Heather's review
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Yes, I'm going through "the classics" as an attempt to make up for 4 years of reading Derrida and "A Room of One's Own" seventeen times through (total cost: $160,000).
Emily Bronte was a crazy bitch and it shows. Even more "titillating" than Heathcliff and Catherine's turbulent love is the novel's meditation on the nature of oppression. Heathcliff is oppressive and abusive - yet the author forces us to simultaneously empathize with him (due to his difficult childhood and unrequited love) and to challenge him on his behavior (as seen through the relatively fair eyes of the narrator, Nelly Dean). In condemning him, we align ourselves with his early oppressors. In valorizing him, we align ourselves with his abusive nature. Even more frightening is his relationship with Hareton - clearly a victim of his "temper" - who is the only one to mourn Heathcliff at the end.
The novel further explores in the power dynamics of love between Hareton an...more
Emily Bronte was a crazy bitch and it shows. Even more "titillating" than Heathcliff and Catherine's turbulent love is the novel's meditation on the nature of oppression. Heathcliff is oppressive and abusive - yet the author forces us to simultaneously empathize with him (due to his difficult childhood and unrequited love) and to challenge him on his behavior (as seen through the relatively fair eyes of the narrator, Nelly Dean). In condemning him, we align ourselves with his early oppressors. In valorizing him, we align ourselves with his abusive nature. Even more frightening is his relationship with Hareton - clearly a victim of his "temper" - who is the only one to mourn Heathcliff at the end.
The novel further explores in the power dynamics of love between Hareton an...more
