Wuthering Heights- Timeless Messages

Question #6

Wuthering Heights is timeless. Although to modern readers its characters and its characters’ customs may seem old-fashioned, the messages that the book contains are still relevant today. The interactions between the characters reveal a deeper message about the constancy- or rather, lack of constancy- when a young person is in love. As Catherine Earnshaw so precisely puts it when questioned by her nurse, “my love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I’m well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I am Heathcliff!” (page 69)

When Catherine speaks to Nelly, telling of the differences in love, it is easy to discern the timeless problems with which we are presented today. Many people have suffered from the lack of constancy of love; many have dealt with the pain of separation from one who is a part of their being. Catherine Linton suffers from both of these problems, and as her story is told, readers find that they can identify with her and her spirited nature. From reading the novel, we can learn that although love is not always constant, true love does exist. True love can and will overcome all of the expectations which society places on the lovers.

Brontë, Emily. Wuthering Heights. New York: Random House, 1943. Print.