Task 1
Write a couple paragraphs on the reaction of Heathcliff to Isabella using a PEEL structure.
In this extract, Heathcliff demonstrates his pure hatred for Isabella through physical violence, mockery and a semantic field of insults. When Isabella insists with ‘sudden vivacity’ that her brother and Catherine ‘are as fond of each other as any two people can be’, Heathcliff ‘scornfully’ uses a sarcastic rhetorical question to poke fun at her view of her brother: ‘your brother is wondrous fond of you too, isn’t her? ‘ He also cruelly reminds her of her brother’s ‘surprising alacrity’ to disown her so quickly, a jab which shows how unsympathetic he is to his wife, whose family he has just shattered through marrying her, and how little regret he expressed for causing this. There is also an interesting contrast between the shape and structure of Heathcliff and Isabella’s sentences. Heathcliff usually addresses her with commanding questions – giving off an air of stern, even vicious authority: ‘you have written, have you?’ ‘And nothing since?’ – and his frequent use of exclamation marks echoing his firm, forceful tone: ‘that will do for the present!’. Isabella answers in shorter, meeker sentences, that diminish in length as Heathcliff presses on with his demanding questions: ‘To say that I was married, I did write- you saw the note’ ‘No.’. This contrast reflects the power balance in their relationship: Heathcliff is in the position of power – a dominant, tyrannical force prevailing over her, forcing her into an inferior position of vulnerability and weakness, reflected by her shorter, submissive answers to him. Heathcliff exposes more tyrannical, bullying behaviour as he ridicules her, disdainfully calling her a ‘child’, ordering her about ‘upstairs, I tell you!’ and patronisingly reminding her that he is her ‘legal protector and must retain [her] in [his] custody’.
Furthermore, Heathcliff displays witty and unkind humour to further ridicule his wife. When Nelly criticises him for neglecting and mistreating her ‘Somebody’s love comes short in her case, obviously’, Heathcliff responds by maliciously playing on Nelly’s use of the third person and modal language (‘I may guess’) while talking about Isabella to mock her concern: ‘I should guess it was her own’. His use of third person not only mockingly mirrors Nelly’s language back at her but also shows Heathcliff’s complete disrespect for Isabella – he talks of her in the distancing third person and does not bother to address her directly throughout his entire speech, as if she is unworthy of his attention, totally ignoring her presence: ‘She degenerates into a mere slut’. The vulgar language he uses here, especially the insult ‘slut’ and later ‘brach’, reflects his deep bitterness and disrespect for her, the graphic blatancy of his hatred shocking the reader and making them see him in a negative light as he brutally criticises and insults Isabella. The adjectival triads ‘pitiful, slavish, mean-minded brach’ and the commas used alongside it give the sentence a list-like, impassioned effect as if Heathcliff is spitting these words out in a rapid succession – reflecting his angry stream of consciousness and the distaste he feels towards her, which takes a more intense, physical form when he ‘seizes’ her and ‘thrusts her from the room’. In addition, the zoophilic metaphor ‘creature’ he uses when describing her intelligence is also degenerating: ‘I can hardly regard her in the light of a rational creature’ (with the modal verb ‘can’ adding more emphasis to the idea of her inability to think rationally). He is suggesting her judiciousness is even lower than an animal’s – a deeply insulting comment to make. The negative juxtaposition ‘appalling intelligence’ further implies Heathcliff’s opinion that she is completely lacking in sense with her rare discoveries only proving to be irritations to him and he rejoices in succeeding in making her hate him, claiming this is a ‘positive labour of Hercules’. Here, he compares himself to a powerful god ‘Hercules’, this arrogant pride relating back to his bitter remark to Nelly that she ‘’d never credit’ the fact Isabella was ‘weeping to go home’ only a few hours after their marriage – as if it is something that could be credited at all. This sadistic joy of his, evident as he relishes Isabella’s misery, shocks the reader as it further exposes his pure evil nature, rejoicing in her declaration that she hates him, even further questioning her to make sure this assertion is true: ‘Are you sure you hate me?’ – as if it is a piece of information that would reassure him, even comfort him.
However, Heathcliff attempts to justify his dislike of Isabella by describing how she was still ready to agree to marry him even when he expressed his desire to hang ‘every being belonging to her’ and when he actually hung her dog, almost killing it. He scornfully states ‘no brutality disgusted her’ and that ‘she has an innate admiration of it’. This causes the reader to also consider the fact that Isabella may not be so much the poor, innocent victim she appears to be here and question her position. Indeed she seemed to be aware of Heathcliff’s violent manner before she married him – she saw him hanging her dog and heard him express his wish to cause harm to the rest of her family. Was she indeed stupid enough to believe a marriage with this savage man wouldn’t end in disaster or believe that he actually loved her? The reader is left conflicted, perhaps shocked at how naïve and selfish it was of Isabella to marry Heathcliff even after he expresses his wish to hang her family and tortured her dog – an innocent, helpless animal suffering under his abuse.
Task 2
Chapter 17 – Isabella narrates – make further notes on his character and attitudes towards the Lintons
Heathcliff stops to inspect Thrushcross Grange’s park and gardens for ‘half an hour’, already treating the property as his own, as if Edgar is already dead. There is a chilling confidence here – as if he knows Edgar’s death is approaching and that he will soon be master.
‘Mr Heathcliff was nowhere visible’ ‘he left me by the kitchen door’– he abandons Isabella immediately as soon as they set foot into Wuthering Heights, her future prison. She ‘despairs’, knowing she cannot find anyone who will ‘be her ally against Heathcliff’ – he’s already established himself as her enemy, when they’re supposed to be husband and wife. The battle jargon she uses emphasises the hostility in their relationship – so severe it feels like a war.
Hindley implies he gambled all his money away, losing it all to Heathcliff and so therefore the reader can guess that Heathcliff has become the master of Wuthering Heights through this and Hindley is now completely under his mercy: ‘I will have it back; and I’ll have his gold too’. This is Heathcliff’s cruel revenge on Hindley – using his addiction to alcohol and gambling as a way to secure his control over Wuthering Heights. If Hindley were to try and get rid of him, Heathcliff would leave with all the money and Hindley would ‘lose all without a chance of retrieval’.
Heathcliff’s bedroom is neglected with the furniture ‘severely damaged’ and ‘dropping to pieces’, the carpet ‘obliterated by dust’ and ‘indentations deforming the panels of the wall’. This degradation reflects his own spiritual degradation – his mad desire for revenge has caused him to become just as sinister and unpleasant as this room.
Isabella sarcastically describes the ‘loving way’ with which Heathcliff talks to her, implying it is the very opposite, even as her husband – a role which is supposed to be a loving one. She also describes how her use of the third-person pronoun ‘our’ ‘gives mortal offence’ to Heathcliff who vehemently ‘swears it [his room] will never be’ hers. She sums up his cruel behaviour towards her by stating ‘he is ingenious and unresting in seeking to gain my abhorrence’ and comparing him to ‘a tiger or a venomous serpent, even saying these creatures causes less ‘terror’ than him.
Heathcliff ‘accuses’ Edgar of causing Catherine’s illness and warns Isabella that he will punish her instead of her brother until ‘he can get hold of him’. This unfairness shows Heathcliff’s cruel, unkind nature – he clearly strongly despises the Lintons and will stop at nothing to hurt them, even if they’re innocent. Furthermore it demonstrates how attached he is to Catherine and how cynical his love for her makes him – when she is ill, he automatically thinks Edgar must be responsible for her lover’s pain.