Matheus Camargo Jardim, 9851952

Prof. Dr. Sandra Guardini Teixeira Vasconcelos

Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte, UK, 1847. Edition: New York, Bantam Dell,
2003. 324 p.

Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte's only novel, is a popular and beloved classic that
makes any attempt to talk about it seems needless or even reductive. What makes any
review written today of a classic novel attractive are the impressions in tune with the
future readers, once they share with the reviewer both historical time and space. Bring up
a novel published in 1847 it is not all about plot introduction or simply talk about the so
well-known themes but emphasize the importance and value of the literary work in our
current scenario.
The novel, sets in 1801, takes the form of diary entries written by Mr. Lockwood, the
character-narrator that rents Thrushcross Grange, an isolated manor in the country of
England. The owner, and one of the peculiars Wuthering Heights' inhabitants, is Mr.
Heathcliff, a rude and wild man. Curious about his neighbors, a tradition that remains in
our time, Lockwood asks his maid, Nelly Dean, to go back in the past and narrate
Heathcliff's life, considering she knows him since he was a kid. Thereby, one of the main
themes, the discrepancy and at the same time the fusion between social classes, is
ingrained in the novel's form itself: the rich man from the city transcribes the story told
by a maid in the country. I have to say that I did not buy Nelly’s whole story since she
had her own agenda, and Mr. Lockwood himself recognizes that. Also, she is not always
taking part in the actions, of course a maid’s story would contain overheard conversations
and supposed secrecy between employer and employee.
Heathcliff was adopted by the Earnshaw family when he was a kid and Catherine, the
youngest daughter, immediately loved him. This fed the anger and envy of her brother,
Hindley, that saw his father treat the boy as his own son. After his father's death, Hindley
reduced Heathcliff to a common worker, increasing his wild nature and resentful spirit.
Catherine, always in love with Heathcliff, instead of a charming angel, is an ambitious
and shallow girl who dreams to be the wealthiest lady in the neighborhood, which
contradicts her desire to be with Heathcliff forever. She breaks the poor man's heart by
marrying Linton, the complete opposite of Heathcliff. However, she never takes
responsibility for her choices. I could, sometimes, hear Cathy speaking in my mind with
a today's spoiled girl voice, saying: "How was I supposed to know there would be
consequences for my actions?"
Heathcliff managed to run away as soon as he discovered Catherine’s betray. In a few
years he comes back rich and handsome than ever, ready to get revenge on those who
humiliated him. Somehow, I expected a dreamy conclusion to that, but of course
everything goes wrong and everybody dies, but how it happened is gloomier than one
could expect and it will make hold to it like a guilty pleasure.
Through Nelly’s narration, Heathcliff seems sometimes unhuman: “is he a ghoul or
a vampire?”, she muses at the end of her story, but he is just trying to achieve of he thinks
is now his purpose in life: make everyone around him miserable as himself, while he is
haunted by his kindred soul.
Besides the characters that are more complex than the flat ones in the gothic novels,
the setting and some other features are very akin to this once very popular genre:
confinement, dark places, stormy weather, enormous cruelty, nightmares, madness,
supernatural elements and so on. These components marvelously blended by Emily
Bronte made me feel like the universe just existed in that neighborhood, the awareness of
complete isolation and loneliness follows the reader through the whole novel.
When it comes to fiction heroes people either look for a very strict boundary between
evil and good or antagonists that eventually reach redemption. You will not find any of
that, even if some random groups try to sell Heathcliff as a sexy misunderstood hero and
Cathy as a poor lady in danger, they are both unpleasant characters, or even hateful. What
can annoy the reader today is the lack of information that could enable a further
understanding of the characters, but we have to remember that this is not a psychological
thriller or a Stephen King’s novel where everything is given to the reader to comprehend
“human nature”. When you accept that the couple is almost doubles of themselves and
troubled souls you can follow the story with all your heart and appreciate what Emily
Bronte builds there, as an isolated and lonely woman herself, to put such an amount of
emotion and corruption in her work is a great deal, once most of present-day writers,
exposed to all information and experience one could have, are not capable of shape
characters as Bronte did.
 Nevertheless, the novel was not widely appreciated in its time. The Graham’s Lady’s
Magazine (USA)1 published a review in 1848 saying “How a human being could have
attempted such a book as the present without committing suicide before he had finished
a dozen chapters, is a mystery. It is a compound of vulgar depravity and unnatural
horrors….”. It is clear that even though Wuthering Heights shocked society once, today
people do not feel attempted to read it because they consider it is too corny, but they could
not be more mistaken. The story is not attached to realism as we know, somehow Emily
Bronte manipulates time and space in a ghostly way just to dissect unreasonable
characters and their absurd emotions. If you surrender, the novel will take you by the
heart through sorrowful events and you will wish, perhaps in secret, to live such emotions
to its limits.

1
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