Themes (AQA A-Level English Literature A): Revision Notes

Themes

Themes are the central ideas explored throughout a literary work. They often address universal human experiences and help us understand the deeper meanings within a text. In Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë explores several interconnected themes that drive the narrative and shape our understanding of the characters and their motivations.

The destructiveness of a love that never changes

Catherine and Heathcliff's all-consuming passion

The relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff stands at the heart of Wuthering Heights. Their intense connection proves stronger and more enduring than any other emotion portrayed in the novel, acting as the driving force behind most of the major conflicts that shape the story. Throughout the narrative, Nelly Dean criticises their relationship harshly, condemning their passion as immoral. Despite this moral judgement, their love remains one of the most powerful and memorable elements of the text, capturing readers' attention and sympathy.

Two contrasting love stories

Brontë structures the novel around two parallel romantic relationships that offer contrasting visions of love:

• Catherine and Heathcliff: The first half centres on this passionate, destructive relationship rooted in childhood
• Cathy and Hareton: The second half presents the developing affection between these younger characters, which ultimately brings peace and order to both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange

The crucial difference between these relationships lies in their capacity for growth and transformation. Cathy and Hareton's love story demonstrates positive development. Early in the novel, Hareton appears brutal, uncivilised and illiterate. However, through his relationship with Cathy, he evolves into a loyal companion and learns to read. Similarly, Cathy's attitude transforms from initial contempt to genuine love.

The unchanging nature of Catherine and Heathcliff's bond

In sharp contrast, Catherine and Heathcliff's relationship is characterised by its refusal to adapt or evolve. Their love originates in their shared childhood and remains fixed by their resistance to change. When Catherine decides to marry Edgar, she seeks a more refined existence, yet she refuses to adapt to her role as wife—either by sacrificing her feelings for Heathcliff or by fully embracing her marriage to Edgar.

Heathcliff, for his part, demonstrates an almost supernatural ability to maintain identical attitudes and nurse the same resentments over many years.

Their love is based on a shared perception of being fundamentally identical. Catherine famously declares, "I am Heathcliff." Heathcliff, upon Catherine's death, wails that he cannot live without his soul, meaning Catherine. This love denies difference and remains strangely asexual—they do not embrace passionate physical encounters or arrange secret meetings, as conventional adulterers might.

Life as a process of change

The novel ultimately presents life as a process of change, celebrating this transformation through the inevitable passage of time and the emergence of a new generation. Wuthering Heights does not overcome the disastrous problems of its characters through some dramatic reversal, but simply through time passing and a new, distinct generation rising. This suggests that Catherine and Heathcliff's inability to change makes their love ultimately destructive rather than redemptive.

The precariousness of social class

Understanding the British class system

The Earnshaw and Linton families occupy a somewhat uncertain position within the hierarchy of late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century British society. Understanding this social structure is essential for grasping the characters' motivations:

The crucial distinction is that whilst the aristocracy held settled, formal social positions through their official titles, the gentry possessed no such security. Their status was subject to change and could be questioned by neighbours.

Determining gentlemanly status

A discussion of whether someone truly qualified as a gentleman would consider various factors:

• How much land he owned
• How many tenants and servants he employed
• How he spoke
• Whether he kept horses and a carriage
• Whether his money came from land or from trade (gentlemen scorned banking and commercial activities)

Class motivations in Wuthering Heights

Social class considerations crucially influence the characters' decisions throughout the novel. Catherine's choice to marry Edgar so she will be "the greatest woman of the neighbourhood" provides the most obvious example.

The Lintons maintain relatively firm gentry status but nevertheless take great pains to demonstrate this position through their behaviour. The Earnshaws, conversely, rest on much shakier social ground. They lack a carriage, possess less land, and their house—as Lockwood observes with considerable puzzlement—resembles that of a homely, northern farmer rather than that of a gentleman.

Heathcliff's social trajectory

The shifting nature of social status receives its most striking demonstration through Heathcliff's journey. Despite being status-conscious, Lockwood observes that Heathcliff qualifies as a gentleman only in dress and manners. Heathcliff's trajectory takes him from homeless orphan to adopted young gentleman to common labourer to gentleman again through his own efforts.

Brontë's commentary on class disruption

Whilst Brontë appears sympathetic to Heathcliff's frustration with the class system, she also suggests he oversteps acceptable bounds when he attempts to disrupt it by inserting himself into established hierarchies. The novel presents class disruptions as negative forces that must be eliminated for peace and order to return.

The fact that Heathcliff receives different treatment simply because of his family background seems clearly unfair. Nelly tries to console him by suggesting the imagined background of high birth, saying, "You're fit for a prince in disguise... I would frame high notions of my birth, and the thoughts of what I was should give me courage and dignity to support the oppressions of a little farmer."

However, Brontë also implies that Heathcliff goes too far in his attempts to disrupt the social order. Nelly pointedly calls Hareton "the last of the ancient Earnshaw stock," and later refers to him as someone who should be "the first gentleman of the neighbourhood." When Heathcliff dies, Joseph thanks God that "the lawful master and the ancient stock were restored to their rights."

Heathcliff achieves his vision of lying next to the elder Catherine for eternity, but he must be removed from the class system entirely if anyone can lead happy and peaceful lives.

The futility of revenge

Heathcliff's driving obsession

Revenge becomes the central focus of Heathcliff's existence and drives most of his decisions throughout the latter part of the novel. Though Heathcliff gains some bitter satisfaction through causing pain to others, revenge ultimately does not achieve personal happiness for him. Instead, his single-minded pursuit of vengeance leaves him empty and exhausted.

After suffering torment from Hindley as a child, Heathcliff becomes obsessed with the idea of obtaining revenge. By exploiting Hindley's debt, Heathcliff gains control of Wuthering Heights and becomes master of the house—a great irony considering he once worked there as essentially a servant.

Methods of revenge

Heathcliff seeks further revenge on Hindley by raising Hareton in the same manner that Hindley once raised him. He subjects the boy—who should have grown up as a gentleman and landowner—to the same indignity Hindley once inflicted on Heathcliff, forcing him into the life of a common servant.

Heathcliff remains fully aware of his cruelty. As he explains to Nelly, he understands Hareton's suffering: "I know what he suffers now, for instance, exactly—it is merely a beginning of what he shall suffer, though."

Moreover, Heathcliff derives perverse pleasure from knowing that Hareton loves and respects him despite his terrible treatment.

The achievement and futility of revenge

Heathcliff eventually achieves his entire plan of revenge, including marrying Cathy to Linton so that he gains control of Thrushcross Grange as well. However, his death—alone and desperate for his lost love—represents the ultimate futility of his struggle.

Though he achieved his desired revenge on those, living and dead, who had wronged him, he remains unfulfilled in his true desire: to be reunited with Catherine. This reunion can only be achieved in death, suggesting that all his earthly machinations proved ultimately pointless.