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Wuthering Heights is a novel that indulges one of the most crucial themes; the theme of nature verses nature. The two households of the novel: Wuthering Heights and Thruscross Grange represents both the contrast between wilderness and civility which dominates the lives of its inhabitants. Being able to suppress your nature nurturing an opposed one would result into a deep conflict within the characters themselves. The best that would exemplifies such conflicts between the code of nature and nurture is Catherine Eran show. "Her spirit always at high-water mark, her tongue always singing, laughing and plaguing everybody who would not do the same. A wild, wicked slip" A person with such characteristics would not be able to infuse herself within a civilized society conventions that would shape up and polish whatever is wild and uncultivated in her.
By adapting herself to the upper class society accepting their environment she is working against her nature. The chances of success are limited and an inner rebel is unquestionable. In Catherine's character we see how her nature wins over her nurtured code. It all started the day she was bitten by the Linton's dog and was nursed there for awhile. She was taking by the glitter of the genteel society which raised her desire to be one of them adapting their false conventions. This idea brings me back to Dickens's Great Expectation when Pip visited Miss.
Havisham's house and was ever taking by the false expectation of upper class. Her first rejection to her nature was the minute she laughed at Heathcliff instead of defending him: "Frightful thing! Put him in the cellar, papa. He exactly like the fortune-teller that stole my tame pheasant. Isn't Edgar" Cathy came around; she heard the last speech and laughed" (WH P 39) Bit by bit we see how the nurture code develops gradually but still we have glimpse of her real nature striking at several situations she arrived as a lady wearing fancy dress and her hair was curled. Mrs.
Linton's transformed Catherine into a young lady, and spent time on her education In matters of social grace. Catherine shows acceptance for such mannerly conventions of genteel society despite he promise to Heathcliff in that to act as free and savagely as they want. Interestingly enough, people around her predicted that such new conventions will not last: "But she much mind not to grow wild again here" (WH P 41) The statement overshadows Catherine's next behavior at the sight of Heathcliff. She was supposed to behave as a lady and greet Heathcliff "Like the other servants" as Hindley proposed yet "Cathy, catching a glimpse of her friend I his concealment flew to embrace him; she bestowed seven or eight kisses on his cheeks within thew second" (WH P 41) In the previous quote, we see her nature taking over her nurtured code yet not for long since she stopped and went back commenting on his dirty face and unwashed hair saying that Edgar Linton looks better. Her distaste to Heathcliff grows widely in chapter VIII "Should I always be sitting with you?" she demand, growing more irritated, " what good do I get? What do you talk about?
You might be dumb or a baby for anything you say to amuse me, or for anything you do either!" (WH P 54) That shows the struggle within Catherine not being able to determine on what face she should stick to. Heathcliff not necessary represents the person himself but further extracted from Heathen added to cliff which all together denote nature. Therefore, through her rejection to Heathcliff, she is rejecting her nature and whatever she believes in. Nelly's narration after the previous incident strength the theme of the novel in where (nature) Heathcliff vs. (nurture) Edgar are put into comparison.
The contrast as Nelly proposed is that of 'bleak, hilly, coal country for a beautiful fertile valley'. obviously, Catherine notices the difference between both which eventually caused her conflicts. After the meeting with Heathcliff, Catherine went back to her nature pinching Nelly and hitting Edgar yet came back behaving like a lady asking Edgar to stay after he decided to leave for the insult. Her confusion and conflict between her uncultivated nature and her nurtured personality is represented in her torn feelings between her love to Edgar and her love to Heathcliff. Catherine continues to see Edgar Linton, and behave like a proper lady while with him; but when she is with Heathcliff, she acts as she always has. She is consciously aware, if I may say, that her love to Heathcliff is inseparable; she is aware of being wrong: "Who is to separate us, pray?
They " ll meet the fate of Milo! Not as long as I live, Ellen-for no mortal creature. Every linton on the face of the earth might melt into nothing before I could consent to forsake Heathcliff" Such natural love cannot be hindered or lesson until the person dies and that actually what Catherine meant in "not as long I live" When she confess her love of Edgar to Nelly, Catherine describes the conflict between her love for Heathcliff and her love to Linton. She says that she loves Linton because he is handsome and rich and would make her the greatest lady in the area. However, she loves Heathcliff as though the had the same soul, she knows that she has no business marrying Edgar. However, her desire to obtain an aristocratic statues lead her into making the decision; she would marry Heathcliff, except that Hindley has cast him down so low.
Catherine is in conflict of choosing the social grace of Edgar Linton or the intense passion of her love for Heathcliff. Furthermore, her dream is very symbolic and serves to overshadow what is to come back to earth resembles her love to her wild nature and Heathcliff. Angles (Edgar) threw her out to the earth (Heathcliff) on the top of Wuthering Heights and she was overjoyed. Generally speaking, I consider her dream as a prophecy since that's what happen to her later. When Heathcliff heard her confession, he stormed away. Heathcliff ran off Wuthering Heights that Christmas night and Catherine spends the night outdoors in the rain, sobbing and searching for Heathcliff.
She catches a fever and is soon near death. Her search for Heathcliff resembles her search for her own identity that she lost in nursing an alien codes. Her confusion is bitterly arouse in XII followed by a moment of realization. She discovered that going against her nature is nothing but an illusion. We have seen that scene in Great Expectation when Pip found the real gentility by breaking off the spell of the upper class.
However, in the case of Catherine she discovered that too late and repent it too "Let me alone, I've done wrong. Im dying for it" (WH P 125) She is able not see things sharply. Now she knows what she want for definite, she want to go back to her nature wanting to feel the way she used to in Wurtheirng Heights and her confusion has ended by such discovery. She recognized the difference and impact of her rejection to the code of ethics and her own nature, Therefore, she is working her way out of the false things she put herself into determined to reject whatever that was instilled by the society " The things that risk me most in this shattered prison after all. I'm too tired of being in closed her. I'm wearying to escape i 9 nto that glorious world in to be always there.
Not seeing it dimly through tears and yearning for it through the walls of an aching heart. But really with it, and in it. " Dying was the sort of answer an d life she was aiming at, her only way to unify herself again and make it up with her-abandoned for awhile-nature. Well, if you have any comment or review on my essay you can e-mail me at
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Research essay sample on Wuthering Heights Nature Vs Nurture
