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Frequently Asked Questions
On this page, I discuss some of the questions often asked about Wuthering Heights and give my views on them.
Where did Heathcliff go? (And where did he get his money?)
When Heathcliff fled from Wuthering Heights in 1780, he had little education and no money. He returns three years later having acquired both. How did this come about? Education can be bought or self-taught so the real question is where he found his money. Ellen's suggestions are that he went abroad:
It was a deep voice, and foreign in tone; yet there was something in the manner of pronouncing my name which made it sound familiar.
and that he was in the army:
Have you been for a soldier?
and
His upright carriage suggested the idea of his having been in the army.
Between
1780 and 1783, Britain was involved in the American War of Independence
which was drawing to its end while, on the Continent was
the minor War of the Bavarian Succession. So there was no major war to
benefit from, either as a Briton or a mercenary. Without education
and contacts (and only 16 at the beginning), he would have found it difficult
to rise in the ranks and there would have been little money except from
plunder. Heathcliff is also quite evasive about this although it would
be a fairly respectable explanation.
Alternative explanations for his remarkable rise are that he was involved in the slave trade (which did not end in Britain until 1807) and, alternately, just simple criminality. In my view, the slave trade would seem the best explanation. It would explain his reticence in revealing his past, his foreign pronunciation, and would also fit his character. (Heathcliff does mention slavery in chapter 11 – "The tyrant grinds down his slaves and they don't turn against him; they crush those beneath them" – but this cannot be taken as proof of his past.)
How could Emily Brontë write Wuthering Heights?
Many
commentators, especially Emily's contemporaries, found it hard to believe
that a reserved clergyman's daughter with little experience of the world
could have written such a unique, brutal and immoral (as they saw it)
novel. At the time, many assumed that the author was a man (because the
Brontës had written under ambiguous pseudonyms) and many still believe
that Branwell was the true author. But we must not forget the power of
imagination. Bram Stoker did not have to visit Romania or get involved
with the supernatural to write Dracula. Walking alone on the
moors or sitting bored in the parsonage on a rainy day, Emily's mind
could have drifted to all sorts of possible places. We know that the
sisters had access to a large collection of books including Walter Scott
and Byron, and the juvenile writings that they produced show an ability
to delve deep into fantasy and imagination. In fact, it seems more likely
that a person with a limited social life and travel prospects would have
fled to the extremes of Wuthering Heights than a conventional
love story like Jane Eyre.
Was Catherine and Heathcliff's love incestuous?
Many questions have been raised about the love between Catherine and Heathcliff – in particular, whether it was incestuous. There are two reasons why it was probably not.
First, Catherine and Heathcliff were not blood siblings. We don't know if Heathcliff was officially adopted by Mr Earnshaw; the fact that he did not automatically inherit Wuthering Heights when Hindley died suggests not. Secondly, there is no actual evidence in the book that the two of them ever had sex. Heathcliff ran away when he was sixteen and Catherine fifteen. It seems unlikely that they would have slept together before then. He returns when he is nineteen but Catherine is already married to Edgar and there are only four or five months before she dies (excluding the two months that Heathcliff was absent with Isabella). As Catherine was also ill for much of this time, it seems highly improbably that anything would have happened then.
I personally take the view that their love was closer to that of identical twins rather than simple lovers: two people who are so close spiritually that they find it impossible to live without the other.
Was Heathcliff the father of Cathy?
Some
people have speculated that young Cathy was really Heathcliff's child
rather than Edgar's but I think this unlikely. First of all, Cathy is
blonde. Heathcliff and Catherine were both dark-haired so it seems genetically
unlikely although not impossible. Secondly the dates do not support it.
Cathy was born on 20 March 1784, a "puny, seven-months' child" so she was conceived around the middle to end of August 1783. Heathcliff returned in September 1783 and Catherine clearly shows surprise when he reappears. As noted above, there does not seem to be any evidence that Catherine ever slept with Heathcliff so we can be reasonably certain that Cathy was Edgar's.
Was Cathy's marriage to Linton legal?
At first glance, it would seem that Cathy's marriage to Linton was illegal in several ways. First, she was kidnapped by Heathcliff and effectively forced to agree to marry. Secondly, the suggestions are that it was held in Wuthering Heights, not a proper place of worship. And presumably the banns weren't displayed.
No
doubt the marriage was illegal and, in modern times would have been thrown
out of court. But we are talking about an isolated rural area in the
18th century when the local magistrate was effectively the law. We know
that Heathcliff had a crooked lawyer in
his pay and no doubt he could find a clergyman willing to turn a blind
eye for money. I don't know that much about 18th century law but I assume
that a marriage needed to be in a place of worship so the clergyman would
have had to pretend that it had happened at such a place. If anyone disagreed,
it was Cathy's word against Heathcliff, Linton, Hareton, the lawyer and
the clergyman so she had little chance to object. When Edgar died, remember,
Heathcliff would have presumably become the magistrate so he had things
pretty well under control.
Was Heathcliff black?
Because of his dark, brooding manner and his mysterious past, some people have wondered whether Heathcliff was, in fact, black, ie. a negro.
'Black' is only mentioned once in the novel (in this context) in chapter 7 when Ellen says to Heathcliff:
'A good heart will help you to a bonny face, my lad,' I continued, 'if you were a regular black; and a bad one will turn the bonniest into something worse than ugly.'
and this clearly suggests that he wasn't 'a regular black'.
When Catherine returns after her stay in Thrushcross Grange and sees Heathcliff looking dirty, she says:
'Why, how very black and cross you look! and how—how funny and grim!'
which would have been an odd thing to say to someone who was black-skinned.
The fact that his hair was black is often mentioned which would not have
been worth pointing out for for a negro who normally has black hair.
Linton's appearance does not suggest being of mixed blood either, being
fair-haired and with very pale skin.
But there is much to suggest that he had skin darker than a normal British person. Lockwood says in chapter 1:
He is a dark-skinned gipsy in aspect...
and Mr Linton in chapter 6:
'Oho! I declare he is that strange acquisition my late neighbour made, in his journey to Liverpool—a little Lascar, or an American or Spanish castaway.'
Ellen says to him in chapter 7:
'Who knows but your father was Emperor of China, and your mother an Indian queen, each of them able to buy up, with one week's income, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange together?'
although this may not refer to his appearance since there is a big difference between a Chinese person and an Indian. In fact, this would imply that his appearance was not easily tied down to a particular country or race: if he looked clearly Indian, Ellen would be unlikely to suggest that he might be descended from the Chinese Emperor (she was well educated for a servant).
When he first comes to Wuthering Heights, he speaks in a language which no one could understand.
...yet when it was set on its feet, it only stared round, and repeated over and over again some gibberish that nobody could understand.
While it might not be expected that anybody present — Mr and Mrs Earnshaw, Hindley, Catherine, Ellen or Joseph — would speak another language, somebody might have recognised Latin, Greek, French or Spanish.
The variety of description — gypsy, Lascar (an Indian/Asian sailor), American, Spanish, Chinese, Indian — would suggest that he had a nondescript dark skin, not racially distinct from other Caucasians. That, combined with the 'gibberish', would imply literally a Gypsy or Romany background.
Why is it said that Wuthering Heights is constructed like "Chinese boxes"?
This
is a literary term and is also known as mise en abyme or Matroska
(Russian) Dolls (see image right). These refer to boxes or dolls which
are stored one within the other. In the case of Wuthering Heights,
it refers to the multiple narrators that the novel has.
The principal narrator is Mr Lockwood who is writing down the story for us (i.e. the reader). But most of the story is being told to him by Ellen Dean and, at some points, there is a third narrator as in chapter 13 when Isabella sends a letter to Ellen telling of her arrival at Wuthering Heights. So Isabella is relating a story to Ellen who is relating it to Lockwood who is relating it to us! This can make it quite hard for a reader to follow but has the advantage of allowing different points of view in a first person story. Lockwood's observations and opinions are quite different from Ellen's and give us different angles on the situation.