Personally, when I first hear the name Karl Marx, the first things that I think of is the basic ideas of the bourgeois and proletariats: the idea that there is a higher and lower class. The ideas that there are inequalities in the world and are heavily pronounced in Wuthering Heights. The idea that these two sides are always at a struggle for power: a sense of power and a sense of struggle similar to the ones in the novel.
In Terry Eagelton’s “Myths of Power: A Marxist Study on Wuthering Heights, Eagelton discusses in depth the character of Heathcliff. She gives evidence of the two sides to Heathcliff with a quote from the novel: “See here, wife; I was never so beathen with anything in my life; but you must e’en take it as a gift of God; though it’s as dark almost as if it came from the devil” (p.51). Mr. Earnshaw eventually begins to favor and give Heathcliff special treatment which makes Hindley very jealous (and eventually vengeful) and creates inequalities among the Earnshaw children. This eventually causes turmoil among Heathcliff and Hindely. After childhood, the couple is still not on good terms with one another and Heathcliff becomes obsessed with taking his power. The idea of Heathcliff, the lower-class, adopted, outsider child rising up from his humble and poor beginning is the ultimate Marxists goal (or at least I think it is).
That's a valid point you've made, unfortunately Heathcliff found it necessary to achieve his standing by way of manipulation. So maybe Heathcliff never did rise above as he stooped to such low levels to amass his fortune?
ReplyDeleteI think you make a very good point regarding the main goal of Marxist beliefs. I think there is definitely a stress between an upper and lower class and that there is a constant state of struggle between the two.
ReplyDeleteNow, isn't that the perfect outline for Wuthering Heights? It is illustrated in an ever-so-literary-way, that one may accidentally overlook something that seems to be so obvious when it's pointed out.
I really enjoyed your example of Heathcliff, being from a lower class, coming in to the Earnshaw family, which is seemingly from an upper class. It is an intrusion of the unwanted sort. The plot that unfolds from Heathcliff and Hindley's actions illustrate the struggle between the upper and lower classes.
I think you're on the right track in regards to Marxist ideas, because if you're not, than neither am I. :-)
I am most interested in his lack of a moral code. We don't know how he got his money but I think Bronte wanted us to assume it was not by legitimate means. If he had acknowledged that he was being socially oppressed and then made the effort to transcend his class, would that still speak to Marxism in the same way? Or is it reliant on Heathcliff, instead of rising above, battling with the higher class and seeking to destroy it?
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