WUTHERING HEIGHTS
...in ,but at the same time he himself is also tormented till his death Heathcliff ,in another sense ,like Catherine ,becomes his own executioner from being Hindley¡¯s victim. The last but not the least contradiction lies in the impersonality of Heathcliff and Catherine's love. Edgar Linton shows at his best a great capacity for tender ,loving faith. But Linton's love for Caterine has obvious limits .The limits lie in the closed room into which the children peer." It was beautiful-- a splendid place carpeted with crimson, and crimson--covered chairs and tables , and a pure white ceiling bordered by gold ,a shower of glass-drops hanging in silver chains from the centre ,and shimmering with little soft tapers."5 This is the discription of the Romantic Linton's drawing-room. This shows Linton is released from material pressures into such a civilized condition. While in the Heights, people's relations are more intimately connected with a working condition . Linton's love for Catherine can not be equal with the romantic fantasies of heathciff andCatherine. Heathcliff's intense communion with Catherineis just what Linton lacks. Catherine has ever said her love for Linton is like ¡°the foliage in the woods",but her love forHeathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath". From this statement of Catherine,we can see the difference of Catherine's response to Linton's love and Heathcliff's. The relationship of Linton and Catherine is just personal. Yet Heathcliff and Catherine'slove seems to transcend the personal relationship.The word"personal" suggests the liberal humanism of Edgar,with his concern for pity,charity and humanity. so the word is clearly inappropriate to the fierce mutual tearings of Catherine and Heathcliff. The relationship of Catherine and Heathcliff is ontological or metaphysical,because it is a more-thanpersonal one which shows something of impersonality beyond a romantic individualist against the social oppression. Their relationship is wholly outside their concious control .what Heathcliff offers Cathy is a non-social relationship, which is the only authentic form of love in a world of exploitation and inequality. This kind of relationship means that one must refuse to measure oneself by the criteria of the class-structure and so must appear subversive. The intuitive intimacy of Heathcliff and Catherine is cosmic.Their passionate love tries to transcend the orthodox of Christianity and creates a new world of death and love. "What happens to you after you die? Many people find that religious faith helps them face that question without falling into despair.resire for transcendence,not just of the self but of the self's mortality,has motivated the will to faith since the first syllable of recorded time." If some devotees of love regard love as a faith,then they will see a hope in confronting the problem of personal death.Heathcliff and Catherine are this kind of love devotees. Because of hating and fearing death,pepole have often claimed to welcome it as a release into eternal joy. If you are good,you may go to heaven when you die;you may find peace and happiness there.such ideas have been a traditional solace of religion for the people who have a faith in Christianity.In one of her famous speeches , Catherine rejects such ideas of orthodox. " I was only going to say that heaven did not seem to be my home ; and I broke my heart with weeping to come back to earth ;and the angels were so angry that they flung me out , into the middle of the heath on the top of Wuthering Heights; where I woke sobbing for joy . that will do to explain my secret , as well as the other."(8) Here Catherine complains of heaven and angels which she totally rejects. This is the complaint of romantic individualism. And the Christian heaven, which is called bliss and where good people can become perpetual after death, does not seem to be an inviting place or a satisfactory consolation for Catherine. Late in the novel, Heathcliff says." I have nearly attained my heaven; and that of others is altogether unvalued and uncoveted by me!"(9) This shows that in Heathcliff's mind he has his own perfect heaven. His imagination of his own heaven is just the rejection of Christian heaven. Because of faith in passionate love, Catherine and Heathcliff try to reconcile what is irreconcilable to reason. Catherine and Heathcliff have faith in their passionate mutual love. She says, "If all else perished ,and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger. I should not seem a part of it".(10) And Heathcliff cries that "Nothing", not "death", not "God or Stan" has the strength to part them. They both believe that they are part of each other just as Christians believe that they have themselves in God. For the sake of the mystical passion of these two, they are devoted to shared experience and intimacy with the other; they are willing to suffer anything including death. It is just the passion that can overcome the threat of death. In death, they seek union with one another not with God. Later in the book we find out that Heathcliff has prayed to Cathy just after her death. " May she wake in torment! Why, she's a liar to the end! where is she? Not there- not in heaven - where? Oh ! you said you cared nothing for my sufferings! And I pray on prayer -- I repeat it till my tongue stiffens -- Catherin Earnshow, may you not rest, as long as I am living ! You said I killed you -- haunt me, then !the murdered do haunt their murderers,........ only do not leave me in this abyss, where I can not find you ! oh ,God ! it is unutterable! I cannot live without my life ! I cannot live without my soul !",(11) Heathcliff's passionate prayer with a tragic tone must win sympathy for him despite of his severe sins, because he appears so helpless and severe in his love. And at the same time, his prayer to his beloved again bursts out the opposition between orthodox and his faith. He yearns for being haunted by the dead Catherine. This passion totally comes out of the strong desire to overcome separation with his beloved. For Heathcliff and Catherine, death appears to be something dreaded and wished .Sometimes they wish for death , because earthly life keeps them apart. They think death can make their souls unified. Yet at the same time they fear death too, because what it is or what sort of existence they want in death is still unknown to them. Cat...