What is the Matter with Emily Jane?

Conflicting Impulses in Wuthering Heights Author(s): Thomas Moser Reviewed work(s): Source: Nineteenth-Century Fiction, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Jun., 1962), pp. 1-19 Published by: University of California Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2932813 . Accessed: 23/05/2012 09:52
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WhatIs theMatter withEmily Jane? Conflicting Impulses in Wuthering Heights

THOMAS MOSER

_VER

elaborate time scheme of WutheringHeights2and showed the symmetrical arrangementof characters,commentatorshave been writing in awestruck terms of the novel's design. Even Dorothy Van Ghent, the most perceptive of its critics,calls Wuthering Heights "finelywrought."3Others have drawn analogies to music and have -inevitably-invoked the sacred name of Beethoven. Moreover, critics have insisted generally that the structure is truly artful; it supports the meaning. The form fitsthe subject-in Lord David Cecil's homely phrase-"like a glove."4 I would suggest that the nineteenth-century view of Wuthering Heights as a powerful and imperfect book comes closer to the truth than recent assertions of its exquisite shape. I would suggest, too, that Charlotte Bronte's frequentlymaligned description of her sisteras a most unconscious artist bears rereading: Her imagination,which was a spiritmore sombre than sunny,more powerful than sportive, found in such traits material whence it
Thomas Moser is an associate professorof English, Stanford University. I"The Structureof WutheringHeights," The Hogarth Essays, No. XIX (London, 1926). 2 New York, 1950. All citations made in the text will be from this edition, the Rinehart. It includes the preface CharlotteBronte wrote to the second edition (1850) as well as an interpretive introductionby Mark Schorer. 3Van Ghent, The English Novel: Form and Function (New York, 1953), p. 153. I-should here like to acknowledge a considerable debt both to Mrs. Van Ghent and to Albert J. Guerard for suggestionsconcerningthis paper. 4Cecil, Early VictorianNovelists (London, 1934), p. 185.

SINCE C. P.

Sanger,1 over thirty yearsago, chartedthe

[II]

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wroughtcreationslike Heathcliff, like Earnshaw,like Catherine.Having formedthesebeings,she did not know what she had done. If the auditor of her work,when read in manuscript, shudderedunder the grindinginfluenceof natures so relentlessand implacable, of spirits so lost and fallen; if it was complained that the mere hearing of certain vivid and fearfulscenes banished sleep by night,and disturbed mental peace by day, Ellis Bell would wonder what was meant, and suspectthe complainantof affectation.... Whether it is rightor advisable to create thingslike Heathcliff, I do not know: I scarcelythinkit is. But this I know; the writerwho possessesthe creativegiftowns somethingof which he is not always that at times strangely master-something wills and works for itself.
(pp. xxxiii, xxxv)

The two most distinctive of features the designof Wuthering Heights are its multiplenarrators (who cause the chronological involutions)and its two generations love triangles. of The narrative methodis indeed a brilliantinvention.Mrs. Van Ghent reveals two of its uses: the narratives Nelly Dean and Lockwood of place the drama "in the contextof the psychologically familiar"; the displacement "into past timeand into the memory an old of womanfunctions thesamewayas dreamdisplacements: both in it censorsand indulges,protects and liberates."'Even more important,it seems to me, thesenarrators, epicene Lockwood and the theprudentNelly,are obtuse; theymisinterpret actionand in the theircharacters as ironic contrasts Heathcliff act to and Cathy. But in the secondhalfof the novel the methodessentially breaks down: the narrators cease to serveas ironicscreens and the novel suffers seriously.Mark Schorer'sstimulating and complex interof pretation Wuthering Heightsreliesnot onlyupon thenarrative perspective but also upon the continuanceof the storythrough anothergeneration. "One of the mostcarefully constructed novels in the language,"it is carriedon long enough to show thatconvention and the "cloddish world" surviveand that Heathcliff's passionis "meaningless last" (p. xiii). But is thiswhatthenovel at Does not thecreation thesecondgeneration shows? of servechiefly to mar the structure contradicting novels true subject? the by ProbablyEmily Bronteat no timeconsciously acceptedher true subject; in the closingpages of Wuthering Heights she certainly of rejectsit-to the obvious detriment her art.
Van Ghent, pp. 155, 160.

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Wuthering Heights

a How does one determine novel's "true subject"? To tryto discuss this in a few sentencesis absurd; yet an oversimplified answer may help to clarifythe problemsposed by Wuthering of Heights.A novel's true subject is the one that,regardless the the actuallyinforms work,the one novelist's consciousintention, To thatelicitsthe mosthighlyenergizedwriting. put it another way,a novelisthas found the true subject of his book when he dramatizes truthhe cannotescape ratherthan the illusion he the longsto make4'true."6 Lord David Cecil's account of the true subject of Wuthering inhe Heights ("philosophy," termsit) has been conspicuously who viewsthe cosmos fluential. calls EmilyBrontea "mystic" He as the "expressionof certainliving spiritualprinciples. . . the principleof storm. . . and the principleof calm." These princi"They are the componentparts of a harples do not conflict. Heights leaves is that Wuthering mony." The final impression one of "cosmicorder,""harmonious, complete."'Despite the ingenuityof thisreading,it hardlydescribesthe commonreader's of responseto Wuthering Heights,or his recollection it. One admiresand rereadsthe novel for the grand passion of Heathcliff mustbe seen thenas rationaliand Cathy.Lord David's discussion in Most commentators, fact, zation ratherthan interpretation. evince a longingto tame the novel, to make theirpleasure in it somehowrespectable.This would explain the reiteratedreferthat and the evidentcomfort ences to Emily Bronteas a mystic, love is take i-nthe notion thatCathyand Heathcliff's enthusiasts that intercourse not even imis "sexless,"meaning,presumably, plied. II
Lord David's essay commands assent at least in its stresson the
GAs I Lay Dying provides an example of a novel in which the author's intention conflicts with the true subject. Addie Bundren's long, explicitlyphilosophical monologue gives the intended subject: the cleavage between thoughtand action. Faulkner apparently wishes in this novel to rank his characters according to the ability of each to unite thought and action, and in these terms,Addie comes first, Anse last. But whatever the intended subject, As I Lay Dying succeeds primarilyas a comic novel, the dramatization of man enduring amid a welter of absurd disasters.This is what energizesthe novel, and the central figureis Anse almost the type of the comic hero-selfish, amoral, buffeted all sides, but, somehow,always landing on on his feet. 7 Cecil, pp. 151, 152, 167, 164.

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of as characters representative universalforces.It is ratherthe of and their generality application vaguenessof his definitions whichseem dubious. Mrs. Van Ghentand Richard Chase give, I dereadings.The former think,much more persuasivesymbolic primitive anthropomorphized as scribes Heathcliff "essentially, energy,"'and the lattercalls him "sheer dazzlingsexual"9force. ago Emily Bronte Over a century I would be even morespecific. called the id. She discovered Freud subsequently what dramatized in and, to a lesserextent, Cathythat in and symbolized Heathcliff of wellspring vitality, partof us we knowso littleabout,thesecret even withinso ordinarya the child that lurkswithineveryone, person as Nelly Dean or one so weak as Lockwood. Somehow, to Emily Brontepenetrated thatmostobscurepart of the psyche traitswhich Freud ascribed it. and "characterized" The primary the to to the id apply perfectly Heathcliff: source of psychicensex (particularly and death); the esergy;the seat of the instincts sence of dreams; the archaic foundationof personality-selfish, asocial, impulsive. a Heightsis a sport, modI do not mean to saythatWuthering It century. clearlybeern novel born by chancein the nineteenth love self-consuming of longsto the tradition talesof overwhlming, in Denis de Rougemont's Love in the WesternWorld. described in it More particularly, has close affinities termsof character, with Clarissa;both novelscome and recurrent imagery situation, Puritan,essentially fromthe same kind of imagination-English, to Nor do I wishby a Freudianreadingof symbols exfeminine. a By clude mythicinterpretations. stressing perhaps restrictive reading, I hope to throwinto sharperrelief the novel's weaknesses-and strengths. and theirimof The basic childishness Cathy and Heathcliff need no in to lose themselves the worldof externalniature pulse analysis.Mrs. Van Ghent'sbrilliantessaymakestheseqLuiteclear. of as But Heathcliff the embodiment sexual energyrequiresdetailed explanationnot only because criticshave largelyignored tried to disthis role but also because Emily Bronte apparently The large body of evidencesuggestguise the truthfromherself. to ing thatEmily BrontefeltHeathcliff be pure sexual forcelies
8 Van Ghent, p. 154. 9 Chase, "The Brontes,or Myth Domesticated," Forms of Modern Fiction, ed. William Van O'Cotinor (Minneapolis, 1948), p. 109.

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just beneaththe surface, a seriesof scenesinvolving in Heathcliff, Cathy,and, in mostcases,an ineffectual male. Each scene dramatizesa disputeof some sortover entrancethrough door or wina dow. Heathcliff alwayswins,and the imagessuggest that the victoryis a sexual conquest.10 The locus classicus this patternis the eleventhchapter. for Edgar has just learnedthatHeathcliff intendsto marry sister, his and he determines throwHeathcliff of the house. To this to out end he ordersthreeservants wait in thepassagewhile he enters to the kitchenwhere Heathcliff and Cathy converse.When he demands Heathcliff's "instantdeparture,"the latterrespondsin a waycalculatedto cast doubt on Edgar'smasculinity: "Cathy,this lamb of yoursthreatens a bull!" (p. 121). Edgar triesto signal like the servants help,but Cathyslamsthe door to the passageand for locks it, sayingthat she will swallowthe key beforeEdgar shall get it and thatshe wishesthatHeathcliff mayflogEdgar sick: on thateffect the of It did notneedthemedium a flogging produce to master. triedto wrestthe key fromCatherine's He grasp;ind for Mr. safety flung into the hottest she it partof the fire;whereupon and Edgarwas taken witha nervous trembling, his countenance grew deadlypale. For his lifehe could not avertthataccessof emotionHe him overcame completely. leant mingled anguish and humiliation on thebackofa chair, covered face(p. 121). his and
10 firstnoticed this pattern while studyinga similar and recurrentscene in the I novels of Joseph Conrad: an older man attemptsto kill the hero at the door of the heroine's boudoir, but the heroine intervenes,disarms the older man, and drops the weapon at the hero's feet. Conrad seems unconsciouslyto imagine the older man as an impotent voyeur; the disarming figuresas a symbolic statementof his impotence. But since the hero frequentlyidentifieshimself with the older man, the heroine's contemptuousgesture of dropping the weapon at the hero's feet tends to fromConrad's in the cast doubt on his masculinitytoo. Emily Bronte's scene differs important respect that although females may assist Heathcliff and may help to disarm his opponents, they never disarm him nor is there ever any implication that he really needs help. between Conrad and Emily Bronte have been noticed, particuOther affinities larly their common use of multiple narratorsand involuted chronology.I suspect that the resemblance in the present instance reflectschieflythe uneasiness of both about sexual matters. In Conrad's early, major novels, the scene plays an unimportant part, but in the later, inferiorworks,it is crucial, betrayingConrad's doubts In about his intended theme of "affirmation." WutheringHeights, this scene lies at the very heart of the novel's meaning. I need not say, I trust,that only a few novels will respond to this kind of examination-those in which unconscious creation plays a large part and in which sex is a central subject. Although characters in Middlemarch stand in doorways,hold objects, and even drop them, the novel will yield no extra meaning by undergoing this kind of analysis. In Middlemarch, is everything held up to the light; George Eliot requires no second guessing.

Fiction Nineteenth-Century

whichthroughNotice herethatCathiy throws keyintothefire, the and and opposed out thenovel is associated withHeathcliff Cathy, "Whateverour souls to Edgar. (Cathysaysearlierof Heathcliff, are made of,hisand mineare thesame,and Linton'sis as different fire"[p. 85].) Notice as a moonbeamfrom lightning, frost or from too thatEdgar'sresponse thedefeatat Cathy'shandsfarexceeds to the apparentdangerof a beatingby Heathcliff. is almostas if It to and Edgar sensesin thisdefeathis sexual inferiority Heathcliff Cathy.CertainlyCathyviews the situationin these terms:"Oh! ... Heavens! In old daysthiswould win you knighthood! We are would as soon lift a vanquished! we are vanquished! Heathcliff finger you as the kingwould marchhis armyagainsta colony at of mice" (pp. 121-122). In the ensuingaction,Edgar appearsto put Heathcliff rout; to him acrossthe throat, he strikes takinghis breathmomentarily, and walks out the back door, throughthe yard,to summonthe of vows immediate fromthe front the house. Heathcliff servants hazel-nut" 122). (p. vengeance:"I'll crushhis ribsin like a rotten But Nelly,to prevent violence,tellsone of her whitelies. Edgar, to she says,has sentonlyhis servants the back door and is himself in hiding.Heathcliff himself trappedby Cathy'searlier thusfinds strategem againstEdgar. The frontdoor of the kitchenremains does not tremble;he locked, the key in the fire.But Heathcliff of the keyby seizingfromthe fireplace quicklyremediesthe loss a poker,smashingthe lock, and makinghis escape throughthe "innerdoor" (p. 123). to "Verymuch Cathy'sresponse thedramahas sexual overtones. herself on excited,"she hastensupstairsto the parlor,throwing hammers beatingin myhead!" are the sofa: "A thousandsmiths' (p. 123). She directs Nelly not to permitIsabella to approachand lies in waitforEdgar.She tellsNellyto remindEdgar of her "paswhen kindled,on frenzy," and to "dissionate temper, verging, missthatapathy"out of herface (pp. 123-124). Edgar appears,not in angerbut in sorrow. His lack of fireenragesCathy.She stamps her foot: "Your cold blood cannotbe workedinto a fever-your mine are boiling,and the sightof veins are full of ice-water-but makesthemdance" (p. 124). When Edgar asksher such chilliness she to choose betweenhim and Heathcliff, tells him to leave her bell until it breakswitha twang.Then she lies on and ringsthe

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thesofadashingher head against- arm and gnashing the her teeth. Edgar and Nelly cannot understand her feelings, and she rushes into her bedroom,locks the door, and remains for three days, Edgar staying the library. in When she finally Nelly in, she is lets clearlydying.Her description her first of nightalone in the bedroomdramatizes completeabsorption her withHeathcliff. had She fallenunconsciousand had not begun to awaken until dawn. "I thought I laythere, as withmyhead against thattableleg,and my eyesdimlydiscerning grey the squareof thewindow, thatI was enclosedin theoak-panelled at home.... I was a child;myfather bed wasjustburied, mymisery and arosefrom separation Hindley the that had ordered between and Heathcliff-I laid alone,forthefirst me was time, and,rousing from dismal a doseafter night weeping-Ilifted a of myhand to pushthepanelsaside,it struck tabletop!"(p. 132). the Catlhy asks Nelly to open the windowforher, Nelly refuses, and Cathythrows open herself it and leans out, "carelessof the frosty air thatcut about hershoulders keenas a knife"(p. 133). Finally as Edgarappears.Shockedby her haggardcountenance, takesher he in his arms."Ah! you are come,are you, Edgar Linton? . . . You areone of thosethings thatare everfoundwhenleastwanted, and whenyou are wanted,never!" (p. 135). She goes on to make what seemsa mostcuriousremark, view of the factthatEdgar is emin bracingher: "What you touch.atpresent, you mayhave; but my soul will be on thathill-top, beforeyou lay hands on me again. I don'twantyou,Edgar,I'm past wantingyou" (p. 135). These threescenes-thekitchen, upstairs the parlor,and Cathy's bedroom three days later-need little comment.In the kitchen battleoverthe.key, Cathyrevealsher contempt Edgar'smascufor linity seizingthekeyand lockingthedoor,and Heathcliff by shows himself masterby breakingthe lock withthe poker.When Cathy hurriesup to the parlor to lie on the sofa,her longingfor love givesEdgar anotherchance. All maybe well betweenthemif he willcome,notblamingCathybut lovingand wanting her.Instead, lheshowsno feelingat all while Cathy,ragingat his utterinadequacy, breaksthe bellpull. Sexual frustration clearlycontributes to her collapse afterEdgar's failure.Cathy'sdream of the time Hindley first removedHeathcliff fromher bed (he was thirteen and she was twvelve) reaffirms that only her foster-brother and lover can alleviate her suffering. clhildhood Edgar is useless,she tells him, and his masculine attentionsare no longer wanted.

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mustcomethrough thatwindowto satisfy Heathcliff Cathy.(Since EmilyBrontecannotlet thishappen,on the literallevel-because Heathcliffand Cathy are "one"? because Emily Brontiewrote undersomekindofincesttaboo?becauseshe would have curtailed her story?-she has Heathcliff snatchIsabella away fromThrushcrossGrangeat thevery timethatCathyis callingforhim through the windowand tellingEdgar thatshe'll be dead "beforeyou lay handson me again.") III The kitchenscene offers mostvivid example of Heathcliff the as sexual force, but it is farfromunique. In fact,it is onlyone of many followingthe same pattern.Emily Bronte3 repeatedlyporas traysHeathcliff breakingthrougha barrier,identifiedwith Cathy,which an ineffectual male either attemptsto break and cannotor attempts futilely defend.Sometimes fourth to a partyis present, chiefly a witness narrate scenelaterto the reader. as to the windowsin Wuthering (Mrs. Van Ghent interprets Heights as symbolicof the barrierbetween the "human" and the "other" world;" windowsand doors seem also to admit of anothermore specific reading.) The early scenesof this typeall show,as mightbe expected, Edgar as the ineffectual male. In the first, Heathcliff appearsonly as a potentialinvaderof Thrushcross Grange the night he and Cathy,still children, caughtpeekingthrough are the windowsat Edgar and Isabella. The Lintons take in Cathy and send away Heathcliff. he lurksoutsideand latertellsNelly: "If Catherine But I theirgreatglasspanes had wishedto return, intendedshattering to a millionfragments" 52). The next such scene occursthree (p. yearsafterHeathcliff's departure(a departurethatwas signalized by a huge bough fallingacrossthe roofof Wuthering Heightsand knockingstonesinto the kitchenfire).Heathcliff returnsin September,1783. Here is Nelly's and the reader'sfirst view of him, on the porchof Thrushcross Grange: "He leant againstthe side, on and held his fingers the latch,as if intending open forhimto self" (p. 98). Insteadhe opens it forNelly to take his messageupand later fliesup the stairs stairs; Cathyjoins him immediately and wild" (p. 99) withthe wonderful "breathless news of his re11Van Ghent, pp. 160-163.

Emily Bronte and

Wuthering Heights

turn.For the next threemonthsHeathcliff visitsmore and inore afterwhichhe frequently until the violentscene in the kitchen, stealsIsabella away.The last of the invasionscenesduringCathy's has to lifeoccurstwomonths later,whenHeathcliff returned learn his thatshe lies on the pointof death.He tellsNelly he will fight way into Thrushcross Grangeif she will not let him in. As usual she givesin so as to prevent violence.Actually, Heathcliff manages and into thehouse. "He did not alone, walkingpast thewatchdog me she hit theright roomdirectly; motioned to admithim; but he or foundit out,ere I could reachthedoor,and in a stride twowas in He at herside,and had hergrasped his arms"(pp. 167-168). and thepower not Cathyembracetumultuously; Cathycollapses, from of Heathcliff's love but fromdespairat the sound of Edgar's apat to proachingstep. Heathcliff last withdraws the garden and Cathyneverregainsconsciousness. Cathydies earlyMondaymorning, March 20, 1784,and is buried the followingFriday.That nightHeathcliff enactshis most violentinvasion,thistimeinto Wuthering HeightswithHindley actingas the ineffectual male striving bar the door. The latter to may seem a strange choice forthisrole; nevertheless, only is not he no matchforHeathcliff, he is also less than the masterof but women.Some yearsearlier,Nelly,virtually foster his sister, rendershim,literally and symbolically, harmless taking",the by shot out of the master's fowling piece" (p. 76). Hindley,drunk,seizes a carvingknifeand ordersNelly to open her mouth: He held theknifein his hand,and pushedits pointbetween my teeth: of I but,formypart,I was neverafraid his vagaries. spatout, it and affirmedtasted wouldnot takeit on anyaccount. detestably-I "Oh!" said he,releasing . . (pp. 77-78). me. The nightafterCathy'sfuneralfindsHindley similarly armed, holding a "curiouslyconstructed pistol, having a double-edged knife spring to attached thebarrel"whichhe normally carries concealed in his waistcoat. Isabella admiresthe pistol: a notion I surveyed weaponinquisitively;hideous the struck How me. such an instrument! tookit from I I powerful shouldbe possessing the his hand,and touched blade. He lookedastonished theexpresat second. was nothorror, was a It sionmyfaceassumed it during brief the He . covetousness. snatched pistolback,jealously. (p. 149).

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and findsthe kitchendoor fromthe cemetery Heathcliff returns the locked.As he walksaround the house through snow,Hindley and Isabella agree to keep him out. "Do!" saysIsabella. "Put the keyin the lock,and drawthe bolts" (p. 185). Hindleydetermines to murderHeathcliff and asks silence of Isabella. But although in dead, Isabella, like all theothercharacters she wantsHeathcliff she the novel, cannot finallysee harm done him. Impulsively, knocksthe caseshoutsa warningthrough lattice.Heathcliff the ment to the floorand, when Hindley rushesforwardto shoot, reachesthrough and wrenches weapon away.It goes offharmthe but knifecloses,not on Heathcliff, on Hindlesslyand the spring a stone,struck down the division "thentook ley'swrist. Heathcliff and sprungin" (p. 188). betweentwo windows, botherto Why should Heathcliff The scene seemsincomplete. One break throughsimplyto get at Isabella, whom he detests? pages and eighteenyears later the reader hundred and twenty mission that night. He had been finallydiscoversHeathcliff's diggingup Cathy'snewly filled grave when he felt her warm breathupon him: the whileI re-filled grave, was "Her presence withme; it remained eagerly and led me home.... Havingreached Heights, rushed the I Earnshaw that and, to thedoor.It wasfastened; I remember, accursed to and mywifeopposedmyentrance. remember I stopping kickthe and hers breath ofhim,and thenhurrying out upstairs, myroom, to -I lookedroundimpatiently-I her by me-I could almost see felt her. . ." (p. 306). over Hindley,like thoseover Edgar, victory Clearly,Heathcliff's is part of his quest forCathy. Even Lockwood,withhis minimalrole in thelivesof the lovers, male once. His lack of mascuto is permitted play the ineffectual The only time a woman ever relinityneeds no documentation. admits,"shrunkicily sponded to him, Lockwood,as he himself colderand farther" like into myself, a snail; at every glanceretired Lockwood is (p. 4). While calling on his landlord, Heathcliff, snowbound and spends the night. The housekeeperputs him, unbeknownst Heathcliff, the old panelled bed whereCathy to in had sleptas children.Here Lockwood dreamshis and Heathcliff memorabledream: thatthe waifCathyknockson the windowto be let in and thathe triesto silencethecryby unhaspingthecase-

Emily Bronte and Wuthering Heights

11

mentbut cannotbecause the "hook was solderedinto the staple, a circumstance observed me whenawake" (p. 24). In his dream by and finds hand claspedby a tiny his he breakstheglass hand; terriscreams fied,he scrapesthe wriston the brokenpane and finally and When he tells so loudlyas to wakenhimself arouseHeathcliff. the Heathcliff dream,he is sent out of the room. But Lockwood observesHeathcliff: "He got on to the bed, and surreptitiously as wrenchedopen the lattice,bursting, he pulled at it, into an uncontrollable passion of tears.'Come in! come in!' he sobbed. 'Cathy, come. Oh do-once more!'" (p. 28). do removesa barrierbeThis is the last timeHeathcliff violently more role and Cathy.And Lockwvood's is obviously tweenhimself two otherocthanopponent.There are, however, thatof witness life casionsat theend ofHeathcliff's whenno othermale is present and oppositionis only implied. When the sextonis digginganother grave,Heathcliff has Cathy'scoffin uncovered.He strikes thatsideofthecoffin loose whichwill be nextto his: "and I bribed the sextonto pull it away,when I'm laid there,and slide mine laterNelly findsHeathcliff out too" (p. 305). Eight months lying dead in his and Cathy'spanelled bed, with the windowswinging to and fro and with eyes that "would not shut" (p. 356). Nelly reports thatHeathcliff burriedas he had wished.Presumably, was was then,Heathcliff's intention fulfilled, "by the timeLinton that getsto us, he'll not knowwhichis which!" (p. 305). Not onlyis Heathcliff consistently a successful invader.He also barsthewayto others and establishes himself sole keeperof the as keys. The first page of thenovel showsHeathcliff leaningover the while Lockwoodburblesa requestto gate,handsin his waistcoat, enter.This image of Heathcliff standingmenacingly the enat trance to WutheringHeights recursfrequently throughout the novel. Even more striking Heathcliff's is tenacity when Isabella and latertheyounger Cathytryto deprivehim of house keys.Isabella, comingto WutheringHeights for the first time afterher marriage, wanders through house lookingforthebedroomshe the will share with her husband.Josephwarnsher that Heathcliff's is just theone she cannotsee, so she sleepsin a chairin Hareton's findsher. Isabella reportsto Nelly his reroom until Heathcliff "I toldhim thecause of mystaying so late-thathe had action: up thekeyto our roomin his pocket.The adjectiveour gave mortal He offense. sworeit was not,norevershouldbe mine . . ." (p. 153).

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violent to frequently Heathcliff's AlthoughEmilyBronterefers of treatment the childrenin thesecondhalfof the novel,she dracapturesthe matizesit onlyonce. This is thetimewhenHeathcliff his Cathyin orderto forceher to marry son Linton. The younger to contrast Edgar's battle subsequentaction makesan interesting forthe kitchenkeywiththe otherCathymanyyearsbefore.Her says,"Give me thatkey-I will have black eyesflashing, daughter, and almostgets it at it!" (p. 285). She snatches the "instrument" but He loosenedfingers. warnsher to standoff, out of Heathcliff's she ignoresthe warningand applies her teethto his hand. (Her to in mother, the earlierbattle,had threatened swallow the key resuddenlyand deliberately to keep it fromEdgar.) Heathcliff But he shows none of Edgar's humiliation.For leases the key. when Cathygoes to securethe key,he seizesher,pulls her on his slaps on both sides of a knee,and administers "showerof terrific thehead" (p. 286). A touchon thecheststopsNellywhenshe tries and, "perceiving the picksthe keyoff floor Heathcliff to interfere; made the tea himself" rose,and expeditiously us all confounded, (p. 287). The actionsand the language of the scenesexamined abovesurely the most memorablescenes in the novel-indicate that, a she whether "knew"it or not,EmilyBrontewas writing passiontowardits necesate paean to Eros. The novel movesrelentlessly saryend-the completephysicalunion of Cathy and Heathcliff. this union on the Moreover,although Emily Bronte frustrates symliterallevel until both are buried,and thusmakesa "story," bolically she accomplishesit in almost everyscene Cathy and all At Heathcliff play together. the same timeshe soundlydefeats Grangeinmates) the theothercharacters (particularly Thrushcross in to whenever theyattempt curb Heathcliff his quest forCathy.

IV
Heightsis one of thosenovels saysthatWuthering E. M. Forster of the "suspension the senseof humour."'2 thatasksof the reader This commentapplies with much more forceto the second half The (withthe exceptionof a fewscenes)than it does to the first. does not seemlaughablymeloviolenceof thescenesjust discussed As in dramatic.It is perfectly keepingwith the characters. Mrs.
12

Forster,Aspect.sof the Novel (New York, 1927), p. 211.

Heights Emily Bronte and Wuthering

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be mightreally a demon."'3Again, Van Ghent says,"Heathcliff Cathy'swild speechesto Nelly and Edgar in her bedroom after three days of isolation are completelyappropriateto her. And theseare perhapsthe loveliestpages of the novel. That EmilyBrontelosescontrolof the secondhalfof her novel to by is and writesinsincerely suggested her attempts endow the Grangepeople withthe emotionallanThrushcross thin-blooded and Cathy.This occurs in Isabella's account guage of Heathcliff afterCathy'sdeath and almost of Heathcliff Nelly immediately to in precisely the middleof the novel: it "I gavehimmyheart, he tookand pinched to death;and flung and Ellen,and sincehe has hearts, it back to me-peoplefeelwiththeir mine,I have not powerto feelforhim,and 1-wouldnot, destroyed of he to day;and wepttears blood from this, hisdying though groaned forCatherine!" 183). (p. From Cathy'slips a speech like this would be convincing.But is thereis no evidencethatIsabella's love forHeathcliff anything or but self-infatuation thatshe ever had a heart to feel with,let alone to give. The youngerCathyemploysthe same kind of infor emotionallanguageto expresssympathy Linton appropriately whom even Nelly Dean scorns.The scene,like many Heathcliff, ofthe laterones,parodiesan earlier.Haretonlocksout Lintonand in Cathy,and Linton shrieks helplessrage until he falls in a fit. Cathy expostulates:"Ellen, I was ready to tear my hair offmy head! I sobbed and wept so thatmy eyeswere almostblind" (p. said thisabout her lover,we would be con265). Had her mother vinced.But not here. persuadesthereaderwhenshe consistently EmilyBronteat first will rewardHeathand movingly impliesthata futureof ecstasy and Cathy'squest for each other.The second half of the cliff's on level through younger a a book promises resolution therealistic withCathy playingher mother's role, Hareton playgeneration, and however, Edgar's.The reader, ing Heathcliff's, Lintonplaying will hardlyaccept the new termsof the perfect berelationship tween the sexes. Emily Bronte asks us to admire the younger for Cathy'squest,first a patient,in Linton,and thenfora pupil, in Hareton.And both boysdesire,not union withan equal, but unsexedbliss witha mother.
l"Forster, p. 154.

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Fiction Nineteenith-Century

Cathy fromthe beginning is related to Linton like a sentimental nurse to a sickly child, "strokinghis curls, and kissing his cheek, and offering him tea in her saucer, like a baby" (p. 213). Later she arranges his pillows, offers her shoulder or her knee as support for his head. She views marriage with him as perpetuating this relationship. "I'm a woman-and I'm certain Linton would recoverquickly if he had me to look afterhim-I'm older than he is, you know,and wiser, and less childish,am I not? And he'll soon do as I directhim, with some slight coaxing-He's a prettylittle darling when he's good. I'd make such a pet of him, if he were mine" (p. 256). Linton's saccharine speeches (quite out of character) suggestthat Emily Bronte actually feels Cathy praiseworthy in her attitude toward him: "believe that if I might be as sweet, and as kind, and as good as you are, I would be, as willingly and more so, than as happy and healthy. And, believe that your kindness has made me On this Cathy love you deeper than if I deserved your love...." modestly comments: "I felt he spoke the truth" (p. 267). Love, which in the older generation is the expression of vital energy, dwindles, in the younger, to the pleasure of nursing and to gratitude at being mothered. Also characteristicof the younger Cathy are her heroic debates with Heathcliffin which she plays either the little heroine of Victorian stage melodrama spurning the cruel villain or the embattled champion of woman's rightscastigatingthe dissolute male: "Mr. Heathcliff, have nobodyto love you; and, howevermiserable you you make us, we shall still have the revengeof thinkingthat your crueltyarises fromyour greatermisery!You are miserable,are you not? Lonely, like the-devil,and envious like him?Nobody loves younobody will cryforyou, when you die! I wouldn't be you!" (p. 304). Such speeches recur with alarming frequencyin the last fifty pages of the book and suggest, painfully, Emily Brontes identification with her moralizing heroine. While Linton is made for his part, Hareton apparently needs the rough edges rubbed offbefore he can be Cathy's next suitable minion. The roughness is only apparent, however, since Hareton early tries to ingratiate himself with Cathy. Heathcliff,it is true, had marked him for his own: "Now, my bonny lad, you are mine!

Emily Bronte and Wtthering Heights

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And we'll see if one tree won't grow as crooked as another, with the same wind to twist it! "'4 (p. 198). Hareton, however, proves himself no oak of the Heathcliff-Cathyvariety. After Linton's death, Emily Bronte and the second Cathy speedily deprive him of his male sexual force. First he is incapacitated for the masculine sport of hunting. Not only does his gun burst but his arm is injured and he is "condemned to the firesideand tranquillity" which, Nelly tells us, "suited Catharine" (p. 330). Hareton has recourse to his other masculine sport,smoking, but Cathy, like her mother with Edgar's key, takes Hareton's pipe from his mouth, breaks it, and throwsit behind the fire.Although Hareton swears and takes another pipe, his smoking is never mentioned again, and a few minutes later we see him accept from Cathy a handsome book wrapped in white paper and tied with a bit of ribbon. Hareton trembles,his face glows, and soon his lessons have begun, Cathy's hand upon his shoulder. Presently all Wuthering Heights suffers feminization. Under Cathy's tutelage Hareton clears out Joseph's black currant trees for a flower bed while she puts primroses in her beloved's porridge. How Lord David and most other Bronte critics can take seriously the affairbetween Cathy and Hareton remains a mystery. Their love storybelongs with countless pieces of sub-literaryfiction in women's magazines; it is simply a superficial stereotyped tale of feminine longings. Emily Brontiegives her heroine firsta spoiled and then a tractable child to play with-a "love affair" without any of the concomitant inconveniences of sex. As the novel loses its force, the reader's mind inevitably wanders away from the work of art to its creator, the intense, inhibited spinster of Haworth. Her careful arrangement of symmetrical sets of her continuing involvement with characters,ratherthan signifying her subject, denotes simply that she has abandoned it. V For the structure that is organic form comes neither from in14 Heathcliff's tree metaphor is appropriate since both he and the firstCathy are associated with trees. The pine bough scratchingthe window, in Lockconsistently and her marriage to Edgar resemblesputting wuood's dream, becomes Cathy's fingers, "an oak in a flower-pot" (p. 163). When Heathcliffleaves Wuthering Heights a branch strikesthe roof,and he beats his head bloody against a tree trunk at Cathy's death. The lovers become a single tree in Cathy's image: whoever tries to separate them will "meet the fate of Milo" (p. 85), the Greek athlete caught by the tree he was tryingto split and torn to death by wolves.

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Fiction Nineteenth-Century

of types.It nor the neat repetition character tricatetimeschemes rises fromdeep withinthe artistand relatesdirectlyto his felt Heights awareness life.Yet thereis one aspectof the Wuthering of senseof Heathcliff's EmilyBronte3's whichdoes express chronology magical sexual power. Let us look with the eye of a monthand marriages gossip at threeimportant countingneighborhood subsequent blessed events.A little calendar work reveals that presencewas vital to the conceptionof all threechilHeathcliff's dren of the secondgeneration. married. No one knewwhereHindleymetFrancesor whenthey her Certainit is thatHindleybrought withhim whenhe returned funeralin October 1777; the next fromcollege for his father's June,the ninthmonthaftertheirarrivalat WutheringHeights, Heathcliff of has, saw the birthof Hareton,last of the Earnshaws. course, little personal impact upon Hindley's relations with Hareton'sconceptionaftertheir Frances,and one could attribute of Heights.But Emily arrivalto thepotentatmosphere Wuthering has Heathcliff on relaBronte3 showsin detail the immenseeffect in tionsbetweenCathyand Edgar. They marry April, 1783,and "for the space of half a year,the gunpowderlay as harmlessas sand, because no firecame near to explode it." However, "on a returns. finally mellow eveningin September"(p. 97), Heathcliff glances Cathyglowswithdelightat his appearance,and he flashes while Edgar grows"pale with at her,his "eyesfull of black fire," pure annoyance"(p. 101). That nightEdgar criesin bed. At first return wiped out the "misbut has Cathyis irritated, Heathcliff's and has reconciled her "to God, and humanery"of her marriage finds ity" (pp. 104-105).She makespeace withEdgar; the morrow lherexuberantly vivaciousand Edgar no longerpeevish.He perwithIsabella; Heightsthatafternoon mitsher to visitWuthering "she rewarded him withsucha summer sweetness affection, of and in return,as made the house a paradise for several days, both fromthe perpetual sunshine" (p. masterand servants profiting 105). This one blissfulperiod in theirmarriageends soon with and the quarrel over Heathcliff Isabella. But clearlywithinthose firefirstnears Cathy's gunpowder, fewv days when Heathcliff's Cathyand Edgar conceivetheirchild. The second Cathyarrives appearMIarch90, 1784, in the seventhmonthafterHeathcliff's "a puny,sevenmonths'child" (p. 174). ance,

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Heathcliff proveshimself potenta literalas symbolic as father. He carriesIsabella away in January 1784,and withintwenty-four hours she wants to be back in Thrushcross Grange. Apparently EmilyBronteimagines themsleepingtogether onlythefirst night. she the neverpermits dethe Certainly stresses factthatHeathcliff testedIsabella to enterhis WutheringHeights bedroom.Neverthe theless, following in September, the ninth monthaftertheir elopeme-nt, Isabella gives birthto Linton Heathcliff. When E. M. Forstersaid thatEmily Bronte~ tried to hide the clockin her book,he did not mean,one trusts, this!Of course all it is impossibleto know whetherEmily Brontie arconsciously rangedthe birthsof Hareton and Cathyso thatHeathcliff could influence theirconceptions and whethershe meant that Linton was conceivedat Heathcliff's and Isabella's first and only sexual encounter. own guessis thatEmilyBrontedid not consciously My manipulatethetimeschemehere,but thathervisionof Heathcliff as the energy thatinvests universe, the together withher woman's sense of the biological rhythms life,produced these strangely of appropriate results. Her sense of Heathcliff's potencydoes not whollydeserther duringthe secondhalfof the novel. Only thiscan explain all the improbablecircumstances which "cause" the second Cathyto be drawntimeaftertime,againstthe wills of her father, Nelly,and herself, WutheringHeights. Only his power can account for to Isabella's half-conscious longing, after has drivenher away,for he him to follow her, give her a new weddingring,and take her back. Why else should Nelly fail to shoutwhen help is near,and whyshould she irrationally blame herself ratherthan Heathcliff when she and Cathyare captured?In the later pages, he looms over WutheringHeights like the source of a giganticmagnetic field;fitfully, reluctantly, unconsciously, victimsacknowledge its thatits poweris good. From Heathcliff energy, as however, the wordsof Lockwood to whichclosethebook is a longstepindeed; so, too,is theshift from theLockwoodand Nellyof theopeningpages to theirrolesat the end. At thebegin-ning both existas ironicand, at times, ludicrous contrasts the principals. to Lockwood'ssexual timidity effectively enhancesHeathcliff's vigor, and Nelly'sprudentcomplacency puts into strong reliefCathy'spassion,but EmilyBronte'shandlingof

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Nineteenth-Century Fiction

hertwonarrators thesecondhalfpartakes thegeneraldecline in of in quality.NellyDean becomesmoreand morean official voice of the author.No ironyintervenes she singsthe youngerCathy's as praisesto Linton. Even worseare Lockwood'scoylybanal observationson thelove playof Cathyand Hareton.He hearshervoice, "sweetas a silverbell," threatening Hareton with a hairpulling ifhe mispronounces, Haretonin "softened and tones,"demanding a kissif he speakscorrectly. leans overhim,her "lightshinCathy ing ringlets blending,at intervals, with his brownlocks,"as she his superintends studies. "The task was done," says Lockwood, "not freefromfurther blunders,but the pupil claimed a reward and receivedat least fivekisses,which,however,he generously returned"(pp. 325-326). The first Cathyand Heathcliff pretty are well distilledout of the novel by its last page. Countrypeople insistthat Heathcliff "walks,"but Nellyshowslittlesignof uneasiness. The novel ends with these words,much quoted and highlypraised,spoken by Lockwoodat thegravesof the lovers: I lingered roundthem, underthatbenignsky;watchedthe moths fluttering amongthe heathand hare-bells; listened the softwind to breathing the through grass;and wondered how anyonecould ever imagine unquiet slumbers, thesleepers thatquietearth(p. 358). for in In view of whatwe know of Heathcliff, perpetually vibrantwith passion,and of Cathyceaselessly hauntinghim,we mustfindthis ironic. There is, however,no evidence that passage profoundly Emily Bronteperceivedthatirony. Mark Schorer'sreadingof the novel describeswhat may well have been EmilyBronte'sultimateconsciousattitudetowardher creation.He suggests thatshe "beginsby wishingto instruct her narrator,the sentimental dandy Lockwood, in the nature of a grand passion,and thatsomehowshe ends by instructing herself in the vanityof human wishes"(p. xiv). She triesto take Cathy and Heathcliff theirown valuation,to exalt the moral magat nificence unmoralpassion."Her novelistic had to evaluate of art herworld"(p. x), and through arrangement thegenerations, her of "as neat and tidyas the cupboard of a spinster"(p. xi), and by screeningthe narrativethroughthe perspectives two convenof tionalpeople,she sees "whatherunmoralpassionscome to. Moral magnificence? at all; rather, devastating Not a spectacleof human

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thatthiswas waste:ashes" (p. xiii). ProbablyMr. Schoreris right, Emily Bronte'sconsciousresponseto her work.Yet, as her sister Othersaid, she did not reallyunderstand what she was writing. wise, she could not have tried to pass offas real and important thoseillusory figures, Haretonand the younger Cathy.Surelythe authenticEmily Bronte does not believe that real love can be exemplified this couple, so oblivious to the primitiveforces by that underlie life. The authenticEmily Bronte3 who wrote the masterpiece returnto is the creatorof Heathcliff, we vibrating withenergy, and Cathy,scorning pusillanimousEdgar to cry the acrossthe moorsto her demon lover.