Wuthering Heights Reading Group

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Oh thank you Isabella for the commentary on the dialects. Extraordinary! I have always been sensitive to dialects but sadly have not been able to tame my own accent which is a mongrel mix of Lancashire, North of England and New Zealand - which is where I learned to speak. (I spent from age 18 months to 5 in NZ, returned to the UK, Liverpool, then lived in the South West in Somersetshire)

The origins of Heathcliff are also fascinating. I pictured him more of gypsy descent - which can be quite dark, the gypsys travelling throughout europe, not sure of their origins. Some say north India some say Egypt (hence 'gypsy') although they are now referred to as Travellers. There were a great many 'gypsy' fortune tellers, and when I was a child in the UK the travelling fairs were run by the Travellers. I did note the reference to 'his owner' intimating that he was thought to be a slave, and that Nelly referred to him as 'it' which seemed to say that she thought him less than human. Liverpool is a port city and so all sorts of folk abound. I was also fascinated that he walked the 60 miles there and back. A journey with a purpose.

Just a little something I saw that I think you'd like, Redxk! It's a Mrs. Dalloway book label!

That is so lovely, Isabella.

Red would enjoy this immensely.

Beautiful! Thanks for thinking of me! And I do have a literary crush on Clarissa Dalloway.

I adore her name!

The Cat
A French devoir by Emily Brontë. Brussels, May 1842. Translated.

I can say with sincerity that I like cats; also I can give very good reasons why those who despise them are wrong. A cat is an animal who has more human feelings than almost any other being. We cannot sustain a comparison with the dog, it is infinitely too good; but the cat, although it differs in some physical points, is extremely like us in disposition. There may be people, in truth, who would say that this resemblance extends only to the most wicked men; however, that it is limited to their excessive hypocrisy, cruelty, and ingratitude: detestable vices in our race and equally odious in that of cats. Without disputing the limits that those individuals set on our affinity, I answer that if hypocrisy, cruelty, and ingratitude reside exclusively the domain of the wicked, that class comprises everyone. Our education develops one of those qualities in great perfection; the others flourish without nurture, and far from condemning them, we regard all three with great complacency.

A cat, in its own interest, sometimes hides its misanthropy under the guise of amiable gentleness. Instead of tearing what it desires from its master's hand, it approaches with a caressing air, rubs its pretty little head against him, and advances a paw whose touch is soft as down. When it has gained its end, it resumes its character of Timon and that artfulness is called hypocrisy. In ourselves, we give artful hypocrisy another name: politeness, and he who does not use it to hide his real feelings will soon be driven from society.

"But," says some delicate lady, who has murdered a half-dozen lapdogs through pure affection, "the cat is such a cruel beast, he is not content to kill his prey, he torments it before its death; you cannot make that accusation against us." More or less, Madame. Your husband, for example, likes hunting very much, but foxes being rare on his land, he would not have the means to pursue this amusement often if he did not manage his supplies thus: once he has run an animal to its last breath, he snatches it from the jaws of the hounds and saves it to suffer the same infliction two or three more times, ending finally in death. You yourself avoid the bloody spectacle because it wounds your weak nerves. But I have seen you embrace your child in transports, when he comes to show you a beautiful butterfly crushed between his cruel fingers. At that moment, I really wanted to have a cat with the tail of a half-devoured rat hanging from its mouth to present as the image, the true copy, of your angel. You could not refuse to kiss him, and if he scratched us both in revenge, so much the better. Little boys are rather liable to acknowledge their friends' caresses in that way, and then the resemblance would be more perfect. They know how to value our favours at their true price because they guess the motives which prompt us to grant them. If those motives might sometimes be good, undoubtedly they will remember always that they owe all their misery and all their evil qualities to the great ancestor of humankind. For assuredly, the cat was not wicked in Paradise.

E.B.

Constantin Héger, Emily's Professor in Brussels:

"She should have been a man – a great navigator. Her powerful reason would have deduced new spheres of discovery from the knowledge of the old, and her strong imperious will would never have been daunted by opposition or difficulty, never have given way but with life. She had a head for logic, and a capability of argument unusual in a man and rarer indeed in a woman... impairing this gift was her stubborn tenacity of will which rendered her obtuse to all reasoning where her own wishes, or her own sense of right, were concerned".







PS: Welcome, Virginia Woolf!

Post 2: SPOILERS and themes from Chapter 8

With regard to The Cat (my last post), I just read a powerful description of Catherine Earnshaw which parallels Brontë's thesis. WH was written in 1847, a full five years after her devoir.

In Chapter 8 of Wuthering Heights, there is a passage beginning "Catherine had kept up her acquaintance with the Lintons since her five weeks' residence....". In this passage Brontë writes of Catherine, "... she was full of ambition - and it led her to adopt a double character without exactly intending to deceive anyone", and further, "... she had small inclination to practise politeness that would only be laughed at, and restrain an unruly nature when it would bring her neither credit nor praise". I see this as a continuation of Brontë's 1842 observations on the self-serving attribute of humanity. This theme is reinforced later in the text as Nelly notes that Edgar Linton "...possessed the power to depart, as much as a cat possesses the power to leave a mouse half killed, or a bird half eaten". Again this imagery alludes to Brontë's devoir, and to her thoughts on the animal instinct inherent to human nature.

In Chapter 8 Nelly gives further insight into Hindley's vengeful character. It has been said that his name, Hindley, is meant to conjure imagery of an animal's hind quarters. I always picture a horse's 'ass', but 'hind' also denotes strength and musculature.

To what extent is Frances' death a turning point of this novel, because of its negative effect on Hindley?

So, this is the graveyard I went to yesterday evening in order to commence reading Wuthering Heights at last. The earliest grave dates back to 1750. I thought it would be magical and atmospheric and happily it was indeed.

It’s funny but this time I was able to laugh heartily at the humour provided by Lockwood - when he conjectures that Joseph must have need of divine aid to digest his dinner, so sour an entity is he...and his mistaking the heap of dead rabbits for a cushion of (favoured) inert cats at Wuthering Heights. I’m not a fan of Lockwood in general - I always feel a mild contempt for his delusional musing on his being a suitable partner of Heathcliff’s ‘to divide the desolation’. He eventually redeems himself when he admits he may be more sociable than his landlord after all...

My heart always hurts at the raving gush of Heathcliff’s anguished grief following Lockwood’s dream. However, I prefer this display of emotion - a storm on the moors to the manicured, gated garden of suppressed feelings, any day!

Currently on chapter seven...

That's so beautiful, Sianann!
Thanks for posting and for your thoughts on Lockwood. I agree! His name says it all: barring nature.

I analyse names in books. Catherine = cat.
I could go on with every character.

Will you post the family tree Isabella? I am in Chapter 6 and although tiredness didn't help I was struggling with all the people and relationships. I'd love to see your list of the names = .

Last edited by feeli0 on 20 Oct 2018, 6:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Wuthering Heights is a really good book, btw! (lol)

Last edited by IsabellaLinton on 20 Oct 2018, 6:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.

SPOILER -- but helpful!



There are doubles of everything to reinforce the theme of dualism. You are meant to be confused by the names and relationships. I'll get more into that on another post!

Oh thank you!! ! No wonder I was confused! I thought it was just me. LOL - that Emily!! !

Heathcliff = Duality. Flowers vs. Rock. Being grounded vs. Being in danger. Low ground vs. High summit (bipolar).
Catherine x 2 = Cats (see Emily's essay)
Linton = Linen (rich) and Town (city) (gentry)
Linton son = Just to make you even more confused
Earnshaw = Earn (work) and Shaw (Irish)
Isabella = "She's pretty" - This name or Bella / Belle is used frequently in Gothic literature including Beauty and The Beast
(It's always a name for a young girl who is deceived or manipulated by men -- that's why I chose it)
Hindley = Hind (horse's ass, animal imagery)
Hereton = anagram of Robert Heaton (rheaton), whom Emily may have loved (violent family who owned Ponden Hall)

The three H names aren't a coincidence (H represents Heaven and Hell)
The repetition of names reinforces the bizarre, incestuous microcosm or vortex they live in, and creates confusion.
Everyone is everyone. Identity is a relative term. Human nature unites everyone regardless of class.
This theme is highlighted later in the novel with Catherine / Heathcliff's proclaimed unity.

Wuthering Heights = Even this is an oxymoron. Decaying vs. Growing. Death vs. Life. Bad vs. Good. Hell vs. Heaven.

Multiple narrators and points of view add to the duality in this novel. Can two really be one?