Emily Bronte's Heathcliff and Catherine: Passions of love and hate.

The classic novel Wuthering Heights is as long-lived as the spirits of its main characters, Catherine and Heathcliff. Emily Bronte has an ability to articulate the story through the skillful and creative use of mystery, her undaunted capability to challenge social boundaries, and her heartfelt use of spirituality. In Emily Bronte's universe, the pain or misfortune related to that found by Aristotle in Greek tragedy is the loss of love.

Wuthering Heights explores two types of imperfect love in childhood, each barring the path to fulfilling love in adulthood. In one family, the implied significance transmitted to the child might be rendered, as "You don't belong here"; in the other, "You're too weak ever to leave." The most devastating consequence of either type of defective love is that the adults emerging from it have difficulty separating the need for love...
[ View Full Essay]