Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Feminist Perspective
The feminist perspective of Wuthering Heights analyzes Catherine through her diary and the marriages she had gone through as well as the non marriage to Heathcliff. In fact, the author Lyn Pykett argues that Catherine Heathcliff was her true identity, even though she had never married Heathcliff to begin with. It was an interesting claim, and I think I agree with it especially after completing our letter writing assignment. It was always clear to me that Catherine had felt something very strong for Heathcliff, even if they were a little destructive with each other at times. I think if she would have chosen to marry someone on love alone, it would have been Heathcliff because they were both very passionate about each other. Unfortunately, during that time loving someone for love and love alone did not seem to be very popular or even allowed. It was all about your status, and what husband would give you the most financially which is why Catherine never married Heathcliff. He couldn't provide her all of those things, but it was still easy to see that the two had a chemistry together, which I believe Pykett also noticed when giving a feminist perspective of the novel.
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I agree-- I think that Catherine belonged with Heathcliff, and that she did end up choosing status over love, perhaps to simplify things when all she really ended up doing was complicating things and making herself unhappy. Maybe Bronte was arguing for love instead of societal status, for going against the grain and "following your heart", as cheesy as that may be.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that Catherine Heathcliff was her "true" identity and that had she married for love it would have been Heathcliff. I think an Ironic twist actually is that you say she married for finacial stability and Heathcliff couldn't provide that for her but actually in the end he could have given her that and more
ReplyDeleteCatherine should have married Heathcliff even in those times standards I feel. But I wonder... if Catherine did decide to marry Heathcliff, would Heathcliff still become the way he became? Would he have become the mischievous, vindictive, and sullen person that the book makes him out to be?
ReplyDeleteAlso, as the reason for Catherine's marriage was that she wanted social standing, what would Heathcliff and Catherine's marriage turn out? Heathcliff's small amount of education versus Catherine's large estate and education, would it have caused friction between them later on?
In this book social standing represents more than happiness, it represents the willingness to furgo happiness for status. This idea is what I feel Pykett is trying to hint at and what Heathcliff sees as a double insult to someone he loves.