Catherine 1 Quotes Flashcards
(5 cards)
It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love him; and that, not because he’s handsome, Nelly, but because he’s more myself than I am (86).
Catherine admits to Ellen that she loves Heathcliff but cannot think of marrying him because he has been degraded by Hindley. Heathcliff hears this speech, and he leaves Wuthering Heights, not to return for three years.
If I marry Linton, I can aid Heathcliff to rise, and place him out of my brother’s power? (87).
Catherine tells Ellen what she believes will happen with her marriage and her relationship to Heathcliff. She really believes that her marriage to Linton will end up helping Heathcliff, which of course it does not.
“My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I’m well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath
Cathy’s oft-quoted declaration of love for Heathcliff incorporates many of the novel’s important themes and stylistic qualities. When she likens her relationships with Linton and Heathcliff to different aspects of the natural world, Cathy reinforces the connection between nature and deep emotion that Brontë introduced earlier in the novel.
Nelly, I am Heathcliff!
By having Cathy refer to herself and Heathcliff as the same being, Brontë further develops some questions about the self that she addresses elsewhere in Wuthering Heights. She raises the question of how far the bounds of the self extend–can two people really be one person, as Cathy suggests?
He’s not a rough diamond–a pearl-containing oyster of a rustic: he’s a fierce, pitiless, wolfish man (109).
Although she loves Heathcliff, Catherine realizes the man he has become and strongly advises Isabella against getting involved with him. Isabella thinks Catherine is only jealous, and does not heed her advice.
