Feminist Response- Wuthering Heights

One aspect I found interesting in Lyn Pykett’s essay is the idea of feminine “strategies” (stealth and indirection).  Although at first the closet fem-Nazi in me was somewhat angered and disagreed with this statement, after a while of pondering and a quick observation of my own behavior, I could not disagree.  Women tend to go about handling conflict or extreme negative emotion with sneaky ideas and in my opinion, are better are ruining things from the inside-out—rather than inside-in like men. 

Pykett discuss how both Catherine and Cathy use these strategies and the point I find the most interesting is her brief discussion of how Cathy uses them to rekindle Hareton’s interest in literature.  Cathy uses these tactics to not only gain control over her own life, but in teaching a man, she establishes control over him.  As a teacher, she has something over Hateton.  Although it is not made clear in the novel, I would think that Hearton would look up to Cathy.  Perhaps it is not made clear because the character of Hearton is too ashamed to say that a woman is better at something than he is.  It would hurt his already battered ego (thanks to Heathcliff) more and would cause him great emotional pain I may be delving too deeply into this thought, but if his character was more deeply discussed in the novel, maybe I could make a better assumption.

Critical Marxist Reponse: Wuthering Heights

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). 

Wuthering Heights Response p. 203-288

As the first half successfully sets up the plot and develops characters, the second half of the novel is equally as successful in creating a sticky, unpleasant tension and climax that is destined to result in disaster.  Also, in the first half of the book, I believe Bronte does a fantastic job in setting up Heathcliff to be the ultimate underdog in the novel: not only do I find myself cheering and rooting for his success and revenge, but I also empathize and feel sorry for the poor boy. Although a small fraction of this initial emotion remains throughout the book, the second half really shows how truly insane and unstable Heathcliff is.

Heathcliff’s sanity and physical health take a major downward plunge in chapter 33.  He opens up to Nelly and exclaims, “I cannot look down to this floor, but her features are shaped on the flags! In every cloud, in every tree—filling the air at night, and caught by glimpses in every object by day, I am surrounded with her image! The most ordinary faces of men and women—my own features—mock me with a resemblance. The entire world is a dreadful collection of memoranda that she did exist, and that I have lost her!” (p.277). Not only does he admit to digging up Catherine’s body from her grave, but is obviously losing his mind and possibly having delusions of Catherine.  He either a) cannot bear to live without his beloved or b) is truly being haunted by her ghost.

One of the mysteries of this novel is that you never know if Heathcliff is really being haunted by spirits, or if perhaps he was mentally unstable from the start.  The gothic element of the supernatural and unexplained plays out loud and clear in the novel and still successfully gives a modern readers goose bumps.  Although I personally like to still like to believe that Heathcliff has been a victim throughout the novel and was set up for disaster form the start, it is ultimately up to the reader to decipher his or her personal feelings.

Wuthering Heights Response p. 3-108

After discovering that the novel we would focus on this semester would be Wuthering Heights (which I read in honors World Literature in the tenth grade), I figured that reading it again would be a piece of cake.  Oh, how wrong I was.  I was truly amazed at how much of the plot I had actually forgotten.  I had also forgotten how much I loved the character Heathcliff-- the loner with mysterious origins; the black sheep, the dark protagonist that spoke to my fifteen year-old heart, and still resonates with me today five years later.

In the first couple of chapters of the novel, the adult Heathcliff is portrayed as a callus and bitter man with a personality disorder.  However, as I continued to read and remembered the back and forth rags to riches story of Heathcliff, it made me remember why I felt so deeply for this character.  His mistreatment from society and living on the streets of Liverpool makes me sympathize and then feel joyous after his discover and adoption from Mr. Earnshaw. Sadly, his happiness is not permanent.  He is teased and talked down to constantly and is constantly called a “dog” or “vagabond”.  After practically losing his best friend and love, Catherine, he is again forced to live in a hell of torment and slavery from people who, for lack of a better phrase, think they are “all that and a bag of chips”.  This is when I felt like I could personally relate to Heathcliff and his struggles.  Perhaps it was just because I was picked on a lot in high school and was not one of the cool kids, but I still cannot help but smile when I read the text “I shall be as dirty as I please, and I like to be dirty, and I will be dirty!” (p. 65).  It makes the little rebellious teenager inside me want to high-five Heathcliff and go throw hot applesauce in a stuck-up kid’s face.