Since it was first published in the 1840's, Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights has received much consideration in the media and from the academic world. While there has been much attention given to the now considered classic, when it was published it was negatively reviewed and considered to be a below average work of literature. One anonymous author reviewed the book saying:
It is the province of an artist to modify and in some cases refine what he beholds in the ordinary world. There never was a man whose daily life (that is to say, all his deeds and sayings, entire and without exception) constituted fit materials for a book of fiction.
Though what the reviewer says, that the dullness of ordinary, life is too monotonous for a work of fiction, Wuthering Heights surpasses the ordinary and embodies developed characters, a simply based story line and a narration that includes many different voices, retold through one.
No matter what the medium - canvas, paper, clay, or an instrument - the artist working with it must old the everyday and refine it to appease the audience. A painter or sculptor must take a form and make it absolutely perfect, whether in beauty or grotesqueness in order to make the audience take notice of it. If a work of art is too ordinary people pass over it and move onto the next exhibit which does display a twist on their everyday life. With music, the musician uses his or her instrument to recreate emotion and images from their world in their music, but filled with splendour and grace. Without the contrasts of fortes and pianos, the fluidity of crescendo and decrescendo and the ever changing tempo, a piece of music would again lose the attention of the audience. Both artwork and music need to encompass a changing fluidity in order to captivate their audiences and give them a twist on reality.
Literature works in much the same way in that it must attract the attention of the reader. Both plot and characters must be identifiable to the reader but also encompass a sense of the impossible. If a story is exactly what the reader does every day it becomes boring, yet at the same time if there is no element of the plot that the reader finds feasible than they will become discusted and lose interest. An author needs to exaggerate and exemplify life in order to retain an audience.
When an author tries too hard to imitate life and fit a person's daily life into a book, a biography, autobiography, newspaper or tabloid is created. But differences still remain from a book of fiction: a biography or autobiography deals with summaries of important, exciting or interesting points in the person's life; a newspaper deals with shocking, tragic or happy events briefly summarised without much action; and a tabloid contains scandal and rumour, much of which is questionable "non-fiction." In all of these forms, it is a summary, not all "deeds and sayings, entire and without exception," that form them and spice them up for maximum audience attention and retention.
Though criticised by her contemporary critics, Bronte succeeds in simple exaggeration of reality in Wuthering Heights and dares the reader to compare his or her life to that of the Earnshaw's, the Linton's or of Heathcliff's. The characters are identifiable and each contain elements of reality. Even to the modern reader there are elements contained in all of the characters that are readily recognized and each contains a part of the reader's true personality. When Cathy is young she takes to exploring and as Nelly explains:
Catherine came to me, one morning, at eight o'clock, and said she was that day an Arabian merchant, going to cross the Desert with his caravan; and I must give her plenty of provisions for herself and beasts: a horse, and three camels, personated by a large hound and a couple of pointers.
In this act all readers can remember being young and playing "make believe" whether it be a fairy princess, a cowboy or an Arabian merchant. By placing everyday acts such as a child's imaginary adventures in the story to lead to major and important plot events, the story flows easily and places the story in a more relevant setting. If the characters were all unbelievable with unconnected, coincidental events, then the story would fall short.
The character of Heathcliff at times tends to stretch the limits of many reader's reality, though never does he fall into the Examiner reviewer's criticisms. Heathcliff is a character unlike any other in the novel and leaves much to the readers imagination; never are his motives fully understood, and never is it fully understood why he surrenders in the end of the novel. Through the book it is never Bronte's intent to include all of his "deeds and sayings, entire and without exception," and this is where the critique falls short. Heathcliff's main personality is shown, his quirks and idiosyncrasies, and it is this way that an intriguing and compelling character is created, not an unrefined ordinary character.
The story line of Wuthering Heights is a very simply based one that spans the lives of Catherine and Heathcliff. Unlike as the review comments, the novel follows the main events and important incidents of the story and thus avoids the mediocrity of the everyday. The story moves quickly, giving detailed when needed, though giving brief descriptions when needed. Much of the early history of the story is given in this brief manner as is any time that Nelly is not around. Near the beginning of the story Nelly summarises Heathcliff's childhood saying, "Miss Cathy and he were now very thick; but Hindley hated him: and to say the truth I did the same; and we plagued and went on with him shamefully." Throughout the story it never stops over detailed analysis of a single character's actions and continuously covers the events of both Thrushcross Grange and of Wuthering Heights. As well, the plot has a clear start and end, even if it is not at the beginning of the novel. The reader can tell that the story starts with the introduction of Heathcliff into the Earnshaw family and ends with his death. From this the reader has a true sense of completion while it frees the story form over generalising or over analysing.
The narration of a novel must be objective and leave out trivial information in order to captivate the audience and to give the story a sense of reality. Through the eyes and ears of Nelly Dean, the reader of Wuthering Heights experiences the characters and the settings. Even though primarily told from one woman's point of view (some very small parts are narrated by Mr. Lockwood) other characters have the opportunity to speak through Nelly and therefore the story is broad based and complex. Because of the variety of voices coming through in the book Bronte escapes the error of the trivial points of one persons life, as commented by the critic. If the story was based on the everyday aspects of one characters life, there would not be the great cross section of characters or the quick skips from one event to the next. And while on occasion the story is biased by Nelly's opinion, Bronte counts on the reader's intelligence to deduce his or her own opinion.
While the story of Wuthering Heights is a fairly narrowly confined one, it is not legitimate to declare that it is the simple summary of one character's petty, dull life. Perhaps it is the time difference between the mid-nineteenth century and the end of the twentieth, but the description of a person's life is sometimes intruding to the reader, especially if it includes either something that they could only imagine themselves doing but could never actually do, or if it verbalises their thoughts. The modern author Douglas Coupland has perfected this and in his book Life After God describes a boy prostitute Donny:
But Donny actively invited stabbing into his life. He said that stabbing didn't hurt nearly as much as you'd think and that it was actually kind of cool, and that when it happened, "man, when the blade first digs into you it makes your soul leap out of your body for just a second, like a salmon jumping out of a river."
This passage describes the events of one man's life, "his deeds and sayings," and is yet intriguing to the reader. Although Wuthering Heights is somewhat tamer in language and idea, it follows the same principles as Life After God, that a familiar life with a twist is the easiest to relate to.
Though belittled when first published, Wuthering Heights has found its way into the ranks of classic literature by recent scholars and critics. Filled with relatable characters, a believable story in a realistic setting, it takes the ordinary and modifies it just enough to pass as authentic yet still retaining the magic of fiction. Argued that the story is simply a boring account of menial life, Wuthering Heights has captivated and enchanted generations of readers with a story that far surpasses the average and portrays a tale of beauty.
Differences between 1939 film, and the 1847 novel:
While the most basic elements of the plot of the 1939 film version of Wuthering Heights are the same as those in the novel, those familiar with Bronte's work will notice many differences between the two.
As in the novel, Lockwood is a new comer to the world of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, and finds himself Heathcliff's unwelcome guest. However, when he spends the night, he does not observe the books or bookshelves where Catherine's name is carved. After the apparition of the ghost, rather than call to it from the window, as in the book, Heathcliff actually goes outside. It is while he is engaged in seeking this ghost, and later mourning for lost love that Ms. Dean tells Lockwood the story behind Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. This contrasts with the novel, where Lockwood learned of the story from Ms. Dean in his own home.
Once Nelly begins to recount the past to Lockwood, even more differences are immediately noticeable. Nelly and Hindley are not the same age; they were in the book. Hindley is actually much younger than he was in the book, and closer in age to Catherine. However, as in the book, their father, Mr. Earnshaw returns from a trip with a souvenir no one had seen coming--an orphan named Heathcliff. Catherine and Heathcliff quickly become very close friends, while Hindley is forever jealous of him. One of the arguments from the book is in the movie, however it is different. While in the novel, Heathcliff demands Hindley's horse because his has fallen lame; in the movie Hindley demands Heathcliff's horse. In both cases, the outcome is violent.
The friendship between Heathcliff and Catherine is different as well. While the novel only refers to the two running around together, in the movie they begin role-playing, and later in adulthood, Catherine suggests that Heathcliff run away because he gets no respect at Wuthering Heights.
Hindley's adult life is different from that portrayed in the novel as well. The movie does not feature his wife, and he never has a son, Hareton. The omissions of these two characters are some of the greatest differences.
The ending, however, is the greatest shocker when the film version of Wuthering Heights is compared to the novel. The film ends rather abruptly after the death of Catherine, whereas in the book Cathy is born, and a romance between her and Linton later ensues.
For every similarity that can be drawn between the novel and the film Wuthering Heights, a difference may be found as well. In some cases, these are more subtle--one character delivers a line originally given to another, in others they are much greater, such as the omission of a character.
Emily Bronte likes to trick you, so read carefully.
If, like me, you read Wuthering Heights as a hormonal adolescent, you will, like me, have seen it as a gothic tale of love, tragedy and ghosts. I urge you to read it again, and consider the book in light of the following.
Heathcliff exerts a mysterious power over his readers. Women often think him charming, quite a hero; men think him scary. In defense of Heathcliff, many people point to his words to Nelly Dean, regarding a desire to crush worms, and his reference to his own 'moral teething'. "See!" they cry, triumphant, "he isn't really bad... it's a moral teething, and he inflicts cruelty without meaning to!" On the other side of this is the claim that Heathcliff was needlessly and deliberately cruel, as demonstrated by his strangling of Isabella's dog the night of their elopement.
Over all is the spectre of Cathy, haunting Heathcliff from the night of her burial, when he visits her grave, to the night of her husband's burial, when her ghost is laid to rest. (In the Penguin Classics edition this is Volume II, Chapter XV, p285). Of particular note is that when Heathcliff visits her grave some eighteen years after her death, her face is still recognisable: she has not decayed. "Ah" sighs the adolescent romantic, "the power of Love is such that she will wait for him, unchanged, till he should join her." So thought I, until my mind was disabused by the excellent lectures of Fred Langman of the Australian National University.
The first point of interest here is Heathcliff's moral teething. For a full discussion of this, dear reader, I refer you to John Sutherland's "Who Betrays Elizabeth Bennet?" Meanwhile, it suffices to say only that he is in his teething phase right through the second part of his life, after he returns from his mysterious three year absence. He never leaves his teething in the past, indeed he becomes worse, exacting revenge right to the last. So far we see Heathcliff as unrepentant. Or is he? Right at the end of his career, Heathcliff declares that he is unable to continue, that his plan of revenge leaves him unmoved. He doesn't repent, exactly, but at least he is not actively cruel.
Next there is the charge of cruelty. It's interesting that the charges laid against him are always the easily defensible ones. Nobody mentions poor Hindley, but they remember Isabella's dog. Do you remember Isabella's dog? Do you recall Nelly untying it so that it could run away yapping after the couple? That sounds to me (and to Fred) as though he tied up the dog to prevent it following and making a noise. If my intended bride had a yappy dog I'd certainly silence it before the elopement.
The biggest problem of all in Wuthering Heights is the ghost of Cathy. It appears first when Heathcliff almost opens her coffin the night of her funeral, haunts him for eighteen years until the death of her husband and on the night of his funeral, Heathcliff again disturbs her coffin. This time, he pulls the lid right off to see her well-preserved face staring up at him and he is, at last, in peace.
I have one very important thing to bring to your attention regarding this moving account of Heathcliff's nocturnal visits: early in the book, when Lockwood is walking around the moors, he sees the very church where Cathy is buried. He comments that it is a swampy, damp place, very low, and that it is said that the swamp preserves the corpses buried there. "Aha!" exclaims the rational adult reader. "I knew there was a reason!"
Now, I know you're just saying that to save face, but that's okay. You know now. Cathy's miraculous unearthing is the product of nothing more than the circumstance of her coffin being placed in a peat bog. From here, it is but a small step to the application of modern psychology to explain how Heathcliff haunts himself until the death of Linton. Doesn't that make you feel better?
`WUTHERING HEIGHTS' - PROBLEMS OF POSSESSION
`Towering over the romantic fiction of the mid-19th century are the Brontė sisters, in particular Emily and Charlotte, who with Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre set a standard, the first for the novel of doomed love, the second for the novel of the young woman's climb to moral independence and a passion underscored by equality.' Oxford Companion to English Literature
`... "he's always in my mind - not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself."' p82
`... "I was never so beaten with anything in my life; but you must e'en take it as a gift of God; though it's as dark almost as if it came from the devil."' p36
`... "The curtains were still looped up at one corner; and I resumed my station as a spy...' p51
` ... "if I marry Linton, I can aid Heathcliff to rise, and place him out of my brother's power."' p82
`... "And that insipid, paltry creature attending her from duty and humanity! From pity and charity!' p152
`She (Nelly) is, on the whole, a very fair narrator and I don't think I could improve her style.' p157
`... my residence in that locality had already grown dim and dreamy.' p305
`I bit my lip, in spite, at having thrown away the chance I might have had, of doing something besides staring at its smiting beauty.' p308
`As soon as he recovered, I related our compulsory visit, and detention at the Heights: I said Heathcliff forced me to go in, which was not quite true.' p282
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