Table of Contents
Introduction
This is an introductory section.
Catherine Hareton and Hareton’s war
In conclusion
An intro
Emily Bronte uses a conflict that develops between Catherine Linton, Hareton earnshaw, and Heathcliff to resolve the conflict between Catherine and Heathcliff. Even though their social class and upbringing differs, both cousins possess the wild spirit that makes them a perfect match. Both must, however, let go their bitternesses and walls to discover the compatibility between them.
Conflict between Catherine the second and Hareton When Catherine meets Hareton for the first time, she treats him with contempt and refuses to acknowledge him as her relative. She entered Wuthering Heights surrounded by a wall. She does not want to make friends with the residents of Wuthering Heights because she is miserable. Hareton tries his best to be polite and offers her a seat near the fire, while also retrieving books from the shelves. Zillah says that she “turned her nose” and refused the seat. She accepts him books, but she turns away and reads them. “He felt pleased that she accepted [his] assistance”, even though she didn’t thank her. Hareton makes a valiant effort to appear respectable, but Catherine refuses to accept him. Hareton becomes so absorbed with her that he reaches out and touches a curly hair. Catherine is disgusted and furious by this forwardness. She tells him: “I’m not going to tolerate you!”. He is embarrassed and gets timid when she’s around. Zillah will ask him to read it to him. Catherine retorts with a second outburst. She says that Hareton is the last person she cares about and she can’t bear to hear him speak. Hareton’s humiliation was the last straw.
Hareton gives up trying to make Catherine happy in response. He becomes enraged and calls her shallow and snobby. He says, “She might go to Hell”, and no longer refrains from doing activities that he had been warned would be unpopular with Catherine on Sundays, like cleaning his gun. He is too proud to be able to love her when she’s hateful. So he builds a wall, and decides to hate back just as much, making himself more vulnerable.
It is a vicious cycle. Hatred snowballs. Catherine treats Hareton with contempt, even when she is polite. He interprets all her actions as an expression of her arrogance. She finds him more brutal and cruel. He becomes angry and humiliated when she makes fun of her illiteracy. Catherine ridicules Hareton’s attempts to read and spell to themselves and mocks him for it. Hareton dislikes “that his ignorance should be ridiculed, and then ridiculed again for trying it to be removed”. Catherine informs Hareton, that his poor reading of the books has desecrated her favorites. He hurls the books in anger at her, but she laughs.
Bronte doesn’t leave Hareton in conflict with Catherine. Catherine and Hareton resolve their disagreements through reading and books. Catherine’s behaviour and attitude change after Nelly arrives in Wuthering Heights. Catherine then announces, “I would love you to be a cousin”. Catherine insists that Hareton is not her enemy, despite Hareton’s initial resistance. As a final act of proof, she kisses his cheek, and sends a small book to him as a sign of peace, along with the promise that she’ll teach him to learn to read. Catherine has already started to knock down Hareton’s wall. She accepts the forgiveness of Hareton and his friendship. She immediately starts reading lessons. Catherine the 2nd and Hareton grow closer, even though their friendship was temporarily interrupted. Earnshaw could not be civilized through a wish. My young lady, on the other hand, was far from a paragon of patience. However, both their minds were bent towards the same thing and they finally managed to arrive at it. The two walls were eventually destroyed and they began to grow closer.
In a way, this conflict resolves that between Catherine the First and Heathcliff. Cathy resents Heathcliff when her father brings him home the first time. She expected a gift of a whip and not a young boy. Cathy is quick to see Heathcliff as a good playmate. Heathcliff is able to fall in Cathy’s love as they play together and share everything. Cathy is also in love with Heathcliff but represses her feelings when she meets the Lintons. She realizes that Heathcliff has no social standing and feels inferior to him. Heathcliff also must build a wall to protect himself from being hurt. She marries Edgar Linnton in order to attain social status. By doing this, she sacrifices the chance to be together with Heathcliff. Heathcliff is the one that she truly loves. Cathy reveals to Nelly the reasons she chose Linton as her husband:
Nelly, I would never marry Heathcliff. I don’t love him because of his looks, but rather because he is more like me. He and I are both made from the same stuff, while Linton has a soul that is quite different.
Catherine realizes how deeply she loves Heathcliff. However, she is not ready to give up her dignity. Heathcliff, by now, has a hardened heart and is bitter. After his last visit, Catherine becomes so ill from stress that she eventually dies. Heathcliff never gets over his love for Catherine, but a child tells Nelly after Heathcliff is dead, “There’s Heathcliff with a lady, there, under t’Nab”. Cathy and Heathcliff never let their walls come down in life, unlike the lovers of tomorrow. Catherine and Hareton are both possessed of the same wildness that Heathcliff had and Catherine I. Catherine the second and Hareton share the same wild spirit as Heathcliff and the first Catherine. However, they are not united till their deaths. Catherine the second gives up her pride for Hareton.
ConclusionThe walls they build blind Catherine to Hareton’s qualities that are so similar to their own. Catherine has to be the first one to build a wall so that Hareton can see her as someone who could become a friend. Catherine and Hareton learn that the two have much more in common than a mere friendship. Both are similar in spirit, and their walls have been broken down to reveal love.
