Wuthering Heights

Meredith Royer

Professor Spiegel

ENG 121: Composition & Literature

28 March 2012

Explaining Love

Girls are born with an instinct to overanalyze and decipher relationships. Emily Bronte, author of Wuthering Heights, had every intention of girls and boys alike to interpret and tear apart the complex love of Catherine and Heathcliff. Bronte undoubtedly wanted us to see the connection between Catherine and Heathcliff as a passion to celebrate. This burning love can be shown through Bronte’s careful diction in the passages of Wuthering Heights.

As a woman, I am most compelled by Heathcliff’s intense passion towards Catherine. In today’s portrayal of love, I feel as though the woman is most often shown as obsessed or overbearing. In this case, that feeling is mutual. In a scene where Zillah calls Catherine a “minx” Heathcliff experiences uncontrollable anger in her defense. Even Lockwood notes that Heathcliff is bursting at the seams with emotion. He says: “I guessed, however, by his irregular and intercepted breathing, that he struggled to vanquish an excess of violent emotion” (27). Catherine too, has this unexplainable connection and intense passion towards Heathcliff and can be seen when she famously says, “I am Heathcliff” (80). Catherine continues to say that Heathcliff makes her who she is and that he is like her “own being” (80). This passage resonates deeply with me because it’s unlike anything I have ever heard before. Catherine claims that she is Heathcliff and that they embody each other. The depth and tone of the passage are so foreign to me that it makes me want Cathy and Heathcliff to be together. If they can connect on such an emotional and spiritual level, that bond, that love, should be celebrated.

That four-letter word that is so meaningful for most doesn’t come easily to Catherine or Heathcliff. They both have trouble expressing and deciphering their love properly and I think that this lead to their demise. The love the shared for each...