Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

15/06/2011

4
Wuthering Heights is a romance novel like no other.

As clichéd as it sounds, that’s the honest to God truth. I finished the book and didn’t know what to feel or how to respond. It was such an odd book and I’m still asking myself questions and processing what happened.

The characters are excellent, as any reader would probably tell you. Heathcliff is twisted, cruel and diabolical- but completely understandable. His motives are clear and he follows them through; even near the end when he… changes, he is still getting what he wants- just in an unplanned way. At least that’s how I interpreted it.

Yet, as I said at the start, it is obviously a romance novel and relationships begin early on in the narrative. In the introduction of my book, I was informed of such a thing and I could see it because I was looking for it. I think this reiterates how one should read prefaces and all the stuff some people skip at the start of the book. It’s there for a reason people. Romance is also portrayed in every which way you could think of: sincere, debased, passionate, considerate, contented and foremost as unwavering. Though the love (or lack thereof) is present throughout, the lovers all seem to remain adamant about their feelings. Yes there will be disagreements and the like, but the lovers will leave feeling the same about each other. It is when affection changes that the course of the novel changes and in this way, the book is utterly propelled by love.

Of course, I must mention the fact that most consider this book so fine. It is said to unabashedly show an outlook on human nature transcendent of her time. What would have repulsed many contemporaries is what fascinates the modern reader. The contrast between every character to another, of each place to another, demonstrates the finely wrought story of Brontë were everything has its own opposite counterpart.

I don’t think I truly appreciate the novel yet. The plot was superb (with a typical Victorian climax, I thought) and I said the characters were good. But they are surface story- nothing in depth or more personal. Admittedly I touched on some ideas, but they are only a general interpretation of a broad feeling; there is something below the surface that I just haven’t reached.

I know I’ll have to read it again.