Wuthering Heights
Emily Bronte is an author who was born in 1818. She is known for publishing her only novel, Wuthering Heights, in 1847 under the name of Ellis Bell, a year before her death. Her stellar work of art, Wuthering Heights, narrates her experience with both the Romantic periods, which lasted from years 1785 to 1830, to that early Victorian era, from 1830 to 1848 (Landers).
The Theme of Love in Wuthering Heights
The Wuthering Heights is a passionate story of a love triangle involving two family generations that intermarry. These families are the Earnshaws and the Lintons. The love tale includes a technique of a story within a story, and is narrated by two different characters. It is of importance to note that the two characters also happen to have different knowledge about the two families. One character has a profound knowledge of the families. Her name is Ellen Nelly Dean, while the other, Mr. Lockwood, is barely ignorant of the two families' history. The first love triangle is that of Edgar Linton, Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, whereas the second love triangle is the one involving Heathcliff's son, Linton Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw's daughter and nephew; Catherine Linton, and Hareton Earnshaw. In this narrative, it is quite apparent that Heathcliff is devoted to Edgar Linton's sister, Isabella Linton.
Lockwood is a well-heeled and cultured man seeking to be friends with Nelly Dean. He suffers a long illness caused by a storm in his attempt to visit Heathcliff, keeping him bedridden for a couple of weeks. Nelly, on the other hand, has been brought up by the Earnshaws and Linston families as a servant. Because of this, she has been in a position to deeply know the two families. For instance, in cases of family dramas. Nelly's...
Nevertheless, she likes and is in support of Catherine Earnshaw's husband, and highly rates him as a gentleman (E-notes).
Through these, two unreliable lenses are filtered. The love story of Edgar and Catherine, Heathcliff and Catherine and Edgar, and that of the second generation involving Hareton Earnshaw and Catherine Earnshaw. There is a direct opposite of character in the tale, where; Edgar is fair and does not show emotions for they are endorsed with other feelings. Nevertheless, he is referred to be a son to a courteous man. On the other side, Heathcliff has an empty past, he is considered negative and tends to be conflicted or rather unhappy about certain things or generally everything. The Wuthering Heights can therefore be described as an exposed, cold farmhouse that belongs to a gentleman. It is neatly arranged and thus considered to be a very important building in the neighborhood. The home has an enclosed park, warm fires, luxurious and beautiful furnishings. Instead of the home becoming a place of ease and happiness, it turns out to become a literary unbearable incarceration for the female characters, whereas sincerity and freedom is represented by the wild moors, a metaphor which is quite ironic (E-notes).
Romantic vs. Victorian literature
The Romantic period of literature best fits the description of Wuthering Heights. In the late 18th century, the Roman movement thrived, up to the first half of the 19th century. It celebrated sentiments, lack of control, and nature's way beyond reason and science. The title of the novel is derived from the Yorkshire word for withering, denoting cold and…
