Wuthering Heights: The Reality Of Unreal Love

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The Reality of Unreal Love The difference between real and fake love can be explained rather easily. Real love is said to be when you can feel it, see it, and show it. Controversy, fake love is just words. To some people in this world, feeling this “real love” towards certain people in their lives is an ability they are incapable of obtaining. This kind of situation is often a result of destructive or tragic events that occurred in childhood, such as abusive or uncaring parents, alienation, or rejection of others, and results in never learning how to love. Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights presents many of these characteristics through her main characters Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw. However Catherine and Heathcliff may think they love each other, but as a result of their past, it is clearly seen that their love for one another is just an addiction. Similarly, through Debra Goodlett’s “Love and Addiction in Wuthering Heights” and Eric P. Levy’s “The Psychology of Loneliness in Wuthering Heights”, it is demonstrated how Heathcliff and Catherine’s infatuation is not love, but an addiction. Debra Goodlett states, “[Love] addiction occurs in people who have little to anchor them to life.” This type of addiction causes an increasing dependency on another person to feel gratification in their lives due to their lack of strong role models when they were growing up. This is clearly illustrated in both Catherine and Heathcliff. During Catherine’s years as a youth, she was deprived of a strong parental figure. Unfortunately, with both her parents passing away when she was just a child, Catherine was denied the opportunity to develop a positive outlook on life. Even when her father was alive, he would reveal his disappointments in Catherine, saying things to her such as “Why canst thou not always be a good lass, Cathy?” This suggests he was never proud of her and could

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