Wednesday, March 25, 2015

What points should I consider in a reflection piece about love and death in Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte?

I would explore the following points. Heathcliff is described in the novel as a fiend, as a diabolical character.  He is considered an anti-hero in literature because of his demonic and villainous personality.  This relates to the tragic love in the story because Heathcliff's love for Catherine is so strong and passionate that he places his feelings above all other considerations.  He woos and marries Isabella in an attempt to torture Catherine with jealousy.  Even after Catherine's death, his fury does not end, and he torments Isabella even further (see Chapter 17).  This passionate love and his attempts at revenge upset the social order of the society.  It actually causes serious illness and death of Catherine.  At the end of the novel, he is so tormented by his thoughts of Catherine haunting him that he becomes violent with the younger Catherine.  He is described by Nelly in Chapter 32 as a "ghoul or a vampire" with "deep black eyes."


The moors can be considered a symbol of the wild, uncontrolled passion of Catherine and Heathcliff.  On the moors their love first developed, and it is from the moors that Catherine haunts him and he goes out to seek her ghost. The moors represent danger, as Nelly indicates when she fears for Catherine's life when she sets out on the moors to seek Heathcliff.  Normal society takes refuge from the severe, dangerous wilderness of the moors by staying in the orderly world of the home, but Catherine and Heathcliff express their unbridled love most fully in the wilderness of the moors.  They are even buried on a wild slope adjoining the moors (see end of novel, Chapter 34).

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