Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte, part III

Okay, let’s see if I can get through the rest of the cast of characters today. The reading group is meeting on Sunday, and I’ve read three books since I finished Wuthering Heights.

Edgar Linton: I just discovered that poor Edgar didn’t even rate his own entry in Wikipedia. Edgar is the young man who lives down (or over) the hill from Wuthering Heights who married Catherine Earnshaw, Heathcliff’s great love (apparently). Catherine plans to use Edgar’s position and wealth to elevate Heathcliff. For a lot of the beginning of the book, Catherine had him pretty snookered. He only gets to see the genteel version, at least until there’s an ugly incident involving Hareton Earnshaw (Hindley’s son) and Edgar gets to see just how fast Catherine’s moods can change and he sees just how spiteful and uncaring she is. And then he marries her anyway. I know that people didn’t marry for love when they were in a certain social position, but surely a man wouldn’t marry a woman who was as unstable as Catherine was?

Unlike most of the rest of the cast, Edgar has a hard time standing up for himself. Beyond marrying Catherine, he doesn’t get his way for the rest of the book. After fighting Heathcliff over visiting privileges, he just retreats into his intellectual pursuits. He doesn’t even come out much after his daughter’s birth. Plus, he’s another sickly character who seems to die of a general malaise.

Isabella Linton: At first, I thought Isabella was an idiot. She fell in love with Heathcliff. He doesn’t encourage her feelings and is, in fact, very rude and cruel to her. Heathcliff marries her as part of his elaborate revenge on…well, everyone. And she just goes along with it, though she knows that Heathcliff despises her. I changed my mind about Isabella when she ran away with their son and lived in hiding for ten or twelve years. I had hopes for Isabella after that, but then she up and died, too. It’s like there’s an epidemic in this book that only targets featured characters.

Catherine Linton (the younger Catherine): I think the younger Catherine was meant to be a redeeming character. She gets Edgar out of his shell a little, she brings out the best in Linton Heathcliff until Heathcliff totally poisons the little guy’s personality, and she gets Hareton Earnshaw to improve himself. Plus, her love for Hareton gets Heathcliff to call off his feud with…well, everyone. ‘Course by that time, most of the original cast has shuffled off their mortal coils.