Wuthering Heights

Rating:
Summary: The Deterioration of a Soul
Review: Though this may be a romance, it isn't one in the Nora Roberts sense of the word (thankfully). Rather, it is a romance in the Shakespearian sense that it is neither comedy nor tragedy. It does have romantic aspects sprinkled throughout, but that is not the most important aspect. Rather, it is a dark, brooding novel that focuses far more on loss, revenge, and the deterioration of the human soul than it does on love or anything else the average person might conceive of as "romantic."

In many ways, it parallels Milton's Paradise Lost, if in a metaphorical sense. We have Heathcliff as the devil (as he is often referred to throughout) and his fall from grace. We have both Catherines as Eve-type characters in slightly different ways, and as I explain below, it is their choices (often under the infernal influence of Heathcliff) that determine the future of the narrative, much as Eve's choice determines the future of humanity. We even have the loss of paradise toward the end, but with the hope of eventual salvation and a return thereto (i.e., as Paradise Regained is suggested in the last book of Milton's epic).

The characters of Wuthering Heights are a generally unlikable bunch of flawed human beings provoking and being provoked by each other. Strikingly realistic for a "romantic" novel. It is the strong, independent women of the novel who are the foundational characters around which the book revolves. They are the focus of attention, and it is only through them that the male characters are able to accomplish whatever ends they set out to accomplish. In fact, one of the main struggles of the book can be seen as the attempts of the women to remain independent of the male characters' repeated attempts at subjugation and control. Interestingly, it is always the women who end up with the choice as to result will prevail in each battle of this war.

In this sense, Wuthering Heights can be seen as a feminist novel, but not as a preaching one. Rather, Bronte seems to strive for the reader to understand the strength and resiliency of her women through their subtle control of the narrative and their resistence to the constant pressure that the male characters exert from attempting to take that power away. One final example of this is through the framing of the narrative itself. Though superficially told by Mr. Lockwood, he is initially relating Ellen Dean's story verbatim through the first half of the book. However, halfway through, he discards Ellen and "summarizes" the story she told him off-screen. In other words, he attempts to dominate the telling of the narrative as Heathcliff, Edgar, Hareton, and Hindley attempt to dominate the women of the novel at various points. Yet, like all the other dominations throughout the novel, this narrative domination fails as well. Ultimately, Ellen is able to reassert herself as the official storyteller over the last few chapters, but what was the effect of losing her immediate voice for the intermediate period, I'll leave up to you to interpret. I'm still working it out myself.

Rating:
Summary: Darkest Kind Of Love
Review: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte is a tragic love story that has bitter and vengeful aspects to it. I dislike this novel because of the characters Catherine for her "I'm beautiful everyone must love me" attitude and Heathcliff for his "Catherine doesn't love me so I must become bitter and ruin everyone else lives." But this story has its good parts it shows raw and everlasting love. Even though the years have passed Heathcliff's and Catherine's love will last forever. This novel shows the darker side of love. It shows how love can put together or destroy people. Wuthering Heights is one of the greatest gothic novels like To Kill A Mockingbird.

Rating:
Summary: A CLASSICAL NOTE
Review: Wuthering Heights is one of the best novels I have evr read. The passions of which were intwined within the characters' was described so deeply that I could feel the pain so strongly as if I were the character myself.
When Catherine and Heathcliff were blaming each other for breaking each other's hearts, I cried hysterrically. The love and friendship between the couple was so intimately written that you could feel the different melodies of their ongoing reasonings. Cathy accused Heathlcliff of murdering her, for having wanted her to choose between himself and Edgar. Cathy told Heathcliff that she did not care how he wold suffer without her for he broke her heart in such a way, that he did not even care for her sufferings. Heathcliff fired back exclaming that instead Cathy had killed herself for vowing to be with Edgar. He also said that forgetting Cathy would be forgetting his very existence. " I love my murderer, but yours, how can I?" This would have to be one of my fvorite quotes from the novel. Even thought that line is so short, it means so much. This line revealed the intensity of his feelings torwards Cathy; that it hurt him so much to see her in such a state of illness and emotional sufferings, felt for him.
I hate to say it, but what made this story so interesting was the evil doings accomplished by Heathcliff. The vigorating acts such as the enforcing of the marriage of Cathy and Linton was thought out by Heathcliff so cleverly, that it amused me, in it's own devilish way.
This novel touched emotions of passion, love and hate that it made me think deeper about the "inside" of a relationship between a man and a woman.