Wuthering Heights

The first thing we need to do is define evil. It is perhaps impossible to define love in a way which will satisfy all of us. We will probably all agree that love is usually an attraction between two people which makes them feel good about themselves and the other person and about life in general. On the other hand, the love that is powerful and romantic goes way beyond such a feel-good experience. For the sake of this study, we must agree that Catherine and Heathcliff love one another, but the question is whether that love is healthy. Just because it is unhealthy does not mean that it is not love.

However, if it is so unhealthy that it becomes destructive to both of them, then we can start to see it as evil. To this reader, their love is tied up with evil because their love has become more important than anything else in their lives and because it is destroying both of them. It is evil to expect another human being to do for you what it is impossible for another human being to do. Heathcliff and Catherine see each other as gods, or as God, and expect to be saved by the other as one would be saved by God. They see love as something which

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f's rage. in truth, she could keep her sanity and goodness only if she left Heathcliff and never had anything to do with him again. But she is tied to him by a power reaching back to their childhood. It is a connection which is not rational, so her reason is completely useless in trying to figure out Heathcliff or her love for him. it is clear to the reader, however, that she is becoming more and more like Heathcliff the more she stands by him or has anything to do with him: I want to frighten [Edgar]. . . . I'm certain I should recriminate, and God knows where we should end! . . . . Heathcliff;s talk was outrageous. . . . All is dashed wrong by the fool's-craving to hear evil of self that haunts some people like a demon. . . . I did not care, hardly, what they did to each other [i.e., Heathcliff and Edgar], especially as I felt that . . . we should all be driven asunder for nobody knows how long! . . . I'll try to break their hearts by breaking my own (155). This is a woman who is becoming insane, if not evil. She is driven to hurt those who are hurting her, just as heathcliff tries to hurt Edgar. The love between Heathcliff and Catherine even at this point in the novel seems clearly hopeless. Heathcliff is not sane eno
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Approximate Word count = 2832
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)

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