The Story of Catherine and Heathcliff began when Catherine’s father goes on a trip and instead of bringing back gifts he brings back a gypsy boy with dark skin and even darker hair. While others hated the newcomer, Catherine took a liking to him right away and they became inseparable. But after an injury Catherine or “Cathy’ was forced to reside at the Linton’s, a pristine family who re-molded Cathy into a well mannered, well behaved, well spoiled girl. At her stay with the Linton’s Catherine learned about the value for money and social status.
She realized that as much as he loved Heathcliff she would never marry him because he had no money or title, so instead she married Edgar Linton. An ill treated Heathcliff was devastated and ran away from the Wuthering Heights Estate, leaving his problems behind him. 3 years later Heathcliff returned as a rich and wealthy man, takes over Wuthering Heights and marries Edgar’s sister Isabelle Linton. Catherine falls ill and shortly after dies of brain fever. A devastated Heathcliff lives the rest of his life bitter and mistreating everyone around him as he mourns for his lost love.
Love, it is a complex emotion that two or more people share for each other. There are many different forms of love such as; Maternal love, loving a sibling or a family member, loving a best friend or pet, love based on sexual attraction, being in love with somebody or Just loving (caring) about a person. Writers often take these many forms of the emotion, mold it and turn it into a bestseller. The most famous love stories tell the tale of the love that does not prevail, or doomed love. This type of love is destructive, ruins lives, turns a character from a victim to a villain, and at times leads to a death.
Not only does it greatly affect the lives of the people involved in the relationship, but also the utsiders who by chance got sucked into the complicated situation. The most notable accounts of destructive love are the classical stories of Romeo and Juliet, Jane Eyre, and The Great Gatsby. Emily Bronte exemplifies this fatal love in her well known novel “Wuthering Heights”. The destructiveness of love can be portrayed through the unhealthy relationships between the main characters, Heathcliff and Catherine. Their love was their demise, their downfall, and ultimately their endings.
Drugs, nicotine, alcohol, and caffeine are all substances that someone can easily become aaddicted to. All harmful and dangerous in their own way. What is an addiction? Does it have to be a substance you put in your body for it to be classified as an addiction? Well according to Stanton Peele, “An Addiction is when a person’s attachment to a sensation, object, or another person is such a lessen, his appreciation of and the ability to deal with other things in his environment, or himself so that he has become increasingly dependent on that experience as his only source of gratification” ( Goodlett, Debra. Love and Addiction in Wuthering Heights. ” Readings on Emily Bronte: Wuthering Heights. Ed. Hayley R. Mitchell. San Deigo: Greenhaven Press, 1999. 19-28. Print. Many drug addicts become so aaddicted to taking that drug that they forget about everything else. They forget about their families, friends, Jobs, and most importantly their health. When something stands in the way of their “drug” they become mean, violent, yelling at others, kicking, and screaming. It isn’t until you take whatever their aaddicted to away, that they start to splral aownwara ana tney go crazy, oolng anytnlng tney can to get tnat Teellng, tne addiction gave them, back.
Catherine and Heathcliffs love is so deep and passionate that they cannot stand to be without each other. Their love meets Stanton Peele’s definition of an addiction. Catherine states “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. (Goodlett, Debra. “Love and Addiction in Wuthering Heights. ” Readings on Emily Bronte: Wuthering Heights. Ed. Hayley R. Mitchell. San Deigo: Greenhaven Press, 1999. 19-28. Print. ) Heathcliff at one point in the book even tells Catherine on her deathbed that she’s killing herself herefore she is killing him. Heathcliffs passion for Catherine, even after her death, had essentially driven him mad. Graeme Tytler theorizes that Heathcliff fits the contemporary medical diagnosis of monomania, as defined by Jean Etienne Dominique Esquirol, one of the founders of modern psychiatry. Esquirol defined monomania as “the disease of going to extremes, of singularization one- sidedness. “(“Monomania: The Nineteenth Century Theory. “Psychological Interpretation. N. p. , n. . Web. 11 Oct. 2011. ) Tytler then went on by stating, “. equally relevant to a diagnosis of Heathcliff is Esquirol’s listing of the causes of onomania: Monomania is essentially a disease of the sensibility. It reposes altogether upon the affections, and its study is inseparable from knowledge of the passions. Its seat is in the heart of man, and it is there that we must search for it, in order to possess ourselves of all its peculiarities”. After Catherine’s death, Heathcliff slowly goes down the path of insanity in attempt to keep Catherine alive, not necessarily in reality but in his mind.
This is when his addiction to Catherine became his monomania and eventually his downfall “… It is, eighteen years or so after her death that he shows signs of insanity. Much of what he says and does after Chapter 29 is symptomatic of monomania-hallucinations, insomnia, talking to himself or to Catherine’s ghost, his preoccupation at meals and in conversation, his sighs and moans, his harsh treatment of Cathy and Hareton, and his being haunted by Catherine’s image. ” (“Monomania: The Ninetenth Century Theory. “Psychological Interpretation. N. p. , n. d. Web. 11 Oct. 2011. ).
There is one point in the book where Heathcliff begs Catherine’s ghost to haunt him Just so he can be close to her. “And I pray one prayer–l repeat it till my tongue stiffens–Catherine Earns haw, may you not rest as long as I am living! You said I killed you–haunt me, then!… Be with me always– take any form–drive me mad! Only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! ” (Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights. New York, New York: Penguin books, 1995. Print. ) Not only did Catherine and Heathcliffs relationship affect Heathcliff and Cathy, but it also affected other characters as well.
Isabelle Linton, Edgar Linton’s younger sister, met Heathcliff and viewed him as a romantic hero and they married right away. However, Heathcliff does not feel the same way about Isabelle, or any way about Isabelle. “l hardly regard her in the light of a rational creature… did not love her” (Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights. New York, New York: Penguin books, 1995. Print). The reason he married Isabelle was to get revenge on Catherine, but also to be closer to her. Heathcliff constantly treated Isabelle as if she were beneath him, worthless, not even worth thinking about.
This attitude towards Isabelle caused her to leave nvm arter tnelr son, Llnton HeatncllTT, was Dorn. In aaaltlon to Isaoelle, ner older brother Edgar Linton also was affected by Catherine and Heathcliffs relationship. Edgar Linton, a rich young man, fell in love with Catherine Earnshaw at a young age. Eventually they married and resided at Thrushcross Grange where they had their only child Catherine Linton. Edgar loved Catherine Earnshaw dearly but Catherine’s feeling did not reciprocate. She married Edgar for his money “in my soul and in my heart, I’m convinced I’m wrong [about marrying her] ‘… l can aid Heathcliff to rise’… ‘My love for Linton is like foliage in the woods, time will change it” (Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights. New York, New York: Penguin books, 1995. Print). Although Catherine does not mistreat Edgar like Heathcliff did to Isabelle, she let it be known to him that her heart truly lies with Heathcliff. Even after Cathys death people were affected. Catherine’s daughter, Catherine Linton or young Cathy was forced to face the wrath of Heathcliff. Young Cathy was trapped into marrying Heathcliffs son Linton Heathcliff.
The mmarriage was unloving and unemotional. The only point of the mmarriage was Heathcliffs revenge on Catherine (the deceased). After Linton Heathcliff dies Catherine is imprisoned at Wuthering heights with Heathcliff, who treats her poorly because she is a constant reminder her mother. He yells at her constantly, insulting her by calling her “a witch”, forbidding her from talking at times. There are many other famous, well known novels that show that the power of love is as destructive as it is sweet. An example of this can be seen in “The Great Gatsby’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
In this book, the mysterious character Jay Gatsby has everything. The big house, the best parties, the finest shirts, but none of that mattered in the end. The only thing that does is his long lost love Daisy who lives across the bay. We find out that Gatsby doesn’t really love Daisy but he’s in love with the idea of repeating the past and the materialism that comes with Daisy. In the end Gatsbys world comes umbling down when Daisy chooses Tom over him and he is then killed by George Wilson who believed that Gatsby ran over his beloved wife Myrtle (even though it was really Daisy).
Jay Gatsby and Heathcliff are two very different characters from two very different books. They do have one thing in common; they share a common theme, the destructiveness of love. Jay Gatsby fell in love with Daisy at a young age. So in love that he became obsessed with trying to win her back. He went to major extremes (much like HeathclifO Just to be connected with her again, such as buying a huge mansion across the bay from Daisy and Tom’s house. He threw elaborate parties to show off his money, and even collecting a bunch of newspaper articles and pictures of Daisy that he kept in a drawer at his desk.
Sadly, his love for Daisy was ultimately the destruction of his character. His main focus on Daisy clouded his judgment and in the end led to his death. Heathcliffs story, although a darker tone, is very ssimilar to Gatsby’s. He went to extreme lengths after her death Just to be closer to Catherine even if it was Just a hallucination. His love for Catherine drove Heathcliff to insanity turning him into a bitter old man, who took his troubles out on the people round him. Each character had a different plot with different characters, but it’s their love that bonds these two people together.
Their love, whatever the intentions for the relationship were, destroyed them in the end. Love in many cases is as destructive as it is constructive. Yes, it has its sweet, tender moments that make a person’s heart melt, wishing that their life goes through something ssimilar. unTortunately, love can also De DlacK neartea ana cruel . I ne oestructlve sloe 0T love is unhealthy, cold, and unkind. It tears characters lives apart and often bringing other characters down with it.
The best example of the destructive side of love is illustrated by the relationship of Emily Bronte’s two main characters, Heathcliff and Catherine, in the classical love story,” Wuthering Heights”. Their relationship is more than passion and lust, it’s an addiction. After Catherine’s death the addiction became an obsession, driving Heathcliff mad. Not only did their relationship take a toll on their individual lives, but it affected the lives of other characters’ as well. The aftermath of Heathcliff and Cathys love left characters like Edgar Linton, Isabelle Linton, and Catherine Linton, feeling used, unwanted, and unloved.
