Wuthering Heights

Rating: ★★

Method of Reading: Public library book
Dates of Reading: August 1, 2012-August 7, 2012
Author: Emily Brontë
Publication Year: 1847
Recommended to: Anyone who really enjoys all the oldie classics.
Quotes: No real big standout quotes as I go through, which is strange for something so passionately written.

   "He had been content with daily labour and rough animal enjoyments, till Catherine crossed his path--Shame at her scorn, and hope of her approval were his first prompters to higher pursuits; and instead of guarding him from one, and winning him the other, his endeavors to raise himself had produced jus the contrary result" (back cover).
   "That is pure awkwardness" (283).
Movie: Oh yeah.

Wikipedia Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuthering_Heights
Link: http://www.wuthering-heights.co.uk

My View: As many early reviewers put it, this is a rather odd book with an incomprehensibly twisting storyline. While certainly an exciting read well worth its place among the classics, it was oddly written. I did find it very fun to read aloud (something I often do), as I liked the stream of consciousness attitude taken. Although I've often heard it compared to Austen novels, characters here spend far more time in action than in contemplation and it is much darker... even darker than Jane Eyre. Furthermore, to replace Austen's pivotal epistles, Brontë includes only a single measly letter from a flat character. I found fault with the overall development of Brontë's characters, actually. Most were way too evil--almost impossibly so. I could only find love for Nelly, Cathy (Jr.), and Edgar. Otherwise, everyone had a sad lack of redemption. To understand my feelings about this, please enjoy the following blurb, which I wrote in a moment of passion (this book just stirs it up in you) immediately after finishing (WARNING: SPOILERS WITHIN!):

Where is the hero(ine)? by Your Bibliomaniac

Without redemptive qualities, Heathcliff (who I expected to be a new Mr. Darcy) cannot possibly be our hero, which we expect in the man who appears to be the main character. And yet despite the story's axis being his temper, he can hardly be the hero. Could his redemptive quality be his love for Catherine (Sr.)? Of all the loves in the book, I admire Cathy's selfless love for Linton but do not approve of it or like/support it because it is so foolish, unfounded, and hurtful, even degrading. I feel likewise for Isabella's toward Heathcliff--his for her does not exist. Catherine is in love more with the idea of what Edgar could make her than she is in love with he himself and she doesn't make it easy to love her. I like Edgar's love for her but find it almost as silly as the other one-sided infatuations because he is so uncomfortable in the love and because he doesn't know how to or even try to check her temper. The only love I actually like is Cathy and Hareton's. Do readers even like this love Heathcliff has for Catherine or do they believe it to be an unhealthy, nearly demonic fascination? He himself asserts that his neglect to torment or kill Hareton and Cathy (Jr.) is not owing to his kindness or "a fine trait of magnanimity," (277) he has just lost interest and energy. He is considered the primary worker/actor but really does very little--he just threatens to do more. The defeat finally broken over him leaves readers disillusioned as to who shall finish the book and on whom we ought to recast our focus. Nelly may be the hero but she is constantly inactive. Longwood is an interesting choice as narrator because he has the chance to act, as he begins the story going into Heathcliff's home, he quits his residency to avoid the family's terrors, and he had the choice to marry Cathy (Jr.), finally arranging her love for Hareton by chastising her for teasing his ignorance. Unlike most second-person narrators, an uncommon choice for narration style anyway, he has great and significant power to intercede owing to his status and position (which, admittedly, we know very little of) but rarely does except for the final pivotal moment. Jane Austen's third person narration wouldn't have served this book, but allows much greater insight of characters' hearts. Ultimately, it appears to be the love story of Cathy (Jr.) and Hareton, neither of whom is even introduced until halfway through the book... Farther, I'm sure, in Cathy's case. And yet neither of these characters is admirable.
   So, to sum up my (rather long) opinion: I found this to be a helter-skelter piece evidently dreamt up in nighttime musings of Emily Brontë's fancy and deemed necessary to record on paper. Its only true value seemingly lies in the book cover's description of its singular passion.
   A few questions for readers:
   Is it a "happy" ending? What is the message of the overall book and particularly of the ending line? For surely earth really was not peaceful in this book and the picture seems to be that all of human nature is imperfect and any problem that Heathcliff died with will perpetuate in someone in another generation--he wasn't singularly evil and neither was Catherine (Sr.). For this reason earth is not peaceful... It may be more so though because those two are in the ground?


Always,
Your Bibliomaniac

Bibliographic info:
Brontë, Emily. Wuthering Heights. New York: Random House, 1943. Print.