Wuthering Heights- Love Essay, Research Paper
Love conquers all. It permeates throughout the land to intermingle among houses that are afar; it conceals itself within the hearts of lovers; it even seeps through the crevices of the earth to haunt the living. Through all of the gloom, revenge, evil and hate that surround Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, love has triumphed over all. While the relationships between certain characters in the novel, Wuthering Heights are tense at times; the force of love overcomes any ill sentiments possessed by the characters of both Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights during the course of the novel.
Tension is created by conflict, and in turn, conflict is usually the result of miscommunication. At the outset, Old Earnshaw misleads his new adopted child, Heathcliff into thinking that he is one with the family; however, he treats him as a servant whom he loves as a son. As Old Earnshaw s daughter, Catherine, grows closer to her adopted brother/servant, Heathcliff, she develops this inextricable bond with him. Even when her older brother, Hindley torments and retaliates against Heathcliff, Catherine still sides with her soul mate. Because of her need for luxury, however, Catherine resorted to marry Edgar, from Thrushcross Grange. Although this was a large setback for Heathcliff, their love still grew when they weren t together. Not a day went by without thoughts of each other, even when class, forbiddance and distance separated them. Through the walls of Thrushcross Grange, and all the way to Wuthering Heights, their love somehow seems to live on.
At Catherine s deathbed, it is still apparent that Edgar s riches has not swayed her from continuing to love Heathcliff, for [She] won t rest till you [Heathcliff] are with me. (125). And this thus came true, for neither Catherine nor Heathcliff were at rest again until both laid in their graves alongside one another. However, this would be a long and difficult path ahead for Heathcliff, as his death was not as soon as he wished it to be. Their love would suffer in vain. For as long as Heathcliff remained above the earth, and she below, her ghost would haunt him endlessly.
And hence the supernatural Catherine emerged from her grave, waking the poor tenant, Lockwood, in the middle of the night and causing her lover to grovel, Cathy, do come my
Since Catherine s love for Linton is like the foiliage in the woods [and her] love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath, (84) she does not feel for Edgar that which she feels for Heathcliff. Yet Edgar s love is strong enough for his wife that he, as well as Heathcliff, cannot overcome the ill sentiments they feel for each other when Catherine blames them both for her death.
Heathcliff, therefore, treats everyone around him with absolute antagonism. There was a strong bitterness between Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange once Heathcliff gained control of the land at the Heights. It was so strong that Edgar Linton would not even let his daughter, Cathy step foot outside the boundaries of his property. Yet Cathy s love for her cousin, Linton was so strong that it empowered Edgar s warnings not to step foot on Wuthering Heights. Edgar s love for his daughter was stronger than his hate for Heathcliff, and so he accepted Cathy s marriage with Linton before he dies.
But Linton grew sicker and dies, as well. Heathcliff, longing to be united once again with Catherine, cannot help but take revenge upon Cathy. However, the beginning of Heathcliff and Catherine s own relationship is developing between Hareton and young Cathy, and the love between the two at the end grows stronger than Heathcliff s need for revenge at that point.
Instead, he needs to rest peacefully, as she has disturbed me, night and day, through eighteen years-incessantly-remorselessly-till yesternight; and yesternight I was tranquil my cheek frozen against hers. (274) Finally, Heathcliff and Catherine found peace, as they walked the Earth in their supernatural form. Ultimately, the two households were unified in an everlasting bond of happiness. For all of its gloomy desolation, love seeped through to fix the problems in the novel, which would be insurmountable unless love could conquer the incredible miscommunications that resulted in rift after rift. Love was the only means of repair.