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‘... a renewed sense of passion for the wild, the unfamiliar, the irregular, and the irrational’. (1317) This is how David Damrosch described the Romantic literary movement in ‘ The Longman Anthology of British Literature’. In this essay, I aim to prove that Emily Bronte’s ‘Wuthering Heights embodies these core concepts and as a result shows that this text is one of the last ‘great’ novels of the Romantic period. The text was published in 1847 during the closing years of the Romantic period and as such is characterized by the common tropes and ideology popular at the time. This novel encapsulates Romanticism in every aspect from its intense relationships to its complex characters both of which I will be focusing on in this essay.
One aspect of Wuthering Heights that characterizes the novel as Romantic is its focus on striving. Aspiration doesn’t seem like a trope that would be exclusive to Romanticism, however, the way that Emily Brontë employs it is. The very existence of her novel’s main characters seems defined by their desires. A novel that isn’t Romantic, of course, can feature characters with varying aspirations, however, they are very different in comparison to those of Romantic characters. What sets these characters apart is not only the intensity by which they strive to attain their goals but the goals themselves. For instance, Jane Austen's novels, which for the most part ignore the Romantic movement, focus on characters that have somewhat simplistic goals. Her heroines want to marry who they choose and live out their days happily. With characters like Bronte’s Heathcliff and Catherine, the idea of these two characters living in domestic bliss is almost unthinkable.
Two main myths are generally used to structure readings of Wuthering Heights, one of which suggests that Catherine and Heathcliff’s love is something that is ‘incapable of social consummation’. Something far more complex is desired by them. It isn’t just love that Cathy and Heathcliff want. They need a higher spiritual existence that is permanent and unchanging. Catherine hints at this when she compares her love for Linton to the seasons and her love for Heathcliff to the rocks. This is refuted by Heathcliff who calls Cathy his ‘soul’. However, such love isn’t necessarily happy. Romantic characters often go to extremes, when Cathy is dying, Heathcliff asks her, ''Would you like to live with your soul in the grave?'' Emphasizing the point that in his eyes, the two share the same soul and if she dies, he would prefer to go with her. A later scene, when Heathcliff vows to open Catherine's coffin and passionately wishes to join her in death, is an example of how Romantic literature was capable of capturing the passion a character felt regarding their love interest. C. Day-Lewis thinks that the two represent ‘two halves of a single soul - forever sundered and struggling to unite.’
The longing of Cathy and Heathcliff cannot be satisfied on earth. What they want is more than what a conventional romance can give them and far more than what can be contained in the conventional marriage narrative. There is something unearthly framing their relationship that changes its dynamic from something conventional to a desire for something wild and ‘moor-ish’. their intense desires almost transcend what they wish to achieve. Even if the narrative let them achieve this, it is difficult to believe that something as ordinary as marriage could satisfy a striving so intense. the thing that they want is beyond earthly reach for them because it has to be. emily bronte writes the novel with a romantic ethos in mind and as such its romance takes on a romantic edge. it would be almost too simple if these characters could just be together. it wouldn't satisfy them or the reader. more importantly, it wouldn't fit the romantic narrative. if it was possible for these characters to attain the object of their aspiration then once they receive it they will no longer desire anything and the very thing that has defined these characters and the narrative up until this point will become unnecessary. what was the most significant aspect of the novel fades to nothing.
While the romantics in general aspired to some kind of heaven at the same time the romantic imagination didn't allow for one to exist and so many instead aspired only for death. this is reflected once again in the relationship between Cathy and Heathcliff. the two are unable to live in a world where their desires can't be satisfied and equally to imagine a heaven in which they will be. this is made clear when Cathy dreams that she has died and gone to heaven but she is unhappy there and eventually comes back to Wuthering Heights to strive for what she desires once more and to forever reach for something she can't have. this is why it isn't surprising that the main characters in Wuthering Heights act out in strange ways. an example of how longing without a clear explanation can lead to insanity occurs when Heathcliff attempts to hang Isabelle's dog from a tree. In this context, Wuthering Heights is a product of romanticism.
Another aspect of Wuthering Heights that adds to the romantic style of the novel is its use of complex characters. emily bronte designs her characters to be complex and as a result, even the characters that readers may choose to view as the hero or villain figure have both their good and bad attributes. characters in romantic literature are often difficult to understand. they might seem to be one thing and then turn out to be another. there is no knight in shining armor or perfect heroine. While readers might feel like sympathizing with a character bronte makes this difficult by doing something to make the character seem unlikeable. for instance, in case the reader feels inclined to feel sorry for Isabella the girl who becomes Heathcliff's wife and whom he constantly mistreats bronte shows her taunting Heathcliff with cathys death. in the same way in case we feel we can sympathize with Heathcliff's ailing and brutalized son Emily bronBrontës in his utter selfishness and insensitivity. Mr Lockwood is capable of pushing a child’s hand into a pane of broken glass. The picture painted for the reader is full of nasty people in an unforgiving world. However, because of this, these characters are compelling figures and we read on fascinated. Heathcliff is an example of this complex character.
Heathcliff is an example of this transforming type of character. In Gothic fiction, the figure of a dangerous, yet attractive man with a mysterious past is regularly featured. Heathcliff is a deeply vengeful character with an exotic appearance and passionate nature. He embodies a force that is powerful and destructive. This makes him a prime example of the ‘Byronic hero’ someone ‘mad, bad and dangerous to know’, and yet we still want to. Heathcliff’s erratic behavior is difficult to pin down. Like the conventional Gothic hero villain, he is a mysterious figure who destroys the beautiful woman he pursues and usurps inheritances, and with typical Gothic excess, he batters his head against a tree. At the close of the novel, just as he is about to finally achieve his revenge he loses interest. This might be due to some moral consideration, however, this would seem deeply alien to his character. It is more likely that he loses his desire for revenge along with his desire to live because he sees Cathy’s ghost. In the end, he starves himself to death, almost passively as he no longer has any motivation. At one point he even states how he needs to remind himself how to breathe. Like a true Romantic hero, he is enigmatic and welcomes death.
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