Having just finished reading the first half of Wuthering Heights for the first time, I felt disillusioned by the chaos that was created by the intensity of the characters’ emotions and their conflicting life pursuits. Keeping Romanticism and its reoccurring themes in mind, I particularly paid attention to the varying roles nature played, both intimate and threatening. Throughout the first half, the weather not only brought illnesses upon most of the characters, but also physically kept them from many of their journeys, ultimately putting a limit on human ambition. Even animal life—namely the many dogs Heathcliff kept in Wuthering Heights—in the beginning scenes of the novel came across as sinister; many interactions with the natural world ended in insult or injury. The setting of the novel itself at Wuthering Heights highlights the wild, untamed aspects of the natural world as storms continually come down upon this house of so much human misery.
Plowing through the novel, I was amazed at the madness that permeated throughout the minds of the characters, even Mr. Lockwood as the tale surrounding his current tenant increasingly entrances him. Also throughout this course, particularly when reading Blake, we have discussed the child/youth as a possible means of reaching a more profound understanding of our circumstances, the varying roles we play here on earth along side “Mother Nature.” Yet, in this novel I did not come across the embracing or understanding of youth, but the wickedness of children and the intentional corruption of said children by “older, wiser” adults.
Bringing this novel up in conversations, I’ll often encounter sighs and comparisons of Wuthering Heights as an extension of the soap opera, “save the drama for your mama” types of attitudes. However, I refuse to take this approach; my perspective of this novel will not be distracted and distorted by the often times dramatic behaviors of the characters. Instead, I view much of what I have read so far as a search for self-identity in a world on the periphery of society at large, nature continually posing as both enemy and ally.
I also read "Wuthering Heigths" for the first time. Having in mind Manfred's and Victor's struggle and longing for knowledge and power greater than themselves, I was constantly looking for these issues in Bronte's novel. But first, I was disappointed, couldn't find the 'Romantic idea' in it. Then I thought of something that I read for our 'Romantic Music and Art'-presentation: one of the musical developments or aims during the Romantic Period was the self-dissolution of the subject (i.a. presented by pieces without a clear structure, ambiguous chords etc.). This leads me to Cathy who identifies herself as being Heathcliff (because of another course, I am quite focused on words like 'self' 'I am' and other self-definitions, it's the same like the 'worm'-word and -idea). And I was wondering if she has an own self at all, or if her feeling of being someone else or being mentally united with her soul mate is something greater, not a loss of herself but a creation of something more powerful? But why then does she denies him and her feelings? Only because of social expectations and orders?. So, I am still indececive, I have to see how the story develops.
ReplyDeleteBut thank you, Michael, for directing my attention to the rough landscape and its influence, I totally missed that point which I can't really understand now, as it is so obvious and well explained!
About the setting of Bronte's novel, I definitely agree that the natural world is working against the characters, making their difficult lives even more difficult. Curiously, I found in the introduction of my 1963 Airmont Books copy of the work, a short explanation of the setting:
ReplyDelete"The adjective 'wuthering' in the title of this novel is still used in rural areas of England to describe stormy weather...Wuthering Heights, a sturdy farmhouse, is on an elevation which is open to all the elements of wind and weather, violence and passion.But there is a second house, Thrushcross Grange, which contrasts with Wuthering Heights...The Earnshaws live in Wuthering Heights and are tried by the elements; the Lintons live in Thrushcross Grange and are so naturally moral that they resist temptation almost without effort."
I thought the interaction of the characters and the weather was interestingly similar to your assessment. Because the tempers of the Earnshaws are tempestuous, they must live in a stormy, ugly world. Thrushcross Grange then seems like a haven; because the people who live in are calm, they are in harmony with the world around them.