What is it about Wuthering Heights?

January 21, 2009

I love this book. I carried a copy of it around with me in high school and just picked it up and read it at random times. I wasn't a dark, gothic, melancholy sort of kid, but this story with its intense language has always touched that that bit of me. I love movie versions of it, including the latest one on Masterpiece (I know it's not the best ever, but I'm easy to please-I love seeing the characters come to life and the settings, plus this is one was filmed in Yorkshire). It is so tragic that it is cathartic I suppose, and there is something about Heathcliff's misery. He is the iconic untamed man, possessing that deep sadness that begs to be healed. Something. I don't know. I remember once Evan was watching a version of it with me (my kids are pretty used to me watching costume dramas and will usually sit down and watch with me) and people started dying right and left and he finally looked up at me and said, "Mom is anything good going to happen in this movie?" I said, "Nope." He excused himself, shaking his head at my foolishness. Oh well. I always watch to the very end, weeping for the lost opportunities and imagining Cathy and Heathcliff together at last, wandering the moors. I'm putting the back of my hand to my forhead and sighing as I type this, really.

Oh, Heathcliff!

4 comments

  1. I'm watching it too! I think it's a pretty good one. How exactly DO you say the line "I am Heathcliff" anyway? I don't think it's possible.

    So, here's my story about this book. I was in college and still hadn't read it. I decided to read it and REALLY see if I liked it, or if I just think books are good if they are "classics." I read it while working at a boarding school for deliquent boys, and while reading, two escaped (yes, escaped). The whole place was in uproar. People were running and screaming. I was reading a book with a bunch of insane people. And so, I thought I'd go insane.

    I don't LOVE the story, but the book is so well done that I have to like it. It definitely affects a person!

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  2. Oh Kellie, you are a woman after my own heart!! I love Wuthering Heights!! And I think the latest PBS version is awesome - I really bought their consuming and destructive love in this version and like the casting for both Cathy and Heathcliff. Oh and isn't Linton cute?!! Can't wait for the conclusion on Sunday!

    For me I think I love the book so much because of the overwhelming emotion and probably because I first read it during a time in my life when I was dreadfully meloncholy and reading that story actually made me feel like my life wasn't half bad in comparison!:) I used to love Heathcliff, but am happy now to have a more healthy relationship with that character and think he's rather horrible in a uber cool tortured soul kind of way.:) (I guess maybe my thoughts on him are still a little flawed...) Well I've just gone on forever about this, please forgive this crazy long comment!!

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  3. Kellie!
    I loved it, too! The first half is my favorite depiction of the first segment of Wuthering Heights done on tv or film. Maybe because it is longer, they had more time to explore it. Aaron didn't quite understand my interest in such a depressing story, just like Evan.
    I think I read the book maybe 5 times my Freshman year at BYU. Looking back, it was probably my way of dealing with the culture shock that comes from that first period at BYU. How fun to see that you love it, too!

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  4. ah, my favorite book of the bronte sisters. i might have to pull that one back out!

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