syd
WHERE DO I BEGIN. First of all, who said this is the GREATEST romance of all time. I just want to talk. Is there romance? Technically speaking, yes. Is it the *greatest*? In my opinion that is a resounding No. This is the story about the cycle of generational abuse, with lots of obsession, and a little sprinkling of romance and maybe some happiness at the end.
Yes, Heathcliff was abused by Hindley (and most of the household). Catherine and Heathcliff then formed a *very* unhealthy attachment to each other, and obviously when Catherine married Edgar, Heathcliff took that extremely personally. So what did he do about it? He abused and neglected literal children, and then starved himself to death at the end. I do give him props though, because his plan was truly diabolical and everyone just let it happen.
I do get the sense that Nelly isn't the *most* reliable narrator, she is really harsh regarding the character of Catherine Senior. It's really interesting to see Nelly be softer on Catherine Junior’s behavior, when it is similar in some ways to Senior’s.
And yes, Cathy and Hareton getting to have a happy ending is so very sweet. I love that Wuthering Heights becomes light and airy with those two as masters of the house. It has great symmetry to Catherine and Heathcliff’s story, which I like.
The aesthetic of the setting really adds to the story, and I like that Emily Brontë created these fucked up characters to illustrate the cycles of abuse and neglect. But overall, I just feel pretty meh on it. I think I would've enjoyed it more if the structure of the story wasn't presented as a fireside tale, and rather had been from the points of view from our main cast of terrors/terror-ees. It's a classic I'm glad I picked up though, and I'm very interested to watch some of these movies because. What the hell???
WHERE DO I BEGIN. First of all, who said this is the GREATEST romance of all time. I just want to talk. Is there romance? Technically speaking, yes. Is it the *greatest*? In my opinion that is a resounding No. This is the story about the cycle of generational abuse, with lots of obsession, and a little sprinkling of romance and maybe some happiness at the end.
Yes, Heathcliff was abused by Hindley (and most of the household). Catherine and Heathcliff then formed a *very* unhealthy attachment to each other, and obviously when Catherine married Edgar, Heathcliff took that extremely personally. So what did he do about it? He abused and neglected literal children, and then starved himself to death at the end. I do give him props though, because his plan was truly diabolical and everyone just let it happen.
I do get the sense that Nelly isn't the *most* reliable narrator, she is really harsh regarding the character of Catherine Senior. It's really interesting to see Nelly be softer on Catherine Junior’s behavior, when it is similar in some ways to Senior’s.
And yes, Cathy and Hareton getting to have a happy ending is so very sweet. I love that Wuthering Heights becomes light and airy with those two as masters of the house. It has great symmetry to Catherine and Heathcliff’s story, which I like.
The aesthetic of the setting really adds to the story, and I like that Emily Brontë created these fucked up characters to illustrate the cycles of abuse and neglect. But overall, I just feel pretty meh on it. I think I would've enjoyed it more if the structure of the story wasn't presented as a fireside tale, and rather had been from the points of view from our main cast of terrors/terror-ees. It's a classic I'm glad I picked up though, and I'm very interested to watch some of these movies because. What the hell???
