Steven Finley

Finley1

Steven Finley

Mr. Berrier

AP English

12 February 2011

Wuthering Heights Chapters 4-9

In chapter 4, Ellen Dean takes over the narration of the story. She is currently one of Lockwood’s servants and Thrushcross Grange. Ellen was once a servant at Wuthering Heights and grew up with Catherine Earnshaw, Heathcliff, and Hindley. She also cared for Hareton as a child.
Mr. Earnshaw went on a trip to Liverpool, where he found a young orphan roaming the streets alone. When he could not find the owner of the boy, Mr. Earnshaw resolved to take him back to Wuthering Heights where he could care for him. They named the boy Heathcliff. Mr. Earnshaw treated Heathcliff exceptionally well, more so than his own two children, Hindley and Catherine. Whereas Catherine grew to love Heathcliff, this difference in treatment created an animosity between Heathcliff and Hindley, who felt the boy had stolen his father’s attention and care.
Catherine is a young girl whose outward comeliness does not reflect entirely her inner self. Ellen is not happy with Catherine’s independence and rebelliousness. Ellen wishes the girl would be more lady-like and polite, and respect her father.
One evening, after the two of them are banished from the sitting room, Heathcliff and Catherine wander off to Thrushcross Grange where they spy on the Linton children and find them arguing over a dog. They laugh at Edgar and Isabella who alert their parents of the intruders. Before they can get away another dog, bites Catherine by the ankle. Badly injured, Catherine cannot return home and is forced to remain at Thrushcross Grange while Heathcliff returns to Wuthering Heights alone. During her stay there, Catherine is refined by Mrs. Linton, and at Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff is ordered never to speak to Catherine again, and is forced to work like the other servants.
When Catherine returns to Wuthering Heights she is much more refined and pleasant than before. She arrives in a nice dress and politely greets everyone. She even takes care that the dogs shouldn’t dirty her dress. Hindley first humiliates Heathcliff by telling him that he may greet Catherine “like the other servants”. The next day, after Heathcliff has been washed up by Nelly, he is prepared to talk to Catherine, but Hindley prevents him by locking him away in order to keep him from the Linton children.
To help him forget about his pain, Heathcliff focuses on the day that he will finally get his revenge on Hindley.
After the death of his wife, Frances, Hindley becomes increasingly angry. He becomes a drunk and turns from religion. He treats his servants inhumanely and very few of them remain at Wuthering Heights. He steadily drives everyone out of his life so that he might be alone in his misery. He even abandons his own son, Hareton, to the care of Nelly. Once when he returns home severely drunk, Hindley seizes his son, and stumbling drops him from the balcony. However, unaware of what has just happened, Heathcliff arrives under the balcony just in time to save the falling child.
Catherine explains that she wants to marry Edgar because he is handsome, wealthy, young and he also loves her. She also believes that she will not be separated from Heathcliff because Edgar will have to accept her feelings for him and at least tolerate his presence. She also plans to use Edgar’s wealth to help Heathcliff better himself and get away from his pain at Wuthering Heights.
As Catherine explains her engagement to Edgar, Heathcliff listens to their conversation and overhears Catherine saying that she could not marry Heathcliff because that would degrade her, at which point Heathcliff storms off. He does not hear Catherine confess her love for him. That night, Heathcliff runs away and Catherine stays out all night in the rain searching and calling for him. This causes her to become ill with fever and she comes close to dying before she is taken into the care of the Lintons at Thrushcross Grange. By their care, Catherine recuperates; however, the elder Lintons each catch fever and die. As Catherine and Heathcliff are solely concerned with their love for one another, they easily disregard the welfare of others, much as their childhood welfare was disregarded, and many innocent people will become victims of their actions.
I believe Bronte wanted us to agree with Nelly. The purpose of having multiple narrators was to have the story unfold to the readers the same way that it did to Lockwood: in bits and pieces as it occurred to him. Nelly makes the reader think that Catherine somewhat deserves what happens as punishment for the way she acts.
Heathcliff’s Parents: Heathcliff’s parents would have had little effect on his life except for the effect of not being there. They left him on his own in Liverpool before an age where he really would have been able to gain much from being with them. Mr Earnshaw: Mr. Earnshaw had some positive and negative effects on Heathcliff’s development. First of all, he was able to save the young boy from an uncertain future in Liverpool, and to bring him home where he could care for him and ensure a better life. However, Mr. Earnshaw’s indulgent treatment of Heathcliff also bred in him a certain pride and sense of importance. It also created the divide between Hindley and Heathcliff that later did so much to send Heathcliff down a path of hatred and misery. Mrs. Earnshaw: Mrs. Earnshaw had little to do with Heathcliff’s development since she died not long after his arrival at Wuthering Heights. However, like her son, Hindley, she had a distaste towards the boy, and as Hindley’s mother, she probably served to set the example of dislike for Heathcliff that Hindley followed throughout his life. Hindley: After Mr. Earnshaw’s death, Hindley became the major authoritative figure in Heathcliff’s life. Hindley, as the master of Wuthering Heights essentially served as a father, however bad a one, to Heathcliff and Catherine. With no other to answer to but himself, Hindley’s hatred and ill treatment of Heathcliff grew, and he steadily bred in the boy a returned hatred for him and all things at Wuthering Heights. Joseph: Joseph also treated Heathcliff terribly. He viewed the worst in him and condemned him, believing that Heathcliff deserved his torture he on earth as well as in eternity. Nelly: Nelly, although she may not have entirely liked Heathcliff, was, unlike the others, able to feel sympathy for him, and on many occasions she did a great deal to help him. Without her presence, Heathcliff would have probably filled himself completely with hatred at a very young age and most likely would have been uncontrollable. Catherine: Catherine probably had the greatest influence on Heathcliff’s childhood. She showed him that love exists in the world. Her affection and company was the only constant crutch Heathcliff had in a world that hated him.
Thrushcross Grange is a much larger and grander and wealthier place than Wuthering Heights. It has beautiful carpets, white ceilings with gold trim, amazing chandeliers. Thrushcross Grange is also inhabited by much more civil people, the Lintons.
Edgar is Heathcliff’s foil because he is exceptionally handsome, clean, wealthy, good-natured, polite, and happy. Heathcliff, on the other hand, is not as physically appealing, diry, poor, full of hate, excessively rude, and completely miserable.
Hindley struggles against Heathcliff because he feels, as a boy, that Heathcliff stole his father’s love from him and usurped Hindley’s own place as the young master of the house. Heathcliff struggles against Hindley because of how Hindley treats him. Hindley made Heathcliff’s life miserable as a child by attempting to separate him from Catherine and he has always tried to get revenge on him.
When Catherine is with Edgar she is lady-like and polite and does not say anything when Edgar insults Heathcliff. However when Catherine is with Heathcliff she returns to her mischievous and ill-tempered self. Catherine is fighting with herself between her love for Heathcliff and her desires to help him and herself by marrying Edgar.
The storm outside the house symbolizes the turmoil that is occurring within it from Heathcliff’s disappearance. Finally the tree is split, much like Catherine and Heathcliff will be after Edgar marries Catherine.