Sex, Passion and Desire (WH Quotes) Flashcards
(8 cards)
‘If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn in to a mighty stranger’ - Cathy
This declaration of absolute hints at a dependency, cloaked in spiritual terms
Her existential attachment to H suggests a longing that goes beyond love - towards an uncontainable, almost carnal craving for union
‘I have no pity! I have no pity! The more the worms writhe, the more I yearn to crush out their entrails!’ - Heathcliff
Expression of violent feeling reflects how H channels his passionate anguish into cruelty
Passion and desire in this case transform vengeance
His inner torment is inseparable from his desire for Cathy
‘You are welcome to torture me to death for your amusement, only allow me to amuse myself a little in the same style’ - Heathcliff (to Cathy)
Shows love as mutual torment
Desire between Cathy and H is intense, but also cruel and competitive
Their passion is a game of emotional dominance, in which pain and pleasure are intertwined
‘He dashed his head against the knotted trunk; and, lifting up his eyes, howled, not like a man, but like a savage beast being goaded to death with knives and spears’ - Nelly (about Heathcliff)
Highly charged moment after Cathy’s death, H’s grief is animalistic, even erotic in its physicality
The intensity of his emotional agony suggests a bodily, feral passion that death cannot extinguish
Desire becomes something wild and ungovernable
‘I wish I were out of doors- I wish I were a girl again, half savage and hardy, and free’ - Cathy
Links passion with freedom and wildness
Her desire for H is bound to her untamed childhood
In seeking love with Edgar, she represses her natural, passionate self - and suffers for it
‘Cathy, do come. Oh, do- once more! Oh! my heart’s darling! hear me this time- Catherine, at last!’ - Heathcliff
His plea encapsulates raw, desperate passion of H’s love
Repetition suggests a desperation that borders on madness, his yearning is so intense it compels him to call out to a dead woman - shows passion transcends life and reason
H is at his emotional limit - breathless punctuation and fragmented phrasing suggests a collapse of emotional control
‘She was struct during a tempest of passion with a kind of fit’ - Nelly (about Cathy)
Likens her emotional outburst to an uncontrollable force of nature
Metaphor positions her passion not as delicate but violent, chaotic and consuming
Perhaps foreshadows the all-consuming passion between her and H
‘Oh, God! It is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!’ - Heathcliff
His outcry acknowledges that his feelings are too intense to be expressed in words
Declaration blurs the line between Cathy and H
Without her both his physical and spiritual lives collapse
