"We neither of us have the privilege of owning your good fairy, her mate is dead. I said she was my daughter-in-law, therefore she must have married my son."
"And this young man is-"
"Not my son, assuredly!" (Bronte, pg. 11)
The other inhabitants of the novel are not immune to looking stupid either. For example, Mrs. Heathcliff makes Joseph look ignorant and superstitious throughout the beginning of the book by "cursing" him. By believing these curses to be true, Joseph reveals himself as a simple minded peasant and I think perhaps Bronte is commenting on the lower classes and accusing them all of being dim-witted and slow. For some reason when I read the line "I'll show you how far I've progressed in the Black Art" (Bronte, pg. 12) I took it as being tongue in cheek, as if she knew she could trick the simple fool into doing her bidding for fear of being cursed.
Perhaps the most important example of misunderstanding in the first half of the book is Heathcliff overhearing Catherine talk about her engagement. Upset by this he shuffles away, moments before she reveals her true love for him. Much of his bitterness stems from his being spurned by Catherine unaware that she is marrying out of necessity, not love. If Heathcliff had eavesdropped on her for only a few more seconds, he could have saved himself years of anguish.
As I write this, I am realizing that my analysis does not carry much weight past the first five or six chapters. The story, once it shifts almost entirely to Nelly's narrative, it becomes almost a cautionary tale of loving too much. Heathcliff and Catherine are both in pain because they love each other too dearly without being able to pursue their feelings. Bronte seems to warn against the power of love. It can also be inferred that this story carries the message that relationships between members of different classes are doomed from the start.
I am interested in the role ghosts play in Wuthering Heights and will update this blog after Tuesday's discussion.
I do hope that you explore the role of ghosts in the novel. You might want to look at the Terry Eagleton passage I quote on my blog for some inspiration. In reference to this blog, you might want to keep in mind ideas of perspective in this novel. You're right to point out that there is a great deal of miscommunication in the first section of the novel, but is it a result of our initial bumbling and apparently clueless narrator? What is the significance of the juxtaposition between the stodginess of Lockwood compared to the utter chaos at WH? You also point out that perhaps so many of the calamitous events of the novel could have been avoided if Heathcliff had eavesdropped a little earlier? Given the fact that Nelly is telling this tale, is it fair to imagine that maybe there are aspects of Catherine and Heathcliff's relationship that we're not privy to? Do you think Nelly might be telling the tale to paint Catherine in a particularly unsympathetic light--i.e. a spoiled little rich girl? Does Nelly even know what Heathcliff heard or did not hear for sure?
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