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More about the much known : Wuthering Heights

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Tired of romantic clichés? Want to savour jealousy, vengefulness, passion, and imagination? If your answer to these questions is- yes! Then Wuthering Heights is your one stop book destination. We bet it has more plot twists than your college life.

1.Humans are complex

Wuthering Heights has a theme that resonates time and again, screaming through the pages and chapters, warning the readers about the superficial extent of knowledge about a person that can have lethal consequences.

Be it Mr. Lockwood’s perception about Heathcliff, or Heathcliff’s love for Isabella or Linton’s blooming feelings for Catherine. It is a tricky business! Remember when Lockwood said, “He’ll love and hate equally under cover?” Lockwood must be dreading his own words in Chapter 33.

Didn’t you clench your heart when young Catherine was called by her uncle in the most hospitable manner ever? She thought of Heathcliff as a kind gentleman, but readers knew much more. Emily Brontë did not only want to get her readers to the edge of their seats but also had a lesson to teach. Humans can be complex, their psychological realms can resemble a spider’s web, so don’t be that fly!.

2.Man is a result of his situations- maybe (not)?

You’re lying if you couldn’t help but think how different Edgar Linton and Hindley Earnshaw were! Two loving husbands, death parting them from their wives. The difference- one turns to drinking, the other turns to his daughter. While Hindley turns to a lunatic, finding refuge in alcoholism, Edgar turns out as a loving father. The difference percolates through the generations and leaves imprints on the union of their children. (did we spill all the beans?)

“I used to draw a comparision between him and Hindley Earnshaw….They had both been fond husbands, and were both attached to their children; and I could not see how they shouldn’t both have taken the same road, for good or evil…Linton, on the contrary, displayed a true courage of loyal and faithful soul”

Now, one cannot ignore the fact that Hareton Earnshaw and Catherine Linton akin to Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw. Heathcliff and Hareton find shelter but fail to find familial love. But there is a difference, Heathcliff’s urge for love resembles tumultuous flames but Hareton’s love resembles rain after petrichor. Hareton amalgamates his wild spirit to his soothing love for Catherine. Heathcliff realizes this perfect balance that Hareton creates and makes Heathcliff realize his mistakes, (maybe) even turning him towards repentance. But one wishes if Hareton could lecture Heathcliff and force him to take down notes.

3. Love is a domestic affair- literally and very literally!

The love between siblings is not the usual hair-pulling and eye-scratching we can relate to! The Earnshaw siblings have a unique attachment which, even compelled Catherine to detach herself from Heathcliff. The Linton siblings have an unbreakable bond as well. Even when Isabella marries Heathcliff, Edgar’s isolation from Isabella is grave, but merely verbal. 

“It is out of the question my going to see her, however: we are eternally divided.

There is underlying concern and affection which is evident and highlighted when Edgar brings Linton Heathcliff after Isabella meets her end.

Incest reverberates time and again throughout the novel. Many critics argue that Heathcliff was Catherine’s foster brother and hence “suggests that an unconscious incest taboo impended Heathcliff and Catherine’s expectation of a normal sexual union”

As the plot unfolds, cousins share romantic relationships as Catherine and Linton marry, and later Catherine and Hareton unite. It might make some readers uncomfortable; however, Brontë weaves a story that focuses more on the turmoil of feelings than looking at the family tree.

4. It is not just a love story!

NEVER! NEVER tell a Wuthering Heights enthusiast that the plot is “only about a love story”. You might end up getting physically injured. (not kidding)

Brontë shows how love has other transcending emotions of envy, agony and betrayal. The novel seems to whisper- “How much love is too much love?” Is the failure of a romantic union capable to allow the usage of innocent lives as pawns in the ‘revenge game’? Such questions will make you scratch your head, the worst part- Brontë leaves these questions unanswered.

5. It’s complicated

Catherine and Heathcliff are in love, but Catherine marries Edgar Linton. Heathcliff marries Isabella Linton- his long lost love’s sister-in-law; his wife’s son marries her brother’s daughter; Catherine’s daughter marries her brother’s son. Are beads of perspiration rolling down your forehead already?

Do we still have to tell you to grab a copy of Brontë’s first and only published novel? Get your reading glasses and delve into one of the best gothic novels ever written.

Feature Image Credits: Priyanshi Banerjee for DU Beat

Priyanshi Banerjee

[email protected]

 

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Biblio

Book Review: Man, Woman and Child

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Why are Erich Segal’s stories such classics when it comes to tugging at the heartstrings? We explore why you should check him up, with this review of Man, Woman and Child.  Man, Woman and Child was written by Erich Segal, the renowned author of Love Story, Doctors and The Class. The book was released in 1980, and since then, has been adapted into numerous films. The book revolves around Robert Beckwith and his wife, Sheila Beckwith, and how they manage to come out of the most difficult thing to cope with in a marriage: adultery. The book demonstrates in the crudest form how a couple so in love can become estranged because of a mistake committed as long as 10 years ago, which gave them an additional source of joy; another child. The so called ‘other woman’ is Dr. Nicole Guerrin, and her opinions on marriage, motherhood and single parenthood are progressive and in line with feminism. The child then comes to live with the couple after Nicole’s death, who treat him with the utmost care and tenderness, almost akin to parental love. Robert’s yearning for a male child depicts the very age this story is set in. Even though the couple has two daughters, the husband longs for a boy: a boy he didn’t want to fall in love with, but ultimately does. The child’s etiquettes and manners echo how well a woman (that too a doctor, always busy) can do the job of bringing up a child on her own. It is rather the daughters’ way of speaking to their father which appals the readers. They don’t talk like kids but assume the tone of spoilt adults. The end leaves the readers earnestly asking for more because it doesn’t seem like the usual Bollywood ending. It’s not all tulips and roses but teaches one that life isn’t always fair, and that one has to learn to deal with everything. In short, then, Man, Woman and Child is about finding your inner strength to deal with the obstacles life throws at you. Feature Image Credits: Amazon.in Prachi Mehra [email protected]]]>

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Arts & Culture

Four books that changed my life

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For anyone who likes to read, immersing oneself into a story, a thought process, an idea, an opinion is so fascinating – our books become the little niches we make for ourselves; niches that may be happy or sad, full of optimism or rigidly cynical, but are all ours, and influence us in more ways than we are perhaps even conscious of. For any avid reader, choosing favourites out of these little niches is incomprehensibly hard. Which book made me think harder? Which book completely changed the way I think? Which book helped me get through a stressful time? Having struggled with these questions for a bit, I’ve finally come up with the four books that changed my life:

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 The Color Purple, Alice Walker – Alice Walker introduced  me to what it was like to be a black woman in the most  objectionably racist and sexist environments – a reality for many people even today. Written in the form of letters by a black woman (initially to ‘God’ and then to her sister), The Color Purple is tragic yet liberating. At sixteen, the book taught me that even the very construction of the figure of the Almighty (seen by most imaginations as a white man) is packed with patriarchy and racism. Everything about this book made me think differently, and I pick it up every now and then, just for some perspective.

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Black Skins, White Masks, Frantz Fanon – I was introduced to this book in a classroom, where Fanon’s thought of internalized racism touched me deeply enough to be interested in a book that was part of the course curriculum – and it was possibly one of the most intelligent things I have done. Black Skins, White Masks makes you question the way you see yourself, the lens with which you look at yourself when you look into the mirror and makes you understand the numerous subconscious biases you hold against yourself. This devastatingly beautiful book changed my life in ways that are difficult to put into words.

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Feminism is for Everybody, Bell Hooks – Short, comprehensive and incredible, Feminism is for Everybody was the first book I read on Feminism (possibly because it is most easily available on the internet – you could grab a PDF off Google – it will be worth it!), and it has only intrigued me to know more about the fascinating and courageous women’s movements across the globe and the political ideology.

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The Palace of Illusions, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni – It’s hard to put this book down. The Palace of Illusions taught me how important perspective is in viewing every situation. Having read it in my first year of college, when I was constantly deconstructing all my ideas of black and white, right and wrong, Divakaruni’s book reaffirmed all that I was learning in class about the ‘lens’ with which we view life. Seen from the eyes of Draupadi, the epic Mahabharata becomes a completely different, and far more overwhelming story.

 

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