My AP Literature and Composition class is currently reading Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte. Twice a week we write a reflection on what we have read and then convene into small groups and dicuss themes, motifs, etc.
Yesterday one of my classmates made the offhand comment that Heathcliff loved Catherine, and that she loved him in return. This would normally be a harmless point to make, but I think that the definition of "love" is being stretched a little too far in this case. I have also been charged by George Orwell not to change the defintions of words to fit my meaning, but to change the words that I use and find the most specific and concise words possible.
I do not believe that the emotion Heathcliff and Catherine feel for eachother is love. It may have been love at one point, but it has been so changed by their perversions and selfishness that it is similar to love the way a raisin is to a grape. (The raisin is still technically a grape, but ask Calvus if they are really the same.) How can we use love to describe Heathcliff and Catherine's passion when we also say that Jesus loves his creation? Jesus' own description of love does not even begin to resemble the selfish obsession that Heathcliff and Catherine mistake for something grander. "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. 1 Corinthians 13:4"
Obsession would be a better word to use for these two characters. Heathcliff does not care for Catherine's happiness, he is too concerned with his own desires. He actually curses her spirit to wander the earth on her deathbed, and hopes to keep her from paradise so that he may have something left of her. He marries a woman that he despises just to anger Catherine, and ruins the life of every character he comes into contact with because of his twisted and perverted idea of "love."
Edgar, on the other hand, is a man who truly loves his wife. He loves Catherine in spite of her, as C.S. Lewis would say. He allows Catherine to continue her friendship with an obviously infatuated man until he begins to make advances towards his sister, he tends to her when she purposely makes herself sick, and he does not destroy those around him just to be with Catherine. Even after her death, Edgar displays true love by grieving for a time, but then loving his daughter all the more and allowing the memory of his wife to be at peace. Heathcliff and another character, Hindley, cannot be at peace after their lover and wife are gone. The former abuses his wife and child, and becomes a menace to all who come in contact with him, while the latter becomes a drunkard and a fiend, neglecting his son and allowing him to become a savage.
I think that love is too easily confused with selfishness and obsession. I am not sure if this is because the modern portrayl of "true love" is so inaccurate or because we have too insufficient a vocabulary to describe certain relationships. But even if I am completely wrong with my analysis and Heathcliff really does love Catherine, his conduct is in no way justified.
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