malalai khan

‘I must stop it, nevertheless!’ I muttered, knocking my knuckles through the glass, and stretching an arm out to seize the importunate branch; instead of which, my fingers closed on the fingers of a little, ice-cold hand! The intense horror of nightmare came over me: I tried to draw back my arm, but the hand clung to it, and a most melancholy voice sobbed, ‘Let me in let me in!’ ‘Who are you?’ I asked, struggling, meanwhile, to disengage myself. ‘Catherine Linton,’ it replied, shiveringly.

This is utter madness.

Wuthering Heights is a gothic tragedy penned by (my beloved) poet and writer, Emily Brontë. It is her only novel, and famed for it’s moving themes of psychology, continuous conflict and unrequited love.

It starts off with our young narrator, Mr. Lockwood, who is a tenant at Thrushcross Grange. He goes to Wuthering Heights, the dwelling of the master, Mr. Heathcliff. He is unwelcomed, and perplexed at the weird (can’t find any word here) ‘family.’ Lockwood asks the housekeeper, Nelly Dean at Grange about the history of Heathcliff and the strange people in the Heights. Hence, commences the telling of Mrs. Dean.

This book shocked me. A LOT.
Villette is the first Brontë-sister novel I read and I expected Wuthering Heights to be *at least* a bit like that. But it’s not even in an inch.

The family is crazy and deranged, in my opinion. All of the characters need a mental therapy.
The housekeeper, Nelly Dean, and the narrator, Mr. Lockwood are by far the only sensible human-beings throughout the novel, though Nelly is a bit unreliable during narrating the story.

I felt pity and sympathy for Heathcliff, until he returned with sworn evil vengeance, making him a nefarious villain. Cathy 1 is equally responsible for the chaos that is passed on to the next generation. She is very confused and in a dilemma of choosing love between Edgar Linton and Heathcliff. Hindley, her older brother, is also accountable for the pain and suffering. But, above all, I find their father, Mr. Earnshaw, the root of all mental torment and conflicting relationships. If he had treated the children plus Heathcliff equal, and provided a good, humane upbringing, I swear none of this madness would have happened. But instead, of course, he is a strict, stern parent.

If you dig deeper into the psychology of the characters, one can find an immense hereditary toxicity starting from Mr. Earnshaw. But Cathy 2 and Hareton put an end to this cycle by compassion and love.
This is a psychological thriller and I am surprised it still isn’t categorized in the genre.

There is a lot of slut-shaming, done of course by Heathcliff (as an adult).

*Bunch of quotes spam coming through*

This quote describes me so much:
‘She’s all nerves, and she couldn’t bear the surprise, I’m positive.

Lockwood’s expectations were correct; Cathy 2 was a second edition of her mother.
I should be in a curious taking if I surrendered my heart to that young person, and the daughter turned out a second edition of the mother.

There was a lot of emotional hype between Heathcliff and Cathy 1 while she was dying.
‘I wish I could hold you,’ she continued, bitterly, ‘till we were both dead!

Do you reflect that all those words will be branded in my memory, and eating deeper eternally after you have left me?………..Is it not sufficient for your infernal selfishness, that while you are at peace I shall writhe in the torments of hell?’

I’m tired of being enclosed here. I’m wearying to escape into that glorious world, and to be always there: not seeing it dimly through tears, and yearning for it through the walls of an aching heart: but really with it, and in it.

I have not broken your heart YOU have broken it; and in breaking it, you have broken mine.

The last quote destroyed me ;-;

Heathcliff is a madman, drunk on unrequited love. I sometimes wonder if he is a Satanist, because of his ravings and actions, like opening up Cathy 1’s coffin and praying to be haunted by her.
‘You said I killed you haunt me, then!’

The love that sprouts between Hareton and Cathy 2 is so beautiful and brave, because it portrays the end to all the conflict that their parents made. Cathy 2 suffers so much (she is also crazy but still nice) and the betrayal of Linton Heathcliff’s hypocritical love is so heart-breaking. The depression that she goes through…oh the pain!
‘You have left me so long to struggle against death alone, that I feel and see only death! I feel like death!’

The ending is so aesthetic and poetic.
I lingered round them, under that benign sky: watched the moths fluttering among the heath and harebells, listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass, and wondered how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth.

Wuthering Heights is the work of genius. Kudos to Emily Brontë.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
The main reason for hailing it as a masterpiece is because of it’s psychological-gothic significance.
In the end, I definitely recommend this insanely tragic novel to everyone. ❤