In the Middle at the Beginning - Wuthering Heights and the New Blog

First entry! As the side panel says, this blog is all about the 'great' lists of literature. As a lit-geek grad student, I'm 'forced' to read through lists in classes every semester. However, I've never taken it upon myself to seek out the greatest novels. That's what I intend to do here. I found a few exciting lists through which I plan to read. There are few redundancies in the several lists, so I will catalog them with their rankings from the individual lists.

Once I've exhausted the linked lists, I plan to make a Top 100 list of my own!

Now for an introduction. My name is Sarah and I'm a grad student at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. I've been a lit-geek for as long as I can remember. For a long time I stuck to science fiction and humor (Douglas Adams, anyone?), but for the past couple of years I have become rather more partial to Scottish fiction, specifically the 20th century revival movement and the early 19th century fiction (primarily Sir Walter Scott). Two of my favorites are Buddha Da by Anne Donovan and Waverley by Sir Walter Scott.

I live in the Koreatown of the US with my two cats and two roommates.

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Though I've read it before, I am currently re-reading through Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. It was assigned for Professor Jann's Victorian Literature course. It is also #38 on Daniel Burt's 100 and #17 on the Observer's 100. So, the book ranks rather highly for a gothic romance.

Brontë's 1847 romance could be considered a work of trashy fiction if it were not for all of the inherent symbolism. In my mind, the whole novel seems to be about the love story of two self-centered, evil psychopaths. There is criticism out there that investigates Cathy's sanity and the possibility of either a split-personality or bipolar disorder. Interesting, right?

The first time I read Wuthering Heights, I was in high school. Back then, my great love was Beowulf. I didn't like the gothic romance genre. I simply didn't care. I was more interested in adventure (my other great love was Tolkien's Lord of the Rings). I simply didn't 'get' Wuthering Heights.

Now, I see the book in a vastly different light. I still enjoy the parts that I recall as favorites from the first read-through (namely Heathcliff and Cathy terrorizing the household at large as adolescents). However, there is a lot that I didn't remember at all! For one thing, I didn't retain the confusing family tree as names get added in twos. I see now that the whole world here is Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights. There is simply no one else around!

One of the major things that caught my eye on this read-through is Heathcliff as a litmus test for the definition of a 'gentleman'. Brontë allows the character to operate in this way by having him run off for a few years and then 'somehow' return as a middle class gentleman. However, there is the "gipsy" issue. Heathcliff is clearly a different race. So, can a man of a darker race (the indication is that he is half-Black, or perhaps Arab) become a proper gentleman? Cathy seems to think so and Hindley does not seem to mind (although I have only read to Heathcliff and Isabella running off together) as of yet. Well, Hindley tolerates him at any rate.

Leading up to his disappearance, Cathy is attacked by a dog at Thrushcross Grange. This act is symbolic of a young woman's beginning menstruation. According to the timeline, young Cathy was twelve at the time of the incident. She bled, then was carried off to the Grange for five weeks and returns as a dainty lady. She is no longer a dirty child playing with the dogs. It is at this point that it is speculated that she develops a split-personality disorder. She does not formally close the chapter on her childhood, instead being immediately thrust into adulthood without hesitation. Heathcliff incites the childish part of her while Edgar reminds her of the middle class adulthood of which she is now a part.

This leads to the problem of who she would choose to marry. Cathy tells Nelly,

"My love for Linton is like foliage in the woods. Time will change it, I'm well
aware, as winter changes trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal
rocks beneath - a source of little visible delight, but necessary." (Brontë
122)