Welcome to Wuthering Heights Wednesday, hosted by Softdrink at Fizzy Thoughts! I'm late this week because I had so many other great things to share with you but I didn't want to miss playing. Things are are really starting to heat up now--big, big drama is building!Chapter 13
Two months has passed and Cathy is only just now starting to recover from her brain fever but she's by no means the same person despite Edgar's best nursing attempts. Yeah, bleeding will do that to you.
Heathcliff and Isabella finally return, married, and Nelly receives a letter from Isabella detailing how miserable she is and how much she regrets marrying Heathcliff and how awful things are at Wuthering Heights. And will Nelly please have Edgar come to visit Isabella and won't Nelly please come.
Chapter 14
Ellen (Nelly) goes to Wuthering Heights but Edgar won't have anything more to do with Isabella so he sends nothing. Ellen is appalled to find that things have fallen into even worse disrepair than the last time she was there, including Isabella. Heathcliff, who looks quite the gentelman, brags to Ellen about how he hanged Isabella dog and how he has made her hate him.
Heathcliff is desperate to see Catherine, especially when Ellen tells him how bad she's been, and finally convinces her to take a note to Cathy to see if she'll allow him to come visit.
Chapter 15
Heathcliff comes to the Grange while Edgar and most of the servants are at church. He can't believe how different Catherine is.
"The flash of her eyes had been succeeded by a dreamy and melancholy softness: they no onger gave the impression of looking at the objects around her: they appeared always to gaze beyound, and far beyond - you would have said out of this world. Then the paleness of her face - its haggard aspect having vanished as she recovered flesh - and the peculiar expression arising from her mental state..."
He's distraught when Cathy curses him to suffer after she dies and the more upset he becomes, the meaner she gets. Finally, she sees that she's pretty much crushed him and begs him to come to her and they fall into each other's arms, kissing.
Ellen sees Edgar coming but Cathy begs Heathcliff to stay so, of course, he does. Cathy passes out just before Edgar returns and before Edgar can even think about raising a hand to Heathcliff, Heathcliff hands Cathy to him and walks out
My Thoughts
I know I should be feeling sorry for Cathy; she's in a terrible state. But, come one, she completely brought it on herself. Heathcliff I'm having mixed feelings about. Seriously, the first thing he did when Isabella came to him was hang her dog? On the other hand, he is so obviously painfully in love with Catherine and devastated by her condition. Isabella--don't feel a bit sorry for her; she brought what she got on herself and made it so much easier for Heathcliff to wreck havoc.
This was about the point that I lost a lot of sympathy for Heathcliff and Cathy, and I sort of felt that by the later sections of the book that they had degenerated into co-dependent weirdos. In later sections their actions just seem to get stranger and more malevolent. I will be interested in hearing your take on things as they progress. Great summary paragraphs as well!
ReplyDeleteI must say I'm impressed that you feel sympathy towards Cathy and Heathcliff!
ReplyDeleteThat Heathcliff, he's a real catch...not!
ReplyDeleteI think you are the only person that mentioned the hanging dog. I had forgotten all about it! What a wretched thing to do. I am using the word "wretched" a lot when discussing this book.
ReplyDelete