Love In Wuthering Heights

1068 Words5 Pages
Some think that the novel celebrates the perfect love of Cathy and Heathcliff. Some think their love is deeply flawed. What do you think? Cathy and Heathcliff’s love is ‘perfect’ in that it is unchangeable and irreversible. Bronte often portrays this love by using imagery closely connected to nature, which reflects a force that is unchangeable ‘her face is in every cloud, in every tree’. They constantly claim that they are identical and they’re souls are the same ‘I am Heathcliff’. They are unable to distinguish themselves as two people and this provides an all consummating passion which Bronte reflects in such powerful dialogue between the two, most notably in the scene where Catherine is dying, ‘why did you despise me? Why did you betray your own heart?’ The repetition reinforces the desperate, almost hysterical passion that defines their love. This is not only reflected in their speech but in their actions, for example after an embrace Heathcliff leaves ‘four distinct impressions left blue in the colourless skin’. It is as if normal conventions are abandoned in their passion and by showing love to be such an over-riding force, it could be read as being ‘perfect’. If love is the dominant factor in their lives ‘oh Cathy, oh my life’, it is perfect as will survive despite any other factors as they will be of lesser importance. This is certainly true, as even though Cathy betrays Heathcliff and Heathcliff tries to extract revenge by marrying Isabella, they still retain such a love for each other ‘would you like to live with your soul in the grave’. Equally however their love could be seen as deeply flawed in how they abandon conventions. Crossing boundaries is a typically gothic feature and some of the boundaries crossed as a result of their love would have been deemed shocking, especially by a Victorian society. The rigid social conventions would not have
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