Thoughts or reflections on reading Wuthering Heights

The book was written by Emily Bronte, it published in at that time, it seemed to hold little promise, selling very poorly and receiving only a few mixed reviews. I found this in our school library, I chose this book because the title attracted me. The book is structured around two parallel love stories, the first half of the novel centering on the love between Catherine and Heathcliff, while the less dramatic second half features the developing love between young Catherine and Hareton. In contrast to the first, the latter tale ends happily, restoring peace and order to Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. In the story, the two houses, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, represent opposing worlds and values.

I spent twenty days reading this book. After reading this book, I felt for Heathcliff at first. Heathcliff begins his life as a homeless orphan on the streets of Liverpool, and then he tyrannized by Hindley Earnshaw. But he becomes a villain when he acquires power and returns to Wuthering Heights with money and the trappings of a gentleman. His malevolence proves so great and long—lasting. As he himself points out, his abuse of Isabella—his wife is purely sadistic, as he amuses himself by seeing how much abuse she can take and still come cringing back for more.
Catherine represents wild nature, in both her high, lively spirits and her occasional cruelty. She loves Heathcliff so intensely that she claims they are the same person. However, her actions are driven in part by her social ambitions, which initially are awakened during her first stay at the Lintons, and which eventually compel her to marry Edgar. Catherine is free—spirited, beautiful, spoiled, and often arrogant, she is given to fits of temper, and she is torn between her both of the men who love her. The location of her coffin symbolizes the conflict that tears apart her short life. She is buried in a corner of the Kirkyard. In contrast to Catherine, Isabella Linton—Catherine’s sister—in—law represents culture and civilization, both in her refinement and in her weakness. Ultimately, she ruins her life by falling in love with Heathcliff. He never returns her feelings and treats her as a meretool in his quest for revenge on the Linton family.

Just as Isabella Linton serves as Catherine’s foil, Edgar Linton serves as Heathcliff’s. Edgar grows into a tender, constant, but cowardly man. He is almost the ideal gentleman. However, this full assortment of gentlemanly characteristics, along with his civilized virtues, proves useless in Edgar’s clashes with his foil. He sees his wife obviously in love with another man but unable to do anything to rectify the situation. Heathcliff, who gains power over his wife, sister , and daughter.

The whole story make people’s mood heavy. Fortunately, the end is happy.

The author Emily Bronte lived an eccentric, closely guarded life. She was born in1818, two years after Charlotte—the author of Jane Eyre and a year and a half before her sister Anne, who also became an author. Her father worked as a church rector, and her aunt, who raised the Bronte children after their mother died, was deeply religious. Emily Bronte did not take to her aunt’s Christian fervor, the character of Joseph, a caricature of an evangelical, may have been inspired by her aunt’s religiosity. The Brontes lived in Haworth, a Yorkshire village in the midst of the moors. These wild, desolate expanses—later the setting of Wuthering Heights—made up the Brontes daily environment, and Emily lived among them her entire life. She died in1848, at the age of thirty.

I like this book because it rest on the unforgettable characters. Wuthering Heights is based partly on the Gothic tradition, a style of literature that featured supernatural encounters, crumbling ruins, moonless nights, and grotesque imagery, seeking to create effects of mystery and fear. I would like to recommend this book to other readers.