A View From Withering Heights…

There was much to say about Heathcliff and the effect he had on us: everyone was in agreement on the extreme hostility in his personality; his blazing passion and misplaced rage, lashing out as he does in moments with startling barbarity. Yet despite his long list of negative traits, we asked, what is it about his dark nature that still captures strong empathy among many readers? Why is it that so many hearts swoon at the thought of him? Does he encapsulate the true notion and appeal of the Byronic figure, as we watch his powerful affection eventually lost on the arguably fickle nature of Catherine?

This triggered a debate about the strength of Brontë’s characterisation overall. For some, her ability to inspire sympathy for Heathcliff, despite his horrors, demonstrates her skill in weaving multiple layers through the cast. Opinion remained divided within the group as to whether Brontë is ultimately successful in defining her players, with some readers confused by the repetition of names and tricky use of time in the narration. Some also found the opening account of Lockwood a grating presence, dismissing him as just a device rather than essential to the goings on between the polarised houses.

The group moved on to discussing the Gothic influences of the work and the nature of its reception upon publication in 1847. We lingered on whether or not the structure of Brontë’s story fell within the archetypal Gothic-model.  For example, the book is littered throughout with name mirroring across the generations, deftly adding to the sense of ghosts and spirits permeating the characters’ lives. Even so, most in the group drew the conclusion that in many ways Wuthering Heights defies conventions of fiction from the era, this being a major criticism levied at the book for many years after it was published. We see through the eyes of the novel’s bumbling narrator (who unwittingly misinterprets an opening scene through his traditional notion of the world) Brontë leading readers to an early warning about the inadequacy of such thinking. This lack of convention, while sometimes frustrating for a few in the group, made the novel much more powerful for others.

In the years that followed Emily Brontë’s death in 1848, interest in her work grew considerably. It was the fascination in the three Brontë sisters, however, that stirred up the most attention among critics. And so it was with the SYP reading group, with possible influences and the effect of her sisters’ success entering the discussion. Though we now know that the Brontës did not live an isolated existence, as Charlotte had publicly claimed in her preface to a revised edition of Wuthering Heights in 1850, Emily herself was known for keeping away from the outside world. This is strongly reflected within the sparsely populated realms of Wuthering Heights. Many in the group were also interested in the Dickensian vignettes, particularly when young Heathcliff is brought from the poverty-stricken town of Liverpool to Wuthering Heights. The narrative takes time to reflect upon the many lives lost on the streets and the very few that are found. Heathcliff, quickly taken under the wing of Wuthering Heights’ proprietor Hareton Earnshaw, becomes an example of lost identity and its outcomes. His treatment as a gypsy outcast by the other members of the family is what feeds a rising ferocity within Heathcliff as the years pass by.

Wuthering Heights is a story told in two halves. The first half is chaotic, representing, in essence, the first generation of characters that dwell in the house and its surrounding moors, touched by violence, illness and death throughout. There was debate in the group about whether or not the second half represents the restoration of balance and order, as it appears the next generation may find a way out of misery – will there finally be happiness among their troubled lives? Or is it the case that their fragile ‘cosmic order’ will inevitably relent to familiar, broken boundaries and their loss of peace? Misfortune, after all, has pervaded their whole lives.

It is this struggle for balance that seemed to surmise the feelings of the group, too; some felt unattached to the behaviour of the characters and their plight, whilst acknowledging that the book was not without drama and some genuine moments of shock. Others, although occasionally put off by the dreary nature of the novel, felt the story impressive in many parts and overall a unique and satisfying read.

There are almost as many opinions as there are adaptations of Wuthering Heights, and the group managed to work through some of the many complexities of what, as it transpires, becomes a very different take on the concept of ideal love and the impossibility of it, in what I personally found to be an original, haunting, and surprising portrayal of troubled lives residing upon the bleak, Yorkshire moors.

Group rating — 6.4 out of 10