Wuthering Heights (1847) by Emily Brontë
The better elements of the Gothic and the Romantic are summoned in this strange, sophisticated, meticulously imagined and claustrophobic study of destructive passion. Wuthering Heights, set in the Yorkshire moors, is overwhelmingly philosophical and explores the themes of morality, eternity, regeneration and ultimately, salvation. Nature; darkness and light, storm and calm, weakness and strength are all major thematic devices as is the tension between the moral and the amoral.
Emily Brontë's singular novel, published in 1847, the year before her death aged 30, remains one of the seminal texts of world literature for many reasons, not least the heightened, lyric prose, vivid characterisation, remarkable dialogue, multiple ironies and the extraordinary textual adroitness which she brings to a compelling tale that plays with time and relies on flashback and a unique two generational structure.
Sin and damnation are central. Brontë was the fifth child of an Irish clergyman. Her mother had died when Emily was three years of age, leaving the children to be raised largely by their aunt, a staunch Methodist.
Much of the behaviour in the story is extreme, often savage, none of the relationships are conventional with the exception of Catherine Earnshaw's initial affection for Edgar Linton, whom she marries to the despair of Heathcliff leaving him with no option but to inflict revenge on his loved one's family and to exist in angry turmoil. In the beginning, there are two children; Catherine Earnshaw and her elder brother Hindley. Their father sets off for Liverpool asking them what gifts he should bring back; young Catherine requests a whip. Watch closely, the text is rich in symbol and metaphor, the supernatural and the normal. Mr Earnshaw returns, carrying an urchin boy.
This act of kindness instigates the hatred that drives the metaphorical underpinning of the story. Heathcliff's arrival brings out the worst in the Earnshaw children;. Hindley beats him and Catherine claims him as her possession. Heathcliff soon reveals terrifying qualities of stoicism and ruthlessness. Catherine Earnshaw, hysterical and wilful, is the dynamic and is drawn to both the gentle, well born Edgar Linton and the enigmatic Heathcliff.
Obsessed with Heathcliff, she also likes Edgar enough to marry him after Heathcliff disappears. However when he returns, mature and prosperous, Catherine's happiness with Edgar becomes impossible. The exasperated passion of Catherine and Heathcliff takes over the action, destroying them and testing the next generation. The two narrators are well pitched; the first, and more minor figure, is the peevish Lockwood, an outsider on the run from his own failure of emotion. The second is Ellen, 'Nelly' Dean, the ever present, perceptive, and candid housekeeper who having spent her life watching the complex, often deranged behaviour of most of the motherless central players, is privy to their histories and their secrets.
A pragmatic, detached insider with a liking for books - hence her narrative skills - Nelly is sympathetic, and appears to almost like the thwarted, tormented Heathcliff, often questioning him directly such as over his interference with Catherine's grave. Nelly sees it all, often intervenes and knows how to tell a story. Small wonder that Lockwood, having arrived to rent Thrushcross Grange, proves a willing and intrigued audience.
Three years before the birth of Thomas Hardy, Emily Brontë's daring early Victorian family saga looks beyond passion to larger issues of obsession and eternity; the ordinary and the surreal.
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This is a weekly series in which Eileen Battersby revisits titles from the literary canon