Tle L1 UNIT 4: Poison & Wine
Text 2: extract 2 from Wuthering Heights, Emilie Brontë
I’ve no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in heaven; and if the wicked man1 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: and that, not because he’s handsome, Nelly, but because he’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same; and Linton’s is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire.’ (…)
My great miseries in this world have been Heathcliff’s miseries, and I watched and felt each from the beginning: my great thought in living is himself. If all else perished, and HE remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger: I should not seem a part of it. – My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I’m well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I AM Heathcliff! He’s always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being. So don’t talk of our separation again: it is impracticable.’
Wuthering Heights, Emilie Brontë, 1847 (extract from chapter 9)
1 Cathy is referring to her brother Hindley who made Heathcliff a servant
NB: Heathcliff was an orphan who was taken in by Cathy’s father (his parents were gypsies ) so he and Cathy grew up together. However, when Cathy’s father died, Cathy’s brother, Hindley, took over and since he had always been jealous of Heathcliff, he made him a servant out of spite.
Recap
Cathy explains that she is in love with Heathcliff.
She compares what she feels for Heathcliff and Edgar and it is obvious that what she feels for Edgar is a mere infatuation while she loves Heathcliff deeply
Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same; and Linton’s is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire
opposition ‘frost’/’fire’ and moonbeam/lightning: Contrary to Heathcliff, Linton is compared to something dull and cold (Heathcliff= fire and lightning which symbolize passion)
she and Heathcliff are two halves of a whole and cannot be separated, they are soulmates (it reminds us of Plato’s Symposium and his theory about soulmates: https://theconversation.com/what-plato-can-teach-you-about-finding-a-soulmate-72715)
My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I’m well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary ? simile
What she feels for Linton is fleeting/ephemeral/short-lived: it will not last. Conversely, her feelings for Heathcliff are timeless/immortal (‘the eternal rock’ ). She cannot live without Heathcliff.
It sounds like Cathy is losing herself, her identity (see hyperbole ‘I am Heathcliff’) What she feels for him is unhealthy, toxic and destructive
What do you think of Cathy’s decision to marry Edgar Linton when she says about Heathcliff: ‘So don’t talk of our separation again: it is impracticable.’?
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