Wuthering Heights - Episode 4 - Emily Bronte - Marriage, Kidnapping, Co-dependency And Other Signs of Love!

11/28/20 • 47 min

WH episode 4

Hi, this is Christy Shriver. We’re here to talk about books that changed the world and changed us.

I’m Garry Shriver and this is the How to Love lit Podcast. This is our fourth episode discussing the tumultuous inhabitants of Wuthering Heights and its neighboring estate Thrushcross Grange. And I must say, Bronte aptly selected the appropriate metaphor to develop the characters in the book as we have seen in the last three episodes, but just when you thought Bronte has pushed her characters as far as they could go, she takes it one step farther. In episode 1, we introduced Emily Bronte herself, we met Lockwood, our first narrator, and the we met briefly most of the main characters in the book: HC, Catherine, the mom via her ghost, Catherine the daughter, Hareton, Joseph and, of course Nelly.

I guess the only reason we didn’t meet the rest of them is because they’re all dead.

Yes- here we already started with the name confusion because both female protagonists have the same name- And it’s not surprising once you get to meet Catherine ONE- if you want to call her that- that she doesn’t exit the story- not even upon death. Catherine ONE is one character who will not be ignored, and she basically dominated our discussions in the last three episodes. We discussed her and Heathcliff’s relationship as children, her relationship with the neighbors Edgar and Isabella and then finally the love-triangle that defined her life and untimely death between herself, Edgar and Heathcliff.

Yes- Catherine’s presence does dominate and define both Edgar and Heathcliff’s lives from the beginning to the end, but earlier I made the statement that I think Heathcliff himself is the central character in the story- and I know that’s arguable- I still see him as the more interesting character. At the beginning we are made to sympathize with him as he’s abused and neglected by those responsible to care and provide for him. He’s rejected by Catherine who, although claims to love him, chooses to marry Edgar, the rich neighbor. However, after Catherine’s death, there is a vengeful evil in Heathcliff that particularly defines the middle portion of the book- and although it certainly doesn’t make him a likeable person- it does make him a dynamic character- and if you remember what that means- a dynamic character is one that changes over the course of the story- and in his case, we see a stark difference between the Heathcliff that runs away after Catherine crushes him, and the Heathcliff that comes back determined to get revenge on everyone in his life.

And this seems to basically center around two people although he targets many more. He wants revenge on Hindley for abusing him as a child, and he wants revenge on Edgar for taking his girl.

And this of course brings us to Isabella and their marriage which is nothing short of horrific. It ends as violently as it begins (remember he hangs her dog on the way to the elopement). On the night she leaves him forever, she blames him for Catherine’s death- literally saying Catherine was too smart to bear his abhorent last name without expressing her disgust, then he picks up a dinner knife and flings it at her head. It strikes her beneath her ear...one last abuse...she pulls it out kind of undoing the violence that had united them in marriage...and runs away.

Well, and what we find this week, is that that’s just the very beginning of the violence, rage and evil Heathcliff is capable of. Are you sure, Heathcliff’s been called a hero- even a Byronic hero seems a kind description of what this guy seems to be?

Ha! Well, he’s definitely not a traditional knight in shining armor, but you have to remember, this is a gothic novel- and gothic novels have different rules. I guess, I should kind of define what that is- although briefly- gothic is the kind of word most of us have heard of and we think we know what it means, but we’re not sure. Gothic novels were really a fad in the late 1700s thrgh Bronte’s lifetime and There is a group of characteristics that came to define what these novels were about and honestly even today we recognize these traits that signal we might be reading a gothic novel-- for example, they usually involve a castle- either ruined or haunted, lots of shadows, beams of moonlight in the blackness, flickering candles, extreme landscapes, omens and/or ancestral curses, magic or supernatural manifestations, a passion-driven willful villain-hero or villain, a heroine with a tendency to faint, a hero who’s true identity is revealed at the end, or a horrifying series of events. Gothic novels have things like necrophilia, incest, diabolism, social chaos, imprisonments, things like that. They play around with the concepts of fear, they push boundaries between life and death, light and darkness- san...

Wuthering Heights - Episode 4 - Emily Bronte - Marriage, Kidnapping, Co-dependency And Other Signs of Love!

WH episode 4

Hi, this is Christy Shriver. We’re here to talk about books that changed the world and changed us.

I guess the only reason we didn’t meet the rest of them is because they’re all dead.

And this seems to basically center around two people although he targets many more. He wants revenge on Hindley for abusing him as a child, and he wants revenge on Edgar for taking his girl.

Previous Episode

Wuthering Heights - Episode 3 - Emily Bronte - Tantrums, Crazy Relationships, Rejection, Revenge - Part 2!!!

‘WH episode 3 Script

HI, I’m Christy Shriver and we’re here to discuss books that changed the world and changed us.

And I’m Garry Shriver and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast. This is our THIRD episode in our series on Emily Bronte’s classic Wuthering Heights- and good grief- this book is infinitely complex. Last week we went long talking through chapters 1-9. Before I get any farther, I can’t forget to remind you to please text an episode of our podcasts to a friend and encourage them to listen. Also, give us a rating- preferably 5 stars, we’re trying our best to do our best, but we can’t grow without you. But, back to our story- and what a story it is...today we are going to try to push through til chapter 17. To recap last week we discussed most of the first part of WH. We chronicled the life of Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw as they grow up at Wuthering Heights. We discussed the brutal abuses they endured, but honestly for the most part, and especially towards toward the end, we shined the focus on Catherine- and what a trainwreck of a person she is. She’s beautiful, she’s energetic, she’s lively and fun, but she’s also almost entirely about herself...I even used the word I reserve for really complicated situations- maybe even a borderline personality- although, may I reiterate, I would never diagnose a fictional character, but, it’s eerie to me how clearly Emily Bronte describes this most disturbing of conditions...and I should say, before I go further, if you don’t know what I’m talking about but know someone that reminds you of Catherine Earnshaw, research Borderline personality disorder. Emily Bronte predates all of modern psychology, but what she observed and recorded is something many have seen and lived with in their own real world- although we will never know what or who that something or someone was- she nails the lived experiences of many who find themselves as she puts it “honeysuckles embracing the thorn- there were no concessions.

Yes- and this week it is just going to get crazier- this section is action packed- full of complications in the plot line- I find myself having to reread some of this stuff over and over again just to figure out what just happened. Bronte artfully throws you into a world- a windy world, as she reminds you, where you can’t catch your breath, you can’t understand what just happened and sometimes you don’t even know what you’re looking at.

And while the emphasis of the last episode was on Catherine, this week, we will change directions slightly and give more emphasis (although Catherine will always demand attention) but we will devote most of our attention to Heathcliff and the other characters in this unusual tale. As we clearly saw last week and will continue to see onward, life at Wuthering Heights is absolutely nothing short of violently abusive to anyone who ventures through its doors.

And let me point out as we transition from the first generation to the second- Bronte carefully demonstrates for us that the legacy of abuse often does not die with the first generation- what we are going to see here is generational abuse. The children are abused by Hindley and Joseph both physically and verbally but Heathcliff is especially abused emotionally and psychologically- the most damaging of all abuse- and this will all be passed forward.

But, Catherine and Heathcliff are not the only two characters in the book- just as Wuthering Heights is not a story about only one house. This book is about doubles. There are two houses- one chaotic- one peaceful and the peaceful is Thrushcross Grange. There are two sets of children- one set that is wild; the other is tame. There are also two types of defective love- and Bronte explores both of these as well and how this impacts adulthood.

Yes- and looking at these parallel structures makes it easy to categorize. We have these two children from Wuthering heights who are clearly victims of neglect, abuse and rejection. They are unloved and this defines their adulthood. Although Mr. Earnshaw loves Catherine and Heathcliff, he subjects them to the merciless brutal depravation and degradation that is life with Hindley and Joseph- of course this is much more Heathcliff than Catherine.

I want to point out, and it’s easy to overlook because reading Joseph’s dialogue is such a nightmare, I find myself just skipping it, but Joseph is truly a treacherous person and to live under this guy’s physical and mental abuse is something that should not be understated- at one point, Catherine gets so upset she throws her Bible into a dog kennel- and I will also add that he’s abusive to everyone all the way to the next generation as well.

But, suffice it to say, Catherine and Heathcliff grow up in an environment where they are not loved. However, Edgar and isablla,...

Next Episode

Wuthering Heights - Epsiode 5 - Emily Bronte - Redemption, Forgiveness and Overcoming

Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte - Episode 5 - Redemption, Forgiveness and Overcoming

WH- Episode 5

Hi, I’m Christy Shriver and we’re here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us.

I’m Garry Shriver, and this is the How to Love lit Podcast. If you have made it this far into Wuthering Heights, I feel like you deserve an award or something. This is our fifth episode analyzing this book, taking five episodes on a single work is something we have only done with two other authors- Hawthorne with the Scarlet Letter, our first series, and then again with our Shakespeare plays. But my goodness-navigating through Wuthering Heights is nothing short of brutal- I’ve gone back and looked at those initial harsh criticisms we read in episode one- and I have to admit, they weren’t wrong in recognizing this.

Well, you are right about that. It IS brutal- but honestly, how could a book about generational abuse be anything except brutal- exposing the brutality of abuse is in many ways at the heart of this book, but honestly, an even more important purpose- and for me the reason to suffer the experience of reading this book, is because Emily offers hope. There is literally NOTHING anyone can ever do to undo any abuse anyone has suffered in the past- and Bronte highlights that very clearly- however, she suggests that even under terrible circumstances, there is a way to be free of the curse of abuse and move into a future of new beginnings- and yet she absolutely parallels with this idea that it is also possible and perhaps in some ways easier to live and die in the victimhood of the past- this week we will end this journey and for me she concludes in an almost fairy tale-like way- which is alright with me!

My first question about this book when I read it was this- why does Bronte give the girls the exact same name? It’s SO confusing. Even if one had been Catherine and the other Cathy that would have helped= but she even mixes the nick names up- deliberately trying to get us the confuse the two women.

Mine too- actually- Of course, it now occurs to me, as I really believe great authors don’t do things accidentally or whimsically- that this confusion is for us to undeniably understand that the journeys of the catherines is perhaps the same journey- the experiences are the same- and yet she juxtaposes two opposite postures in life and two very different outcomes: one a tragedy the other a comedy- one ends in death, the other a wedding. And this last episode absolutely leaves us with a feeling we haven’t felt as we’ve left parts of the book- this last episode leaves us with a feeling of hope, security and empowerment- it also clarifies Emily Bronte’s heterodox religious views- which I will say are very Christian in tradition, but not traditional in their Christianity (that, btw is a chismus- I’m proud of that sentence structure- that’s hard to do.

HAHAHA- chiasmus it is- but let me say that hope, security and empowerment are great emotions to carry forward especially this time of year and particularly this year, if you are listening to this episode in real time- this is the first weekend of December, which in the Western tradition is the month where we do focus on hope, peace on earth and good will toward men- and it is the year 2020. So happy December 2020! as we round out the tumultuous or wuthering year of 2020, Christy and I have thought about how WE could use our small voice to give hope, peace and good will to the different communities that we connect with through this podcast and we came up with a small idea. 2020 has been SO brutal to everyone, we thought, if we could do nothing else, we could at least give some recognition and a shout-out to small entrepenuers out there who are braving our 2020 storm, opening their businesses, serving their communities and connecting people. So, this is what we want to propose, if you are a small business or if you have one you love and want to support- email us a picture or a shout out at [email protected] and that is garry with two R’s not one R G-A-R-R-Y.

Or just go to our website. We will promote your business and your community on our social media accounts, recognizing and giving respect to all of us pulling together this year in a unique way.

Okay- back to the story- let’s give a little recap as how we’ve tried to organize this book. In episode one, we covered chapters 1-3 as we were introduced to the estate and residents of WH. Episode 2 we made it into chapter ten- discussing the childhood years of Catherine and Heathcliff and reading out that most famous, “I am Heathcliff” speech Catheirne gives as she decides to marry Edgar. This is the speech Heathcliff doesn’t hear because after hearing that she thinks it would degrade her to marry him he runs away.

Yes- in Episode 3- we’ve jumped three years. Edgar and Catherin...