The relationship between Cathe essays

The relationship between Cathe essays The story of the love between Catherine and Heathcliff is the thing that is most remembered by the reader of Wuthering Heights. The feelings they share pervade the whole novel creating the action (Forster 132-133). The complexity of their feelings described by Emily Bront, makes their relationship quite ambiguous and, thus, it allows various critics to have different interpretations of their love. Among these elucidations, the most common seem to be idealizing, infantilizing, incestuous and universalizing (Levy 9). The relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff is sometimes idealized, which means that it is shown as being better than it really is. Such a vision of their relation seems to be confirmed by F. H. Langman who claims that characteristic features of the love between Catherine and Heathcliff, such as intensity, eternity and realism, make other relationships in the novel insignificant. In other words, the relationships shown by Emily Bront are perceived to be trivial when compared to the love of the two main protagonists, which is passionate and exeptional (75). No matter how ideal their love may be, both Catherine and Heathcliff cannot be described as ideal people. They are self-centered and ruthless, which is disapproved by Nelly as well as by the reader. However, they are not degraded in the eyes of the reader, since the passion of their love and the impossibility to be together partly excuse their vices. Yet only partly, because their behaviours should not be justified by all the unfavourable circumstances, as some of their deeds are of their own making. For instance, it is Catherines choice to marry the rich, good-looking and charming Edgar Linton, although her decision might have been imposed by the rules existing in the contemporary society. Her love to Heathcliff is the romantic kind of love, whose feature is the fact that it is never fulfilled and it is as well perceived as ideal (Hardy 3...