

The Use of the Supernatural in Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
The supernatural is used widely throughout 'Wuthering Heights' and plays a big part in determining the outcome of the story. The Victorians were very superstitious about the supernatural. Education was already becoming commonplace in Victorian England, and education brought scepticism. The majority of people were very sceptical about the supernatural but not non-believers because of the number of ghost stories that came in this period. The age of the Victorians was an important period where people's perceptions and ghosts changed dramatically, from partially believing in ghosts, to not believing in them at all, yet still being terrified of them. This clearly explains Heathcliff's reaction to seeing the ghost of Cathy. At first, the book was seen as shocking and inappropriate by all its readers. When the book was first published, readers of the time saw it as extremely scandalous. Despite the fact that the novel doesn't not demonstrate any sex or bloodshed its depiction of the passionate love story of Cathy and Heathcliff was considered highly inappropriate, and was ignored for some time. Bronte uses the supernatural through the entirety of the novel, however she uses it unconventionally. Heathcliff is not 'supernatural' in the sense that he is paranormal, but in that he appears to be superhuman. He appears bigger, stronger and larger than everything and everyone else around him. A large part of the fearsome power of the novel is the fact that Heathcliff is ultimately still flesh and blood, therefore, the horror and brutality of his actions make him seem supernatural (due to the severity of them). Heathcliff's malevolence proves great and long-lasting, this is shown in the abuse of Isabella, which he describes himself as purely ... ... middle of paper ... ...e supernatural. Towards the end however, it is unclear to the reader whether Heathcliff is dead or not. "But the country folks, if you ask them, would swear on the Bible that he walks..." suggests his ghost is present, yet prior to this, Brontë doesn't suggest that the villagers are superstitious, so there is a chance that these sightings were not real. In conclusion, Bronte uses the supernatural and ghosts in Wuthering Heights to emphasise the power of love between Cathy and Heathcliff and proving that love exists beyond the grave and that the quality of love is unending. Furthermore, ghosts are used to assist in the storytelling, to help in enhancing the setting and develop characterisation, particularly in the character of Heathcliff, Nelly and Lockwood. The use of the supernatural enables the reader to be intrigued by the confusing use of extraordinary beings.
In this essay, the author
- Explains that the supernatural is used widely throughout 'wuthering heights' and plays a big part in determining the outcome of the story.
- Analyzes how the book's depiction of the passionate love story of cathy and heathcliff was considered inappropriate and ignored for some time.
- Analyzes how bronte uses the supernatural through the entire novel, however she uses it unconventionally. heathcliff is not'supernatural' in the sense of paranormal, but in that he appears to be superhuman.
- Analyzes how bronte uses the supernatural to create the impression that heathcliff is a supernatural power within the world of the novel.
- Opines that the supernatural plays a significant role in the lives of cathy and heathcliff, even in their childhood when they call up the ghosts in gimmerton kirk's grave.
- Analyzes how heathcliff's quote, "two words would comprehend my future – death and hell: existence, after losing her, would be hell," shows his undying love for cathy.
- Analyzes how bronte ensures that the reader witnesses heathcliff in the light of both good and bad, reflecting the contrast between the natural and the supernatural.
- Analyzes how the ghosts of cathy and heathcliff present a more conventional exploitation of the supernatural. bront doesn't suggest that the villagers are superstitious.
- Concludes that bronte uses the supernatural and ghosts in wuthering heights to emphasise the power of love between cathy and heathcliff. ghosts are used to enhance the setting and develop characterisation.
- Analyzes how emily bront distorts many common elements in wuthering heights to enhance the quality of her book.
- Analyzes how heathcliff's love for catherine transcends the normal physical "true love" into spiritual love.
- Analyzes how bront builds heathcliff's revenge in a way that his actions along each step are believable.
- Analyzes how emily bront transforms death, something we mildly fear, into a torturing beast we loathe.
- Analyzes how bront takes common elements and exaggerates them, turning love into obsessive passion, contempt into lifelong vindictive hatred, and peaceful death into the equivalent of burning in hell.
- Analyzes how bronte's descriptive wording in wuthering heights makes the reader connect with heathcliff through the events he faces along the way.
- Analyzes heathcliff's character in wuthering heights as lost, angry, and mournful. the blizzard is fierce, strong and hostile, just as his nature is.
- Analyzes how heathcliff's character can be compared to that of the mansion and the land that surrounds it—wild and stubborn.
- Analyzes how heathcliff's withdrawal from life is shown when he only eats one meal a day. the quote is symbolic to the character because it can explain the end of his life.
- Analyzes how camus and bronte incorporate natural elements in their stories, in such a way that the reader understands the mood of the main characters.
- Analyzes how wuthering heights is a window into the human soul, where one sees the loss, suffering, self-discovery, and triumph of the characters in the novel.
- Analyzes how mckibben and hagan take different approaches to wuthering heights, but both approaches work together to form one unified concept.
- Analyzes how hagan, like mckibben, shows that catherine has an ability to love with fierce passion, something that only herself and heathcliff share. emily bronte's use of sympathy, the reader cannot pass moral judgment on the characters.
- Analyzes how mckibben and hagan's ideas interlock when commenting on the apparent frustration that both catherine and heathcliff face throughout the novel.
- Analyzes how hagan and mckibben end their analysis with the idea of catherine's and heathcliff’s overwhelming loss.
- Analyzes how hagan and mckibben, though they use different approaches, concentrate on the same basic points. they prove that the reader stripes both heathcliff and catherine of all their evils because they were not in a state of mind to think rationally.
- Analyzes how emily bronte's wuthering heights can be considered a gothic romance or an essay on the human relationship. heathcliff and catherine are the story.
- Analyzes how heathcliff's many-faceted existence is marked by wickedness, love, and strength. his trials and tribulations only develop and exaggerate the darkness and violence inherited in him.
- Analyzes how heathcliff's wickedness is inappropriate and unusual. his vicious manner suggests that he is not born with the same primal and universal structure as everyday man.
- Analyzes how catherine earnshaw's iron will, immaturity, and quest for high-profile acceptance cause her character to star in the tragedy of a lost generation.
- Analyzes how catherine and heathcliff's relations are further thwarted, and upon their long-awaited reunion, fireworks erupt.
- Analyzes how emily bronte's wuthering heights is hardly a social commentary on the human mind. the sincerely private relationship of heathcliff and catherine earnshaw makes no reference to any social convention or situation.
- Explains damrosch, david, and dunn's the longman anthology of british literature.
- Analyzes how emily bronte's novel, wuthering heights, reflects her experience with both the romantic and victorian eras.
- Analyzes how heathcliff and catherine defy societal norms by running wild in the moors, but catherine decides to marry edgar linton because it will raise her position in society.
- Analyzes how heathcliff's character exemplifies the dehumanizing nature of society on the individual.
- Analyzes how neither catherine nor heathcliff are able to reconcile themselves with the choices that they have made, and end up enduring the tragic consequences of their choices.
- Analyzes how bronte conveys that it is important to value human emotion, love and freedom over society. choosing superficial and materialistic aspects of life over natural, emotional aspects can result in living an empty and meaningless life.
- Analyzes how emily bronte weaves flaws into each person’s character lends a sense of reality or humanness to the novel.
- Analyzes how catherine unwisely chose to marry edgar linton instead of heathcliff, even though their marriage was founded on love, but not a lasting bond.
- Analyzes how heathcliff's life goal to get revenge never brought him happiness; focusing solely on the negative aspects of life will do the opposite, even for a "monster."
- Analyzes how cathy linton's life was simple and carefree, and she was shocked to meet heathcliff and discover the blackness of spirit that could brood on and cover revenge for years without remorse.
- Analyzes how they tried to learn from the characters misery that they had, in most cases, brought upon themselves. young cathy was a perfect example of the power of positivity.
- Analyzes how emily bront's novel wuthering heights features heathcliff, who is brought into the earnshaw family as a young boy and quickly falls in love with catherine.
- Analyzes how catherine and heathcliff reveal their fervent devotion and affection for each other when the former is lying on her deathbed.
- Analyzes how heathcliff falls into a depraved mindset driven by his radical feelings of deprivation and solitude, and his temperament prevents any attempts at retribution to be thwarted.
- Analyzes how heathcliff's desire for vengeance for the injustice done to him is inflicted on those who most remind him of the love he lost.
- Analyzes how heathcliff's young niece and nephew share a love that echoes that of what his and catherine’s love could have been. the similarities between their two relationships are outlined in their alluded elements of shame and social degradation.
- Analyzes how freud used dream analysis, symbolism, and psychoanalytical techniques to find meaning in emily bronte's wuthering heights.
- Analyzes how darwin's worms portrays freud as taking god out of the picture, leaving nothing between us and nature. the passion between catherine i and heathcliff is "semi-savage."
- Analyzes how dreams play a large role in the story of wuthering heights. lockwood's first visit to the heights is full of dreams and nightmares.
- Analyzes how lockwood drifts off to sleep after reading the names on the windowsill. they were in no particular order, but he narrated them in the order "catherine earnshaw, catherine heathcliff, and catherine linton."
- Analyzes how lockwood's dream relates to his experience at wuthering heights in multiple ways.
- Analyzes how lockwood wakes up from his second dream and sees a ghost of catherine i, who grabs his arm and begs him to let her in.
- Explains that all of lockwood's dreams had their base in what he had read right before going to sleep, but it does not explain the knowledge that his dreams contained.
- Explains freud's theory of the defense mechanisms. he believed that there was a constant battle going on in the mind between id, ego, and superego.
- Analyzes how the characters in wuthering heights use defense mechanisms to repress their savage or unacceptable desires, and also to protect themselves from pain. heathcliff uses the displacement mechanism.
- Analyzes how freud believed that the internal struggle among the id, ego, and superego caused unhappiness, which could be an explanation for heathcliff's outrageous and cruel behavior.
- Analyzes how sigmund freud believed that people act on animal instincts in terms of sexuality. bronte even calls heathcliff a "wild dog".
- Analyzes how freud developed different psychological theories that relate to the story of wuthering heights by interpreting the dreams of lockwood, as well as explaining some behavior of the characters.
- Describes wuthering heights as a quarantined building on the hills in the west riding of yorkshire. the setting gives an understanding into the characters and the total comprehension of the novel.
- Analyzes how wuthering heights is a symbol of the distinctive commotion, which is the overriding force in bronte's novel.
- Analyzes how the moorland scenery created a habitation that seemed away from the society and the rest of the world in wuthering heights.
- Analyzes how emily bronte made heathcliff and wuthering heights mean one thing, one meant the other.
- Analyzes how bronte's love for linton is like the foliage in the woods, while heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath a source of little visible delight, but necessary.
- Analyzes how emily bronte included two places to make the novel more interesting. the two families were disjointed by the cold, murky, dark and desolate moors, wuthering heights and thrushcross grange.
- Analyzes how nelly is a narrator of the story and participates in events she tells lockwood so she is not an omniscient character.
- Describes bront, emily, wuthering heights, new york: modern library, 1994.
- Opines that duclaux, a. m. f. r. emily bront, o’brien, and simpson, c. w.
- Analyzes how emily bront's novel, wuthering heights, is a gothic novel with twists and turns to keep readers interested. the novel has supernatural encounters, crumbling ruins, moonless nights, and monstrous images.
- Analyzes bront's use of symbolism in her novel. she draws similarities between the manors of thrushcross grange and wuthering heights.
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Wuthering Heights
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Emily Brontë
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Supernatural Elements
The intense horror of my nightmare came over me: I tried to draw back my arm, but the hand clung to it, and a most melancholy voice sobbed, ‘Let me in—let me in!’…As it spoke, I discerned, obscurely, a child’s face looking through the window. Terror made me cruel; and, finding it useless to attempt shaking the creature off, I pulled its wrist on to the broken pane, and rubbed it to and fro till the blood ran down and soaked the bedclothes: still it wailed, ‘Let me in!’
Mr. Lockwood describes a supernatural event he experienced while spending a night at Wuthering Heights. Catherine haunts him, much like she haunts Heathcliff. Mr. Lockwood’s sensing of the mystery and despair of Wuthering Heights represents the reader in this early scene of the story. His tale uses supernatural elements to convey the psychological suffering that Heathcliff experiences through his loss of Catherine. Through these details, Mr. Lockwood and the reader immediately recognize the centrality of the Catherine and Heathcliff story.
‘I muttered, “I wish they may shovel in the earth over us both!” and I wrenched at it more desperately still. There was another sigh, close at my ear. I appeared to feel the warm breath of it displacing the sleet-laden wind. I knew no living thing in flesh and blood was by; but, as certainly as you perceive the approach to some substantial body in the dark, though it cannot be discerned, so certainly I felt that Cathy was there: not under me, but on the earth.’
Heathcliff recounts a ghostly encounter with Catherine’s spirit. The day following Edgar Linton’s death, Heathcliff convinced the sexton to remove Catherine’s coffin lid and then experienced a heightened perception of Catherine’s presence and physical evidence of her visitation with the cold wind turning warm. His account evidences his strong belief in ghosts, confirmed in his mind by feeling Catherine’s breath and sensing her presence. This supernatural element reflects the gothic element of the story and reveals the psychological “haunting” of Heathcliff.
But the country folks, if you ask them, would swear on the Bible that he walks : there are those who speak to having met him near the church, and on the moor, and even within this house. Idle tales, you’ll say, and so say I . . . Yet, still, I don’t like being out in the dark now; and I don’t like being left by myself in this grim house: I cannot help it; I shall be glad when they leave it, and shift to the Grange.
Nelly describes to Mr. Lockwood how area people strongly believe that Heathcliff haunts the moors and Wuthering Heights. She also explains how even she has experienced supernatural elements regarding Heathcliff and no longer likes being alone. These supernatural elements and beliefs represent a theme in the novel and speak to Heathcliff’s character and the haunting qualities of his life and love for Catherine.
Wuthering Heights SparkNotes Literature Guide
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Theme Of Supernatural In Wuthering Heights
Theme of love in wuthering heights.
Wuthering Heights is structured around two parallel love stories in which motions verge between passionate love and hatred. Heathcliff and Cathy’s passion centre the novel, this passion condemns as immoral by Nelly (a servant girl who grew up along-side the Earnshaw’s) and also a Victorian reader, but could be interpreted as a love that transcends social boundaries and idealises them as a romantic hero and heroine. This is clear that Heathcliff expresses these passionate emotions as he sobs uncontrollably ‘Cathy, do come. Oh do – once more! Oh! My heart’s darling, hear me this time – Catherine, at last!’. Through the use of exclamation, we see that Heathcliff pines for his lover to come back to life and greet herself with him just once more, by using exclamatory we sense this desperation emphasising his true passionate love for Catherine and the emotions that built up their relationship; he has become broken without++ her. This closely links to the concept Shakespeare talks of in ‘Sonnet 116’ in which he says ‘But bears it out even to the edge of doom’. This
Heathcliff And Catherine's Love As Obsessive Love In Wuthering Heights
Although characterized as a violent individual, Heathcliff’s love for Catherine exemplifies a lot of aspects of sympathy. The sorrow he was faced with when he overheard Catherine said that marrying him would degrade her, ultimately resulting in his
Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights: Mental Illness and Feminism
Catherine dies two hours after prematurely delivering her daughter. This was caused by a highly emotional conversation with Heathcliff (Bloomfield 295). Catherine was set up for a mental illness based on how the upper class women were seen during the Victorian Era. Catherine’s death would have been seen as a mark from the devil because of her seizures and delirium were seen as punishment (Bloomfield 297). Catherine’s ID, Ego, and Super-Ego were constantly battling each other, eventually driving her to insanity. Catherine’s death changes the plot of the story and Heathcliff’s life (Bloomfield 291).
Nature Vs Nurture Wuthering Heights
Death brings more than despair for the characters in this novel. Characters such as those in Wuthering Heights can be directly affected by death, whether it they have a change in mood or a whole new mindset from it. Heathcliff, for example, became deranged from Catherine’s death. He became a practically evil man. Heathcliff becoming the wicked man he portrays sets the novel into action. Heathcliff said himself that, “You know, I was wild after she died….” (Brontë 278). He set into a spree of evil doings as a result of her death. In fact, everything set
Distortions and Exaggerations in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights
One of the most dramatic scenes in the book is the death of Catherine. The first signs of her failing health physically and mentally come when she locks herself up in her room after Heathcliff and Edgar's fight. She fasts herself into a delirium, pulling out pillow stuffing and seeing faces in the mirror. Unlike ordinary death, which comes quick and painlessly, Catherine's slowly wastes her away into a ghost. About seven months later, she dies at childbirth, but returning to haunt Heathcliff. The main cause for Catherine's death is not childbirth, although it may have been the final contributor. Ironically, because of the spiritual link between Heathcliff and her, it is their separation that killed her. Brontë punishes the sinned by slow death, having the guilty put the wrath upon themselves. She also brings in the supernatural to prove that even at death, there is no peace. The precise description of the moments before Catherine's death emotionally charges and further involves the reader. Like Catherine, Heathcliff dies in a similar fashion, except his sufferings prior to death lasted eighteen years. He explains to Nelly, "What does not recall her [Catherine]? Those two [Catherine Linton and Linton Heathcliff] are the only objects which retain a distinct material appearance to me; and, that appearance causes me pain, amounting to agony." This is consistent because he has sinned the most of all
Wuthering Heights And Mary Shelly's Frankenstein
Heathcliff is abused; his only source of love is his dearest Catherine, yet even that love cannot thrive in Heathcliff’s environment. The problem is not that his love is unrequited, but rather that Catherine believes she would fall to ruin if she were to be with Heathcliff “It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love him---because he's more
The Power of Love in Wuthering Heights Essay
- 4 Works Cited
When Heathcliff returns three years later, his love for Catherine motivates him to enact revenge upon all those who separated him from her. Since he last saw Catherine, he has “fought through a bitter life”; he “struggled only for [her]” (Brontë 71). Nelly observes a “half-civilized ferocity” in Heathcliff’s brows (Brontë 70); she views him as “an evil beast…waiting his time to spring and destroy” (Brontë 79). Heathcliff’s obsessive love for Catherine becomes a menacing threat. Heathcliff reproaches Catherine because she “treated [him]
Theme Of Manipulation In Wuthering Heights
In Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, Heathcliff’s strong love for Catherine guides his transformation as a character. While Heathcliff enters the story as an innocent child, the abuse he receives at a young age and his heartbreak at Catherine’s choice to marry Edgar Linton bring about a change within him. Heathcliff’s adulthood is consequently marked by jealousy and greed due to his separation from Catherine, along with manipulation and a deep desire to seek revenge on Edgar. Although Heathcliff uses deceit and manipulation to his advantage throughout the novel, he is never entirely content in his current situation. As Heathcliff attempts to revenge Edgar Linton, he does not gain true fulfillment. Throughout Wuthering Heights, Brontë uses Heathcliff’s vengeful actions to convey the message that manipulative and revenge-seeking behaviors will not bring a person satisfaction.
How Does Heathcliff Change Throughout The Novel
In this chapter, we see that Catherine has changed drastically from being a wild savage to a young mannered lady. Shockingly, we can see the distinctive difference between Heathcliff and Catherine's character. They were once the same, but this chapter serves as the platform to highlight the contrasting differences between these lovers. On one hand, one can argue that it develops their relationship immensely.
How Does Catherine's Relationship Lead To Insanity?
Heathcliff, after the death of Catherine, continues to be haunted by the ghost of Catherine, which leads him to doing very absurd things including digging up Catherine’s grave, and locking Nelly and Cathy in a room for days. In addition, Isabella is not in approval of the relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff, leading to the lack of peace displayed in the relationship, as she is tries to pull the two apart, by getting closer to Heathcliff and refusing to come home. Like the unresolved book, Catherine and Heathcliff are not able to tie the loose ends to their relationship, leading to lack of peace. One does not receive closure with an unresolved book, and, similarly, neither does the couple. In addition, Heathcliff continues to do whatever he can to find answers to his questions, like we may do when we finish a book without
The Importance of Ghosts In Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights
What Catherine is saying here is that she loves Heathcliff so much that even when she dies she will always be with him, and she will always have him in her soul. The significance is that she does actually appear at the window to Heathcliff showing that her love is so strong that she will remain with him forever. What is interesting is that she never does come in through the window, she remains outside. This could mean
Destructive Love In Macbeth And Wuthering Heights
He was not only a harsh individual, however. “Heathcliff can also play the romantic type” (Galef 244). This statement holds nothing but true, as he managed to court Catherine for numerous years, and also his wife Isabella, showing them both his affectionate side. The passionate thoughts of Heathcliff vanished after Cathy’s rejection, however, replaced with nothing but vengeance and rage as he set out to make her suffer.
How Does Heathcliff Use Direct Characterization In Wuthering Heights
His demeanor when Catherine dies completely changes and the reader learns that he was madly, madly in love with her. His love for Catherine changed his mental state; he no longer thought rationally. Rationally, if Heathcliff loved Catherine, he would wish her to be at peace, because loving someone means wishing them to be happy; however, because he was so greedy with what little love he did receive that Heathcliff wished Catherine to be forever stuck on the earth haunting him and “driving him mad”. Nelly then describes Heathcliff as a “savage beast” who was physically hurting himself for Catherine. None of these traits mark Heathcliff as a level headed being; a trait that could be predicted when he married Isabella and made her life terrible for the sole purpose of upsetting Catherine and Edgar. This insanity only becomes more prevalent after Catherine dies, when he raises Haerton as a farmhand and imprisons young Catherine and Nelly at Wuthering Heights when her father was
Literary Analysis Of Wuthering Heights
“My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I am Heathcliff!” (Brontë, 82)
The Chain of Love and Cruelty in Bronte's Wuthering Heights
This leads to him running away from the heights entirely, leaving Catherine to marry Edgar. “He had listened till he heard Catherine say it would degrade her to marry him.” (81). Upon his return (two years later), Heathcliff marries Isabella to get back at Catherine, and her speech about how marrying him would degrade her. Isabella is also taken against her and her family’s will. Heathcliff kidnaps her and locks her away at the heights. In a letter written to Nelly, Isabella confirms that it was truly against her will for her leaving, and that she cannot return in the time of crisis in her brother’s life. “… an entreaty for kind remembrance and reconciliation, if her proceeding offended him: asserting that she could not help it then, and being done, no power to repeal it.” (140). In the act of kidnapping Isabella, Heathcliff’s intent is to hurt Catherine. Catherine would develop almost a jealous-like temper towards the whole situation, as Heathcliff knew it would. Even on Catherine’s deathbed, there is a constant push and pull (in almost a literal sense) of the cruelty that goes on between the two of them. Between the crying, the vexing, and the constant apologies, comes the brutal cruelty of the words Catherine speaks to Heathcliff. “I shall not pity you, not I. You have killed me – and thriven on it, I think.” (164)
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Wuthering Heights: Supernatural Theme and Atmosphere
Wuthering Heights: How Does The Supernatural Theme Contribute To The Atmosphere Of The Novel? The supernatural theme is a recurrent one in gothic novels, dreams, ghosts and gaps between this world and the next. The paranormal touch adds to the eerie feeling and the extreme circumstances that a novel like Wuthering Heights portrays. Waking from a violent dream, Mr. Lockwood, who is sleeping in Cathy’s bed, sees a ghost. It is a young girl called Catherine Linton who had been haunting the house for twenty years. Upon her death, Heathcliff begs her to haunt him. This insane passion is part of the extreme circumstances that must take place to prove how passion rules over all. Nelly dean is the main narrator in Wuthering Heights, she claims that she does not believe in ghosts but she is superstitious. When she refuses to hear Catherine’s dreams we are disturbed, it may have been a bad dream or a prophecy. Cathy dreams about being in heaven but she is flung out by the angels who know she does not belong there, but only with Heathcliff. There is an immense bond between Cathy and Heathcliff that not even death can part. When Heathcliff leaves Wuthering Heights there is a terrible storm that represents nature’s opposition against this act. When the thunderstorm breaks a tree in half, Joseph who represents a conformist and artificial ideal of religion believes it is a sign of the end. After the fight between Heathcliff and Edgar, Cathy fell ill; and her illness seemed to affect her reasoning, as if to be driving her mad. After her illness was cured she appeared to be barely alive, as if a spirit roaming on earth erroneously, however she still appeared to be beautiful, in a ghostly way. The supernatural is the axis of the gothic genre it is the source of the contorted and sinister atmosphere and creates the spine-chilling extreme feeling that gives a gothic novel meaning. After Cathy's death Heathcliff begs her spirit to haunt him, this action is selfish and unnatural and goes against conventional morality, he does not wish for her to rest in peace but to exist only to be with him. Heathcliff is so obsessed with the dead that Isabella calls him “a goblin” she no longer knows whether she has married “a man, a devil or a ghost” Heathcliff, with no respect for the dead,...

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Heathcliff, but also sees him as her social inferior, to the extent that marriage is viewed as an impossibility. However, as Maria...
In five pages this paper considers the importance of human emotions in Bronte's 'Wuthering Heights' and Shakespeare's 'The Winter'...
This paper consists of five pages and considers how the supernatural manifests itself in this novel with the only hope of the love...
Marianne Thormahlen's article 'The Lunatic and the Devil's Disciple: The Lovers in Wuthering Heights' is analyzed in two pages. T...
In two pages an analysis of Eric P. Levy's article entitled 'The Psychology of Loneliness in Wuthering Heights' is presented in tw...
Debra Goodlett's article entitled 'Love and Addiction in Wuthering Heights' is analyzed in two pages. There are no other sources ...
nature holds a great sway over the human condition. She sees the futility of forging an alliance with Linton, while at the same ti...
sway over the human condition. She sees the futility of forging an alliance with Linton, while at the same time knowing that she a...
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Theme Of Supernaturalism In Wuthering Heights

Show More Wuthering Heights, a novel by Emily Bronte, may seem like a normal romance novel, but there is more to it. Many traces of eerie, supernatural things intertwine with the romance plot and used as symbols to explain the violence and chaos of the Earnshaw and Linton households. Besides acting as symbols, these spooky occurrences also give us insight into the characters’ states of mind, and how they view things. In the very beginning of the story, the narrator, Lockwood, describes Wuthering Heights as a place “swarming with ghosts and goblins” (27). His stay in the Earnshaw household was interrupted by an encounter with a ghost early on. He described his encounter as a horrible dream, saying that he “turned and dosed, and dreamt again: if possible, …show more content… Nelly walks into the same room that Lockwood sleeps in and encounters Catherine Linton, and finds Heathcliff lying in the bed motionless. Nelly describes what she tried to do after realizing Heathcliff was dead: “I tried to close his eyes: to extinguish, if possible, that frightful, life-like gaze of exultation before anyone else beheld it. They would not shut: they seemed to sneer at my attempts; and his parted lips and sharp white teeth sneered too”. This image is really creepy plus the fact that Cathy’s ghost was in the room before only heightens the unnerving feelings of his death. The ghost encounter that scared Lockwood happens when he is in the oak-paneled bed, the same bed that Heathcliff dies on. Before his nightmares, Lockwood sees the bed and the room it’s in as a place where he can feel "secure against the vigilance of Heathcliff and everyone else". The bed then symbolizes a place of protection, and a hideaway. The oak-paneled bed was also a sanctuary for young Catherine, whose books became impromptu journals as she hid from Hindley’s rule of the household some twenty-five years before. The supernatural powers that surround the bed become more haunting when Heathcliff dies there, transforming the bed into a coffin where Heathcliff is finally reunited with his …show more content… Cathy and Hareton decide to marry, which finally provides closure to the family’s problems. In many ways the ghosts in Wuthering Heights symbolize a lack of closure for the lovers. Heathcliff wants to believe in ghosts and the afterlife because that means Catherine will still be around. When Catherine dies, he begs to be haunted: “I know that ghosts have wandered on earth. Be with me always – take any form – drive me mad”. When Heathcliff dies, he is said to be seen at the moors with a young woman, as a little boy said: “They’s Heathcliff, and a woman, yonder, under t’ Nub” (368). It is believed that the young woman is Catherine and that Heathcliff and she have ghostly meetings by the moor just like when they were kids. This rather spooky ending is also one that resolves Heathcliff’s struggle to find love, showing that love is
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Wuthering Heights The Supernatural
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- The Supernatural

From beginning to end, there's no avoiding the supernatural in Wuthering Heights . There are probably more ghosts than there are humans in this neck of the moors.
When the ghost of Catherine Linton attempts to come into Wuthering Heights through the window, Lockwood's fascination is piqued. The moors, the people, and Wuthering Heights itself are all infused with supernatural elements—we have much more than your conventional haunted house. As a child, Heathcliff is teased by others for being a dark and unnatural representative of the supernatural (e.g., an "imp of Satan"). And late in the novel, Nelly wonders whether he is a ghoul or a vampire.
The supernatural vibe extends far beyond Heathcliff to the moors and surrounding village, all of which seems to be touched by something sinister. And the book ends with the suggestion that Heathcliff and Catherine will haunt the moors together for ever after.
Questions About The Supernatural
- Are we meant to believe that ghosts truly exist in the novel?
- How many ways are there to interpret the ending of the novel?
- What does Lockwood's dream of a ghostly Catherine tell us about his character?
Chew on This
With Wuthering Heights , Brontë complicates the Gothic novel genre, making Heathcliff much more than a one-dimensional villain.
- Introduction
- Society and Class
- Foreignness and the Other
- Catherine Earnshaw Linton
- Hindley Earnshaw
- Hareton Earnshaw
- Catherine Linton Heathcliff
- Edgar Linton
- Isabella Linton
- Ellen "Nelly" Dean
- Frances Earnshaw
- Dr. Kenneth
- What's Up With the Title?
- What's Up With the Ending?
- Tough-o-Meter
- Writing Style
- Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
- Narrator Point of View
- Booker's Seven Basic Plots Analysis
- Plot Analysis
- Three Act Plot Analysis
- For Teachers
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Essay: Realism, Ghosts, and Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë integrates the Victorian realist tradition with the ghost story genre, creating a highly realistic portrayal of life, death, and hauntings in the English moor. The novel presents ghosts as an aspect of reality for both the region and the characters, providing further detail into the events of the story and the social context of the novel. As a realist work, the novel’s detailed approach to the setting and characters correlates with the values of Victorian realist authors. In addition to being a realist novel, Wuthering Heights includes…
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Supernatural in wuthering heig.
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pernatural - Supernatural events happen in the very beginning of the novel and continue until the very end. In chapter three Lockwood is grabbed and pleaded to by Catherine's ghost through a window, and in the last chapter Ellen talks about people seeing the ghosts of Heathcliff and Catherine walking on the moors. In between Heathcliff tells Ellen about hearing Catherine sighing in the graveyard and sensing her nearby, and when he gives up his plans of revenge he even seems to sees her ghost. Ellen also once sees Heathcliff as a goblin, and wonders if he is a vampire or a ghoul, although she realizes she is being silly. These themes and instances are tied to a spirituality and life-after-death theme in the novel. Edgar and Heathcliff both want to be with Catherine after she has died. Edgar does not want her to haunt him, but he does look forward to a time when they can be together again. Heathcliff does want Catherine to haunt him, and she indeed seems to, and he also looks forward to spending eternity with her after death. Top Ten Quotes. 1) I've no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in heaven; and if the wicked man in there had not brought Heathcliff so low, I shouldn't have thought of it. It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love him; and that, not because he's handsome, Nelly, but because he's more myself than I am (86). Catherine admits to Ellen that she loves Heathcliff but cannot think of marrying him because he has been degraded by Hindley. Heathcliff hears this speech, and he leaves Wuthering Heights, not to return for three years.2) Nelly, I see now, you think me a selfish wretch; but did it never strike you that if Heathcliff and I married we should be beggars? whereas, if I marry Linton, I can aid Heathcliff to rise, and place him out of my brother's power? (87). Catherine tells Ellen what she believes will happen with her marriage and her relationship to Heathcliff.
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Essays Related to supernatural in wuthering heig
1. wuthering heights.

Wuthering Heights Written by Emily Bronte 1818 - 1848 Outline 1. ... Supernatural Gothic vs. ... Wuthering Heights was published in December 1847. ... Charlotte later wrote the 1850 edition of Wuthering Heights. (Huiswerk, Scholieren) Wuthering Heights is considered a romantic novel in which love, revenge, death and the supernatural are the themes. ...
- Word Count: 1544
- Approx Pages: 6
- Grade Level: High School
2. Wuthering Heights
Earnshaw, the owner of Wuthering Heights. ... The people of Wuthering Heights aspired to be on the same level as the Lintons. ... Bronte chooses well, the language that she uses in Wuthering Heights. ... Although Wuthering Heights, the land of the storm, sits high on the barren moorland, "The world of Wuthering Heights is a world of sadism, violence, an! ... Heathcliff is the very spirit of Wuthering Heights. ...
- Word Count: 1790
- Approx Pages: 7
3. Wuthering heights

Wuthering Heights In Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, there are two main estates of Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights. ... Wuthering Heights was built to be very strong to endure harsh storms. ... Wuthering Heights is nowhere as beautiful as the Grange. ... Everything relating to Wuthering Heights is almost always negative. ... Wuthering Heights, on the other hand, had no such boundary. ...
- Word Count: 728
- Approx Pages: 3
4. Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights gives the story of events occurring on the estates of Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights. ... In contrast to Wuthering Heights, Thrushcross Grange is like heaven. ... This helps to further show the tone of the novel and of Wuthering Heights. ... The readers gains a sense of the pleasant feeling of Wuthering Heights. ... Wuthering Heights provides a wonderful example of the many uses of tone. ...
- Word Count: 686
5. Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, portrays the different human relationships that the characters have within the novel. ... Lockwood visits Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights. The strange behaviors of the people at Wuthering Heights make him curious about them. ... At the beginning of the novel, Wuthering Heights is described duringstormy? ... Wuthering Heights would be the demonic world and Thrushcross Grange the peaceful world. ...
- Word Count: 527
- Approx Pages: 2
6. Emily Bronte

Today, Wuthering Heights is considered a valuable resource for students of the Gothic traditions in the eighteenth century, which incorporates this Gothic "style of literature that featured supernatural encounters, crumbling ruins, moonless nights, and grotesque imagery, seeking to create effects of mystery and fear- ("Context- 1). ... In Wuthering Heights, Bronte's style utilizes poetic and tragic writing that significantly affects her style of literature. ... MacLachlan 1) which is represented in the character of Catherine Earnshaw in Wuthering Heights. ... Due to the success of Wutheri...
- Word Count: 994
- Approx Pages: 4
- Grade Level: Undergraduate
7. Wuthering heights

Wuthering Heights is the residence of the Earnshaws. ... Earnshaw brings Heathcliff to Wuthering Heights. ... Wuthering Heights is full of malice and hatred that Heathcliff turns revengeful and hateful of all at Wuthering Heights. ... Living in Wuthering Heights, she is neglected, not appreciated, and treated badly. ... Living in the gloom of Wuthering Heights worsens his sickness. ...
- Word Count: 614
8. Wuthering Heights - Setting

The setting used throughout the novel Wuthering Heights helps to set the mood to describe the characters. ... Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange both represent several opposing properties. ... The people of Wuthering Heights aspired to be on the same level as the Lintons. ... Opposite of Wuthering Heights, Thrushcross Grange is filled with light and warmth. ... While Wuthering Heights was always full of activity, sometimes to the point of chaos. ...
- Word Count: 460
9. Themes in Wuthering Heights
Catherine's passion for Heathcliff ruined the lives of so many people at Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. ... Heathcliff was probably the most selfish person in all of Wuthering Heights. ... Supernatural - Supernatural events happen in the very beginning of the novel and continue until the very end. ... The residents of Wuthering Heights seem to be of a lower class than the Lintons at Thrushcross Grange. ... In contrast to the first, the latter tale ends happily, restoring peace and order to Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. ...
- Word Count: 2541
- Approx Pages: 10

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Concludes that bronte uses the supernatural and ghosts in wuthering heights to emphasise the power of love between cathy and heathcliff. ghosts are used to
Mr. Lockwood describes a supernatural event he experienced while spending a night at Wuthering Heights. Catherine haunts him, much like she haunts
Writers of Gothic and Romantic literature use supernatural forces such as ghosts and monsters to explore the unknown. Emily Brontë uses ghosts in her novel
Free essay on Wuthering Heights: Supernatural Theme and Atmosphere available totally free at echeat.com, the largest free essay community.
Wuthering Heights contains only a few actual supernatural events, but its characters frequently refer to ghosts and devils, either as a matter of genuine belief
Free Essay: Wuthering Heights, a novel by Emily Bronte, may seem like a normal romance novel, but there is more to it. Many traces of eerie, supernatural...
The moors, the people, and Wuthering Heights itself are all infused with supernatural elements—we have much more than your conventional haunted house. As a
In addition to being a realist novel, Wuthering Heights includes elements of the traditional ghost story: ghosts, fear, and folklore.
pernatural - Supernatural events happen in the very beginning of the novel and continue until the very end. In chapter three Lockwood is grabbed and pleaded
In Bronte's intricate novel, "Wuthering Heights" the desire that characterises the love between Catherine and Heathcliff is likened to 'the eternal rocks' -.