\u201c[Mr. Earnshaw] died quietly in his chair one October evening, seated by the fire-side. A high wind blustered round the house, and roared in the chimney: it sounded wild and stormy, yet it was not cold, and we were all together\u2014I, a little removed from the hearth, busy at my knitting, and Joseph reading his Bible near the table (for the servants generally sat in the house then, after their work was done). Miss Cathy had been sick, and that made her still; she leant against her father\u2019s knee, and Heathcliff was lying on the floor with his head in her lap. I remember the master, before he fell into a doze, stroking her bonny hair\u2014it pleased him rarely to see her gentle\u2014and saying, \u201cWhy canst thou not always be a good lass, Cathy?\u201d And she turned her face up to his, and laughed, and answered, \u201cWhy cannot you always be a good man, father?\u201d But as soon as she saw him vexed again, she kissed his hand, and said she would sing him to sleep. She began singing very low, till his fingers dropped from hers, and his head sank on his breast. Then I told her to hush, and not stir, for fear she should wake him.”<\/p>\n
–Wuthering Heights <\/em>by Emily Bronte, Page 30<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In Wuthering Heights, <\/em>cruelty embeds every development. Though Mary Barton<\/em> dealt heavily with the exploitation and dehumanization of the working class, Wuthering Heights <\/em>arguably displays much more of the darkness of the heart. Thus, when reading these incredibly complicated characters, curiosity arises on as to why, and whether they are deserving of sympathy anyway. This is most certainly true of Catherine Earnshaw. Catherine dominates much of the novel, through her literal ghost in the beginning, or even her daughter\u2019s name. Yet, Heathcliff\u2019s emotional damage from familial abuse and societal dehumanization provides psychological background for him, Catherine does not have equal exploration for her volatility. Partly, Ellen\u2019s narration consistently lacks sympathy to Catherine. Ellen repeatedly cites Catherine\u2019s selfishness, while often participating in the same judgements herself. For example, after the Linton\u2019s visit in chapter 7, Ellen automatically thinks ill of Catherine for disregarding Heathcliff, though Ellen does little to help, either (Bronte 41).<\/p>\n Yet, the book does offer subtle insights into Catherine\u2019s anger, such as in her father\u2019s death scene. Interestingly, this scene both breaks with and conforms to Gothic conventions present in the novel\u2019s other parts. As discussed in class and Roger Luckhurst\u2019s introduction to Late Victorian Gothic Tales<\/em>, the Gothic can be defined as exploration of \u201cThe Other\u201d (Luckhurst 10). In Wuthering Heights, <\/em>this theme can most obviously be seen in the characters. Catherine\u2019s undying passion and Heathcliff\u2019s mysterious origin both push them outside what is considered \u201cnormal.\u201d Yet, the scene where they are both sitting quietly reflects a gentler attitude from Heathcliff and Cathy. However, this \u201cnormal\u201d behavior for the expectations of a typical child comes off as strange behavior from what Cathy and Heathcliff are usually portrayed as. Still, a powerful storm rages outside, a reflection of the Gothic element of the sublime, as discussed by Bowen\u2019s video (Bowen 6:18). \u00a0Perhaps this signals that although things may be briefly calm, the Earnshaws\u2019 dysfunction always rages underneath.<\/p>\n Unsurprisingly, this silence cannot be maintained forever. When Mr. Earnshaw implicitly scolds Catherine by asking why she cannot always be good, Mr. Earnshaw displays a disregard for Catherine that could explain her behavior. This \u201cgoodness\u201d only comes from her silence and lessened energy from illness. Only when she pushes back by questioning him as to why he cannot always be a good man that he becomes \u201cvexed.\u201d To Mr. Earnshaw, Cathy being a \u201cgood girl\u201d comes in the form of her being reserved and obedient, whereas being a good man would likely have different connotations to him. After all, Mr. Earnshaw does say earlier that he \u201ccannot love [her]\u201d simply because of her mischief, which \u201cmade her cry\u2026.then, being repulsed continually hardened her, and she laughed….\u201d (29 Bronte). Even on his deathbed, his last words are to chide Catherine. Still, the rest of the passage follows Catherine\u2019s coping mechanism, while still displaying her love for her father when she tries to make up by singing to him in a \u201clow\u201d manner. Despite the casual cruelty Catherine displays later and earlier, this action indicates she is genuinely trying to think of others. And then, Ellen tells her to be quiet and still once more, to not bother her father further, emblematic of her entire childhood up to this point. Catherine cannot stop herself from being her mischievous self, and instead of working to understand her, the adults in her life tell her to be quiet. The world does not want to understand Catherine. Thus, it comes as little surprise she becomes an emotional storm unto herself as an adult, and as wild as the winds over the Heights.<\/p>\n Citation (Other edition):<\/p>\n Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights<\/em>. 1847. Wordsworth Editions Limited, 1992.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201c[Mr. Earnshaw] died quietly in his chair one October evening, seated by the fire-side. A high wind blustered round the house, and roared in the chimney: it sounded wild and stormy, yet it was not cold, and we were all together\u2014I, a little removed from the hearth, busy at my knitting, and Joseph reading his … Continue reading Gothic Character Paradoxes in Wuthering Heights<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4983,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[344620],"tags":[1231,33175,347079],"class_list":["post-829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall-2022","tag-gender","tag-gothic","tag-wuthering-heights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4983"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}