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The Brontë Sisters: Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre
This delightful, pocket-sized slipcase package features two of the Br�nte sisters' best-known works: Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. Jane Eyre recounts the story of a governess who, having suffered during childhood both at her aunt's house and then at school, finds herself falling for her new employer, Mr. Rochester. But Mr. Rochester and his home are not all they seem and when secrets come to light, Jane is forced to abandon all her hopes and dreams. Wuthering Heights is a tale of tormented love that centres around the characters of Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw and which will effect successive generations.
518 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1847
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About the author
Emily Brontë
1,532 books13.4k followersEmily Brontë was an English novelist and poet whose singular contribution to literature, Wuthering Heights, is now celebrated as one of the most powerful and original novels in the English language. Born into the remarkable Brontë family on 30 July 1818 in Thornton, Yorkshire, she was the fifth of six children of Maria Branwell and Patrick Brontë, an Irish clergyman. Her early life was marked by both intellectual curiosity and profound loss. After the death of her mother in 1821 and the subsequent deaths of her two eldest sisters in 1825, Emily and her surviving siblings— Charlotte, Anne, and Branwell—were raised in relative seclusion in the moorland village of Haworth, where their imaginations flourished in a household shaped by books, storytelling, and emotional intensity.
The Brontë children created elaborate fictional worlds, notably Angria and later Gondal, which served as an outlet for their creative energies. Emily, in particular, gravitated toward Gondal, a mysterious, windswept imaginary land she developed with her sister Anne. Her early poetry, much of it steeped in the mythology and characters of Gondal, demonstrated a remarkable lyrical force and emotional depth. These poems remained private until discovered by Charlotte in 1845, after which Emily reluctantly agreed to publish them in the 1846 collection Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, using the pseudonym Ellis Bell to conceal her gender. Though the volume sold few copies, critics identified Emily’s poems as the strongest in the collection, lauding her for their music, power, and visionary quality.
Emily was intensely private and reclusive by nature. She briefly attended schools in Cowan Bridge and Roe Head but was plagued by homesickness and preferred the solitude of the Yorkshire moors, which inspired much of her work. She worked briefly as a teacher but found the demands of the profession exhausting. She also studied in Brussels with Charlotte in 1842, but again found herself alienated and yearning for home. Throughout her life, Emily remained closely bonded with her siblings, particularly Anne, and with the landscape of Haworth, where she drew on the raw, untamed beauty of the moors for both her poetry and her fiction.
Her only novel, Wuthering Heights, was published in 1847, a year after the poetry collection, under her pseudonym Ellis Bell. Initially met with a mixture of admiration and shock, the novel’s structure, emotional intensity, and portrayal of violent passion and moral ambiguity stood in stark contrast to the conventions of Victorian fiction. Many readers, unable to reconcile its power with the expected gentility of a woman writer, assumed it had been written by a man. The novel tells the story of Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw—two characters driven by obsessive love, cruelty, and vengeance—and explores themes of nature, the supernatural, and the destructive power of unresolved emotion. Though controversial at the time, Wuthering Heights is now considered a landmark in English literature, acclaimed for its originality, psychological insight, and poetic vision.
Emily's personality has been the subject of much speculation, shaped in part by her sister Charlotte’s later writings and by Victorian biographies that often sought to romanticize or domesticate her character. While some accounts depict her as intensely shy and austere, others highlight her fierce independence, deep empathy with animals, and profound inner life. She is remembered as a solitary figure, closely attuned to the rhythms of the natural world, with a quiet but formidable intellect and a passion for truth and freedom. Her dog, Keeper, was a constant companion and, according to many, a window into her capacity for fierce, loyal love.
Emily Brontë died of tuberculosis on 19 December 1848 at the age of thirty, just a year after the publication of her novel. Her early death, following those of her brother Branwell and soon to
The Brontë children created elaborate fictional worlds, notably Angria and later Gondal, which served as an outlet for their creative energies. Emily, in particular, gravitated toward Gondal, a mysterious, windswept imaginary land she developed with her sister Anne. Her early poetry, much of it steeped in the mythology and characters of Gondal, demonstrated a remarkable lyrical force and emotional depth. These poems remained private until discovered by Charlotte in 1845, after which Emily reluctantly agreed to publish them in the 1846 collection Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, using the pseudonym Ellis Bell to conceal her gender. Though the volume sold few copies, critics identified Emily’s poems as the strongest in the collection, lauding her for their music, power, and visionary quality.
Emily was intensely private and reclusive by nature. She briefly attended schools in Cowan Bridge and Roe Head but was plagued by homesickness and preferred the solitude of the Yorkshire moors, which inspired much of her work. She worked briefly as a teacher but found the demands of the profession exhausting. She also studied in Brussels with Charlotte in 1842, but again found herself alienated and yearning for home. Throughout her life, Emily remained closely bonded with her siblings, particularly Anne, and with the landscape of Haworth, where she drew on the raw, untamed beauty of the moors for both her poetry and her fiction.
Her only novel, Wuthering Heights, was published in 1847, a year after the poetry collection, under her pseudonym Ellis Bell. Initially met with a mixture of admiration and shock, the novel’s structure, emotional intensity, and portrayal of violent passion and moral ambiguity stood in stark contrast to the conventions of Victorian fiction. Many readers, unable to reconcile its power with the expected gentility of a woman writer, assumed it had been written by a man. The novel tells the story of Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw—two characters driven by obsessive love, cruelty, and vengeance—and explores themes of nature, the supernatural, and the destructive power of unresolved emotion. Though controversial at the time, Wuthering Heights is now considered a landmark in English literature, acclaimed for its originality, psychological insight, and poetic vision.
Emily's personality has been the subject of much speculation, shaped in part by her sister Charlotte’s later writings and by Victorian biographies that often sought to romanticize or domesticate her character. While some accounts depict her as intensely shy and austere, others highlight her fierce independence, deep empathy with animals, and profound inner life. She is remembered as a solitary figure, closely attuned to the rhythms of the natural world, with a quiet but formidable intellect and a passion for truth and freedom. Her dog, Keeper, was a constant companion and, according to many, a window into her capacity for fierce, loyal love.
Emily Brontë died of tuberculosis on 19 December 1848 at the age of thirty, just a year after the publication of her novel. Her early death, following those of her brother Branwell and soon to
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 202 reviews
August 27, 2010
Jane Eyre is often forced on schoolchildren before they're ready to enjoy it. It's such a shame if that turns them off the Brontes - the novels are a joy, full of passion, elements of the Gothic and strong characterisation.
March 22, 2019
Am so happy I finally picked up this book and treated myself to reading it.
Oh, the journey of Jane from childhood through young adulthood - the successes and failures, the trials; and ultimately, her self-determination, perseverance, and confidence in the truth of what her heart and mind told her gave this reader a deeply satisfying experience.
Surprisingly passionate at times, this book really packs a wallop near the end. I found myself reminded of fairy tales in all their grim and lovely twists and turns and very much put in mind of Beauty and the Beast.
Withering Heights remains my favorite book but this was certainly a great work of literature and I’m so pleased I had the chance to read it.
Oh, the journey of Jane from childhood through young adulthood - the successes and failures, the trials; and ultimately, her self-determination, perseverance, and confidence in the truth of what her heart and mind told her gave this reader a deeply satisfying experience.
Surprisingly passionate at times, this book really packs a wallop near the end. I found myself reminded of fairy tales in all their grim and lovely twists and turns and very much put in mind of Beauty and the Beast.
Withering Heights remains my favorite book but this was certainly a great work of literature and I’m so pleased I had the chance to read it.
December 5, 2008
This will always be one of my favorite books. I read it every few years and never tire of it. It's a masterpiece of storytelling, characterization, and beautiful writing. The narrator, Jane, is such a believable character, and I always relate to her.
The highlights for me:
Bronte's portrayal of Jane as a child while she is downtrodden at Gateshead Hall. ("How much I wished to reply fully to this question! How difficult it was to frame any answer! Children can feel, but they cannot analyse their feelings; and if the analysis is partially effected in thought, they know not how to express the result of the process in words.")
Delightful British sentences like: "I considered [the book] a narrative of facts, and discovered in it a vein of interest deeper than what I found in fairy tails: for as to the elves, having sought them in vain among foxglove leaves and bells, under mushrooms and beneath the ground-ivy mantling old wall-nooks, I had at length made up my mind to the sad truth, that they were all gone out of England to some savage country where the woods were wilder and thicker, and the population more scant."
The inspiring example of Helen Burns and the impact she has on Jane's character. ("If all the world hated you, and believed you wicked, while your own conscience approved you, and absolved you from guilt, you would not be without friends...besides the race of men, there is an invisible world and a kingdom of spirits: that world is round us; and if we were dying in pain and shame, if scorn smote us on all sides, and hatred crushed us, angels see our tortures, recognize our innocence...and God waits only the separation of spirits from flesh to crown us with a full reward. Why, then, should we ever sink overwhelmed with distress, when life is so soon over, and death is so certain an entrance to happiness - to glory?")
Jane's character when she is grown, which we understand better because we know of the people and events that had the most impact on her when she was young. Although she is "plain and little," she is intelligent, sensible, conscientious, feeling, honest, circumspect, defiant, in some cases, and as Mr. Rochester says, "indomitable." She is a person of her own making, and the contrast between her and her dissipated and silly cousins when she visits them as an adult is striking. Bronte conveys Jane's character principally through her words, her interactions with others, and Mr. Rochester's perception of her. She has a good balance of self-awareness and self-respect. ("Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! - I have as much soul as you, - and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you. I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh: - it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grace, and we stood at God's feet, equal, - as we are!")
The character of Mr. Rochester, who is so real that you could almost swear you've met him somewhere before. I love the pride, the perceptiveness, the slightly sarcastic humor, the to-the-point bluntness and even brusqueness, the ardent love, the wistfulness, and the mystery of the melancholy, which we later understand in full. ("I have plenty of faults of my own: I know it, and I don't wish to palliate them, I assure you....I started, or rather...was thrust on to a wrong tack at the age of one-and-twenty, and have never recovered the right course since: but I might have been very different; I might have been as good as you.")
Jane and Mr. Rochester's love for each other. They understand each other; they are like each other, and they esteem each other. ("My bride is here," he said, again drawing me to him, "because my equal is here, and my likeness. Jane, will you marry me?") ("I grieve to leave Thornfield; I love Thornfield: - I love it, because I have lived in it a full and delightful life, - momentarily at least. I have not been trampled on. I have not been petrified. I have not been buried with inferior minds, and excluded from every glimpse of communion with what is bright and energetic, and high. I have talked, face to face, with what I reverence; with what I delight in, - with an original, a vigorous, an expanded mind. I have known you, Mr. Rochester; and it strikes me with terror and anguish to feel I absolutely must be torn from you for ever.")
Jane's courageous decision to refuse to live with Mr. Rochester, even though it broke her heart. ("I had already gained the door: but, reader, I walked back - walked back as determinedly as I had retreated. I knelt down by him; I turned his face from the cushion to me; I kissed his cheek; I smoothed his hair with my hand. 'God bless you, my dear master!' I said. 'God keep you from harm and wrong - direct you, solace you - reward you well for your past kindness to me.'...He held his arms out; but I evaded the embrace, and at once quitted the room.")
The character of St. John. Bronte gives us plenty of interesting information about him, but leaves it up to the reader to decide if his ultimate decision to be a missionary is foolish or noble.
Occasionally I talk to people who don't like the ending of Jane Eyre, which is strange to me. I can only think that they have no appreciation for truly happy endings, or that they weren't paying enough attention to the narrative to understand that what happened was absolutely necessary for the ending to be happy. "Why couldn't Mr. Rochester's first wife have died," they wonder, "withOUT Mr. Rochester's getting blinded and maimed?"
Although Jane was a governess and Mr. Rochester her master - two people in entirely different social strata - Mr. Rochester recognized in Jane an equal. In contrast, Jane (who loved Mr. Rochester dearly and believed herself to be his equal in spirit)was keenly aware of their social and monetary differences. How could she not be? Mr. Rochester's well-bred guests treated her like a piece of furniture. Her contrasting sketches of her own "Portrait of a Governess, disconnected, poor, and plain" and the imagined "Blanche, an accomplished lady of rank," led her to say, "Mr. Rochester might probably win that noble lady's love, if he chose to strive for it; is it likely he would waste a serious thought on this indigent and insignificant plebeian?" And when her friend Mrs. Fairfax learned of Jane's and Mr. Rochester's engagement, Mrs. Fairfax's reaction was: "How it will answer, I cannot tell: I really don't know. Equality of position and fortune is often advisable in such cases." (This disturbed Jane because she felt it was true.) Mr. Rochester tried to lavish Jane with jewels and fine dresses, but she refused, seeing that she would feel too awkward and out of character: "Don't send for the jewels, and don't crown me with roses: you might as well put a border or gold lace round that plain pocket handkerchief you have there." She was happy to remember, while they are shopping for finery, that she has an uncle who may leave her an inheritance. "It would, indeed, be a relief if I had ever so small an independency; I never can bear being dressed like a doll by Mr. Rochester." In short, although Jane knew her character and person to be Mr. Rochester's equal, she was continually conscious that they were not on equal footing as regards her station in life. She felt it most keenly when she loved him and did not yet know if he loved her - when he made her jealous and envious of Blanche Ingram, when he left for weeks and seemed to ignore her. She was at his mercy. He could honor her by choosing her instead of any other of the many women available; but her favor was worth little by her own estimation, as he was virtually her only option.
After Jane left and Mr. Rochester was blinded and lost his right hand, he was a changed person. ("His form was of the same strong and stalwart contour as ever: his port was still erect, his hair was raven-black; nor were his features altered or sunk: not in one year's space, by any sorrow, could his athletic strength be quelled, or his vigorous prime blighted. But in his countenance, I saw a change: that looked desperate and brooding...He descended the one step, and advanced slowly and gropingly towards the grass-plat. Where was his daring stride now?")
Jane proclaimed early on in their first conversation after remeeting that she had inherited five thousand pounds and was "an independent woman" who was quite free to build a house next to his and love and help him. This was important to her. She also made a point of teasing Mr. Rochester about handsome St. John's proposal to her (echoing Mr. Rochester's onetime use of Blanche Ingram as an object to provoke jealousy). Jane did not truly come in to her own until she felt to be on equal footing with Mr. Rochester. Her initial contemplation of marriage to Mr. Rochester was happy but uneasy. By the end of the book, she knew her place, had found her niche, and was completely assured of the essentialness of her presence in Mr. Rochester's life and affections. In the beginning of the book she was trampled on and treated poorly; at the end of the book she knew "what it is to live entirely for and with what I love best on earth." She held herself "supremely blest - blest beyond what language can express;" because, in her words, "I am my husband's life as fully as he is mine. No woman was ever nearer to her mate than I am; ever more absolutely bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh. I know no weariness of my Edward's society: he knows none of mine, any more than we each do of the pulsation of the heart that beats in our separate bosoms...we are precisely suited in character - perfect concord is the result." Perfect concord wasn't possible until the end. What a satisfying ending!
The highlights for me:
Bronte's portrayal of Jane as a child while she is downtrodden at Gateshead Hall. ("How much I wished to reply fully to this question! How difficult it was to frame any answer! Children can feel, but they cannot analyse their feelings; and if the analysis is partially effected in thought, they know not how to express the result of the process in words.")
Delightful British sentences like: "I considered [the book] a narrative of facts, and discovered in it a vein of interest deeper than what I found in fairy tails: for as to the elves, having sought them in vain among foxglove leaves and bells, under mushrooms and beneath the ground-ivy mantling old wall-nooks, I had at length made up my mind to the sad truth, that they were all gone out of England to some savage country where the woods were wilder and thicker, and the population more scant."
The inspiring example of Helen Burns and the impact she has on Jane's character. ("If all the world hated you, and believed you wicked, while your own conscience approved you, and absolved you from guilt, you would not be without friends...besides the race of men, there is an invisible world and a kingdom of spirits: that world is round us; and if we were dying in pain and shame, if scorn smote us on all sides, and hatred crushed us, angels see our tortures, recognize our innocence...and God waits only the separation of spirits from flesh to crown us with a full reward. Why, then, should we ever sink overwhelmed with distress, when life is so soon over, and death is so certain an entrance to happiness - to glory?")
Jane's character when she is grown, which we understand better because we know of the people and events that had the most impact on her when she was young. Although she is "plain and little," she is intelligent, sensible, conscientious, feeling, honest, circumspect, defiant, in some cases, and as Mr. Rochester says, "indomitable." She is a person of her own making, and the contrast between her and her dissipated and silly cousins when she visits them as an adult is striking. Bronte conveys Jane's character principally through her words, her interactions with others, and Mr. Rochester's perception of her. She has a good balance of self-awareness and self-respect. ("Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! - I have as much soul as you, - and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you. I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh: - it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grace, and we stood at God's feet, equal, - as we are!")
The character of Mr. Rochester, who is so real that you could almost swear you've met him somewhere before. I love the pride, the perceptiveness, the slightly sarcastic humor, the to-the-point bluntness and even brusqueness, the ardent love, the wistfulness, and the mystery of the melancholy, which we later understand in full. ("I have plenty of faults of my own: I know it, and I don't wish to palliate them, I assure you....I started, or rather...was thrust on to a wrong tack at the age of one-and-twenty, and have never recovered the right course since: but I might have been very different; I might have been as good as you.")
Jane and Mr. Rochester's love for each other. They understand each other; they are like each other, and they esteem each other. ("My bride is here," he said, again drawing me to him, "because my equal is here, and my likeness. Jane, will you marry me?") ("I grieve to leave Thornfield; I love Thornfield: - I love it, because I have lived in it a full and delightful life, - momentarily at least. I have not been trampled on. I have not been petrified. I have not been buried with inferior minds, and excluded from every glimpse of communion with what is bright and energetic, and high. I have talked, face to face, with what I reverence; with what I delight in, - with an original, a vigorous, an expanded mind. I have known you, Mr. Rochester; and it strikes me with terror and anguish to feel I absolutely must be torn from you for ever.")
Jane's courageous decision to refuse to live with Mr. Rochester, even though it broke her heart. ("I had already gained the door: but, reader, I walked back - walked back as determinedly as I had retreated. I knelt down by him; I turned his face from the cushion to me; I kissed his cheek; I smoothed his hair with my hand. 'God bless you, my dear master!' I said. 'God keep you from harm and wrong - direct you, solace you - reward you well for your past kindness to me.'...He held his arms out; but I evaded the embrace, and at once quitted the room.")
The character of St. John. Bronte gives us plenty of interesting information about him, but leaves it up to the reader to decide if his ultimate decision to be a missionary is foolish or noble.
Occasionally I talk to people who don't like the ending of Jane Eyre, which is strange to me. I can only think that they have no appreciation for truly happy endings, or that they weren't paying enough attention to the narrative to understand that what happened was absolutely necessary for the ending to be happy. "Why couldn't Mr. Rochester's first wife have died," they wonder, "withOUT Mr. Rochester's getting blinded and maimed?"
Although Jane was a governess and Mr. Rochester her master - two people in entirely different social strata - Mr. Rochester recognized in Jane an equal. In contrast, Jane (who loved Mr. Rochester dearly and believed herself to be his equal in spirit)was keenly aware of their social and monetary differences. How could she not be? Mr. Rochester's well-bred guests treated her like a piece of furniture. Her contrasting sketches of her own "Portrait of a Governess, disconnected, poor, and plain" and the imagined "Blanche, an accomplished lady of rank," led her to say, "Mr. Rochester might probably win that noble lady's love, if he chose to strive for it; is it likely he would waste a serious thought on this indigent and insignificant plebeian?" And when her friend Mrs. Fairfax learned of Jane's and Mr. Rochester's engagement, Mrs. Fairfax's reaction was: "How it will answer, I cannot tell: I really don't know. Equality of position and fortune is often advisable in such cases." (This disturbed Jane because she felt it was true.) Mr. Rochester tried to lavish Jane with jewels and fine dresses, but she refused, seeing that she would feel too awkward and out of character: "Don't send for the jewels, and don't crown me with roses: you might as well put a border or gold lace round that plain pocket handkerchief you have there." She was happy to remember, while they are shopping for finery, that she has an uncle who may leave her an inheritance. "It would, indeed, be a relief if I had ever so small an independency; I never can bear being dressed like a doll by Mr. Rochester." In short, although Jane knew her character and person to be Mr. Rochester's equal, she was continually conscious that they were not on equal footing as regards her station in life. She felt it most keenly when she loved him and did not yet know if he loved her - when he made her jealous and envious of Blanche Ingram, when he left for weeks and seemed to ignore her. She was at his mercy. He could honor her by choosing her instead of any other of the many women available; but her favor was worth little by her own estimation, as he was virtually her only option.
After Jane left and Mr. Rochester was blinded and lost his right hand, he was a changed person. ("His form was of the same strong and stalwart contour as ever: his port was still erect, his hair was raven-black; nor were his features altered or sunk: not in one year's space, by any sorrow, could his athletic strength be quelled, or his vigorous prime blighted. But in his countenance, I saw a change: that looked desperate and brooding...He descended the one step, and advanced slowly and gropingly towards the grass-plat. Where was his daring stride now?")
Jane proclaimed early on in their first conversation after remeeting that she had inherited five thousand pounds and was "an independent woman" who was quite free to build a house next to his and love and help him. This was important to her. She also made a point of teasing Mr. Rochester about handsome St. John's proposal to her (echoing Mr. Rochester's onetime use of Blanche Ingram as an object to provoke jealousy). Jane did not truly come in to her own until she felt to be on equal footing with Mr. Rochester. Her initial contemplation of marriage to Mr. Rochester was happy but uneasy. By the end of the book, she knew her place, had found her niche, and was completely assured of the essentialness of her presence in Mr. Rochester's life and affections. In the beginning of the book she was trampled on and treated poorly; at the end of the book she knew "what it is to live entirely for and with what I love best on earth." She held herself "supremely blest - blest beyond what language can express;" because, in her words, "I am my husband's life as fully as he is mine. No woman was ever nearer to her mate than I am; ever more absolutely bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh. I know no weariness of my Edward's society: he knows none of mine, any more than we each do of the pulsation of the heart that beats in our separate bosoms...we are precisely suited in character - perfect concord is the result." Perfect concord wasn't possible until the end. What a satisfying ending!
April 11, 2012
I am only halfway through Wuthering Heights, but I already have so much to say that I have to come and write down all my thoughts before I forget them.
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
There are some things I like about this book, and there are some things that I really hate about this book. The following are simply a few of my thoughts:
I'll admit, when I started reading, I didn't have a clue what was going on, or who the narrator was. Last night, I ended up re-reading the first 50 pages of the book to try and understand what was going on. After doing so, I was able to pick out who the narrator(s) was/were, and understood exactly the storyline and what would happen.
On the topic of narrators, I like the fact that the book begins with an outsider, Mr. Lockwood, coming to Wuthering Heights to live. After encountering so many strange events during his stay and meeting with Heathcliff, his landlord, it stood for a very intriguing beginning. Then, when Mrs. Dean, or "Nelly," is introduced and he begs her to tell the story of Mr. Heathcliff and his strange behavior, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing a story take place through not one, but two different point of views. Though confusing at first, I was able to later get it and understand.
I do not like the fact that both Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff are such evil characters. Catherine is the one who began her own demise (by accepting Edgar Linton's marriage proposal) when she really loved Heathcliff. Because of her stupidity and heart full of greed for Edgar's money, she betrayed Heathcliff, whom she loved. Heathcliff, overhearing her heartbreak over her decision, takes off and vows to make something of himself to prove to Catherine that he is worthy of his love and heart. BUT IT'S TOO FRICKING LATE! It's very bittersweet that he wants to prove his love, but divorce was a sin during this time period. Catherine would never leave Edgar, even if she did love Heathcliff more. Gah, and the fact that Heathcliff had grown so greedy for money, upon Catherine's mentioning that Isabella had money and loved him, he "wooed" her so to speak, and married her for nothing but money and a chance to enact revenge on Edgar Linton. Then Catherine claims that his battle with Edgar is what murdered her, when in fact she pretty much murdered herself because of her sheer stupidity.
This is a dark story, and I honestly don't have a clue if it could be called a love story, because it's not. It's almost a warning AGAINST love. Emily Bronte is almost saying, "This is what love shouldn't be. Do not follow this example." For that, it's a great story of warning, and probably why I don't like this story all too much.
Okay /endrant. I've got to go finish the last half--(Speaking of the last half, does there even need to be more? Catherine's dead. Heathcliff is mourning and pretty much wants to kill himself. (Do you see the Shakespeare ties with this, too? IT'S EVERYWHERE! Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth . . . the madness, the "I'm so in love I'm going to kill myself," the tragedy, the depressing themes. Emily Bronte loved Shakespeare, I'm sure of it.) What's the point of more story? There isn't one anymore. At least, I think.)
**update**
I finished reading, and honestly, all I really have to say about the story is this: 1) Emily Bronte is twisted in imagining a story such as this and 2) Heathcliff is a sick, twisted, evil man and should rot in Hell with Catherine Earnshaw for eternity.
The reason I give Wuthering Heights four stars, is the fact that the writing was great (though very wordy at times) and the underlying themes strong and powerful. If read mulitiple times, you could probably find something new and learn something new about it. That's why her writing is timeless, and very unforgettable. I'm sure that's why it's remembered as a classic, no matter how sick and twisted it may be.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
I have finished.
It was beautiful.
I will update my review some other time, right now, I am exhausted.
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
There are some things I like about this book, and there are some things that I really hate about this book. The following are simply a few of my thoughts:
I'll admit, when I started reading, I didn't have a clue what was going on, or who the narrator was. Last night, I ended up re-reading the first 50 pages of the book to try and understand what was going on. After doing so, I was able to pick out who the narrator(s) was/were, and understood exactly the storyline and what would happen.
On the topic of narrators, I like the fact that the book begins with an outsider, Mr. Lockwood, coming to Wuthering Heights to live. After encountering so many strange events during his stay and meeting with Heathcliff, his landlord, it stood for a very intriguing beginning. Then, when Mrs. Dean, or "Nelly," is introduced and he begs her to tell the story of Mr. Heathcliff and his strange behavior, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing a story take place through not one, but two different point of views. Though confusing at first, I was able to later get it and understand.
I do not like the fact that both Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff are such evil characters. Catherine is the one who began her own demise (by accepting Edgar Linton's marriage proposal) when she really loved Heathcliff. Because of her stupidity and heart full of greed for Edgar's money, she betrayed Heathcliff, whom she loved. Heathcliff, overhearing her heartbreak over her decision, takes off and vows to make something of himself to prove to Catherine that he is worthy of his love and heart. BUT IT'S TOO FRICKING LATE! It's very bittersweet that he wants to prove his love, but divorce was a sin during this time period. Catherine would never leave Edgar, even if she did love Heathcliff more. Gah, and the fact that Heathcliff had grown so greedy for money, upon Catherine's mentioning that Isabella had money and loved him, he "wooed" her so to speak, and married her for nothing but money and a chance to enact revenge on Edgar Linton. Then Catherine claims that his battle with Edgar is what murdered her, when in fact she pretty much murdered herself because of her sheer stupidity.
This is a dark story, and I honestly don't have a clue if it could be called a love story, because it's not. It's almost a warning AGAINST love. Emily Bronte is almost saying, "This is what love shouldn't be. Do not follow this example." For that, it's a great story of warning, and probably why I don't like this story all too much.
Okay /endrant. I've got to go finish the last half--(Speaking of the last half, does there even need to be more? Catherine's dead. Heathcliff is mourning and pretty much wants to kill himself. (Do you see the Shakespeare ties with this, too? IT'S EVERYWHERE! Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth . . . the madness, the "I'm so in love I'm going to kill myself," the tragedy, the depressing themes. Emily Bronte loved Shakespeare, I'm sure of it.) What's the point of more story? There isn't one anymore. At least, I think.)
**update**
I finished reading, and honestly, all I really have to say about the story is this: 1) Emily Bronte is twisted in imagining a story such as this and 2) Heathcliff is a sick, twisted, evil man and should rot in Hell with Catherine Earnshaw for eternity.
The reason I give Wuthering Heights four stars, is the fact that the writing was great (though very wordy at times) and the underlying themes strong and powerful. If read mulitiple times, you could probably find something new and learn something new about it. That's why her writing is timeless, and very unforgettable. I'm sure that's why it's remembered as a classic, no matter how sick and twisted it may be.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
I have finished.
It was beautiful.
I will update my review some other time, right now, I am exhausted.
February 28, 2013
I found Wuthering Heights to be a dismal story. I felt sorry for all the characters in the story who had to meet Heathcliff, knowing that something tragic would happen to them when he got them under his thumb. At first I also felt sorry for Heathcliff, but later ended up despising him. I guess that is why the book it is such a classic. The storytelling is wonderful and I didn't want to stop reading until something good happened, which took a while. The ending was the one redeeming part of the story in my opinion and the only reason I would possibly read again.
August 11, 2025
I wonder what was going on in the lives of the Brontë sisters. Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights examine variant responses to hard circumstances. Jane grows up mistreated by almost every circumstance in which she finds herself, and yet avidly seeks forgiveness and virtue. Heathcliff, on the other hand, internalizes his situation, not nearly as bad as Jane, and allows his resentment and bitterness to consume all involved in Wuthering Heights.
Of the two, I prefer Jane Eyre by far. It may be my poor attention while reading, but Wuthering Heights suffers by having a convoluted mess of events and names in the first third... almost like a Russian novel, but without the list of names at the front to keep track of who's who. It wasn't until I got halfway through that I found the reading enjoyable. I would probably benefit from a re-read in a few years.
Jane Eyre is absolutely a joy to read. Charlotte makes Jane lovable because she is good, and does not think herself so. We spend a lot of time hearing Jane's own thoughts, and she is given a conscience which relentlessly pursues what she knows to be true to her own detriment. Jane Eyre provides one of the best modern literary treatments of the war between feeling, increasingly prevalent in free societies, and propriety and truth. If you haven't read Charlotte Brontë's masterpiece, edit your reading list promptly.
Of the two, I prefer Jane Eyre by far. It may be my poor attention while reading, but Wuthering Heights suffers by having a convoluted mess of events and names in the first third... almost like a Russian novel, but without the list of names at the front to keep track of who's who. It wasn't until I got halfway through that I found the reading enjoyable. I would probably benefit from a re-read in a few years.
Jane Eyre is absolutely a joy to read. Charlotte makes Jane lovable because she is good, and does not think herself so. We spend a lot of time hearing Jane's own thoughts, and she is given a conscience which relentlessly pursues what she knows to be true to her own detriment. Jane Eyre provides one of the best modern literary treatments of the war between feeling, increasingly prevalent in free societies, and propriety and truth. If you haven't read Charlotte Brontë's masterpiece, edit your reading list promptly.
July 19, 2019
3.5-4. I remember reading this on my own in my late teens and enjoying it. This time around I still love Heathcliff but found myself wishing for a bit...more. I love seeing connections with this book in modern day literature across genres. Angsty men and troubled relationships and lovers that just can’t seem to make it work.
April 10, 2021
Jane Eyre:
Years after I first read this in high school, and I still love this story. Such feeling, such heart, such brokenness and healing. Everything my emotional heart adores.
Content: profanity, expletives, replacement expletives, tobacco, alcohol
Wuthering Heights:
This story was just as emotional as the first time I read it and the numerous times I’ve watched the Ralph Fiennes movie version. There’s something completely broken yet absolutely intriguing about Heathcliff. He’s such a brute, but he’s also hurting and yearning for love. I adore the way Miss Brontë wrote this novel, because the reader almost feels obligated to love Heathcliff – because Cathy refuses to do so.
Content: profanity, expletives, alcohol
Years after I first read this in high school, and I still love this story. Such feeling, such heart, such brokenness and healing. Everything my emotional heart adores.
Content: profanity, expletives, replacement expletives, tobacco, alcohol
Wuthering Heights:
This story was just as emotional as the first time I read it and the numerous times I’ve watched the Ralph Fiennes movie version. There’s something completely broken yet absolutely intriguing about Heathcliff. He’s such a brute, but he’s also hurting and yearning for love. I adore the way Miss Brontë wrote this novel, because the reader almost feels obligated to love Heathcliff – because Cathy refuses to do so.
Content: profanity, expletives, alcohol
December 8, 2025
5+ stars. I adore Jane Eyre. Reading it is perfect in every way. Treasure!!!!!
*****
12/8/2025
There ought to be a way to link my Amazon purchase with Goodreads so I can get the actual book I read to show up. In this day and age this seems very backwards. Especially since Amazon owns Goodreads?! Huge Goodreads pet peeve of mine. I can not search through thousands of Wuthering Heights to find the copy I read. Since I own this one I will choose it as my WH read cover on Goodreads.
And now my review...
I am choosing a 5 star Goodreads review for my experience with Wuthering Heights. Emily Brontë displays a literary brilliance that eclipses Charlotte with Jane Eyre. Now-WAIT-being a Jane Eyre devotee I will still stand by Jane as my favorite of the two because Wuthering Heights is a twisted torturous/cautionary tale.
The central story of the book is what happens when you allow an entire soul destroying love to consume you.
STOP what you are doing and TURN!!!! Nelly Dean essentially offers Heathcliff this advice! Catherine has become his idol. He worships a woman instead of God.
I listened to this book on Audible as Joanna Froggatt as the narrator (Anna from Downton Abbey). My listening experience was top-notch. Joanna must be a classically trained. She is absolutely brilliant with her narration/enunciation/character voices-just everything. Absolute delight.
I also studied Wuthering Heights with David M. Wright and the Memoria Press study book.
Also reading Wuthering Heights (not yet finished) with my heretofore mentioned book cover that I can't find on Goodreads. I hope I have discipline to continue reading on and finishing with my eyes this jewel. I am excited because this is another book ticked off the Top 100 British Reads list-and I only really am concerned about the top 20 I think (at this time anyway).
And! Dare I say I think I want to become a Sister's Bronte completist!
*****
12/8/2025
There ought to be a way to link my Amazon purchase with Goodreads so I can get the actual book I read to show up. In this day and age this seems very backwards. Especially since Amazon owns Goodreads?! Huge Goodreads pet peeve of mine. I can not search through thousands of Wuthering Heights to find the copy I read. Since I own this one I will choose it as my WH read cover on Goodreads.
And now my review...
I am choosing a 5 star Goodreads review for my experience with Wuthering Heights. Emily Brontë displays a literary brilliance that eclipses Charlotte with Jane Eyre. Now-WAIT-being a Jane Eyre devotee I will still stand by Jane as my favorite of the two because Wuthering Heights is a twisted torturous/cautionary tale.
The central story of the book is what happens when you allow an entire soul destroying love to consume you.
STOP what you are doing and TURN!!!! Nelly Dean essentially offers Heathcliff this advice! Catherine has become his idol. He worships a woman instead of God.
I listened to this book on Audible as Joanna Froggatt as the narrator (Anna from Downton Abbey). My listening experience was top-notch. Joanna must be a classically trained. She is absolutely brilliant with her narration/enunciation/character voices-just everything. Absolute delight.
I also studied Wuthering Heights with David M. Wright and the Memoria Press study book.
Also reading Wuthering Heights (not yet finished) with my heretofore mentioned book cover that I can't find on Goodreads. I hope I have discipline to continue reading on and finishing with my eyes this jewel. I am excited because this is another book ticked off the Top 100 British Reads list-and I only really am concerned about the top 20 I think (at this time anyway).
And! Dare I say I think I want to become a Sister's Bronte completist!
June 3, 2023
This took me so long to read…
Jane Eyre:
I love an independent boss queen who respects herself and doesn’t change for any man. She takes time and her dignity to explore and have her own experiences in the world ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Fav quote: “The real world was wide, and that a varied field of hopes and fears, of sensations and excitements awaited those who had courage to go forth into its expense, to seek real knowledge of life and its perils.”
Now on the other hand…
Wuthering Heights: this book was not for me, it was very boring, I hated most of the characters and they were annoying and mean. I know that it was made for the reader to hate them and I tried to keep reading with an open mind because a lot of people like this book, but I just couldn’t. I’m a big romance reader and wanted to read this book because of the famous line:
“…he’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same…”
But there was no romance just annoying characters and death. Maybe I missed the whole point of this book.⭐️
Jane Eyre:
I love an independent boss queen who respects herself and doesn’t change for any man. She takes time and her dignity to explore and have her own experiences in the world ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Fav quote: “The real world was wide, and that a varied field of hopes and fears, of sensations and excitements awaited those who had courage to go forth into its expense, to seek real knowledge of life and its perils.”
Now on the other hand…
Wuthering Heights: this book was not for me, it was very boring, I hated most of the characters and they were annoying and mean. I know that it was made for the reader to hate them and I tried to keep reading with an open mind because a lot of people like this book, but I just couldn’t. I’m a big romance reader and wanted to read this book because of the famous line:
“…he’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same…”
But there was no romance just annoying characters and death. Maybe I missed the whole point of this book.⭐️
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 24, 2015
I didn't really like this book.
November 3, 2015
It was good
January 24, 2021
(Note to self, this is my first review). There are three primary problems that I had with this book. I will say first that this is purely my opinion and that fellow readers are free to and invited to disagree. The first problem that I had with this book is that the style of narration makes the story more confusing (to me at least) and (to an extent) detaches the reader from the events that occur. The narrator, the "I", is a Mr. Lockwood, a stranger to the Wuthering Heights area and a visiting tenant. The first few chapters are a bit discombobulating as it isn't clear how or why he is relevant to the story. Then, when this Mr. Lockwood interacts with Nelly Dean, the latter becomes the primary narrator of the history of Wuthering Heights and its inhabitants. So... the reader is basically Lockwood and the story is told to us through Nelly's observations and recounting of events. This would be alright except that the story sometimes pauses to account for Mr. Lockwood's actions and going abouts which distances the reader from the story and reminds them that it all happened in the past. Second, almost every character in this story is just... despicable. Heathcliff in particular is absolutely despicable--he is an abuser, a controller, and has a disturbing obsession with a woman (Catherine) that is described as a love of sorts when in reality it is just toxic. Other characters (Linton the junior, Cathy the junior, Hareton, etc.) are also fairly self-absorbed and make bad decisions. While I get the appeal of having complex characters that don't make stereotypically good decisions like typical protagonists, it is also very difficult to follow along and feel INVESTED in a story when there isn't really a character to love and/or root for. Third, while some themes of this story are often listed to be "redemption" and "love", the reality of this story is that actions towards others have long lasting consequences. Jealousy is a powerful motivator, one that can even overpower that of so-called love, and abuse is a horrible thing that perpetrates itself through generations and rears its ugly head even after the original actors have passed on.
May 24, 2022
Leído para el club Clásico es leerte
Definitivamente una de mis historias clásicas favoritas.
Me gusta cómo la historia acompaña a Jane en diferentes etapas de su vida empezando con ella de niña en la que vemos cómo es maltratada por la familia que debió cuidarla y recluida en un internado donde sus condiciones no fueron mejores. Sin embargo, ganó educación que le permitió salir adelante y valerse por sí misma y también forjó su carácter.
Aunque algunos lo odien, disfruté mucho de su interacción con Mr. Rochester, su carácter agrio y sombrío, producto de situaciones de las que nos enteraremos a medida que avance el libro, podría hacer que nos caiga antipático pero la forma en que Jane respondía sus desplantes y groserías me resultó hasta divertida.
El final y la parte previa al final, aunque no me disgusta, siento que es la parte más floja del libro, y aunque en general me gusta siento que hubiese estado más satisfecha con algunos cambios.
Definitivamente una de mis historias clásicas favoritas.
Me gusta cómo la historia acompaña a Jane en diferentes etapas de su vida empezando con ella de niña en la que vemos cómo es maltratada por la familia que debió cuidarla y recluida en un internado donde sus condiciones no fueron mejores. Sin embargo, ganó educación que le permitió salir adelante y valerse por sí misma y también forjó su carácter.
Aunque algunos lo odien, disfruté mucho de su interacción con Mr. Rochester, su carácter agrio y sombrío, producto de situaciones de las que nos enteraremos a medida que avance el libro, podría hacer que nos caiga antipático pero la forma en que Jane respondía sus desplantes y groserías me resultó hasta divertida.
El final y la parte previa al final, aunque no me disgusta, siento que es la parte más floja del libro, y aunque en general me gusta siento que hubiese estado más satisfecha con algunos cambios.
November 4, 2018
So, I´ve re-read Wuthering Heights in this Anniversary Year for Emily Brontë (she was born in 1818)...although most of the people described in the book are not exactly the most cheerful, nor sympathetic characters, the story (oh, that passion!) still keeps up, and what to say about the landscape of the Yorkshire Moors, so present in this book!
In 1991, during my first stay in West-Yorkshire, I ventured to Haworth (had a ride in the Worth Valley Railway, a steam train still operated during the weekends), visited the Parsonage and had a walk up the Moors from there to what is considered the place EB took as a setting for the Wuthering Heights farmhouse...I´ll never forget it, and it definitely is part of the charm of this story! Even nowadays it can be rough and "wuthering" up there ;-)
In 1991, during my first stay in West-Yorkshire, I ventured to Haworth (had a ride in the Worth Valley Railway, a steam train still operated during the weekends), visited the Parsonage and had a walk up the Moors from there to what is considered the place EB took as a setting for the Wuthering Heights farmhouse...I´ll never forget it, and it definitely is part of the charm of this story! Even nowadays it can be rough and "wuthering" up there ;-)
August 2, 2022
this review is for wuthering heights: it feels silly giving a classic 3 stars but it was such a mid read. the story itself was actually fire but it truly was miserable turning each page cuz it was told in such a long way. sorry emily but charlotte did it better with jane eyre 😧❤️🔥
July 31, 2018
A reread of Wuthering Heights.
December 7, 2020
Whatever our souls are made of..
His n mine are the same..
His n mine are the same..
May 17, 2021
I liked Wuthering Heights twice as much as I probably should have and liked Jane Eyre half as much as it probably deserved
January 24, 2025
Abridged version of Jane Eyre was confusing so decided to read the unabridged version.
November 4, 2011
Jane Eyre is about a woman in the eighteenth century who falls in love with her employer and she has struggles when trying to show them to him. The main characters in this novel are Jane Eyre, Mr. Rochester and Helen Burns. When Jane realizes her feelings for Mr. Rochester she becomes confused in what she wants in life. "I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will." (Bronte 53)
The theme in this book is mostly love. For example, Jane and Mr. Rochester are the main characters in this book that show love. I think Charlotte Bronte did a very pleasant job writing this novel. This book didn't necessarily move me, but I enjoyed it; it's a favorite. Something valuable I learned in this book would be the meaning of true friendship. I think my audience should totally read this because it is an enjoyable classic.
I would give this book a four out of five. I would give it a four because it was interesting to read, but there were some things about the ending that Bronte could have gone in more depth too.
The theme in this book is mostly love. For example, Jane and Mr. Rochester are the main characters in this book that show love. I think Charlotte Bronte did a very pleasant job writing this novel. This book didn't necessarily move me, but I enjoyed it; it's a favorite. Something valuable I learned in this book would be the meaning of true friendship. I think my audience should totally read this because it is an enjoyable classic.
I would give this book a four out of five. I would give it a four because it was interesting to read, but there were some things about the ending that Bronte could have gone in more depth too.
April 4, 2017
Jane Eyre ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Jane, such a lovely, proper young woman. A lady whose morals and principles hold out over her heart, and who is rewarded with her happy ending. Solid story. The characters were interesting and engaging. Few twists and turns, a dab of the supernatural, and a happy ending. Everything one would expect from a quintessential Gothic romance.
Wuthering Heights ⭐️⭐️
I can't decide who I hated more, Heathcliff, Catherine, or every other character. Boring story. it felt as if the story was an outline of a plot half finished. None of the characters were likable or made you invested in their story enough to care if they lived, died, had a happy or sad conclusion. I feel this story is a bit more true to the Gothic romance core.
Having these two stories together is really nice. Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights had similar themes, story elements, characters, but couldn't be more different. Enjoyed following Jane and Mr. Rochester's story. Couldn't care less about Catherine and Heathcliff.
Jane, such a lovely, proper young woman. A lady whose morals and principles hold out over her heart, and who is rewarded with her happy ending. Solid story. The characters were interesting and engaging. Few twists and turns, a dab of the supernatural, and a happy ending. Everything one would expect from a quintessential Gothic romance.
Wuthering Heights ⭐️⭐️
I can't decide who I hated more, Heathcliff, Catherine, or every other character. Boring story. it felt as if the story was an outline of a plot half finished. None of the characters were likable or made you invested in their story enough to care if they lived, died, had a happy or sad conclusion. I feel this story is a bit more true to the Gothic romance core.
Having these two stories together is really nice. Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights had similar themes, story elements, characters, but couldn't be more different. Enjoyed following Jane and Mr. Rochester's story. Couldn't care less about Catherine and Heathcliff.
January 31, 2017
An den Schreibstil musste ich mich erst gewöhnen. Es dauerte etwas bis ichs durch hatte, stellenweise sehr langatmig. Dennoch haben mir die beiden Geschichten gefallen jene vob jane eyre etwas besser, Sturmhöhe hat mir doch zu viele Intrigen und boshafte Menschen. Hab mir dann auch gleich die Verfilmung angeschaut :)
January 23, 2021
Después de haber escuchado tantas referencias en muchas peliculas "románticas" me animé al leerlo con altas expectativas y debo decir que me decepcionó un montón, no tiene nada de romántico y hasta me provocó aburrimiento en reiterados momentos, si bien en cosa de gustos no hay nada escrito, mi opinión es que no es un buen libro.
November 30, 2016
CUMBRES BORRASCOSAS
Me cautiva por lo complejo de los personajes y por la conexión de éstos con la naturaleza. Se lo recomiendo a los amantes de personalidades oscuras como Heathcliff y transparentes y puras como Cathy y Hareton!
Me cautiva por lo complejo de los personajes y por la conexión de éstos con la naturaleza. Se lo recomiendo a los amantes de personalidades oscuras como Heathcliff y transparentes y puras como Cathy y Hareton!
July 12, 2013
This was the kindle version, Loved Jane Eyre, didn't love wuthering heights.
Read
November 22, 2016Lo ame, es el mejor libro que puede existir, definitivamente mi favorito.
April 10, 2019
Jane Eyre is my favourite of all the Bronte books!!
October 5, 2012
Feminism and Fairy Tales in Wuthering Heights
FW: this was written over one year ago. I am always a big fan of Emily Bronte.
Since many scholarly evaluations tend to see Heathcliff as another ego of Catherine, the heroine in Emily Bronte’s novel Wuthering Heights, providing myriads of evidence of Catherine’s narcissism, for example, her overly quoted comment about the relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine, the identification of Heathcliff has been deemed as another Catherine or an ideal Catherine. What’s more, analysis from feminist point of view seems to exaggerate Catherine’s domination towards Heathcliff mentally and physically, and by this means, prove that Heathcliff is sheer the incarnation of Catherine. This essay tries to argue with this established sentiment for the independent identification of Heathcliff from Catherine. And by further elucidations, I will also try to substantiate the equality of social and domestic status of two genders, and thus, to show the great author Emily Bronte’s appeal for independence and real liberty of females.
Firstly, Catherine and Heathcliff are two different persons. Their similarity can be explained by common childhood and mirror phase. In Childhood and Innocence in Wuthering Heights, Seichepine explains this point of view:
The mirror-phase thus provides a link with reality, a link between the 'Innenwelt' and the 'Umwelt'. As for Catherine, she indeed proves unable to cope with the mirror-phase.' "And I dying! I on the brink of the grave! My God! Does he know how I'm altered?" continued she, staring at her reflection in a mirror, hanging against the opposite wall. "Is that Catherine Linton?"'. (Seichepine 212)
Their antagonized relations were uncovered after Catherine married Linton. The wrestling of control over each other and ways to get it through different means according to different gender roles are vividly depicted. Both Catherine and Heathcliff have strong narcissism, however, this personal characteristic takes no place between them, since both of them feel an alter ego in the other, and both have something that the other possess not. In This Shattered Prison: Confinement, Control and Gender in Wuthering Heights, Crouse states as below:
Catherine primarily views herself in relation to others and her acts of confinement become self-destructive whereas Heathcliff, in valuing hierarchy, is destructive of others. Emily Brontë shows that as both Catherine and Heathcliff follow traditional gender roles, neither is able to achieve the communion they had as children together. (Cruise 179)
The second point is that Wuthering Heights is actually a prophetic love story-- how love from both of them is equally rewarded? This mutual dynamic equilibrium is developed through the story. And along the developing, both Catherine and Heathcliff experience great change in personality. During the childhood, Catherine’s protection is paid by Heathcliff’s loyalty. After the marriage, Catherine’s betrayal is rewarded by Heacliff’s hatred.
Why Catherine betrayed Heathcliff She married Linton part of vanity and in depth, for she can do nothing to improve the social improvement of Heathcliff except by marrying a most prestigious family. Later she punishes herself by being killed by a nearly-suicide disease—out of repentence and regret.
After Catherine’s death, her love is returned by Heathcliff’s morbid revenge and self-torture. Heathcliff later twists himself on purpose in order to keep in line with Catherine. At last, his suicide out of fantasy confirms to Catherine’s wish. In the duration, Catherine has lost her identity, suffering from a place where she does not belong：
“This importance for women to define themselves in connection to others is essential to understanding Catherine’s behaviour of confinement throughout the novel. She seeks to find and maintain a place for herself within the web of relationships around her, particularly with Heathcliff, with whom she has the strongest attachment.”(Crouse 182)
What does Emily Bronte want to express through Wuthering Hights? I see her strong Desire for love. Also, many Bronte experts have pointed out WH’s story pattern as a fairy tale, Heathcliff best represents Catherine, also Bronte’s desire for a male companion. It should hardly surprise us that a novel whose innermost significance gravitates around a nonsense — the famous, overquoted ‘Nelly, I am Heathcliff!’ — poses serious problems of interpretation.
Referring to Heathcliff’s perfect fairy-tale model in Wuthering Height, Piciucco points out that:
Of the famous couple, Heathcliff seems to me to be the one who is more noticeably fashioned on the stock images of traditional fairy tales, possibly because from the narcissist’s perspective he best represents the (male) projections of Catherine’s secret desires, and probably inhabits a more imaginary territory than Catherine in Emily Brontë’s fictional world.(Piciucco 222)
William Somerset Maugham[1] points out Bronte might want to fulfill her unaccomplished wish by writing this semi-autobiographical WH. Bronte has been single and depressed to some extent in her short life. Heathcliff is a symbol of love and liberation to save her out of her shackles.
Whether Heathcliff is another Catherine cannot be judged simply from her narcissism and their similarity. Love is too complicated and both of the characters have round-shaped different characters. If deeply explored, WH is a love story of a perfect love with two persons involved. The whole story is about how the two persons got apart from each other and finally got united again. During this infernal experience both grew and changed—in a different direction and cursed by different destinies. However, their love is still epically great since they love each other the same way—the same passionately and self-devotedly.
Bernard Paris has gone further by describing Catherine and Heathcliff s relationship as "a mutual dependency," whereby both characters lack "a sense of themselves as autonomous beings with separate identities" (Tytler 108).
However, the ending of the story has always been doubted as whether it really shows what Emily Bronte wants to express through Wuthering Heights, since the ending part where little Catherine and Edgar unite together, a much more moderated result than what most would expect and seemingly incoherent with the previous plots. In Dunn’s Reviewing The Birth of Wuthering Heights: Emily Bronte at Work by Edward Chitham, she quotes Chitham, a Bronte expert’s speculation on this:
For example, when Chitham points out that the second Catherine's love for the sickly Linton mocks her mother's great passion for his strong father, are we seeing the impact of Charlotte's and Anne's suggestions for taming Emily's work? This cannot be answered, but with the information Chitham provides about the context for the revision of Wuthering Heights, the question itself gains importance. (Dunn 81)
Therefore, whether the ending has been changed for some pragmatic consideration and whether Emily Bronte has prepared for us a much more dramatic but at the same coherent with the them she tries to convey is worth pondering. Emily has sharpened such two everlasting male and female characters in the treasury of literal world. Her incomparable genius and strong passion has indeed involved an equally intense appeal for the equal social and domestic status between Catherine and Heathcliff, and then all the tragedy may be avoided and all the underlying fairy-tale elements can come into real being, without such brutal and regrettable zigzags and sufferings.
As previously many scholars have pointed out that Wuthering Heights pivots how Catherine strived for her freedom and liberation, I agree with this. However, many people tend to attribute her oppression to her dependence on Heathcliff and therefore lack of character independence. However, I would here again argue that Heathcliff as an unorthodox prince created by Emily to fit into her fiction’s extraordinary but still discernable pattern of fairy tales, is never the source of oppression or misery. It is the unfairness and lagging situation in the social roots which leads her family’s inequality in domestic rights. Social position and respectability in this period were directly tied to possession of property. A country house owned by landed gentry like the Earnshaws and the Lintons was known as a "seat," a broad term that included both the tangible assets (for instance, the house and land) and intangible assets (for instance, the family name and any hereditary titles) of the family that owned it. In Wuthering Heights, the first Catherine tells Nelly that she is marrying Edgar Linton because to marry Heathcliff would degrade her (they would be beggars) and because she plans to use Linton's money to help Heathcliff to rise.
Seats passed from father to first-born male or to the next closest male relative if there were no sons in a family. The only way around this process was to invoke a device called "strict settlement," in force between 1650 and 1880, which allowed a father to dispose of his holdings as he liked through a trustee. Because Edgar Linton dies before ensuring that his daughter Catherine will inherit Thrushcross Grange, the land passes first to her husband, Linton, and after Linton's death to his father, Heathcliff.
When we have a brief review about that period, we can find out that In contrast to earlier times when incest was forbidden by law, in eighteenth-century England marriage between first cousins was looked upon favorably as a way of preserving position and property. A typical union was one of a woman who married her father's brother's son, which kept the seat of the bride's family under their control. In Wuthering Heights, in a perverse twist, the second Catherine Linton marries her father's sister's son, and in the absence of a strict settlement ends up losing her family's seat.
Landholding families typically maintained a large staff of servants who fulfilled the functions (for a man) of steward, valet, butler, and gardener, or (for a woman) of lady's maid, housekeeper, cook, and nurse. In a household the size of Wuthering Heights, whose inhabitants did not entertain, combining functions made economic sense. In the novel Joseph serves as both valet and steward, and Ellen as housekeeper, though her duties are fairly broadly defined. (Li Run 5)
That’s why both Catherine and Heathcliff have to experience such morbid and seemingly unavoidable disasters in the pen of Emily Bronte. She tries to wake up the people to make revolutions of this noxious inequality. Fortunately, her voice has been answered and will at last be understood fully too.
Works Cited
Works in English
Crouse, Jamie S. This Shattered Prison: Confinement, Control and Gender in Wuthering Heights. Brontë Studie. Vol. 33, November 2008
Dunn, Richard J. Reviewing The Birth of Wuthering Heights: Emily Bronte at Work by Edward Chiham. Studies in the Novel. Vol. 31,Summer 1999.
Piciucco,Pier Paolo. Wuthering Heights as a Childlike Fairy Tale. Brontë Studie. Vol. 31, November 2006
Seichepine, Marielle.Childhood and Innocence in Wuthering Heights. Bronte' Studies. Vol. 29, November 2004
Tytler, Graeme . "Nelly, I am Heathcliff!": The Problem of "Identification" in Wuthering Heights. The Midwest Quarterly. Vol. 47, Winter 2006
Works in Chinese
Li Run. Huxiao Shanzhuang De Lishi Beijing Yanjiu(The Background Research of Wuthering Heights). Yanshan Press, 2002
[1] William Somerset Maugham (1874 – 1965) was an English playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era, and reputedly, the highest paid author during the 1930s.
FW: this was written over one year ago. I am always a big fan of Emily Bronte.
Since many scholarly evaluations tend to see Heathcliff as another ego of Catherine, the heroine in Emily Bronte’s novel Wuthering Heights, providing myriads of evidence of Catherine’s narcissism, for example, her overly quoted comment about the relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine, the identification of Heathcliff has been deemed as another Catherine or an ideal Catherine. What’s more, analysis from feminist point of view seems to exaggerate Catherine’s domination towards Heathcliff mentally and physically, and by this means, prove that Heathcliff is sheer the incarnation of Catherine. This essay tries to argue with this established sentiment for the independent identification of Heathcliff from Catherine. And by further elucidations, I will also try to substantiate the equality of social and domestic status of two genders, and thus, to show the great author Emily Bronte’s appeal for independence and real liberty of females.
Firstly, Catherine and Heathcliff are two different persons. Their similarity can be explained by common childhood and mirror phase. In Childhood and Innocence in Wuthering Heights, Seichepine explains this point of view:
The mirror-phase thus provides a link with reality, a link between the 'Innenwelt' and the 'Umwelt'. As for Catherine, she indeed proves unable to cope with the mirror-phase.' "And I dying! I on the brink of the grave! My God! Does he know how I'm altered?" continued she, staring at her reflection in a mirror, hanging against the opposite wall. "Is that Catherine Linton?"'. (Seichepine 212)
Their antagonized relations were uncovered after Catherine married Linton. The wrestling of control over each other and ways to get it through different means according to different gender roles are vividly depicted. Both Catherine and Heathcliff have strong narcissism, however, this personal characteristic takes no place between them, since both of them feel an alter ego in the other, and both have something that the other possess not. In This Shattered Prison: Confinement, Control and Gender in Wuthering Heights, Crouse states as below:
Catherine primarily views herself in relation to others and her acts of confinement become self-destructive whereas Heathcliff, in valuing hierarchy, is destructive of others. Emily Brontë shows that as both Catherine and Heathcliff follow traditional gender roles, neither is able to achieve the communion they had as children together. (Cruise 179)
The second point is that Wuthering Heights is actually a prophetic love story-- how love from both of them is equally rewarded? This mutual dynamic equilibrium is developed through the story. And along the developing, both Catherine and Heathcliff experience great change in personality. During the childhood, Catherine’s protection is paid by Heathcliff’s loyalty. After the marriage, Catherine’s betrayal is rewarded by Heacliff’s hatred.
Why Catherine betrayed Heathcliff She married Linton part of vanity and in depth, for she can do nothing to improve the social improvement of Heathcliff except by marrying a most prestigious family. Later she punishes herself by being killed by a nearly-suicide disease—out of repentence and regret.
After Catherine’s death, her love is returned by Heathcliff’s morbid revenge and self-torture. Heathcliff later twists himself on purpose in order to keep in line with Catherine. At last, his suicide out of fantasy confirms to Catherine’s wish. In the duration, Catherine has lost her identity, suffering from a place where she does not belong：
“This importance for women to define themselves in connection to others is essential to understanding Catherine’s behaviour of confinement throughout the novel. She seeks to find and maintain a place for herself within the web of relationships around her, particularly with Heathcliff, with whom she has the strongest attachment.”(Crouse 182)
What does Emily Bronte want to express through Wuthering Hights? I see her strong Desire for love. Also, many Bronte experts have pointed out WH’s story pattern as a fairy tale, Heathcliff best represents Catherine, also Bronte’s desire for a male companion. It should hardly surprise us that a novel whose innermost significance gravitates around a nonsense — the famous, overquoted ‘Nelly, I am Heathcliff!’ — poses serious problems of interpretation.
Referring to Heathcliff’s perfect fairy-tale model in Wuthering Height, Piciucco points out that:
Of the famous couple, Heathcliff seems to me to be the one who is more noticeably fashioned on the stock images of traditional fairy tales, possibly because from the narcissist’s perspective he best represents the (male) projections of Catherine’s secret desires, and probably inhabits a more imaginary territory than Catherine in Emily Brontë’s fictional world.(Piciucco 222)
William Somerset Maugham[1] points out Bronte might want to fulfill her unaccomplished wish by writing this semi-autobiographical WH. Bronte has been single and depressed to some extent in her short life. Heathcliff is a symbol of love and liberation to save her out of her shackles.
Whether Heathcliff is another Catherine cannot be judged simply from her narcissism and their similarity. Love is too complicated and both of the characters have round-shaped different characters. If deeply explored, WH is a love story of a perfect love with two persons involved. The whole story is about how the two persons got apart from each other and finally got united again. During this infernal experience both grew and changed—in a different direction and cursed by different destinies. However, their love is still epically great since they love each other the same way—the same passionately and self-devotedly.
Bernard Paris has gone further by describing Catherine and Heathcliff s relationship as "a mutual dependency," whereby both characters lack "a sense of themselves as autonomous beings with separate identities" (Tytler 108).
However, the ending of the story has always been doubted as whether it really shows what Emily Bronte wants to express through Wuthering Heights, since the ending part where little Catherine and Edgar unite together, a much more moderated result than what most would expect and seemingly incoherent with the previous plots. In Dunn’s Reviewing The Birth of Wuthering Heights: Emily Bronte at Work by Edward Chitham, she quotes Chitham, a Bronte expert’s speculation on this:
For example, when Chitham points out that the second Catherine's love for the sickly Linton mocks her mother's great passion for his strong father, are we seeing the impact of Charlotte's and Anne's suggestions for taming Emily's work? This cannot be answered, but with the information Chitham provides about the context for the revision of Wuthering Heights, the question itself gains importance. (Dunn 81)
Therefore, whether the ending has been changed for some pragmatic consideration and whether Emily Bronte has prepared for us a much more dramatic but at the same coherent with the them she tries to convey is worth pondering. Emily has sharpened such two everlasting male and female characters in the treasury of literal world. Her incomparable genius and strong passion has indeed involved an equally intense appeal for the equal social and domestic status between Catherine and Heathcliff, and then all the tragedy may be avoided and all the underlying fairy-tale elements can come into real being, without such brutal and regrettable zigzags and sufferings.
As previously many scholars have pointed out that Wuthering Heights pivots how Catherine strived for her freedom and liberation, I agree with this. However, many people tend to attribute her oppression to her dependence on Heathcliff and therefore lack of character independence. However, I would here again argue that Heathcliff as an unorthodox prince created by Emily to fit into her fiction’s extraordinary but still discernable pattern of fairy tales, is never the source of oppression or misery. It is the unfairness and lagging situation in the social roots which leads her family’s inequality in domestic rights. Social position and respectability in this period were directly tied to possession of property. A country house owned by landed gentry like the Earnshaws and the Lintons was known as a "seat," a broad term that included both the tangible assets (for instance, the house and land) and intangible assets (for instance, the family name and any hereditary titles) of the family that owned it. In Wuthering Heights, the first Catherine tells Nelly that she is marrying Edgar Linton because to marry Heathcliff would degrade her (they would be beggars) and because she plans to use Linton's money to help Heathcliff to rise.
Seats passed from father to first-born male or to the next closest male relative if there were no sons in a family. The only way around this process was to invoke a device called "strict settlement," in force between 1650 and 1880, which allowed a father to dispose of his holdings as he liked through a trustee. Because Edgar Linton dies before ensuring that his daughter Catherine will inherit Thrushcross Grange, the land passes first to her husband, Linton, and after Linton's death to his father, Heathcliff.
When we have a brief review about that period, we can find out that In contrast to earlier times when incest was forbidden by law, in eighteenth-century England marriage between first cousins was looked upon favorably as a way of preserving position and property. A typical union was one of a woman who married her father's brother's son, which kept the seat of the bride's family under their control. In Wuthering Heights, in a perverse twist, the second Catherine Linton marries her father's sister's son, and in the absence of a strict settlement ends up losing her family's seat.
Landholding families typically maintained a large staff of servants who fulfilled the functions (for a man) of steward, valet, butler, and gardener, or (for a woman) of lady's maid, housekeeper, cook, and nurse. In a household the size of Wuthering Heights, whose inhabitants did not entertain, combining functions made economic sense. In the novel Joseph serves as both valet and steward, and Ellen as housekeeper, though her duties are fairly broadly defined. (Li Run 5)
That’s why both Catherine and Heathcliff have to experience such morbid and seemingly unavoidable disasters in the pen of Emily Bronte. She tries to wake up the people to make revolutions of this noxious inequality. Fortunately, her voice has been answered and will at last be understood fully too.
Works Cited
Works in English
Crouse, Jamie S. This Shattered Prison: Confinement, Control and Gender in Wuthering Heights. Brontë Studie. Vol. 33, November 2008
Dunn, Richard J. Reviewing The Birth of Wuthering Heights: Emily Bronte at Work by Edward Chiham. Studies in the Novel. Vol. 31,Summer 1999.
Piciucco,Pier Paolo. Wuthering Heights as a Childlike Fairy Tale. Brontë Studie. Vol. 31, November 2006
Seichepine, Marielle.Childhood and Innocence in Wuthering Heights. Bronte' Studies. Vol. 29, November 2004
Tytler, Graeme . "Nelly, I am Heathcliff!": The Problem of "Identification" in Wuthering Heights. The Midwest Quarterly. Vol. 47, Winter 2006
Works in Chinese
Li Run. Huxiao Shanzhuang De Lishi Beijing Yanjiu(The Background Research of Wuthering Heights). Yanshan Press, 2002
[1] William Somerset Maugham (1874 – 1965) was an English playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era, and reputedly, the highest paid author during the 1930s.
January 2, 2021
Between moors and mist, Wuthering Heights rises itself as one of the characters in this passional, Romanticism novel. This will be the home of the half part of the characters, a well-known family, the Earnshaws, while in the other part of the valley, in a less uncanny emplacement, Thrushcross Grange has become Lintons family´s dwell. These two families will be connected when Catherine Earnshaw feels her life will be completed -at least, socially, of what to be expected from her- when marrying Edgard Linton, a decision that, on the other hand, makes Heathcliff, the gypsy adopted half-brother of Catherine, and also her true lover, becomes radically the villain; with a broken heart, his challenge in life from now on will be headed to make not only his adopted family´s life horrible, painful, grotesque, but also, producing pain to the Linton´s family...He is the Romanticism antihero and only will find salvation in laying forever with his loved one. But until that moment eventually arrives, he has a child with Isabella Linton, Edgard´s sister, and raises Hindley´s son (Hareton), who´s Catherine´s nephew, by taking advantage of Wuthering Heights, by being a tyrant and determining strongly poor Hareton´s life. In the meantime, little Cathy, Edgard and Catherine´s child, grows up and by disobeying his father, discovers Wuthering Heights with all the bad aura hidden in it. Heathcliff tells her the truth about the love her mother had for him, but she doesn´t believe it and from then, a tense fight will begin to take place between them both but affecting the two families, until the end, until death. Narrated in a beautiful and really modern way, the history we read begin with new Heathcliff´s tenant of Thrusscross Grande, Mr. Lockwood, visiting him in Wuthering Heights and feeling really strange and fearful feelings. Then, he´ll ask the nanny Ellen Dean to tell him the story of why that grumpy Heathcliff lives with his adoptive brother´s son, Hareton, and his adoptive sister´s daughter, Cathy, in a structure of russian doll telling that amazes because when we reach actually the present moment again, the story still have more to say. At least, until everyone gets to have what they were wishing for, because in this foggy atmosphere, for ghosts and spirits death won´t be the end, and everything could be possible...
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