Bronte

When Catherine states, "It will degrade me to marry Heathcliff," she exposes her prejudices and concerns about social status. She has yet to develop a mature level of self-awareness. Moreover, Catherine indicates a predisposition toward melodrama when she continues, "so he shall never know how I love him." Bronte achieves something clever with this passage, in that she withholds from Catherine her own self-awareness while indicating to the reader that the character is as shallow as anyone else in her milieu. Not being aware of her own shallowness becomes an ironic means by which Catherine can grow. Moreover, it is ironic that the reader is permitted to overhear Catherine's entire conversation on this matter but Heathcliff only hears the first sentence. He does not hear the part about "he shall never know how I love him," and Bronte deliberately structures the conversation in this way, so that the reader...
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