“In the world of Wuthering Heights, death is seen as a welcome release from the tortures of living.” How far do you agree with the view of the novel?
In the time when Wuthering Heights was written, suicide was considered a cardinal sin. However, in the novel, death is seen as a welcome release from the tortures of life, with both Heathcliff and Catherine essentially committing suicide. Emily Bronte, who herself refused the help of medicine and doctors in her death, has a sympathetic view of death, and particularly in that era, refusing food was seen as one of the few powers women could use against men. This is one argument of why Catherine refuses food; for she is trapped in a society of ...view middle of the document...
The view that death is a welcome release does not resonate under this interpretation, for Heathcliff and Catherine’s ungodly attitude will come back to haunt them in the afterlife.
Heathcliff’s life can be seen to be one of the most torturous of any of the characters in the novel, contributing to the argument that death is a welcome release to his life. From his early years, he was subjected to beatings at the hands of Hindley, along with being abandoned by Catherine in favour of Edgar, to which Nelly describes the marriage of Edgar and Catherine to Heathcliff, he “loses friends, and love and all”, emphasising the significance of Catherine to him, the fact he sees nothing else in his life but her. Upon her death, Heathcliff loses the most important part of his life; a part of his soul that he is unable to regain in the mortal world, despite praying for her “haunting”, and in this respect, his death is seen as a chance to be with Catherine again. This is also shown by the placing of their coffins alongside each other, with the two sides open to represent the unity in death unachievable in life. However, Edgar is also buried alongside Catherine, which signifies that the situation that overshadowed her during her life will haunt her in death.
In Catherine’s case, the torture of living is the social structure she is forced to obey, whilst yearning for the “freedom” of the moors of her childhood. During her time at Thrushcross Grange, she was changed from a “wild, hatless little savage” into a “Lady”, a social jump that while appeals to her superficial nature, is not a social strata that she belongs in. The significance of this is apparent later in the novel, where she is faced with the decision between Heathcliff and Edgar, whereby she chooses Edgar, but naively believes that Heathcliff will remain her “friend”. This romantic short-sightedness ultimately leads to her voluntary death of starvation....