Wuthering Heights
(Emily Brontë)

Love and Hate

Love and hate are, undoubtedly, the strongest emotions in Wuthering Heights. No character embodies these two extremes more than Heathcliff, who loves Catherine so deeply he asks her soul to haunt him even after he is gone and hates Edgar so strongly he spends over 17 years exacting revenge on the man. The other characters embody these emotions as well, but none as deeply as Heathcliff. Catherine, for instance, loves Heathcliff with equal fervor, but cannot be said to hate anyone. All of the characters, however, have exceptionally strong emotions.

Revenge versus Forgiveness

Another duality that exists within Wuthering Heights, and one that also differs between the two generations of characters. Heathcliff and Catherine, in general, do not forgive. They won't even forgive each other, despite their deep love, when Catherine becomes ill. Catherine blames Heathcliff for her illness, and Heathcliff blames Catherine. Heathcliff then goes on to exact revenge on those who harmed him instead of forgiving them. The second generation, however, especially through Cathy and Hareton, exhibit forgiveness many times. Cathy forgives Linton his dastardly personality, Heathcliff his treatment of her, and Hareton his stupidity. Hareton forgives Heathcliff and Cathy for making fun of him.

The Danger of Obsession

Perhaps the most clear-cut message throughout Wuthering Heights is the warning against obsession. Whether this be loving too deeply, or hating too fervently, all of the main character's lives were negatively impacted by obsession, particularly of people. Catherine with Heathcliff, Heathcliff with Catherine, Isabella with Heathcliff, Edgar with Catherine... the list goes on. Those mistakes seem predominantly contained to the first generation, however, as the second inherits qualities of both parents in order to create more well-balanced characters.

Social Class and Gender Roles

Many of the characters are impacted, positively or negatively, but their set role in society. Heathcliff, for instance, is marked by Hindley as lower-class because of his parentage. Automatically, the Lintons shun Heathcliff and accept Catherine on no other grounds than their breeding. Catherine cannot marry Heathcliff, even though they deeply love each other because Heathcliff is a lower social class than she is. Gender roles, too, play an issue, especially as inheritance comes into play. When Cathy marries Linton, her wealth and lands are stolen because of her gender, and when Linton dies she must do as Heathcliff says because she is a woman and not a man.

Cruelty

Once again, Heathcliff, as the main character, is the primary embodiment of this theme. His entire personality, aside from loving Catherine, is cruel. He openly acknowledges this and makes no attempt to hide it, and instead nurtures it. After Catherine's death and until the very end of the novel, Heathcliff treats all the other characters almost exclusively with cruelty. Even characters he is fond of, such as Hareton, he is cruel to. This cruelty drives others away and turns otherwise warm-hearted characters (such as Cathy) into cruel people, as well. Linton, as Heathcliff's son, inherited Heathcliff's cruelty, but he lacks the physical strength to realize his cruelty the way Heathcliff does.

Duality

Wuthering Heights is full of dualistic situations, characters, and personalities. From the broadest perspective, the organization of the book is split in two. The first half ends in disaster, the second in hope. There are two love triangles, with two marriages in each of them. The settings, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, represent two different ways of life. Heathcliff is torn between love for Catherine and hate for everyone else. Catherine is torn between a love for Edgar versus Heathcliff. Passion v. contentment, manners v. wildness, love v. hate, forgiveness v. revenge - these are just some of the dualities present in the work.

Repetition and Reflection

Related to the duality theme, but slightly different. Although there are many dualistic properties, many of these, especially in differences between generations, are flipped or reflected. For instance, Cathy retains Edgar's gentleness and Cathy’s willfulness. Hareton, while the son of Hindley, most closely resembles Catherine in appearance, but Heathcliff in personality. Linton receives his Heathcliff's ill temper and Isabella's weak nature. In the character's situations, as well, this is shown. For instance, just as Hindley took away Heathcliff's privileges to learn, so too does Heathcliff take Hareton's education away from him. Heathcliff, in his revenge, attempts to recreate the wrongs done against him in the next generation.

The Supernatural

Although in the background of the novel, the idea of the supernatural pervades the story of Wuthering Heights. The first time Lockwood stays in Catherine's room, he is haunted by her ghost. When Heathcliff returns from his years away, he develops an almost supernatural quality about him. He seems more than human and often like a monster. Even Ellen, who grew up alongside him, questions his humanity more than once. Catherine and Heathcliff's love, the primary source of tension in the novel, goes above the normal parameters of love to something greater and deeper. This is why, in the end, Heathcliff and Catherine's ghosts still roam the moors because their love conquered death.

Physical and Mental Illness

It seems as if throughout the course of the novel, one character is deathly ill at any given time. Some illnesses seem genuine, such as Edgar Linton's death due to age, and others contrived, such as Ellen's illness at a suspiciously convenient point in the plot. However, other illnesses go beyond the physical to the mental. The three characters who exhibit the most mentally ill qualities are Catherine, Heathcliff and Linton. Catherine becomes so mentally distraught that she works herself into a deathly sickness, Heathcliff's mental anguish at losing Catherine causes him to have an unhealthy obsession with revenge, and Linton is mentally ill his whole life, causing him to be physically weak.

The Outsider

This theme is tricky because it exhibits itself in so many ways. The most notable of these is the point of view through which the story is told. Rather than the story being told by a member of the family, it is told by a complete stranger, Mr. Lockwood. And this complete stranger gets his version of the story through Ellen Dean, the maid, and, therefore, an outsider to the family (although privy to their secrets and habits). Inside the story, Heathcliff is treated as an outsider. First in his adopted family by Hindley, and then later by the Linton's because of his social class. It is this treatment that leads to Catherine and Heathcliff's doomed love, and later, Heathcliff's revenge.