Themes within Wuthering Heights

THEMES WITHIN WUTHERING HEIGHTS

1. REVENGE

   • Predominant Theme throughout the novel
   • When H.C cannot have the woman he loves, he turns to tormenting his childhood tormenter
   • Hindley never refused a chance to humiliate H.C
     • So as vengeance H.C seeks control of the Heights and the Grange
       • He also seeks to destroy Hindley
   • Vengeance is made easier for H.C because Hindley drinks and gambles
   • Revenge is a major motivator for H.C
     • And he succeeds on his quest for vengeance
       • Though he admits by the end of the novel that his quest for vengeance has lost its thrill
   • Not everyone is bitter though
     • Despite his degredation Hareton rises above his abuse and is a decent person

2. LOVE

   • H.C and Cath1 obviously have a transcendent romantic connection
   • Cath1's love for Edgar is tied to her desire to become 'the greatest woman of the neighborhood'
     • So much that their love has hardly any romance to it
   • However Cath1 is so hateful of H.C societal position that she questions his capacity to love early on the novel
   • H.C and Cath1 impassioned affection connects them from their childhood to the afterlife
   • All of the other examples of love – or, more precisely, marriage – are diminished in comparison
     • Except Cath2 and Hareton who enjoy a rare experience of genuine love
   • Bronte explores many different types of love (Familial, Platonic, Romantic, Erotic
     • But mystical love transcends them all

3. FAMILY

   • Families in WH are a source of violence, alienation, jealousy, and greed.
     • As in opposed to comfort
   • The events that transpire in the novel can be seen as a result of H.C's addition to the family
   • H.C is perhaps the illegitimate son of Mr Earnshaw
     • As H.C is the name of a child that died in infancy
     • However H.C is never christened as an Earnshaw
   • Most of the primary characters in the novels are either Linton/Earnshaw, or both
     • Except H.C, Nellie, Lockwood
     • H.C is neither he gets revenge by taking everything that belongs to the Earnshaws and Lintons
       • However family recovers in the end as Hareton becomes owner of the Heights
         • Whose relative and namesake(?) built the Heights in 1500
   • The gothic aspect is also emphasised as her lovers are related
     • She brings them together because they are related

4. SUPERNATURAL

   • The SPN completely permeates the novel
     • When the ghost of Cath1 tries to enter the Heights, Lockwood curiosity is piqued
   • The people, setting, environment are all infused with SPN natural elements
   • From the outset, H.C is teased for being a dark advocate of the SPN - Nellie dubs him 'imp of Satan'
     • Nellie later on in the novel contemplates whether he is a ghoul or vampire
   • The novel ends with the suggestion that H.C and Cath1 will haunt the moors forever
   • The Moors, even the local village all seems to be touched by something ominous
     • Including the local Chapel
   • Bronte complicates the gothic genre by making H.C a very complex and multi-faceted character

5. SUFFERING

   • Nearly everyone in the novel suffers from physical or emotion trauma
     • Some die from it
   • H.C avoids physical illness his love for Cath1 leads to the suffering of others
     • However he seems to enjoy suffereing
       • Pleads for Cath1's ghost to haunt him
   • No one really wants to take responsibility for the misery that results from his or her own foolish decisions
     • Including Isabella
   • H.C and Cath1' s suffering surpasses the others
     • As they still blame each other
   • Suffering is central to Catherine and Heathcliff's expression of love
     • Without their misery, their love would not be provocative to the readers

6. SOCIETY AND CLASS

   • Despite the setting, both families abide by the rules of society
   • Brontë lets us know through Catherine's aspirations to marry Edgar Linton that Thrushcross Grange is superior
   • Both the Lintons and the Earnshaws are middleclass
     • But marriage is still the only way Cath1 can better herself
   • 'Did it never strike you that if Heathcliff and I married, we should be beggars?'
   • Being an orphan with no family ties and no land, Heathcliff is the lowest part of society
     • Hindley denies Heathcliff an education implies that he is trying to force him to become a servant
   • It makes sense that Heathcliff's revenge is tied directly to the novel's class issues
     • Heathcliff seeks to punish Hindley's son, Hareton, by keeping him in a low station and denying him an education
   • Heathcliff threatens Hindley's status as heir to the Earnshaw fortune.status as heir to the Earnshaw fortune.
     • However ,ultimately Hindley's own behavior that loses him his family home.

7. BETRAYAL

   • H.C frames Cath1's betrayal dishonesty to herself
   • Isabella betrays Cath1 and Ed's trust concerning H.C
     • Ed betrays family loyalty by disowning her
   • Cath2 betrays her father by leaving the Grange
   • Self liberation is more important to characters than abiding to loyalty
   • Like REVENGE, it drives the plot forward
     • If Mr Earnshaw had not brought H.C the W.H
       • He never would have violated the families boundaries
         • Or betrayed his wife
   • Although Cath1 marries Ed, she does not see it as betraying her love for H.C
     • However H.C does

8. OTHERNESS

   • Heathcliff is made to feel like an outsider by his own adoptive family
     • Fuels his desire for revenge
   • It is never clear where H.C originates
     • He is 'found' in Liverpool, a port City where immigrants entered England
   • 'Imp of Satan'
     • H.C referred to as a gipsey - SPN
   • Dichotomy of H.C dark complexion
     • And Ed's fair skin and features
     • H.C's otherness may explain Cath1 and Isabella's attraction to him
   • 'We don't in general take to foreigners here...' Nelly to Lockwood