Have you ever read a book with characters, a world, and a plot so captivating you can’t stop thinking about it?
For me, Wuthering Heights was one of those books. The complexity of the characters and the drama paired with the description of the scenery created such pictures and prompted such curiosity I had to keep reading.
Yet, I continued to be disappointed, as I felt the plot continued to build and get worse and nothing was ever resolved.
I understand Heathcliff’s anger based on how he was treated. I understand the social snobbery by some and the bitterness of others in the book.
But…there was no redemption, no real learning and growth, and no ray of sunshine in the story. That made me hate it because it was miserable to read about people treating each other horribly and inhumanely without any kind of point.
It’s one of those stories that exposes the darker side of humanity without any moral lesson.
I can read dark stuff- one of my favorite books is The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. Similarly, I liked The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
But that’s because those books showed the end of vice: alienation, complete moral depravity, and eventually, death.
That’s because even if the main character spirals without ever coming to his senses, he gets his comeuppance and it becomes a cautionary tale such as “woe to the person who goes down this road.”
Not only does this ring true as a Christian, but it is also realistic: you can’t continue killing and harming people without consequence. Even if a criminal is never caught…he must live with a tortured conscience (such as Jekyll) or will eventually die in one way or another (like Dorian Gray).
To be fair, the characters who treat each other poorly in Wuthering Heights die, but it is treated as an inevitable fact of life and not as a just end for them.
This is one of the critiques Brontë faced in her day: her novel had no morality in it. To me, that is what is most disturbing and not believable about the story.
Good is always good and bad is always bad. I’m not talking about gray areas but things which are obvious such as that abuse is always wrong.
Until next time…
Classic Reads 