In Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff is a prime example of the Other, perhaps one of the most potent in all Victorian literature. However, due to both her early relationship with Heathcliff and her drastic break from it, Catherine is also a form of the Other in the novel. Through Catherine\u2019s delirious speech to Nelly during her fatal illness, Bront\u00eb uses the framework of the Gothic to convey the impossibility of escaping her role as the Other.<\/p>\n
In her lament to Nelly, Catherine speaks plaintively and earnestly about the state she finds herself in. It is plain she regrets her choice to leave the Heights, \u201c\u2019\u2026I had been wrenched\u2026and been converted at a stroke into Mrs. Linton, the lady of Thrushcross Grange, and the wife of a stranger, an exile and outcast thenceforth from what had been my world\u2026\u201d (Bront\u00eb 125). By marrying Edgar Linton to escape her perception of a \u201cdehumanizing\u201d attachment to Heathcliff, Catherine has only persisted in again othering herself, just in a different setting. She identifies herself as a \u201cstranger\u201d, \u201cexile\u201d, and \u201coutcast\u201d, plainly demonstrating the detachment she feels from the life she has chosen for herself. However, in bemoaning the loss of her past, Catherine also represents that former status as Other. She says, \u201cI wish I were out of doors. I wish I were a girl again, half savage, and hardy, and free\u2026\u201d (125). Her use of the word \u201csavage\u201d particularly emphasizes her perception of the otherness of her past as well as her present. Heathcliff, her former \u201call in all\u201d (125), is also described as savage or less than human throughout the novel, mirroring Catherine\u2019s vision of herself. Earlier in the novel, she declares \u201cI am Heathcliff\u201d (Bront\u00eb 82), suggesting that her original perception as herself as the Other stemmed from her association with Heathcliff; she is now realizing that she cannot escape this Otherness as she holds this attachment with her always. Despite Catherine\u2019s best efforts to escape her liminal existence at Wuthering Heights, she only succeeds in thrusting herself into a different form of liminality, a very Gothic concept. The Gothic, as described by Richard Altick, \u201c\u2026is obsessed with establishing and policing borders, with delineating strict categories of being\u201d (Altick xii). When one doesn\u2019t fall into a category of being, they become an Other. The border between Catherine\u2019s past and present is impermeable, but the border of her future as Mrs. Linton also remains closed\u2013once Heathcliff\u2019s return reinforces their relationship\u2013resulting in \u201cthe abyss\u201d (125) of liminality. Aided by this Gothic border trope, Bront\u00eb solidifies the line between Catherine\u2019s wild childhood and her role as a wife. She is alienated into no man\u2019s land, an internal crisis which is so powerful that it culminates in her illness, and eventual death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff is a prime example of the Other, perhaps one of the most potent in all Victorian literature. However, due to both her early relationship with Heathcliff and her drastic break from it, Catherine is also a form of the Other in the novel. Through Catherine\u2019s delirious speech to Nelly during her … Continue reading The Surprising Other in Wuthering Heights<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4979,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[344620],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall-2022"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833","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\/4979"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}