Wuthering Heights, a novel by Emily Bronte, may seem like a normal romance novel, but there is more to it. Many traces of eerie, supernatural things intertwine with the romance plot and used as symbols to explain the violence and chaos of the Earnshaw and Linton households. Besides acting as symbols, these spooky occurrences also give us insight into the characters’ states of mind, and how they view things. In the very beginning of the story, the narrator, Lockwood, describes Wuthering Heights as a place “swarming with ghosts and goblins” (27). His stay in the Earnshaw household was interrupted by an encounter with a ghost early on. He described his encounter as a horrible dream, saying that he “turned and dosed, and dreamt again: if possible,
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Nelly walks into the same room that Lockwood sleeps in and encounters Catherine Linton, and finds Heathcliff lying in the bed motionless. Nelly describes what she tried to do after realizing Heathcliff was dead: “I tried to close his eyes: to extinguish, if possible, that frightful, life-like gaze of exultation before anyone else beheld it. They would not shut: they seemed to sneer at my attempts; and his parted lips and sharp white teeth sneered too”. This image is really creepy plus the fact that Cathy’s ghost was in the room before only heightens the unnerving feelings of his death. The ghost encounter that scared Lockwood happens when he is in the oak-paneled bed, the same bed that Heathcliff dies on. Before his nightmares, Lockwood sees the bed and the room it’s in as a place where he can feel "secure against the vigilance of Heathcliff and everyone else". The bed then symbolizes a place of protection, and a hideaway. The oak-paneled bed was also a sanctuary for young Catherine, whose books became impromptu journals as she hid from Hindley’s rule of the household some twenty-five years before. The supernatural powers that surround the bed become more haunting when Heathcliff dies there, transforming the bed into a coffin where Heathcliff is finally reunited with his …show more content…
Cathy and Hareton decide to marry, which finally provides closure to the family’s problems. In many ways the ghosts in Wuthering Heights symbolize a lack of closure for the lovers. Heathcliff wants to believe in ghosts and the afterlife because that means Catherine will still be around. When Catherine dies, he begs to be haunted: “I know that ghosts have wandered on earth. Be with me always – take any form – drive me mad”. When Heathcliff dies, he is said to be seen at the moors with a young woman, as a little boy said: “They’s Heathcliff, and a woman, yonder, under t’ Nub” (368). It is believed that the young woman is Catherine and that Heathcliff and she have ghostly meetings by the moor just like when they were kids. This rather spooky ending is also one that resolves Heathcliff’s struggle to find love, showing that love is
Nelly walks into the same room that Lockwood sleeps in and encounters Catherine Linton, and finds Heathcliff lying in the bed motionless. Nelly describes what she tried to do after realizing Heathcliff was dead: “I tried to close his eyes: to extinguish, if possible, that frightful, life-like gaze of exultation before anyone else beheld it. They would not shut: they seemed to sneer at my attempts; and his parted lips and sharp white teeth sneered too”. This image is really creepy plus the fact that Cathy’s ghost was in the room before only heightens the unnerving feelings of his death. The ghost encounter that scared Lockwood happens when he is in the oak-paneled bed, the same bed that Heathcliff dies on. Before his nightmares, Lockwood sees the bed and the room it’s in as a place where he can feel "secure against the vigilance of Heathcliff and everyone else". The bed then symbolizes a place of protection, and a hideaway. The oak-paneled bed was also a sanctuary for young Catherine, whose books became impromptu journals as she hid from Hindley’s rule of the household some twenty-five years before. The supernatural powers that surround the bed become more haunting when Heathcliff dies there, transforming the bed into a coffin where Heathcliff is finally reunited with his …show more content…
Cathy and Hareton decide to marry, which finally provides closure to the family’s problems. In many ways the ghosts in Wuthering Heights symbolize a lack of closure for the lovers. Heathcliff wants to believe in ghosts and the afterlife because that means Catherine will still be around. When Catherine dies, he begs to be haunted: “I know that ghosts have wandered on earth. Be with me always – take any form – drive me mad”. When Heathcliff dies, he is said to be seen at the moors with a young woman, as a little boy said: “They’s Heathcliff, and a woman, yonder, under t’ Nub” (368). It is believed that the young woman is Catherine and that Heathcliff and she have ghostly meetings by the moor just like when they were kids. This rather spooky ending is also one that resolves Heathcliff’s struggle to find love, showing that love is