{"id":877,"date":"2022-10-06T17:04:52","date_gmt":"2022-10-06T17:04:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/?p=877"},"modified":"2022-12-01T20:39:43","modified_gmt":"2022-12-01T20:39:43","slug":"ghosting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/2022\/10\/06\/ghosting\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghosting"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Alexandra Lewis\u2019 \u201cMemory Possessed: Trauma and Pathologies of Remembrance in Emily Bront\u00eb\u2019s <\/span>Wuthering Heights<\/span><\/i>,\u201d she discusses how during the time of the novel\u2019s publication, mental trauma was only just beginning to be understood and linked to outward symptoms.\u00a0 For example, on pages 411-412, Lewis points out that other characters label Catherine\u2019s destructive behaviors, like starvation and inducing sickness, as \u201cmanipulative\u201d and intentionally self-induced when they are clearly \u201cprocesses of the mind at work far beneath\u2026Cathy\u2019s conscious control.\u201d\u00a0 Everything that Catherine has been through has affected her psyche to the point that it has become a physical illness.\u00a0 Bront\u00eb is experimenting with the idea that past trauma can actually affect one\u2019s psyche and manifest in physical illness, when at the time, \u201ctrauma\u201d was more associated with bodily wounds.\u00a0 Lewis highlights how Bront\u00eb reveals the way in which past events can affect the brain.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Considering Lewis’ lens of how mental trauma manifests, I believe Catherine\u2019s ghost is also a manifestation of trauma.\u00a0 Specifically, how she appears to Heathcliff.\u00a0 Rather than Catherine\u2019s ghost solely being a supernatural element in the novel, it is also possible that all of the traumatic events of Heathcliff\u2019s past have taken such a toll on his brain that he is giving his trauma a form: that of Catherine.\u00a0 Where Catherine\u2019s trauma causes her brain to escape her control and makes her ill, Heathcliff\u2019s trauma causes his brain to escape his control and makes Catherine\u2019s ghost.\u00a0 On page 289, Heathcliff states \u201cI was wild after she died, and eternally, from dawn to dawn, praying her to return to me\u2013her spirit\u2026\u201d\u00a0 Heathcliff\u2019s psyche latches onto his desperation to be with Catherine and he begins to actually see and feel her everywhere before his death.\u00a0 The trauma of losing her is dictating what he sees and feels, replicating an image of Catherine.\u00a0 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).\u00a0 Then he experienced the traumatic loss of his love.\u00a0 These facts combined with the fact that he is desperate to see her again, particularly her \u201cspirit,\u201d causes his affected, distraught brain to conjure her image forth.\u00a0 To someone who has not undergone trauma, like Lockwood or random neighbors, Catherine\u2019s ghost is just a dream, or a rumor.\u00a0 To Heathcliff, who has been repeatedly traumatized, Catherine\u2019s ghost is a reality.\u00a0 She is his trauma manifested.\u00a0 Similar to how Catherine\u2019s illness is evidence that trauma has affected her psyche yet is not taken as such by others, Catherine\u2019s ghost is evidence that trauma has affected Heathcliff\u2019s psyche, and yet is not treated as such.\u00a0 To readers, and likely to Lewis as well, seeing Catherine\u2019s ghost is one of the first signs that Heathcliff\u2019s mental state is deteriorating.\u00a0 To other characters, his involvement with her spirit and corpse is further proof of his evilness and creepiness.\u00a0 Bront\u00eb is experimenting with the extent to which trauma can affect the psyche throughout <\/span>Wuthering Heights<\/span><\/i>, which is in alignment with the discoveries of mental trauma in the Victorian era illustrated by Lewis.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lewis, Alexandra. \u201cMemory Possessed: Trauma and Pathologies of Remembrance in Emily Bronte\u2019s <\/span>Wuthering Heights<\/span><\/i>.\u201d Pp. 411-412.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Alexandra Lewis\u2019 \u201cMemory Possessed: Trauma and Pathologies of Remembrance in Emily Bront\u00eb\u2019s Wuthering Heights,\u201d she discusses how during the time of the novel\u2019s publication, mental trauma was only just beginning to be understood and linked to outward symptoms.\u00a0 For example, on pages 411-412, Lewis points out that other characters label Catherine\u2019s destructive behaviors, like … Continue reading Ghosting<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4747,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[344620],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall-2022"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877","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\/4747"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}