Proof that, though they are similar, you can not generalize the Bronte sisters’ work: my mother positively detested Jane Eyre, but couldn’t put Wuthering Heights down. I brought it with me on my trip to Paris, because I’d been meaning to read it, and in the sleepless, jet-lagged nights, I did. It left quite an impression on me, and later on my mother as she read it on the plane ride home. My mother and I have very different tastes in books, but this was one that we agreed was fantastic.
I’ll admit that it is difficult to immerse yourself in. The diction is both intelligent and grandiose. That, and you’re bombarded with Joseph’s vernacular almost from the get-go. The frame story, once begun, is so compelling, however, that you soon find yourself enthralled. The story of Heathcliff and Cathy is unique, horrifying, and disastrously romantic.
These are two of my favorite anti-heroes. Heathcliff is a sadistic plotter, bent on ruining everyone’s happiness if he cannot secure his own. He lusts after revenge and the downfall of anyone who has slighted him or anyone connected with them. He cares for no one but himself and Cathy. He is manipulative and takes advantage of situations as they are presented to him and twists them so he gets his way in the end. Cathy is selfish and a snob. She is pretentious and cares more about position and good-breeding than even love. She cannot bear to be connected to a man who cannot maintain or better her position in the eyes of society.
Eventually, these character flaws destroy them respectively. Cathy cannot handle the competing affections of both Heathcliff and her husband (she wishes for them to get along, for her sake) and falls ill, though it is more a psychological illness than anything else. Heathcliff, rather than wishing peace for Cathy, refuses to let her rest. He doesn’t care if she walks the world for all eternity, haunting him as a ghost, but he cannot bear for her to leave him. He wishes no peace for her, only for the selfish consummation of his needs.
Heathcliff does not stop at Cathy. He takes advantage of Rebecca’s affection towards him, and twists that situation to fit his needs. He demeans Hareton to the point of depravity. He manipulates his own son, and Cathy’s daughter in an effort to ruin all of their lives, especially to get revenge on Cathy’s husband. His occupations in these matters consume him, until all he can see is Cathy and the tangled webs of everyone’s lives and how they correlated to his plots. Eventually, he is to the point where his plans could be realized.
These characters are immature. Critics have claimed they are not fully developed. That is true in a way, but not what was meant. These characters are not fully developed, because they’re not supposed to be. They are not well-adjusted socialites. They were the victims of life, warped and abused by circumstance since infancy. They know nothing else, and they act accordingly. They have never known acceptance, caring, or compassion. They have only experienced, rage, violence, and passion, which can only lead to a tempest of emotion, not the adult relationship they would be expected to have. These characters are realistic in the fact that they are depraved and maladjusted. They are humans, and humans have their difficulties and their faults. It makes their passion that much more believable.
