Wuthering Heights - Critic's Reviews

The "problem" of Wuthering Heights is the "problem" of Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff. How has the relationship between these two characters been read over the last 150 years? To what extent has cultural context varied these reading and how, in particular, has it influenced your own reading? Wuthering Heights has been the subject of much criticism throughout its history as critics and historians alike try to discover Bronte's meaning and intentions behind the work. The controversial …

…and appreciated. Bronte’s use of sympathy is so well done that the reader continues to view Heathcliff and Catherine as victims, rather than immoral and corrupt villains. Hagan states that in the end, "we do not condone their outrages, but neither do we merely condemn them. We do something larger and more important: we recognize in them the tragedy of passionate natures whom intolerable frustration and loss have stripped them of their humanity". (2100 words).