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.
This is one of the few parts of the book that actually stuck out to me. It reminds me of the old Chinese proverb: before setting out for revenge, you first dig two graves.
ReplyDeleteHey Kathleen,
ReplyDeleteI like your perspective of the ending of the novel thinking of the love triangle's spirits ultimately happy. However, I could not picture such an ending. After finishing the novel, I could not think of anything else but the spirits of Heathcliff and those he affected still tortured, stuck in a limbo on Earth still searching for answers and their way back home in the moors. Perhaps I just have a more morbid outlook on things for some reason, but it was refreshing to read an optimist's view on the ultimate destiny for these spirits.
Hello everyone. I don't usually intervene but every once in a while I wade in on issues of fact or literal interpretation. Bronte does not specify "unquiet slumbers"; quite the reverse in fact. Lockwood wonders how anyone could imagine that the dead in that graveyard were not at peace--a kind of double negative suggesting that in fact peace was all around him.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read that passage from the novel, I wondered if it meant that Heathcliff and Catherine had wound up in heaven after all. Even Catherine said she wasn't sure if she could ever be admitted, and based on Heathcliff's treachery, there was little chance of him going either.
ReplyDeleteTheir shared devotion may have had the power to replace God with each other, vowing to spend an eternity together. Either way, as they reunite beneath the earth, there has to be some sort of satisfaction because the turmoil of their lives has ended. They is no longer a need to be "unquiet."