In Alexandra Lewis’ “Memory Possessed: Trauma and Pathologies of Remembrance in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights,” she discusses how during the time of the novel’s publication, mental trauma was only just beginning to be understood and linked to outward symptoms. For example, on pages 411-412, Lewis points out that other characters label Catherine’s destructive behaviors, like starvation and inducing sickness, as “manipulative” and intentionally self-induced when they are clearly “processes of the mind at work far beneath…Cathy’s conscious control.” Everything that Catherine has been through has affected her psyche to the point that it has become a physical illness. Brontë is experimenting with the idea that past trauma can actually affect one’s psyche and manifest in physical illness, when at the time, “trauma” was more associated with bodily wounds. Lewis highlights how Brontë reveals the way in which past events can affect the brain.
Considering Lewis’ lens of how mental trauma manifests, I believe Catherine’s ghost is also a manifestation of trauma. Specifically, how she appears to Heathcliff. Rather than Catherine’s ghost solely being a supernatural element in the novel, it is also possible that all of the traumatic events of Heathcliff’s past have taken such a toll on his brain that he is giving his trauma a form: that of Catherine. Where Catherine’s trauma causes her brain to escape her control and makes her ill, Heathcliff’s trauma causes his brain to escape his control and makes Catherine’s ghost. On page 289, Heathcliff states “I was wild after she died, and eternally, from dawn to dawn, praying her to return to me–her spirit…” Heathcliff’s psyche latches onto his desperation to be with Catherine and he begins to actually see and feel her everywhere before his death. The trauma of losing her is dictating what he sees and feels, replicating an image of Catherine. Heathcliff experienced discriminatory trauma growing up, which already began to affect his brain, making him inclined to act the way he was perceived (as evil). Then he experienced the traumatic loss of his love. These facts combined with the fact that he is desperate to see her again, particularly her “spirit,” causes his affected, distraught brain to conjure her image forth. To someone who has not undergone trauma, like Lockwood or random neighbors, Catherine’s ghost is just a dream, or a rumor. To Heathcliff, who has been repeatedly traumatized, Catherine’s ghost is a reality. She is his trauma manifested. Similar to how Catherine’s illness is evidence that trauma has affected her psyche yet is not taken as such by others, Catherine’s ghost is evidence that trauma has affected Heathcliff’s psyche, and yet is not treated as such. To readers, and likely to Lewis as well, seeing Catherine’s ghost is one of the first signs that Heathcliff’s mental state is deteriorating. To other characters, his involvement with her spirit and corpse is further proof of his evilness and creepiness. Brontë is experimenting with the extent to which trauma can affect the psyche throughout Wuthering Heights, which is in alignment with the discoveries of mental trauma in the Victorian era illustrated by Lewis.
Lewis, Alexandra. “Memory Possessed: Trauma and Pathologies of Remembrance in Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights.” Pp. 411-412.
I found your comparison between the representations of Heathcliff’s and Catherine’s trauma very interesting. Your description of Heathcliff’s visions of Catherine’s ghost reminded me of another portion of the Lewis reading that I wrote about in my post. Much as Heathcliff is traumatized continuously throughout the novel, which could contribute to his spectral visions, Lewis also argues that his inability to let go of Catherine is due to the fact that he can’t fully process her death as he didn’t see her die. Evidently, Heathcliff’s trauma is instrumental in shaping his actions in the rest of the novel.
There is a passage by Geoffrey Hartman in Lewis’s essay that says: “the traumatic event ‘seems to have bypassed perception and consciousness, and falls directly into psyche’”(p. 413). Heathcliff and Cathy have no control over their emotions and they just can’t stop feeling the way they did since trauma was so deeply embedded in each of them. I wonder if these characters would have been different if they didn’t experience trauma like they did. This reminded me of Pip, who, as Heathcliff, suffered abuse as a child and his personality, as Heathcliff’s, changes for the worst as the novel develops.