Friday, February 6, 2009

Notes 2/6

Wuthering Heights (continued)

"He's more myself than I am." Catherine and Heathcliff are able to be themselves around each other without checking their emotions. When they're apart they are expected to act in certain ways that they are no longer themselves. In growing up together, their identities became so intertwined with one another's that they need each other to be whole.

Is this the ideal relationship? Is it possible? Two people who are so completely compatible, that they're almost the same person, can be a hinderance to the relationship, no ability to grow through hardship and disagreement. I don't think its even possible to find this relationship; at the end of the day, they're two different people.

Bronte created characters that were so real, with faults and defects, that we understand them and it's hard to settle on who's the "good guy" and who's the "bad guy".

Heathcliff tells Catherine that if he were to marry Isabella, he'd beat her ("turning blue eyes black") because she resembled her brother; however, he asked about the inheritance ("who gets the money?") He came back after three years absence rich and dressed as a gentlemen while Hindley is gambling away Wuthering Heights to Heathcliff.

Mrs. Dean comes to a fork in the road, leading to Thrushcross Grange, Wuthering Heights, the moors and Gimmerton. These represent different paths a spirit could take (pretentious society, aristocratic vice, wild freedom and community) Except for the community, Catherine's spirit has gone in all the directions.

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