九州大学学術情報リポジトリKyushu University Institutional Repository
Catherine Earnshaw as the Spine of a Book : TheDuplication of Self in Wuthering Heights
Ukai, NobumitsuKyushu University, Faculty of Humanities, Department of Language and Literature : AssociateProfessor : English Literature
https://doi.org/10.15017/7664
出版情報:文學研究. 103, pp.43-74, 2006-03-31. Kyushu University Faculty of Humanitiesバージョン:権利関係:
Catherine Earnshaw as the Spine of a Book----.;The Duplication of Self in Wuthering Heights-
Nobumitsu Ukai
The symmetrical pedigree of the Earnshaws and the Lintons, as Charles
Percy Sanger has pointed out, somewhat resembles the form of a book
which, when opened, becomes like a bird with its wings spread (73). Like
Heathcliff and Catherine whose longings for the union of their souls seem
to be satisfied at the end of the novel, the two wings of a book, when read
through, are closed and thus unified. Or like the spine of a book which
cannot be, like a bird, without its two wing-like covers, Catherine refuses
to choose between her two indispensable wings, Heathcliff and Edgar.
"Thrushcross," the name of the estate of the Lintons, seems to be related
to the cross·like shape of a bird with spread wings, symbolising Catherine
who, like a bird's body, or the spine of a book, is the centre of a cross-like
symmetry.
It may seem fanciful to give too much attention to the motif of a single
book in examining a novel which was published in two volumes before its
author's death; but "the book" in Wuthering Heights is so singularly
recurrent an image as to have attracted much critical attention (McKib
ben, 159-69). Like an audience watching an audience on the stage
watching a play within a play, the reader of Wuthering Heights often sees
characters reading a book. Deprived of the chance of book learning,
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Catherine Earnshaw as the Spine of a Book
Heathcliff in his boyhood has to anguish over his increasing distance from
Catherine. Having hurled books on the fire in a fit of anger at Catherine
Il's insult, and thus been ever more alienated from her, Hareton, later,
after receiving a book offered by her, is reconciled with her and acquires
her affection. And as we will see in the first section, Catherine and
Heathcliff are split up, as if revenged on by the two books of Joseph's
which they hurled and kicked into the dog-kennel.
I
The outset of the alienation between Catherine and Heathc1iff is their
expedition to Thrushcross Grange, where Catherine has her foot bitten by
a watchdog, and is taken care of by the Lintons. About the disappear
ance of the two on that day, Nelly Dean only scantily narrates, "One
Sunday evening, it chanced that they were banished from the sitting
room, for making a noise, or a light offence of the kind, and when I went
to call them to supper, I could discover them nowhere"(36; ch. 6). Yet
from the day's being a rainy Sunday not long after the death of Mr.
Earnshaw, and the dairy woman's cloak's being borrowed to keep out the
rain in both the descriptions (17; ch. 3) (39-40; ch. 6), we can infer that
Catherine's diary scribbled in the margin of a book, which Lockwood
reads during his stay at Wuthering Heights describes the happenings
before their fatal expedition on that day.
The heavy rain preventing their churchgoing on that Sunday, Joseph
assembles Catherine, Heathcliff and the plough-boy in the garret and
preaches for three hours before the shivering congregation. Freed at
length from this ordeal, Catherine burrows herself with Heathcliff in the
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Catherine Earnshaw as the Spine of a Book
arch of the dresser and they make themselves "as snug as" their means
allow, hanging up their fastened pinafores for a curtain. But Joseph, who
has come on an errand to the living room, boxes Catherine's ears and
scolds her for her indecency just after her father's burial, perhaps suspect
ing some sexual intimacy between the two. He then proceeds to inflict
on them the perusal of two religious books, "The Helmet of Salvation,"
and "The Broad Way to Destruction," the former of which Catherine
hurls into the dog-kennel, seizing it by the spine, which is riven by this
maltreatment. The latter of those two books is kicked to the same place
by Heathcliff. Banished to the kitchen, Catherine records those happen
ings in a book she found there and at Heathcliff's suggestion they depart
to scamper about on the moor under the shelter of the dairy woman's
cloak.
Catherine begins her scribbled record of the day by impeaching Hindley
for his atrocious conduct to Heathcliff and writes, "H. and I are going to
rebel-we took our initiatory step this evening" (16; ch. 3), and their first
initiatory step was their hurling and kicking Joseph's books. The reason
for their decision to go to Thrushcross Grange is also related to the
oppression they are suffering, for they go there to see whether children
are treated so cruelly in other houses. Yet, Catherine, who declared that
they had taken their initiatory "step" of their rebellion, has her foot bitten
by the watchdog ofthe Lintons. Or, if we regard the spine of a book as
symbolic of Catherine, she harms herself by her own rebellion. The
opening of a rift between Catherine and Heathcliff does not wait until
Catherine returns five weeks later, groomed by the Lintons. As early as
the day of their rebellion, Catherine begins to forget Heathcliff, who,
spying on the Lintons attending her, waits in vain outside the window for
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Catherine Earnshaw as the Spine of a Book
the moment when she wishes to return with him.
The very act of their rebellion brings about evils to Catherine and
Heathcliff, just as Lockwood's rebellion against Jabes Branderham trig
gers Jabes's declaration of war. In his dream, exasperated by Jabes's
interminable sermon dwelling on the four hundred and ninety sins, Lock
wood loses patience at the commencement of the four hundred and
ninety-first part of the sermon and rises to denounce Jabes, who, in turn,
orders his congregation to "execute upon him the judgment written,"
citing a part of the Psalms 149.9, and thus endowing his order with the
authority of the book. Jabes, the author of the book which Lockwood
read falling half asleep, seems to take revenge in the name of the book.
Having hurled and kicked books in their rebellion, Catherine and Heath
cliff are also forced to proceed to their separation in this world, as if by
the books' curse and the revenge. Books in Wuthering Heights seem to
be able to work magic to revenge themselves by afflicting those who have
harmed them.
Yet this outset of the separation between Catherine and Heathcliff has
another important meaning besides that of the books' revenge. The
books they hurled and kicked were not the Bible, though they were of a
religious kind. Hindley and Joseph, against whom they revolted, were,
however wrongful, only puny beings. But Catherine and Heathcliff
rebelled against the teaching for the infinite forgiveness and endurance of
any persecution. Christ taught to forgive the same sinner infinitely, not
definitely until seventy times seven, and taught not to retaliate on the
sinner even for the four hundred and ninety-first sin. Catherine and
Heathcliff rebel, disobeying this teaching of infinite forgiveness, and, as if
by way of punishment, their union is severed.
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Catherine Earnshaw as the Spine of a Book
This suggests that, despite the impression of the flood-like permeation
of revengefulness, the supreme rule of this novel is that teaching of
Christ's which deems revenge as sin. Though that teaching of "forgive
ness" inconsistently precludes forgiveness for its disobeyers, this novel
integrates into itself as its absolute rule the teaching of infinite forgive
ness advocating acceptance of all affliction, and commanding to offer the
left cheek if slapped on the right. In the novel, that teaching does not
delight human beings. Instead the novel depicts how one is irresistively
compelled to act against that teaching and how, having once disobeyed it,
one has to live, henceforth, inevitably burdened with the punishment for
that transgression. Like Satan, whose rebellion against God precipitated
his descent into Hell, or like Eve and Adam, exiled from the Paradise on
account of their eating the forbidden fruit, Catherine and Heathcliff,
punished for their disobedience to the teaching of infinite forgiveness, lose
their paradisal unity without the third person, Edgar, and have to endure
that loss as long as they live.
II
Catherine and Heathcliff's loss of Paradise is irreversible. Much later,
just as Catherine does not choose to desert her husband Edgar for
Heathcliff, so does Heathcliff not think of taking her back from Edgar.
Both of them behave as if the marital ties between Catherine and Edgar,
once formed, are indissoluble. This attitude of theirs would be attribut
able, at least partly, to the novel's symbolic expression of the irrever
sibility of their loss of Paradise. The stream of the beck whose burble is
heard several times in the novel seems to express, by its inability to flow
47
Catherine Earnshaw as the Spine of a Book
against gravitation, an irreversibility similar to their loss of Paradise.
And, along with the downward transition of the novel's locus from the
"Heights" to the churchyard of Gimmerton near a swamp, that beck
suggests the irreversible progress of life which, like rivers flowing into the
sea, flows into the tranquility of death.
During his last meeting with Catherine before her death, Heathcliff
criticises her desertion of him for Edgar. The word "will" in it also
suggests that Adam and Eve's loss is superimposed upon the separation of
Catherine and Heathcliff:
You loved me-then what right had you to leave me? What right
-answer me-for the poor fancy you felt for Linton? Because
misery, and degradation, and death, and nothing that God or Satan
could inflict would have parted us, you, of your own will, did it. I
have not broken your heart-you have broken it-and in breaking it,
you have broken mine. (125; ch. 15)
Human beings are endowed with free will, despite the danger of its
exposing them to the possibility of committing sin. Deceived by Satan,
but of her own free will, Eve disobeys God. Likewise, Catherine chooses
to marry Edgar and, though against her will, drives Heathcliff into
running away. As Heathcliff was also in the rebellion which permitted
the introduction of the third person Edgar, he is jointly responsible for
their separation, yet it is only of her own free will, as Heathcliff accuses,
that later on she chooses to marry Edgar. The novel thus expresses how
one loses Paradise by voluntary choice, like Eve, who voluntarily sins and
is exiled from the Garden of Eden.
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Catherine Earnshaw as the Spine of a Book
When demanded by Edgar after their marriage to choose between him
and Heathcliff, Catherine refuses, showing a peculiar insistence on retain
ing both lovers. Yet, formerly, in her confession to Nelly of her troubled
mind on the evening she accepted Edgar's proposal, she says she would
not have thought of marrying Edgar if Hindley had not brought Heath
cliff down so low, implying she might have married Heathcliff as a matter
of course. Though transcending physical union, the love between Cather
ine and Heathcliff does not seem to preclude their marriage. Neither
"degradation" in the social position nor "misery" in needy circumstances
could have prevented their marriage, but of her own free will, she chooses
to marry Edgar.
In her mind, however, despite the decision to marry Edgar, Catherine
does not choose between him and Heathcliff. She thinks optimistically
that even after her marriage with Edgar she can keep Heathcliff around
her. Her love for Heathcliff does not seek marriage, though it does not
preclude it, and she can be completely satisfied if she can only retain him
near her. In this she differs from Heathcliff whose love for her cannot
be satisfied except by marriage, and he vanishes in despair at her engage
ment. In agony over the news of his disappearance and drenched in the
ensuing thunderstorm, she gets critically ill. Delirious in her fever,
Catherine hovers between life and death, excruciated by the loss of
Heathcliff.
Even after her recovery, Catherine is never freed from the senous
threats of a fit. The doctor's remark that she would not bear much
crossing makes her feel authorised to have her own way and, ever more
arrogant, she tyrannises the household. Also in Thrushcross Grange
after marrying Edgar three years later, she continues to be a tyrant,
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Catherine Earnshaw as the Spine of a Book
taking both Edgar and Isabella's unilateral concessions for granted. Yet
after Heathcliff's return, Edgar reveals his selfishness and urges her to
choose between him and Heathcliff. Rekindled by this mutiny of
Edgar's, Catherine's illness flares up again, and her loss of Heathcliff,
resulting from her former decision of marriage with Edgar, in the end
leads to her death.
Of importance in considering Catherine's loss of Heathcliff is Hidley's
prohibition on their habit of sharing the oak-panelled bed. That prohibi
tion was inflicted upon them soon after the death of Mr. Earnshaw when
they were about twelve. The age twelve corresponds to the period when
Catherine can no longer be sexless and is forced to have physical and
physiological features as a woman. Or, as Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan
Gubar believe, in the separation from Heathcliff, Catherine loses "the
androgynous wholeness of childhood" (284). In her delirium during the
recrudescence of her illness at Thrushcross Grange, Catherine raves
about the sense of alienation which dates back to the prohibition on her
sharing the bed with Heathcliff, and she craves a return to Wuthering
Heights. Her agony over the loss of Heathcliff is partly attributable to
her grief over her growth and loss of sexlessness. One of the meanings,
therefore, of Catherine's refusal to choose Heathcliff at the either-or
choice urged by Edgar is to be found in the symbolic expression of the
irreversibility of growth from infantile sexlessness to womanhood.
Catherine's tragic loss of Heathcliff corresponds to the enforcement of
sexual difference upon the growing individual.
Catherine's relapse into illness is, in her thoughts, directly connected
with a feeling of being wronged and her subsequent need for revenge.
Though free from jealousy, Catherine feels herself to be wronged by
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Catherine Earnshaw as the Spine of a Book
Heathc1iff's attempt at marrying Isabella, as it baffles her hope of retain
ing him around her by antagonising Edgar, who has so far tolerated her
association with Heathc1iff.. She also feels herself to be unduly wronged
by Edgar, who, though she thinks she has strived for him to check
Heathc1iff's attempt, spoils her efforts by untimely intrusion and, more
over, proceeds to forbid her association with Heathc1iff from petty jeal
ousy. Exasperated at her wish to keep Heathc1iff as her friend thus
being threatened to be thwarted, she thinks of avenging their wrong
doings upon them by breaking her own heart, which she hopes will break
theirs.
The connection between her mental distraction and her revengefulness
can also be seen in her complaint about Edgar's indifference to her
suffering. After three days and nights of fasting, thinking that Edgar has
not been tortured as she hoped by her distraction, she says to Nelly:
Nelly, if it be not too late, as soon as I learn how he feels, I'll choose
between these two: either to starve at once-that would be no
punishment unless he had a heart-or to recover and leave the
country. Are you speaking the truth about him now? Take care.
Is he actually so utterly indifferent for my life ? (94; ch. 12)
The latter alternative "to recover and leave the country" seems to imply
with Heathdiff. In order to punish Edgar, if he does not grieve over her
death, Catherine even thinks of exiling herself with Heathdiff. On the
other hand, at the beginning of her last meeting with Heathc1iff, Catherine
accuses him of having broken her heart together with Edgar, with a wild
vindictiveness on her face, her hand seizing Heathcliff's hair, and insists
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Catherine Earnshaw as the Spine of a Book
that she would not pity them even if they should suffer.
This vengefulness, and the feeling of being wronged make Catherine
unaware of her own unreasonableness in that she does not choose to
desert Edgar, though this choice is available if she refuses to separate
from Heathcliff. After Edgar begins to nurse her personally, Catherine
is satisfied by it and thinks no longer of leaving the country with
Heathcliff, only being conscious of the imminence of her death. As
formerly mentioned, Catherine is tyrannical over both Heathcliff and
Edgar. Her vindictiveness and feeling of being wronged at the time of
her fatal illness can be thought of as a tyrant's anger at her slaves' selfish
quarrels thwarting their ruler's will. From this point of view, her refusal
of the choice of Heathcliff or Edgar seems also to derive from her
attachment to the position of absolute ruler over both.
We have seen that the meanings of Catherine's refusal of the choice
between Heathcliff and Edgar are to be found in the symbolic expression
of the irreversibility of both her loss of Paradise and growth from infan
tile sexlessness to womanhood, and in her attachment to her position as
the absolute ruler over both. We might think that Catherine cannot
choose to marry Heathcliff, who is more herself than she is, as one cannot
marry with oneself. But this view is a little questionable, because
Catherine takes it for granted that she would marry Heathcliff if Hindley
had not degraded him. Yet the uniqueness of Catherine's love for
Heathcliff, who she thinks is more herself than she is, suggests another
meaning of her refusal of the choice between the two.
Heathcliff's and Edgar's love for Catherine seem dissimilar, yet both
loves seek to monopolise her. Being quite different from them, and
without a desire for exclusive possession, Catherine's love for Heathcliff
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Catherine Earnshaw as the Spine of a Book
has as its perennial, rock-like basis the similarity which she feels in their
souls. But Heathcliff, though so singularly loved, does not accept that
uniqueness in her love. Unsatisfiable except by monopoly of Catherine,
he feels himself to have been betrayed over her marriage with Edgar, and
seeks compensatory revenge on others except his own tyrant. On the
other hand, Edgar gets intolerant of her associating with Heathcliff, and
tries to exclude him.
Not seeking monopoly, Catherine's love for Heathcliff can be free from
jealousy for Isabella, even when he tries to marry her, yet it is also
compatible with her marrying Edgar if Heathcliff continues to be around
her. Though Catherine's arms can hold both Heathcliff and Edgar in this
unique compatibility, both lovers tug at each of the arms from opposite
sides so as to monopolise her. If we take up again the image of Cather
ine as a bird with spread wings, the image can be of her figure when she
is thus tugged from opposite sides by Heathcliff and Edgar, or the image
can encompass the broad embrace of her wing-like arms. Underlying
Catherine's refusal of choice between Heathcliff and Edgar is her agony
over her widespread accommodation not being understood or accepted by
the two.
III
During their last meeting, when Heathcliff accuses Catherine of having
severed their tie of her own free will, she says, "If I've done wrong, I'm
dying for it. It is enough! You left me too" (125; ch 15), blaming him for
having run away from her. Undoubtedly, though Catherine chooses to
marry Edgar, if Heathcliff had been forbearing enough not to leave, their
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Catherine Earnshaw as the Spine of a Book
separation, at least for her, would not have happened. Therefore, not
. only Catherine's inability to endure the "misery" and "degradation" which
would follow her marriage with Heathcliff, but also the overpossessive
ness of his love for her, which made her engagement with Edgar unbear
able, is responsible for her loss of him.
In the uniqueness of her love for Heathcliff, Catherine seems to eclipse
Heathcliff and Edgar. Yet Heathcliff, too, is outstanding, in the intensity
of his desire to be united with Catherine's soul. His inhumanly wild love
for her, though it is monopolistic like Edgar's love for her, also makes him
much more impressive than Edgar. For this very reason, however, it
seems anticlimatic that Heathcliff continues to live for eighteen years
after Catherine's death. Many readers have questioned this long survival
of his, though not so sarcastically as Isabella does on the night of the day
of Catherine's burial:
Heathcliff, if I were you, I'd go stretch myself over her grave and die
like a faithful dog. The world is surely not worth living in now, is
it? You had distinctly impressed on me the idea that Catherine was
the whole joy of your life. I can't imagine how you think of surviv
ing her loss. (136; ch. 17)
One of the reasons for Heathcliff's survival could be his revengefulness,
but also the visitation of Catherine's soul to him at her grave in Gimmer
ton churchyard, over which he did not die "like a faithful dog," seems to
have a deep connection with those reasons. We will see this in the
following discussion.
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Catherine Earnshaw as the Spine of a Book
After Catherine's death, Heathcliff calls for her soul to visit him,
possessed with a wild desire to see its figure. At the dawn of the day
when Catherine dies at two o'clock in the morning, Heathcliff, enraged by
Ne1ly's report that her dead face was calm, vociferously prays that she
may not rest after death:
Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest, as long as I am living! You
said I killed you-haunt me, then! The murdered do haunt their
murderers, I believe. I know that ghosts have wandered on earth.
Be with me always-take any form-drive me mad ! only do not
leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! it is
unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without
my soul! (129; ch. 16)
This passage, though suggestive of the difficulty of Heathcliff's life after
Catherine's death, does not directly show the reason for his survival. Yet
the vehemence of his longing for the visitation of her soul, which this
passage indicates, is a siginificant emphasis.
The above scene is on Monday, and on Tuesday evening Heathcliff has
a chance of seeing Catherine's corpse, but he mutely deserts, only replac
ing Edgar's hair in her locket with his own. Every night until her burial,
he lurks in Thrushcross Grange, spying on the house, but late Friday night
he returns to Wuthering Heights. That afternoon it happens to begin
snowing, though it has been warm until then, and Isabella mocks him for
his feeble inability to bear a shower of snow. That night, Hindley locks
all the entrances to shoot Heathcliff, but is hindered by Isabella's
betrayal. Next morning, Isabella succeeds in enraging Heathcliff to such
55
Catherine Earnshaw as the Spine of a Book
an extent as to make him forget his discreet forbearance from violence to
her, and, having a dinner knife flung at her, but, as if satisfied by her
successful retaliation, she at length flies from Wuthering Heights.
About the night of Catherine's burial and the following morning, only
the commotions brought about by Hindley and Isabella are described.
Heathcliff's unusually early return that night is not, as Isabella suggests,
due to the sudden onslaught of a cold weather. The true reason is shown
only eighteen or so years later in Heathcliff's reminiscence, told to Nelly
when he comes to Thrushcross Grange to fetch Catherine 11 to Wuthering
Heights on the evening of Edgar's funeral. He recounts to Nelly how he
felt the existence of Catherine's soul at the edge of her grave when he was
trying to open her newly buried coffin:
'If I can only get this off,' 1 muttered, 'I wish they may shovel in the
earth over us both!' and I wrenched at it more desperately still.
There was another sigh, close at my ear. I appeared to feel the
warm breath of it displacing the sleet-laden wind. 1 knew no living
thing in flesh and blood was by; but as certainly as you perceive the
approach to some substantial body in the dark, though it cannot be
discerned, so certainly 1 felt that Cathy was there, not under me, but
on the earth. (219; ch. 29)
Following this, he expresses the joy he felt at this visitation of Catherine's
soul:
A sudden sense of relief flowed from my heart through every limb.
1 relinquished my labour of agony, and turned consoled at once,
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Catherine Earnshaw as the Spine of a Book
unspeakably consoled. Her presence was with me; it remained while
I re-filled the grave, and led me home. You may laugh, if you will,
but I was sure I should see her there. I was sure she was with me,
and I could not help talking to her. (220; ch. 29)
Returning home and eluding Hindley's attempt on his life, he hurries
upstairs to his room, formerly Catherine's. Here, he can still feel her
close existence, but, try as he might, he cannot "see" her. Henceforth for
eighteen years, he continues to be racked by these invariably false
premonitions that he will at last be able to see her. He expresses the
long-sustained agony as that of being beguiled by "the spectre of hope,"
seeing this as "a strange way of killing, not by inches, but by fractions of
hair-breadths" (220; ch. 29).
Heathcliff, however, has also been forced to live by that "spectre of
hope." If he had opened Catherine's coffin and embraced her body, his
passion would have kept him at her grave till he froze to death. Yet the
visitation of Catherine's soul deters him from opening her coffin and
makes him leave her grave. And the hope engendered by this experience
of feeling close at hand the existence of Catherine's soul halts him from
freezing suicidally to death and goads him to live on.
Heathcliff is worked upon to come to her, not through her grave, but
through other ways, to which a part of Catherine's feverish speech after
fasting for three days and nights corresponds. In her delirium, she
recollects that they tested their courage at Gimmerton churchyard, daring
each other to brave its ghosts:
But Heathcliff, if I dare you now, will you venture? If you do, I'll
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Catherine Earnshaw as the Spine of a Book
keep you. I'll not lie there by myself; they may bury me twelve feet
deep, and throw the church down over me, but I won't rest till you are
with me. I never will !"
She paused, and resumed with a strange smile, "He's considering
-he'd rather I'd come to him! Find a way, then! not through that
Kirkyard. You are slow! Be content, you always followed me !"
(98; ch. 12)
In the first part of this passage, Catherine challenges Heathcliff to be
courageous enough to meet her ghost at the churchyard. But she seems
to think that he, lacking courage to be at the churchyard, wants her to
come to him at some place further away. As Heathcliff is courageous
enough to dig up her grave, this speech of hers is not rightly prophetic.
Yet her appeal to him to find a way other than through the churchyard is
suggestive of its deep connection with the episode of the visitation of her
soul to him which deters him from opening her coffin. In both passages,
Heathcliff is to seek the union with Catherine, not by embracing her body
at the grave and suicidally dying there, but by some other means.
The visitation of Catherine's soul to Heathcliff deters him from opening
her coffin, yet this episode allows a slightly different interpretation: her
soul appears to him, not to prevent him from suicidally dying there, but
to prevent him from not suicidally dying there after opening her coffin.
Catherine's soul, which, as we will see later, wants both her body and
Heathcliff's to begin to rot simultaneously, fears that he will not die there
after opening her coffin, and fearing this, it halts him from wrenching off
the lid. Though not through his hesitation which Catherine offers in her
feverish speech as a prediction, but being made to live on by the visitation
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Catherine Earnshaw as the Spine of a Book
of her soul, Heathcliff has to "be content" with laggardly "following" her
for many agonising years until the longed-for union with her soul is
realised. Yet the presence of Catherine's soul to Heathcliff at her grave
requires further discussion.
Concerning Gimmerton Kirk which "lies in a hollow between two hills,"
as Lockwood recalls his dream of Jabes's sermon, the peaty moisture of
the nearby swamp "is said to answer all the purposes of embalming on the
few corpses deposited there" (18; ch. 3). Catherine's body, owing to this
peaty moisture, whose embalming effect Heathcliff's refrainment from
opening her coffin keeps active, is preserved from rot, until it begins to
decompose shortly before Heathcliff's burial beside it. Remarking on
this point, Yumiko Hirono proposes the interpretation that Catherine's
soul visits Heathcliff at her grave and halts him from opening her coffin
in order to prevent her body from beginning to rot, wishing it to share
decomposition with Heathcliff's (136-38). This interpretation also pre
supposes that Heathcliff does not freeze suicidally to death after opening
Catherine's coffin, because, if he had died there, decomposition would
have been shared by their bodies. Or we can consider that, as Edgar
might oppose Heathcliff's burial beside Catherine, her soul makes Heath
cliff survive Edgar.
Hirono also proposes (132-34) that the union motif of two two lovers in
death, realised by the decomposition of their corpses, is expressed by the
progressing "decay" (256; ch. 34) of the house of Gimmerton Kirk which
has two rooms that are "threatening speedily to determine into one" (18;
ch. 3). "Shielders" (39; ch. 6), the name of the curate, who seems to have
lived in the house of the church, may also be of some significance in this
interpretation. Although it is possible that Shielders has been succeeded
59
Catherine Earnshaw as the Spine of a Book
by others, if he is the same curate who £lees from the decaying church
near the end of this novel, there arises a meaningful correspondence
between Shielders's desertion and the collapse of the house's wall, which
has shielded its two rooms from each other. Correspondingly, having the
shielding side planks of their coffins pulled away by the sexton bribed by
Heathcliff, his corpse and Catherine's rot side by side and are gradually
united. Taking account of these elaborate expressions of the lovers'
union in decomposition, Hirono's interpretation of the visitation of
Catherine's soul, detering Heathcliff from opening her coffin in order to
keep her corpse intact until it can begin to rot simultaneouly with his, is
even more persuaSIve.
That Catharine's corpse has preserved its peaceful dead face is of much
significance in relieving Heathcliff's long-sustained agony, and he is also
pleased that the decomposition of her corpse should not start till he can
share it. Yet, the prevention of her decomposition does not seem to be
the sole purpose of the visitation of Catherine's soul to Heathcliff. The
visitation seems to have a more direct and positive purpose, that is, to
prevent Heathcliff from dying and keep him in this world. In her confes
sion to Nelly of her troubled mind on the day of her engagement to Edgar,
Catherine says:
I cannot express it; but surely you and everybody have a notion that
there is, or should be, an existence of yours beyond you. What were
the use of my creation if I were entirely contained here? My great
miseries in this world have been Heathcliff's miseries, and I watched
and felt each from the beginning; my great thought in living is
himself. If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue
60
Catherine Earnshaw as the Spine of a Book
to be; and, if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the Universe
would turn to a mighty stranger. I should not seem a part of it.
(63-64; ch. 9)
In order not to cease to be a part of the Universe, Catherine must make
Heathcliff continue to live in this world. Being more herself than she is,
Heathcliff is a kind of copy of her, a simulacrum of her existence beyond
her single, finite self. In keeping her other self alive, Catherine seeks to
continue to be a part of the Universe, just as a life, and also a book, seek
to continue to be alive in many copies for survival. She does not regard
bearing children as having anything to do with continuing to be a part of
the Universe. Yet, eighteen years later, when Heathcliff is forced to see
the figures of himself and Catherine in Hareton and his cousin, Catherine
invites Heathcliff to the posthumous union of their souls, as if she had
acquired new copies of her self.
IV
More puzzling than Heathcliff's eighteen years' survival after Cather
ine's death are the disappearance of his vindictiveness and his fatal
weakening from fast. In this section, I will discuss the significance of
resemblance of Hareton and Catherine II to Catherine I as one of the
reasons for Heathcliff's death. Yet, before entering that discussion, let
us notice the disappearance of his feeling of being wronged as a possible
reason for the departure of his sense of revenge and for his death.
In the previous section we noticed the agony of Heathcliff, who IS
repeatedly disappointed in his hope that he can at last see Catherine's
61
Catherine Earnshaw as the Spine of a Book
soul. In thinking about his vindictiveness, the feeling of being wronged
by Catherine in his agony is important. "She showed herself, as she often
was in life, a devil to me !" (220; ch. 29), he says of her refusal to appear
before him when he vainly tried to see her soul after returning from the
grave. Earlier, when upbraided by Catherine against causing a stir by
making approaches to Isabella, he also expresses his feeling of being
wronged by her, "I want you to be aware that I know you have treated me
infernally-infernally!" (87; ch. 11), thus reminding her that he would not
accept her treatment of him unrevenged. In the final meeting with her,
he vehemently insists how cruel she was when she despised and deserted
him. Likewise, he regards her refusal of showing the figure of her soul
as a hellish treatment of him.
Heathcliff's feeling of being wronged by Catherine is closely connected
with his harmful deeds to others. This characteristic of Heathcliff's
relation with her lies in his implicit submission to her, and, being maso
chistically related to her, he never rebels against her tyranny, only
seeking satisfaction by sado-masochistically harming objects other than
her. His infliction of injury upon the two generations of the Earnshaws
and the Lintons is an articulation of the feeling of being wronged which
he continues to hold even after her death, though the object of the
articulation has changed. Proportionately to the duration and the inten
sity of his longing to see Catherine's soul, his feeling of being wronged by
its refusal to show itself before him is lasting and intense. Heathcliff's
long-standing revenge upon his old enemies becomes closely related to his
agony over his ever unsatisfied hope to see Catherine's soul.
The disappearance of Heathcliff's vindictiveness near the end of the
novel, therefore, can be understood, at least partly, as related to the
62
Catherine Earnshaw as the Spine of a Book
erosion of his feeling of being wronged by Catherine. With the increas
ingly intensified confidence that he will at length be able to see her soul,
he no longer has a feeling of being treated infernally by her. Being
submerged in ecstatic expectation of union with Catherine's soul, he not
only looses his moral energy for revenge but also is disinclined to take
meals and sometimes even forgets to breathe. The expectation of seeing
Catherine's soul keeps Heathcliff alive when he might have frozen to
death suicidally after opening her coffin, but, contrarily, the proximity of
this realisation drives him away from life.
"Nelly, there is a strange change approaching-I'm in its shadow at
present" (245; ch. 33), muses Heathcliff at the heightening of his expecta
tion. Yet, about half a year earlier, when recollecting aloud before Nelly
on the evening of Edgar's burial, he recalls, not that expectation, but his
agony over his inability to see Catherine's soul -"that strange feeling"
(219; ch. 29). Confusingly, and demanding careful attention, the same
word "strange" is applied both to the expectation of seeing Catherine's
soul and to the agony over the inability to see it.
Regarding the phrase "that strange feeling," Heathcliff recounts its
partial disappearance. On the day before Edgar's burial, he makes the
sexton who has been digging up Edgar's grave beside Catherine's clean off
the earth off her coffin lid and open it. He says that it is only when he
saw her well preserved, passionless features that "that strange feeling,"
which had oddly begun eighteen years ago, was partially erased. As he
had seen Catherine's body on the day following her death, he had previous
ly known the peacefulness of her dead face. For one thing, as he had
been long agonising, he might have got into his head the idea that her soul
had been likewise agonised, and so he was calmed by seeing the tranquil-
63
Catherine Earnshaw as the Spine of a Book
ity of her body. Or, though it is only her corpse, instead of her soul's
figure that he sees, his longing to see her soul is partially satisfied by
seeing her body, which has undergone almost no change.
When Heathc1iff says, "Now since I've seen her, I'm pacified-a little,"
with his "brows not contracted, but raised next the temples, diminishing
the grim aspect of his countenance, but imparting a peculiar look of
trouble, and a painful appearance of mental tension towards one absorb
ing subject" (220; ch 29), the peculiar change of his expression, which
becomes increasingly noticeable toward the end of the novel, has already
begun. During Lockwood's visits to Wuthering Heights in November or
December of that year, Heathc1iff's expression is still grim. Lockwood,
however, is also a witness to the peculiar change in Heathc1iff's expres
sion. Before departing for London in mid-January, he sees Heathc1iff
pass Hareton by, who has darted off, being insulted by Catherine about
his reading practices, and he reports:
"It will be odd, if I thwart myself !" he muttered, unconscious that
I was behind him. "But, when I look for his father in his face, I find
her every day more! How the devil is he so like? I can hardly bear
to see him."
He bent his eyes to the ground, and walked moodily in. There
was a restless, anxious expression in his countenance I had never
remarked there before, and he looked sparer in person. (230; ch. 31)
That these peculiar changes in Heathc1iff's appearance are caused by his
perception of the resemblance between Hareton and Catherine I is also
significant, and it is this resemblance that influences Heathc1iff to swerve
64
Catherine Earnshaw as the Spine of a Book
from the long pursuit of his revenge.
It is on the evening of the day following the reconciliation between
Catherine II and Hareton that Heathcliff speaks to Nelly about the
approach of the "strange change." At breakfast, Heathcliff seizes Cather
ine by the hair to hurt her, hearing that she made Hareton pull away
Joseph's black-currant trees to make a flower bed, but as if he saw the
eyes of Catherine I in her daughter's defiant eyes, he releases her, cover
ing his own eyes. And in the evening, on seeing the young couple glance
up at him from the book they have been reading together, he is apparently
agitated by their resemblance to Catherine I. Under the influence of this
agitation, he recounts the approach of the "strange change" to Nelly.
Concerning the newly awakened love between Catherine II and Har
eton, Heathcliff says to Nelly that this would be the precise time to
revenge himself on the representatives of his old enemies, and that he
could do it. Heathcliff, indeed, has now acquired the means to torture
the two offspring of his old enemies as he himself was tortured, by driving
Hareton away without a farthing, thus severing their relation and forcing
both of them to live in penury. Yet he says that, not knowing the purpose
of his revenge now, he cannot raise his hand to strike, and that, having
"lost the faculty of enjoying their destruction," he is "too idle to destroy
for nothing" (245; ch. 33).
These words of Heathcliff's lead us to think, though somewhat mislead
ingly as we will shortly see, that the departure of his need for revenge is
the result of his loss of interest in Hareton and Catherine II. Certainly,
he says, "it is by compulsion that I do the slightest act not prompted by
one thought, and by compulsion, that I notice anything alive, or dead,
which is not associated with one universal idea" (246; ch. 33), showing his
65
Catherine Earnshaw as the Spine of a Book
total loss of interest in anything that is not related to the "one universal
idea" of the union with Catherine's soul. Yet, immediately after telling
Nelly about his being in the shadow of a "strange change," he also says:
I take so little interest in my daily life, that I hardly remember to eat,
and drink. Those two, who have left the room, are the only objects
which retain a distinct material appearance to me; and that appear
ance causes me pain, amounting to agony. About her I won't speak:
and I don't desire to think: but I earnestly wish she were invisible
-her presence invokes only maddening sensations. He moves me
differently; and yet if I could do it without seeming insane, I'd never
see him again ! (245; ch. 33)
For Heathcliff, who now cannot perceive voluntarily anything which is
not related with the idea of the union with Catherine's soul, only Cather
ine II and Hareton appeal, and even their existence agonises him. Far
from having lost interest in those two, Heathcliff is forced to focus on
them. Though he ascribes the absence of his desire to destroy them to
the loss of interest in anything besides the one idea he is possessed by,
those two of the younger generation intrude upon his awareness and rack
him, however firmly he shuts his awareness to them. Heathcliff's "uni
versal idea" of the union with Catherine's soul is bound to the figures of
the young couple by peculiarly strong ties.
The pain which the sight of Catherine II causes Heathcliff is described
as the wince that he makes when she turns her eyes to him, which
resemble those of her mother, especially when she defies or appeals to
him. I have already discussed his wince, which unfolded his clutch on her
66
Catherine Earnshaw as the Spine of a Book
hair. Or on the day when he detains her in custody at Wuthering
Heights, he winces twice, first releasing the key which she tries to snatch,
and second averting his face from her when she entreats him to let her
return to her dying father. He also shows an aversion to the sight of her,
saying that he is tired of seeing her as an explanation to Nelly for his
summoning her to Wuthering Heights within a fortnight of Lockwood's
departure to London. He orders Nelly to be with Catherine in another
room in order to lessen the necessity for him to see her.
As for Hareton, Heathcliff says to Nelly, referring to the his appear
ance while he was reading with Catherine, "Five minutes ago, Hareton
seemed a personification of my youth, not a human being. 1 felt to him
in such a variety of ways, that it would have been impossible to have
accosted him rationally"(245; ch. 33). He also states that the torture of
his seeing himself in Hareton is one of the reasons for his loss of interest
in the relationship between the two of the younger generation:
"Well, Hareton's aspect was the ghost of my immortal love, of my
wild endeavours to hold my right, my degradation, my pride, my
happiness, and my anguish-
UBut it is frenzy to repeat these thoughts to you; only it will let you
know why, with a reluctance to be always alone, his society is no
benefit, rather an aggravation of the constant torment 1 suffer; and it
partly contributes to render me regardless how he and his cousin go
on together. 1 can give them no attention, any more." (245; ch. 33)
These two passages suggest that Heathcliff is Hareton in the same
sense that Catherine 1 says, "1 am Heathcliff"(64; ch. 9). And, in appear-
67
Catherine Earnshaw as the Spine of a Book
ance, Catherine I also resembles Hareton, who is more like her than her
own daughter, whose resemblance to her mother lies only in her eyes, her
broad forehead, and a certain arch of the nostril, which gives her some
what haughty appearance. As Lockwood witnesses in the passage I
formerly quoted, Heathcliff sees Catherine I in Hareton, as well as seeing
himself in him.iI
Heathcliff, however, says to Nelly that Hareton's "startling likeness"
(245; ch. 33) to Catherine I is the least potent element which arrests his
imagination inasmuch as he sees her features in objects such as trees,
clouds and the most ordinary faces of people. Yet Catherine's features,
which are shaped in every object and every face, only make Heathcliff
realise that the "entire world is a dreadful collection of memoranda that
she did exist and that" he has "lost her" (245; ch. 33). But instead of
emphasising the absence of Catherine I, Hareton's and Catherine H's
likeness to her seems to torture Heathcliff by giving him the impression
that Catherine I, who is the one and only existence for him, exists in
others where she must not exist.
Being about thirty eight, Heathcliff is young enough to marry again.
Yet as he loves Catherine as his one and only existence, he can never
permit himself to be attracted to Catherine Il, however much likeness to
her mother he finds in her. For Heathcliff, the absolute devotion to
Catherine is life itself, and to be attracted to others would inevitably
destroy him. This would be the reason which Heathcliff cannot face up
to for his embarrassment and pain caused by the sight of Catherine H.
Having been agonised by his longing to "see" the figure of Catherine's
soul, Heathcliff is, owing to the intensity of that longing to "see," even
more agonised by seeing Catherine's eyes in the young two who are both
68
Catherine Earnshaw as the Spine of a Book
the offspring of his old enemies, and one of whom is among women whom
he must not love. Exclusively pursuing Catherine I, Heathcliff is ousted
from this world by the emergence of the young ones who are reflexions
of her. Or, as is stated earlier, Catherine I's soul invites Heathcliff out
of this world to death, having its continuous existence in the universe
ensured by that emergence of her new copies.
*As. we have seen in the prevIOUS section, resemblance is of great
importance in this novel. Though naturally each character differs from
the others, and the likeness between them is more or less limited, the
significance given to resemblance is great. Admittedly, Catherine 11
impresses us as undersized, compared with her mother, and Hareton,
though tightly bound to Heathcliff by their common inclination to the
wild, is much more humane and benevolent to others than Heathcliff.
Yet, though differentiating its characters from each other, the novel
repeatedly emphasises the strength and the significance of resemblance.
The theme of resemblance is also expressed by the common character
istics between apparently dissimilar characters. Though venomously
hated by his father, Linton Heathcliff is more like Heathcliff than his
father is in his even more beastly selfishness. Hindley's return after
three years' absence, and his grief over the death of his beloved, parody
those of Heathcliff. And the unconscious malice of Nelly Dean has some
similarity with Heathcliff's fervid hatred to others.
Pervading vindictiveness continues the theme of resemblance, exposing
the common features between the discrete characters. Hareton, in his
69
Catherine Earnshaw as the Spine of a Book
infancy, being asked by Nelly the reason for his liking Heathcliff, says
that he appreciates him because he takes vengeance on Hindley who
curses Hareton. Catherine H says, following her boast of forgiveness to
Linton, that she can "have the revenge" (218; ch. 29) of thinking that
Heathcliff's cruelty rises from his greater misery, thus exposing how we
can be vindictive at the very moment we are speaking about our own
forgiveness. Even mild-tempered Lockwood utters incoherent threats of
retaliation when he is ignobly subdued by dogs. Similarly, in the third
section, we have already referred to Catherine's feeling of being wronged
by Heathcliff and Edgar, and her vindictiveness towards them.
Catherine says that Heathcliff is more herself than she is. But like
wise, others are more or less ourselves. Depicting various degrees of
resemblance between apparently dissimilar characters, the novel seems to
express that our selves exist beyond the individual, physical limit and are
dispersed widely in the universe. And the refined expressions of that
theme of the ubiquity of our individual selves are Catherine's aspiration
to continue to exist as a part of the universe by keeping alive her copy,
Heathcliff, and her inviting him to death after the emergence of their new
copies, Hareton and Catherine H. Depicting such an aspiration in Cath
erine, Emily Bronte, too, continues to exist in the universe, by dispersing
the copies of the novel, which in turn are eternal copies of her self.
The expansion of one's self beyond the narrow limits of individuality is
also expressed by the image of emancipation of one's soul from one's
prison-like body in death, which Catherine conveys to Heathcliff in their
last meeting:
(... ) the thing that irks me most is this shattered prison, after all.
70
Catherine Earnshaw as the Spine of a Book
I'm tired, tired of being enclosed here. I'm wearying to escape into
that glorious world, and to be always there; not seeing it dimly
through tears, and yearning for it through the walls of an aching
heart; but really with it, and in it. Nelly, you think you are better
and more fortunate than I; in full health and strength. You are sorry
for m~very soon that will be altered. I shall be sorry for you. I
shall be incomparably beyond and above you all. (124; ch. 15)
The emancipation of one's soul is also a key to understanding the calm
ness of the dead face of Catherine, who said, "I won't rest" (98; ch. 12)
after death till Heathcliff is with her. Though her emancipated soul may
be forced to continue her restless wandering, seeking for the union with
Heathcliff's soul, emancipation from the body is delightful enough for her
soul, and her dead face records in its peaceful expression the delight of
her escaping soul.
Another baffling Question besides the self-contradictory calmness of
Catherine's dead face is her soul's lament over the inability to return to
Wuthering Heights shown to Lockwood by a girl's ghost. Emancipated
from the body, her soul can fly freely and even make Heathcliff feel its
presence, so its inability to return to Wuthering Heights seems incongru
ous. The Question, however, can be solved by presupposing that the soul
of the dead, though it can visit living people, cannot unite itself with the
soul of the living, and that without the union with Heathcliff's soul, the
soul of Catherine cannot achieve its symbolical return to Wuthering
Heights. Therefore, as far as her soul detains Heathcliff in this world,
waiting for the emergence of her new copies, it must continue its painful
roaming till he dies. But when the time is ripe, Catherine's soul beckons
71
Catherine Earnshaw as the Spine of a Book
Heathcliff to death.
On the day before Edgar's funeral, Heathcliff opens Catherine's coffin,
this time without being deterred by the visitation of her soul, and, seeing
the tranquil appearance of her well-preserved body, he feels relieved from
his "strange feeling," the agony of the inability to see her soul. One of
the reasons for the relief seems to be that, inspired by the calmness of her
dead face, which suggests the delight of the liberation of her soul from her
body, he begins to anticipate the possibility of the union of his soul with
Catherine's freed from his body after death. Though Heathcliff firmly
believes in the posthumous existence of one's soul, and also delights in the
possibility of sharing the dissolution of his corpse with Catherine's, he has
not thought of the emancipation of his soul from his body. Even after
this, he does not positively wish for death, but he thinks that, as he has to
remind himself to breathe-almost remind his heart to beat, he "cannot
continue in this condition" (246; ch. 33). Totally possessed by the idea of
seeing Catherine's soul, and anticipating the possibility of the union with
it, he forgets to struggle to continue to be in the state of life.
Heathcliff's longing to see Catherine's soul seems to be nearly realised
even before his death, as he is witnessed by Nelly gazing "at something
within two yards distance" (251; ch. 34), pursuing it by his eyes as it
moves. The union with Catherine's soul is achieved by his death, through
the open window, inside of which is the oak-panelled bed. His corpse,
which Nelly finds, is soaked by the rain falling through the window. The
rain suggests the moisture of the swamp near the churchyard, and the
water that invariably streams downwards. In contrast to the slight
elevation of Wuthering Heights, the novel frequently refers to swamps, as
in Hindley's dubious boast that he has "just crammed Kenneth, head-
72
Catherine Earnshaw as the Spine of a Book
downmost, in the Blackhorse marsh" (57; ch. 9), in which Zillah thinks
Nelly is sunk during her five days' detention in Wuthering Heights, or in
the location of Gimmerton Kirk near a swamp. Having lost their
Paradise, irretrievably like streaming water, Catherine and Heathcliff
finally reach the churchyard near a swamp, a sea-like destination of
water, and there, dissolving together, they regain their Paradise.
On earth, Catherine continues to be a part of the universe, In the
existence of her copies, Hareton and Catherine H. Under the ground, she
is united with Heathcliff's corpse in their coffins, the side planks of which
are pulled away, and will also be united with the corpse of Edgar some
time later. The tombs of the three, the headstone of the Catherine's
already "half buried in heath" (256; ch. 34), will be gradually united with
the surrounding moor which Catherine loved. It might be questioned
whether or not Heathcliff and Edgar will continue to be repellent to each
other even as souls after death. There are no decisive clues to the
question in the text, yet in the last part of the novel where the pervading
flood of animosity and hatred quickly subsides, and the fertile field of
forgiveness and union emerges, it is imagined that Catherine has at length
acquired her true Paradise, embracing both Heathcliff and Edgar. And
like the shape of an opened book, spreading the two wings of Heathcliff
and Edgar, the soul of Catherine ascends into eternal flight.
* I would like to express here my special thanks to Professor David Taylorof the English Department at Kyushu University for his invaluable advice,which has greatly improved the argument and analytical expression in theabove paper.
73
CatherineEarnshawastheSpineofaBook
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