Isolation In Wuthering Heights
A Source Of Violence And A Means Of Ending Violence
Hello!!!
This is Joyie and welcome back to my little bookish corner of the internet where I talk all things books!
Have you been reading anything this week?
This week I finished my annual re-read of Wuthering Heights, and realised I still love love love that book.
For the last four chapters of my read, I listened along to an audiobook. In that audiobook edition, there were a few discussions at the end. One of those discussions was about isolation in Wuthering Heights. Of course isolation is one of the main driving forces behind WH, which makes sense since it’s a piece of gothic literature. But after listening to that discussion, I, too, thought a bit about isolation as it's explored in WH.
As that discussion said, the book uses isolation like a self-fulfilling prophecy. It starts with young Heathcliff feeling isolated, and as a result he seeks revenge, but the more he goes down the path of revenge, it isolates him even more and makes things worse. And isolation is one of his main tools of revenge, especially when it comes to the younger generation, and I think it manifests the most in his treatment of young Cathy.
Cathy, unlike Hareton or Linton, grew up having people around her, who indulged her. Heathcliff cuts her off from all those people, locking her in Wuthering Heights among people who treat her with pure apathy. Now, since Heathcliff isolates her and Hareton together at Wuthering Heights, they find each other and get a happy ending (by Wuthering Heights standards). But what I find interesting is Cathy's isolation from society in general.
From her first encounter with Hareton, Cathay is extremely demeaning to him. And it’s not because of his unpolished, rough demeanour. She’s fine with him as long as she mistakes him to be the master’s son. But as soon as she learns he’s not, and concludes him to be a servant, it hurts her pride that he doesn’t treat her with the respect a master’s daughter demands from a servant. Its’ her perceived socially superior status that makes her abhor him. She’s still a kid at that point, but even after she’s grown up, her attitude towards Hareton doesn’t change much. But when Heathcliff completely isolates her from society, he strips away the superior status society had bestowed upon her, and only then does she finally start to see Hareton as an equal.
This is like the reverse of original Catherine’s arc. She grew up in isolation, away from society and unaware of its prejudices— loving Heathcliff as an equal human being. But once her isolation ended in meeting Edgar, she got a taste of the superior societal status he offered, which simultaneously awakened her to the inferiority of Heathcliff’s societal status. So she gave him up despite loving him, which got everything started.
I've no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in heaven and if the wicked man in there had not brought Heathcliff so low I shouldn't have thought of it. It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now so he shall never know how I love him…
In a world without societal prejudices Catherine and Heathcliff could have been together. Heathcliff removes society and thus, its prejudices from young Cathy and Hareton’s world, and makes way for them to be together.
So, the story comes full circle. But also it leaves me with a question, is isolation good or bad in Wuthering Heights? It’s both the source of violence but also the means of ending violence. I guess like everything else in WH, there’s no proper answer, maybe isolation in WH is neither good nor bad, it’s just a force of nature.
What about you? Why do you think of isolation in Wuthering Heights? I'd love to hear about it!!!
For more of my bookish ramblings, you can also find me on Instagram
Also, if you’d like me to write for you, you can contact me at joyiewrites@gmail.com
That’s it for today, I'll be back in your inbox next week.
Until then,
Joyie 🌻
Amazing post. I read WH not too long ago, but this still helped recontextualise the entire story. I've just finished reading Watchmen from Alan Moore, and in that graphic novel, isolation also works as a major theme, all characters in the book are isolated in that narrative, whether its the loneliness that Daniel feels, or the self-imposed isolation of Dr Manhattan and Rorschach. I think its interesting that Moore seems to relate isolation with withering humanity, whilst Daniel ends the novel with someone by his side, Dr Manhattan and Rorschach don't, and its made a point how withdrawn Dr Manhattan is and how he considers humanity a triviality, and how "uncivil" and "strange" Rorschach is. I think it's interesting to look at isolation like this in WH, how "inhumane" Heathcliff and Catherine I act in in their most isolated moments.