33 - Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Norton, 2002

432 pages

Date completed: June 8, 2010

I was mainly drawn to this novel for a reason I am somewhat ashamed to admit: lately, I feel as though I need to read more so-called “classics.” I realize that “classic” is just a label created by society and foisted upon random books that seem worthy of attention to certain people, but nevertheless, the pressure to read them feels monumental, especially in relation to my recent graduation.

Overall, my reading of Wuthering Heights proved to be very frustrating, mostly because the characters irritated me to no end. None of them seemed redeemable in any way: Catherine is selfish and spiteful, Heathcliff is abusive, Nelly is a sullen spy who serves her own ends; the list could continue for many paragraphs. Each character either dumbfounded or annoyed me with his or her actions throughout the novel: I was in awe that anyone would want to read about people who are so blatantly evil to one another. I don’t mean that in a naïve way: it just grew tiresome to read, over and over, about the ways in which these characters messed up one another’s lives. Since I hated the characters so much, I did not sympathize with them at all.

I did notice that despite my hatred for the characters, for some reason I was quite drawn into the book. I had trouble putting it down sometimes, and was very interested in what would happen next. It seems that despite all of the book’s negative qualities, there is something that is appealing about it, although I have no idea what that might be. This was an interesting revelation for me—I have never, upon close examination, been unable to identify the reasons that I am attracted to a certain book. Wuthering Heights, on the other hand, has stumped me. Perhaps I was just interested in discovering what further abuses the characters could possibly come up with to torture one another.