.
Wuthering Heights - Catherine Linton Character Analysis
Book Abstract by:
Delicatessen
Original Author: Emily Bronte
-
Summary rating: 5 stars
(3 Ratings)
-
Visits : 58
-
words:600
-
Comments
:
0
Catherine is the central figure of the second generation of characters. She is the daughter of Catherine Earnshaw of
Wuthering Heights and Edgar Linton of Thrushcross Grange. She grows up in the latter, a magnificent estate four miles away from Wuthering Heights and very different from it. In such a splendid environment, the stage is set for her to have a happy childhood. She becomes somewhat spoiled by her father, and her nurse. This is how Nelly describes her to Mr. Lockwood, physically “She was the most winning thing that ever brought sunshine into a desolate house – a real beauty in face – with the Earnshaws’ handsome dark eyes, but the Lintons’ fair skin, and small features, and yellow curling hair.” and emotionally “ That capacity for intense attachments reminded me of her mother; still she did not resemble her; for she could be soft and mild as a dove, and she had a gentle voice, and pensive expression: her anger was never furious; her love never fierce; it was deep and tender.
When she finds out that her cousin Linton is so close by at Wuthering Heights, she begins to visit and exchanges letters with him and without her father’s knowledge she is forced by Heathcliff to marry her cousin. We can see how different Catherine is from her mother in this situation, with her father near death, she becomes crazy with the idea that she may not see him before he dies. Unlike her mother, whose fits were selfish and meant to hurt others, Catherine’s arise from a fear of hurting her father. Her frenzy scares Linton so much that he lets her escape. After her husband’s death she finds herself trapped at Wuthering Heights.
This second stage of Catherine’s life is where we (the reader) and Mr.Lockwood (the narrator) first meet her. Lockwood at first mistakes her for Heathcliff’s wife, he describes her as “slender, and scarcely past her girlhood: an admirable form, and the most exquisite little face … and eyes – had they been agreeable in expression, they would have been irresistible – fortunately for my susceptible heart, the only sentiment they evinced hovered between scorn and a kind of desperation”.
To use David Cecil’s terminology, Catherine Linton seems to have both storm and calm within her. When exposed to an environment of calm her character of calm comes out, just as when exposed to that of storm she will act accordingly; like Linton Heathcliff. The difference between the two seems to be their weakness or strength of character. Catherine seems of a stronger nature, always tilting to her calm side while Linton’s weaker character is much more easily pushed into tilting to the storm side – but his character I will discuss in the next section. We see this (calm) side of Catherine’s nature in the beginning of the novel, in chapter two when she tries to get somebody to help Lockwood on his way back to the Grange despite Heathcliff having already denied him any help on the grounds of Hareton having to mind the horses, she argues that “A man’s life is of more consequence than one evening’s neglect of the horses, somebody must go,” at this stage though, we see the storm Catherine intertwined with the calm as she adds to Hareton “I hope his ghost will haunt you; and I hope Mr. Heathcliff will not get another tenant, till the Grange is a ruin!”
It is strange that in his revenge, Heathcliff spares neither Catherine, the daughter of his beloved Cathy nor Linton his own son.
Published: November 05, 2009
More summaries by Delicatessen
More