I wanted to follow up on my original post for this weeks readings. My first post centered around the attitudes and feelings of Catherine during the first half of Wuthering Heights. She is a stagnant character in this part of the book when compared to the later chapters. Young Catherine and Edgar's love is much different than Catherine and Heathcliff. Catherine and Heathcliff's love is rooted not in a deep connection, but a childhood dream. As a result, there is not much room to grow out of this dream and evolve into a relationship. On the other hand, Catherine and Edgar's love seems to manifest itself as an acceptance of Catherine's role in this era; wife. Furthermore, Catherine and Edgar are more different, personality and social status speaking, than her and Heathcliff. Edgar's character represents the antithesis of Heathcliff. He has wealth, status, and a more grown-up persona. As a result, this gives Catherine room to grow into unfamiliar territory that this relationship represents; something that was not possible with Heathcliff because they were so similar in many ways.
I think it is essentail to also note the concept of status in the story of Catherine and Edgar. She chooses to marry him in order to be "the greatest women in the neighborhood." This struck me as an odd reason tto marry someone until i began to examine Catherine's growth with Edgar when compared to Heathcliff. For those of you who choose too, maybe you can debate whether it was possible for Catherine to achieve this status with Heathcliff as well? I do not. For many of the reasons above, most importantly the lack of growth Catherine showed with Heathcliff, this would not have been possible.
I think that the elder Catherine and Heathcliffs relationship could have grown into something more but as kids Catherine was forced to understand her role in society and at first it is against her will. She would have enjoyed much more being around Heathcliff in any capacity versus being with Edgar. Catherine was not that way until she was taught the difference between herself and Heathcliff, What more did Heathcliff have to go except for the fact that they were friends as kids. Catherine only wanted to have everything because that was what she was taught to enjoy and that status was everything. I think that young Catherine is a lot different then elder Catherine when it comes to relationships. She only married Linton because A) she felt sorry for him because he was so sick and B) she was forced to marry him because of Heathcliff who was out for revenge. Once Linton died Catherine was able to see the beauty of Hareton and visa versa once they were able to hang out. It seems like its pretty much a similar relationship between young Catherine and Hareton as it was with elder Catherine and Heathcliff the only difference is that young Catherine got to know Hareton and despite his looks and education she grew to care and even love him for him. Elder Catherine never got that chance because she passed away.
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