Barbaric, Morbid, Obsessed with Death, Pain and Suffering, Wuthering Heights is scarcely the sort of a novel one would expect a gently bred Victorian lady of the 18th century to write.
Emily Bronte is supposed to have had a lot of difficulty in getting Wuthering Heights published. It was rejected several times and denounced as the work of a mad person.
She finally, in 1847, had to submit it for publication under a masculine name. She died within an year of its publication and her sister, the more famous novelist, Charlotte Bronte (Jane Eyre) felt it necessary to reveal the author’s actual identity. Wuthering Heights is Emily Bronte’s only novel
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It fascinates, and intrigues
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Passion, cruelty, supernatural elements, and an overall tense, dark and brooding atmosphere is what Wuthering Heights enmeshes its readers in.
From its early chapters itself, Wuthering Heights piques its reader's curiosity about the strange histories of its inhabitants. Family relationships intertwine with baffling complexity. Hidden resentments, and cruelty as an expression of frustrated love run through the novel.
Relying heavily on supernatural encounters (especially towards its end), crumbling ruins, and grotesque imagery (digging graves to lovingly gaze at the rotting carcass of a lover),Wuthering Heights, at the same time, maintains sophistication and artistic subtlety.
In addition, it also has a very minutely thought out plot, and largely thrives on each of its unforgettable characters. Its sense of mystery is further heightened by the rare appearances of a chief character's ghost.
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Rottenly Juxtaposed Marriages
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Is also what Wuthering Heights is about. Due to class differences, the lead players willfully avoid marrying someone they actually love and instead choose another partner to simply keep up social appearances. Resulting in deceit, hatred, rancidity in marriages, disregard for emotions, and intentionally being cruel to each other.
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In a gist
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Heathcliff, is an orphan brought to live at Wuthering Heights by its owner Mr. Earnshaw. Heathcliff falls into an intense, unbreakable love with Mr. Earnshaw's flighty daughter Catherine. But Mr. Earnshaw's resentful son Hindley treats Heathcliff as a servant.
Catherine loves Heathcliff intensely. However, to be ''the greatest woman of the neighborhood'' and her desire for social advancement motivates her to marry Edgar, a rich, gentlemanly, yet cowardly neighbor. Torn between her wild passion for Heathcliff, and her social ambition, she brings misery to both the men and herself.
Heathcliff's humiliation prompts him to spend the rest of his life seeking a well-orchestrated revenge on Hindley, Catherine, (and after their deaths, their respective children Hareton and Catherine), Edgar and his sister Isabella.
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Heathcliff: The Hero & The Villain
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“I have no pity! I have no pity! The more the worms writhe the more I yearn to crush out their entrails! It is a moral teething; and I grind with greater energy in proportion to the increase of pain.”
Unfairly treated, and wronged in his young years Heathcliff grows to become a powerful, and fierce man. He uses his extraordinary power of will to destroy, emotionally and financially, the objects of his hatred. Tortured by Catherine’s betrayal, Heathcliff dedicates himself to an elaborate plan for revenge, the repulsive execution of which occupies much of the novel.
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Deep criticisms of social conventions
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Especially those surrounding issues of gender and class are expressed in the novel. It is apparent from Wuthering Heights that Emily Bronte had difficulties living in a society that considered the ideal women as delicate beings who avoid physical or mental activity, to pursue only flimsy fashions and frothy flirtations.
Though it may seem almost tame in today’s times, readers then, found the book shockingly inappropriate (despite, that the novel depicts neither sex nor bloodshed)
Today, Wuthering Heights has a secure position among the finest of world literature. A book that commands you to finish it once you start it.
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The full novel is available at these links, in case you like to read e-books:-
https://literature.org/authors/bronte-emily/wuthering-heights/
https://litrix.com/wutherht/wuthe001.htm
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