Female influence an illusion

Lyn Pykett brings our attention to the limits of a woman's influence in the Victorian Era. (472).  While Heathcliff and Linton both had a strong desire and need for Catherine, she still was the one who had to bow down to their wishes.  Pykett points out that it doesn't matter how powerful a woman of that times influence was, she was still legally controlled by the male gender of the family.  This included everyone from the father, to the brother, and the husband.  And while they competed for Catherine's affection it wasn't truly her that they wanted, but their version of who she should be according to their rule.  It must have been so confusing in those days for a woman having to please everyone by being someone you are not.  It's no wonder that so many of these women were plagued with unhappiness, and in Catherine's case even unto death.  She claimed that Heathcliff and Linton had broken her heart when they wouldn't succumb to her subtleties and forge a friendship that would please her.  What has surprised me is that no one has alluded to the possibility of polyandry being a motive, or solution.  Isn't that what really broke her heart, that she couldn't have both the men as she pleased?  Hmmm, it makes you wonder.

Catherine a Gemini?

"I am Heathcliff!" (p. 88).  Terry Eagleton points out that Catherine has to contend with two avenues of thinking.  On one hand she desires to adhere to social convention by entering into a marriage with Linton while her heart firmly belongs to Heathcliff.  By utilizing the previous statement Catherine is able to feel Heathcliff within her and can move away from him to join Linton who is seemingly a more suitable husband.  This foolish attempt at duality instigates a myraid of problems among those who are involved and will ultimately cause her death.  Having created an unbreakable bond between them they were more of an offshoot of the Earnshaw family exclusively exploring life and experiencing the Moors without interruption.  As Eagleton points out, "...Heathcliff is a purely atomized individual, free of generational ties in a novel where genealogical relations are of crucial thematic and structural importance..." (p. 398).  How would this have turned out if Heathcliff had been fairskinned?  Would there have been a possiblity of the two entering into marriage?

Grave Revenge

I lingered round them, under that benign sky; watched the moths fluttering among the heath, and hare-bells; listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass, and wondered how anyone could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth.  pg. 288

I absolutely love the illusion this last paragraph creates.  A whole new existence under the coffins where the three spirits of Catherine, Linton, and Heathcliff, are still at war with one another.  Their passion so ultimate and unceasing to continue into eternity.  Will this love triangle never end?  Does Catherine's spirit still hold on to the words she spoke to Nelly Dean when she was alive; I am Heathcliff?  Is Heathcliff finally satisfied with his revenge?  Bronte ends the story leaving me with the feeling that it is not over, and perhaps, never will be. Death is unable to put these three to rest.  

Forever their spirits will roam the earth searching for the peace needed to move on.  Heathcliff would not allow himself to die straight after Catherine because he first needed to exact his revenge.  That revenge kept him alive for 18 years, therefore, did he not want revenge against life, also?  How far did this revenge go?  I would have thought that once his revenge was fulfilled and he could join Catherine in the earth, then certainly all would be well.  However, Bronte specifically states, unquiet slumbers for the sleepers.  How ironic when I would imagine a final happiness, their spirits dancing, and singing, would have been the end of a tortured existence.  

Heathcliff the original Grinch?

When I started to contemplate what I had read in Wuthering Heights, and what to write in this blog I found my thoughts turning to The Grinch.  Not so much the original cartoon as the newer version starring Jim Carrey.  I would never have expected to compare the two, but it rings of the same premise.  The Grinch had been raised in a community that had rejected him because he did not look like the others in Whoville.  He was green and hairy and slightly unkempt looking with all of his facial hair.  The Who's were a delightful looking people and looked down on the young Grinch often causing him great unhappiness.  He was teased, and taunted, never accepted, but admired by one girl (sorry, I can't remember her name).  Heathcliff, being dark haired, dark skinned, and having a dark mood was also different from the family his "father" brought him home to.  In both of these stories the main character is rejected by the whole for being different.  They both suffered with internal strife for the love they felt for the only females that would capture their hearts.  But this love was unacceptable, and the women turned their affections to men who were acceptable to the society they grew in.  Wracked with such pain Heathcliff and the Grinch exiled themselves outside of the community until the time was right to return.  Their hearts, in the meantime, were filled with such hatred for those who chastised them, and they were focused on revenge.