Wuthering Heights

The "love story" between Heathcliff and Catherine is still way too far fetched for me. The past two classes we took the time to discuss each character and it made me wonder how these two people could possibly say they love each other.

Catherine is a selfish, narrow minded, fool. She is almost childlike in her thought process. One example of this is when she is talking to Nelly after Edgar has proposed to her on page 64. Catherine has concocted this grand scheme of marrying Edgar Linton, but using his money to support her "love" Heathcliff. Nelly responds by saying "You'll find him (Edgar) not so pliable as you calculate upon: and, though I'm hardly a judge, I think that is the worst motive you've given yet for being the wife of young Linton" (64). Catherine's reply is "It is not, it is the best" (64). It's almost as if she is not familiar with how marriage or the real world works. This shallow look at the world is the reason i wonder how she can love or even fall in love with Heathcliff. The whole novel she treats him as an annoyance that won't leave her. He gets in the way of her becoming a proper lady and her ability to climb the social ladder. The class discussed that Catherine might be a "wild child" and Heathcliff embodies that persona. Out of that jealousy for his freedom, she covets him, but doesn't really love him. She is quoted as saying "I am Heathcliff". Her saying that solidifies her want to be Heathcliff not to be with him. This is very selfish of her, she seems to enjoy toying with the emotions of Heathcliff. If she really loved him she would have married him. Throughout the entire novel Catherine always got what she wanted. So how is it that the one person she claimed to be madly in love with is out of reach for her. I don't feel that it's believable. Catherine had her fun playing around with Heathcliff, but when it got down to her life and what she wanted, she went with the easier life. Edgar will be able to provide for her, despite the lack of spontaneity she would have received from Heathcliff.

Heathcliff is no better than Catherine when it comes to selfishness, but he also has the added brooding characteristic. His entire life has been trying and how is someone that hardened to the world able to fall in love with someone as superficial as Catherine? As you read more into the story you can see that his love of Catherine is more of a possible plot to exact revenge on Hindley, Catherine's cruel brother. Hindley caused Heathcliff so much suffering in his life, Heathcliff was willing to take his time to execute his plan. Marrying his sister would be the perfect way to get back at him. Heathcliff would be in the family forever and there wouldn't be anything Hindley could do about it. This is just proving that Heathcliff is just as crazy as Catherine. These two characters do not seem to have a concept of how surreal they appear the "normal" people in the book. Their actions dictate how the rest of the characters act, so it's like you have the two puppet masters controlling the story and nothing about this novel makes it a love story.