Heights 6

Passage:



"This is nothing," cried she: "I was only going to say that heaven did nto seem to be my home; and I broke my heart with weeping to come back to earth; and the angels were so angry that they flung me out into the middle of the heath on the top of Wuthering Heights; where I woke sobbing for joy. That will do to explain my secret, as well as the other. Ive no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in heaven; and if the wicked man in tehre had not brought Heathcliff so low, I shouldnt have thought of it. It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love him:and that, not because he's handsome, Nelly, but because he's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine aer the same; and Linston's is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire."


-This passage is significant because it is where the novel's biggest conflict reaches a high point. Catherine is finally admitting her love for Heathcliff, but at the same time, she is promising that it can never be known to him. Heathcliff's unknown presence to her makes this even more of an issue because he now knows that everything he has dreamed about can not happen. This leads to Heathcliff running away and Cathy realizing how much he truly does mean to her. This passage is also ironic in a way because Cathy won't marry Healthcliff because of how "low" he is - but now Heathcliff has more money that he knows what to do with, but no Cathy. This, and the fact that Cathy realizes how unalike she and Linton are, help to create ideas and themes about love that are carried throughout the book.

-Bronte uses many devices to make this passage stand out, and to emphasize its significance. She uses a dream again to show something about Cathy. This caused me, as the reader, to go back to the beginning of the book when the man had the dream about her. Bronte seems to use dreams to show the underlying desires of the characters - Cathy in particular. When Cathy chooses to marry Linton, in her dream she is unhappy in heaven - somewhere you are supposed to go to for eternal happiness - like marriage. She also uses things from nature and the heavens to show her differences from Linton. Linton is obviously the moonbeam- the moon is beautiful and stays on the same,steady cycle. Cathy is the lightning - also beautiful and awe-inspiring, but at the same time can cause destruction. Also, by comparing her like fire, Bronte shows how Cathy is to Heathcliff - she can burn him, but in the end he needs her to live (warmth,comfort,survival, food).