Alexandra Lewis states that “Heathcliff himself becomes a symbolic embodiment of the operations of trauma upon the mind” (417). She goes on and shows how characters’ reactions with Heathcliff’s return are similar with actions of people who have experienced traumas (417-418). He intrudes people’s life. He makes Catherine unearth her violent emotions, leading to her eventual breakdown. He drives Hindley to murder attempts and more alcoholism with his presence. He scares Linton into doing his bidding. All of his actions and effects on people can be translate to trauma response, such as mood swings, breakdowns, constantly haunted by the memories, alcoholism, depression, and so on. Through Lewis’ view, Heathcliff essentially represents the traumatic memory that resurfaces after seemingly disappears for years and disrupts everyone’s life.
However, it is also important to remember that Heathcliff is how he is because of trauma. He is constantly being treated as the Other by everyone around him, tormented by Hindley, and antagonized even by Catherine herself. All of this abuse and trauma, along with the seemingly rejection from Catherine, lead him to run away. In other word, while Heathcliff seems to embody the work of traumatic memory, he is also created by traumas. Not only so, he is affected by traumas as well. And his trauma response is rage. Unlike other characters, whose traumatic memories seem to go away then come back, Heathcliff’s traumas stay with him, boiling and fueling his obsession for revenge. They also lead him to desecrate the graves, look for ghosts, and most importantly, traumatize the next generation. With his effects on Hareton, Linton, and Catherine the younger, the traumas are no longer contained within his generation’s cycle of trauma and abuse, but branching out to the next, potentially creating an entirely new cycle. This is also one of the commonly known results of trauma and abuse. Thus, through Lewis’ lens, Wuthering Heights represents trauma, its effects, and its cycle of existence through Heathcliff.
Lewis, Alexandra. “Memory Possessed: Trauma and Pathologies of Remembrance in Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights.” Pp. 406-423.
I like how you point out that Heathcliff is essentially an embodiment of trauma, and specifically how this affects Catherine. I want to add that similar to how Heathcliff is an embodiment of much of Catherine’s trauma, Catherine is likewise an embodiment of much of Heathcliff’s trauma. Heathcliff has trauma from being treated poorly by others, but losing Catherine to another man and then to death also counts as trauma. Therefore, the two continue to negatively influence/bring out the worst in each other. They are each a reminder of the other’s trauma. After Catherine’s death, her ghost serves as that embodiment of trauma for Heathcliff, literally haunting him until he also succumbs to death.
Your comment is really interesting! It is really similar to what I talked about in my blog post. One thing I’m a little confused about is how Heathcliff was the one who lead Hindley to attempted murder. The way I viewed it was that Hindley always hated Heathcliff and the only reason he allowed Heathcliff to live in the Heights was for his money. I thought it was because of that predetermined hatred was why Hindley wanted to murder Heathcliff, but I really want to hear more on what you were saying!