’m going with it to the library; and
we’ll see what your father says to such loving.
(1999:229)
Linton is not in love with Cathy either but he decides to fall in love with her
and continue this game because he thinks, in some way, that she is pleasant and
can look after him. Both start a behavior against their families in order to be
together. In other words, Cathy and Linton decide to live a passionate love.
[…]Don’t let me go home, thinking I’ve done you harm!
Answer! Speak to me.
I can´t speak to yo, he murmured ; you’ve hurt me so ,
that I shall lie awake all night, choking with this cough ! If
you had it you’d know what it was – but you’ll be
comfortably asleep, while I’m in agony – and nobody near
me! I wonder how you like to pass those fearful nights!,
[…](1999:242)
Hareton, on the other hand, is a rude and surly boy that is always fighting
with Cathy; they maintain a difficult relationship although they always worry about
each other. Hareton is always bothering her and she is always speaking to him
rudely. She also denigrates him for being a servant and have a wild behavior and
also because he is not receiving an education and has no manners. Hareton feels
bad and hates Cathy when she treats him badly but he likes her and loves her
even when he does not accept it. He also treats her badly but she also likes him.
Both are separated because of prejudices and their constant offenses and fights
despite their passionate relationship. There seems to be a similarity between
Cathy and Hareton’s relationship, which is almost the same as the relationship
between the principal couple of this novel, Cathy Earnshaw and Heathcliff.
Heathcliff is presented in the family by Mr. Earnshaw as “adopted” and this is the
reason why he is suspected to be a bastard and is rejected since his arrival in the
Earnshaw house. He is treated badly and insulted by Hindley. When Heathcliff is
35
adopted, he tries to establish a fraternal relationship with Hindley but Hindley is
jealous of him. Heathcliff seems to be a good child but when he becomes the
victim of denigration and disdain from Hindley and Joseph (one of the servants),
Heathcliff’s attitudes change and he starts to build up revenge against him:
I’m trying to settle how I shall pay Hindley back. I don’t
care how long I wait, if I can only do it, at last. I hope he
will not die before I do. (1999:66)
For this purpose, he has to be patient and bear with this maltreatment. He
becomes rude, violent, shy and obnoxious. Catherine is the only one who has been
close to Heathcliff since their childhood. Heathcliff loves Catherine and he is
always trying to protect her, they play and spend all their time together. Catherine
is a wild child but then during her adolescence, she agrees to belong to an upper
social status receiving education at home and also learning some good manners.
Catherine and Heathcliff become the opposite of each other. While Heathcliff’s
world vision is about home labor and revenge for those who treated him cruelly, he
becomes strong, defiant and masculine, Catherine is a beautiful free-spirited girl,
worried about becoming a young lady. Cathy is interested in Edgar Linton because
he lives in the Thrushcross Grange and belongs to the upper high society and she
is fascinated by this way of life. The relationship between
Heathcliff
and
Catherine is full of contradictions because of the ferocity of their love. Heathcliff is
selfish and cruel and Catherine is arrogant and spiteful. Catherine loves Heathcliff
but she is blinded by the idea of being an upper high class lady with good
manners; on the contrary, Heathcliff suffers because he loves her and feels her
constant rejection. He loves her but the denigration and the pain that he feels
because of her maltreatment turns Heathcliff’s love into hate. Daphne Merkin
describes the love that Heathcliff feels for Catherine as:
A sentiment fierce and inhuman: a passion such as might
boil and glow in the bad essence of some evil genius; a
fire that might form the tormented centre – the ever –
suffering soul of a magnate of the infernal world and by its
quenchless arid ceaseless ravage effect the execution of
36
the decree which dooms him to carry Hell with him
wherever he wanders. (2004:11)
Heathcliff and Catherine are separated because of their prejudices and
world visions. They seem to be interested in different things which provoke the
separations and fights between them. It seems that Catherine is delighted with the
idea of seeing Heathcliff suffer. She wants proof of the love that Heathcliff feels for
her, which may be the reason why she fights with him and creates painful
situations for both. But when she realizes how much suffering has been caused to
Heathcliff, she starts to have regrets and looks for him. Then, when things appear
to become better, it is Heathcliff who rejects her and their relationship becomes an
interesting and painful game for both. As Rougement expressed it, love-passion
“es aquello que se sufre.” (1993:45)Heathcliff’s love for Catherine is intense but
although Catherine loves Heathcliff, she is attracted by Linton’s social position.
Hence, Catherine decides to marry Linton and finally separates from Heathcliff:
I’ve no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have
to be in heaven; and if the wicked man in there had not
brought Heathcliff, so low I shouldn’t have thought of it. It
would degrade me to marry Heathcliff, now; no he shall
never know I love him, and that, not because he’s
handsome, Nelly, but because he’s more myself than I
am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are
the same, and Linton’s is a different as a moonbeam from
lightning
or
frost
from
fire.
(1999:87)
Denis de Rougemont says that love-passion means tragedy and describes it
as “cosa padecida” and “gusto reprimido de la muerte” (1993:52). Likewise, Igor
Caruso states that passion is a “sorrow and mortification, something that leads to
death” (2007:188). The characteristics of passionate lovers are described by the
author as “Narcissist”. As both authors explain, passionate lovers are fascinated
with their suffering, which might be proof of their love. Catherine knows that she
37
cannot deal with being separated from Heathcliff but she nevertheless decides to
marry Linton and reach her expectations about her social status. Catherine seems
to be prepared to suffer with the separation. Denis de Rougemont states that:
Los amantes no pierden una ocasión para separarse
cuando no hay un obstáculo, lo inventan como por gusto
a que se sufren. (1999:37)
Catherine’s passionate behavior is reflected in the love that she feels for
Heathcliff and the rejection that is implied in her decision to marry Linton. The
romanticism in the novel is about the exacerbated feelings of the characters,
although they are all destructive:
My great miseries in this world have been Heathcliff’s
miseries and I watched and felt each from the beginning;
my great thought in living is himself. If all else perished,
and he were annihilated, the Universe would turn to a
mighty stranger. (1999:88)
Rougemont explains that fatality is something that takes lovers to suffering
and sorrow and also that it is beyond God and evil. The author continues by
saying that passionate lovers feel alienated and that their love is beyond moral
values, pleasures and suffering. Furthermore, Rougemont declares: “Las Causas
de la separación son de dos especies: circunstancias exteriores adversas y trabas
inventadas.” (1993:44). The author clarifies that if the separation of the lovers is the
consequence of social circumstances, they face them even though they know that
they may suffer. In this case, Catherine and Heathcliff are separated not just
because of the benefits of Catherine’s interest in social status but also because of
Heathcliff’s hate and resentment.
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 little visible delight, but necessary.
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 – so don’t talk of our
separation again– it is impracticable. (1999:88)
38
When Heathcliff listens to Catherine’s arguments, he becomes heartbroken and
after Cathy marries Linton, he decides to go away. Nobody knows where Heathcliff
is going and after a long time he returns to Wuthering Heights:
I was amazed, more than ever to behold the
transformation of Heathcliff. He had grown a tall, athletic,
well-formed man; beside whom, my master seemed quite
slender and youth-like. His upright carriage suggested the
idea of having been in the army. His countenance was
much older in expression and decision of feature than Mr.
Linton’s; It looked intelligent and retained no marks of
former degradation. A half- civilized ferocity lurked yet in
the depressed brows, and eyes full of black fire, but it was
subdued and his manner was even quite divested of
roughness though too stern for grace. (1999:102)
Heathcliff’s return is not just in order to take revenge against Hindley but
also against Catherine because she has destroyed his love and turned it into hate.
Heathcliff’s behavior can be related to Igor’s hypothesis about the death
mechanism. First of all, Igor says that this change in personality is the
consequence of the loss of the loved one:
En realidad esta vivencia no es ajena a ninguno de
nosotros y puede provocar un incremento de la rebeldía o
de la resignación. Nuestro último consuelo estriba en el
carácter efímero de todo lo existente incluyendo la
presencia
del
ser
amado”
(2007:5)
Aggressiveness is also a characteristic of Heathcliff’s personality. He finally
faces Catherine when she is already married but this time he is indifferent and
cruel to her. Carusso states that aggressiveness: “es un mecanismo de defensa
porque parece permitir una desidentificación con el objeto (el amor se transforma
en odio), pero a la vez, también permite una adherencia al mismo” (2007:20).
Then, indifference, according to Carusso, is another defense mechanism, which
may also be present in Heathcliff’s character. Carusso explains that this
mechanism is used in order to restrain one’s consciousness about the separation.
39
Being elusive, or as the author calls it, “la huida hacia adelante”, is the third
characteristic of Heathcliff’s personality. The author explains that the lover is in
search of pleasures. The lover may believe that it is necessary to look for a
substitute: “En este caso el mecanismo de desplazamiento es un elemento no
despreciable: se mata mejor cuando ya se le tiene un sustituto al muerto”
(2007:21). Heathcliff does not lose an opportunity to hurt Catherine and he marries
Isabella, who is the sister of Edgar Linton. There is passion in Heathcliff’s decision
to marry Isabella in order to make Cathy suffer, while in Cathy’s decision it is the
economic interest that leads her to marry Linton. This agony is intense but they still
love each other. Carusso states that passion is a mortification and agony. He says
“se muere de pasión, la pasión lleva a la muerte” (2007:188). Then Carusso
emphasizes: “La pasión crea desorden, pero aún más, trae consigo efectivamente
la muerte, porque bajo el imperio de la muerte no puede si no morir”. In addition to
this, George Bataille’s definition of passion can be related to Emily Brontë’s
characters in Wuthering Heights:
Hasta la pasión feliz lleva consigo un desorden tan
violento, que la felicidad de lo que aquí se trata, más que
una felicidad de lo que se puede gozar, es tan grande
que es comparable con su contrario, con el sufrimiento.
(2008:24)
But, after the obstacles8 and the pain they suffered, Heathcliff’s sentiments
for Catherine appear to increase and become more excessive and fierce:
Oh, Nelly! You know she has not! You know as well as I
do, that for every thought she spends on Linton, she
spends a thousand on me!, At a most miserable period of
my life, I had a notion of the kind, it haunted me on my
return to the neighborhood, last summer, but only her own
assurance could make me admit the horrible idea again.
And then, Linton would be nothing, nor Hindley, nor all the
dreams that ever I dreamt. Two words would comprehend
my future- death and hell: existence, after losing her,
would be hell. (1999:152)
8
The obstacles would be the marriages of Heathcliff and Catherine.
40
Denis de Rougemont assumes that “Los amantes sin saberlo desearon la
muerte entre engaños apasionados y buscando la redención y la venganza de
aquello que sufrirían”(p. 47). Rougemont
adds that passionate lovers wish for
something that they are lacking in their relationship: death (p.54). Similarly to
Rougemont’s comment, Igor Carusso explains that there is a total alienation in
death: “Enajenacion del amor en el odio […] él no deja de tender incesantemente y
con todas sus fuerzas hacia otra situación límite que se le escapa constantemente:
la inmortalidad y el amor” (2007:187). Hence, their relationship seems to be
vivifying by their torturing separations, and Heathcliff and Catherine declare their
love for each other and surrender to their passion. Catherine lets herself die
because she has been separated again from Heathcliff and she is seeking for a
proof of Heathcliff’s love by causing him suffering and guilt:
I wish I could hold you, ‘till we were both dead! I
shouldn’t care what you suffered. I care nothing for your
sufferings. Why shouldn’t you suffer? I do! Will you forget
me –will you be happy when I am in the earth? Will you
say twenty years hence, ‘that’s the grave of Catherine
Earnshawn. I loved her long ago, and was wretched to
lose herm but it is past. I’ve loved many others since – my
children are dearer to me than she was, and at death, I
shall not rejoice that I am going to her, I shall be sorry that
I must leave them!’ Will you say so Heathcliff? (1999:164)
In this scene of Wuthering Heights, both characters show the exacerbated
characteristics of the romantic novel. The answer of Heathcliff to Catherine’s
speech is as profound as passionate:
Are you possessed with a devil to talk in that manner to
me, when you’re dying? Do you reflect that all those
words will be branded on my memory, and eating deeper
eternally, after you have left me? You know you lie to say
I have killed you; and Catherine, you know that I could as
soon forget you as my existence! Is it not sufficient for
your infernal selfishness, that while you are at peace I
shall write in the torments of hell? (1999:165)
41
Catherine and Heathcliff are already surrendering to their passion and they
have accepted death. Death in passion means tragedy and decline. Catherine is
the first of both characters to present a decline in the novel. Catherine has already
decided to die because she cannot live without him and death seems to be the final
obstacle that she dares to face. Carusso assumes that “lo reprimido asemeja a un
cuerpo en descomposición” (2007:185), in other words, lovers suffer “decay” which
takes them to death. Likewise, Rougemont declares this fatality, or decline, as “un
gusto reprimido de la muerte, una preferencia por la desgracia” (2007:52).
Catherine admits her love and surrenders to her passion and her own wish to die,
which intensifies her love for Heathcliff. Igor Carusso affirms that: “El amor del
amor mismo disimulaba una pasión más terrible una voluntad profundamente
inconfesable…” (2007:47). Unconsciously, lovers have the desire for death and
redemption, for the reason that they were always suffering. In other words, it may
be assumed that Catherine and Heathcliff’s wishes for death were always implied
in the fatal decisions they made in order to become separated from each other.
Catherine is on her deathbed, she is weakening and she is waiting to declare
Heathcliff her passion and sorrow because of their separation. It appears that
Catherine’s final and fatal desire is to create one last obstacle. An obstacle that
she secretly wishes: death. Catherine can do nothing about it because she has
surrendered to the love-passion that she feels for Heathcliff. This is what Igor
Carusso calls the filter, “El filtro”. The author says that the filter is “aquello que
permite decir a los desgraciados ‘ya ves que nada puedo hacer puesto que es más
fuerte que yo’,” (2007:49). Catherine has completely surrendered to it and it is she
who confesses that her death is due to Heathcliff’s fault:
You teach me now how cruel you’ve been –cruel and false. Why did
you despise me? Why did you betray your own heart Cathy? I have
not one word of comfort – you deserve this. You killed yourself. Yes,
you may kiss me, and cry; ring out my kisses and tears. They’ll blight
you – they’ll damn you. You loved me – then what right had you to
leave me? What right – answer me – for the poor fancy Linton?
Because misery, and degradation and death, and nothing that God or
Satan could inflict would have parted us, you, of your own will did it. I
have not broken your heart – you have broken it – and in breaking it,
you have broken mine. So much the worse for me, that I am strong.
Do I want to live? What kind of living will it be when you – oh, God!
42
Would you
(1999:167)
like
to
live
with
your
soul
in
the
grave?”
Catherine’s weakness is also Heathcliff’s, according to Igor Carusso the
separation is an outburst of death in conscience, and moreover, the author
explains that this conscious death produces a superior “scandal” than physical
death because “da muerte a la conciencia de un viviente en un viviente”
(2007:12). Hence, Heathcliff is suffering this conscious death because he knows
Catherine’s death is his, because he and Catherine are one. Catherine as well as
Heathcliff are always worried about the idea of dying in each other conscience. Igor
Carusso assumes that in a death sentence there is a sentence for the lover and
the loved one’s conscience, this is to say, lovers are afraid of being forgotten
(death) by each other (2007:13). Forgetfulness is the suicide of conscience.
Let me alone; let me alone, If I have done wrong, I’m
dying for it. It is enough! You left me too; but I won’t
upbraid you! I forgive you. Forgive me! – ‘It is hard to
forgive, and to look at those eyes, and wasted hands’, he
answered. ‘Kiss me again; and don’t let me see your
eyes! I forgive what you have done to me. I love my
murder – But yours! How can I? (1999:167)
After Catherine’s death, Heathcliff’s decline is evident. He spends most of
his time alone suffering because of his loss and he also decides to let himself die.
His one and only love has died and he is still alive but he is also already dead.
Rougemont says that “la proximidad de la muerte es un aguijón de la sensualidad”
(1993:55). It appears that Catherine invited Heathcliff to perish with her and
Heathcliff seems to have understood this invitation. Rougemont explains that this
loss is not an impoverishment but is something that can be felt with intensity.
Rougemont states: “En el pleno sentido del término, agrava el deseo. Lo agrava a
veces hasta el deseo de matar al otro o de matarse o de zozobrar en un común
naufragio”. (1993:55). Heathcliff confessed his hidden wish for death to Nelly:
43
You and Hareton may, if you please, accompany me –
and mind, particularly notice that the sexton obeys my
directions concerning the two coffins! No minister need
come; nor need anything be said over me – I tell you, I
have nearly attained my heaven; and that of others is
altogether unvalued, and uncovered by me! (1999:330)
Heathcliff and Catherine’s relationship seems to be a suicide attempt since
the beginning. It can be thought, as Rougemont says, that there was always this
hidden desire for tragedy. Heathcliff is, now, waiting for his death. His objective is
to surrender to it and to suffer because of Catherine’s death that also takes him to
the same place; to their heaven. Heathcliff’s death arrives when he asks to be
alone in his chamber and when Nelly finds him lying dead on his bed she realizes
that Heathcliff has a smile on his sarcastic savage face. Finally, Heathcliff obtains
what he desired: death. His passion was his rebellion and his motivation to attain
death. Hence, it might be assumed that Catherine and Heathcliff’s passionate love
was beyond their differences and their own control. They surrendered to their
passion, and created obstacles in order to prove and vivify their intense love. They
even seemed to know that the realization of their love-passion would be achieved
with the death of both of them.
Atraídos por la muerte lejos de la vida que los impulsa,
presas voluptuosas de fuerzas contradictorias que los
precipitan, empero, hacia el mismo vértigo, los amantes
no podrán encontrarse sino en el instante que los priva
para siempre de toda esperanza humana, de todo amor
posible, en el seno del obstáculo absoluto y de una
suprema exaltación, que se destruye por su propia
realización. (Rougemont, 1993:55)
44
Conclusion
Summarizing the analysis of the passion love in this research, I can assume that
the novel of Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë is a Victorian novel that has many
important characteristics that can be related to the principal characters in the novel
and it may also be a study of the behavior of the human being from the perspective
of the explanation of the passion love and its characteristics. The authors that
described the different reactions and behaviors of the lovers produced studies
based on physiological, etiological, and other views. This research also adds to the
point of view about the social and historical context of the novel and how it is
influenced by the different historical events. The study of the history of the
nineteenth century is an opportunity to place the novel in the moment of its creation
and describe the different characteristics that the author may have reflected in her
story, and also the style of the novel in the XIX century literature. Knowing the
social aspects and the events is necessary to understand the essence of the novel.
Love-passion is highly represented in the characters of Wuthering Heights; it is a
behavior, according to the authors already mentioned, that goes beyond God and
Evil, that always leads to death, and that implies suffering and tragedy. It is the
destructive end that passion creates by itself, the spiritual and physical death, the
alienated behavior and the hidden desire of tragedy in the characters. The
development of the research was planned to understand the different events in the
novel, the violence, prejudices, the importance of a social status and the
passionate attitude among characters. Besides, the analysis of the happiness
represented in the novel is an important point that can extend the knowledge and
ideas about being happy. In other words, studying the love-passion relationship is
also about how some people might conceive the idea of happiness through
suffering. Pascal says that happiness is to achieve what people are lacking. In this
45
case, for passionate lovers happiness is to be with their loved ones even when this
implies facing obstacles and suffering.
Likewise, it is helpful to analyze the life of the author, Emily Brontë, in order to
understand the possible autobiographical evidence inside the novel. This study
was done not just to demonstrate that passion love is the base of the characters’
personalities in Wuthering Heights but also to show the importance of reading a
novel and searching for the historical, social and biographical information to enrich
the reading and to have different ideas about the novel and increase the
knowledge of the classic literature and its history.
As a student, this research based on the analysis of the novel of Wuthering
Heights was a meaningful challenge because finding the relations between social,
historical, autobiographical issues was difficult but interesting due to the variety of
the philosophies and ideas in the history of literature. I decided to choose this topic
because, as I said in the introduction of this study, the love-passion has been one
of the topics that have been represented over the years in literature, songs,
paintings, and even in films that deal with the history of human beings. Human
behavior may be studied from the perspective of literature because it is a reflection
of itself and, in my opinion, analyzing this emotional part has been revealing and
attractive. It is gratifying to have the opportunity to explain the human relationships
using one of my favorite novels and enrich my knowledge about the history of
literature and also to learn that reading a book is not just about reading the book
but also about searching for information about the author, the time in which it was
written, the historical events, etc. I have learnt not only to relate this novel to other
classic novels, but also to discover that English literature has different periods and
styles. Additionally, I discovered that writers may have to change their stories in
order for them to be published and accepted by society.
46
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