Wuthering Heights Essays

Ignoring the ghost story in the novel would be ignoring a part of the story, and, as a former city dweller who prizes rational thought and integrity, it would be unjust for Lockwood to exclude any aspect of the story, even if it seems unscientific.Despite the scientific nature of realist novels, realism is not limited to merely the factual truth: it must include all aspects of the truth, all points of view, and all versions.

Ignoring the ghost story in the novel would be ignoring a part of the story, and, as a former city dweller who prizes rational thought and integrity, it would be unjust for Lockwood to exclude any aspect of the story, even if it seems unscientific.Despite the scientific nature of realist novels, realism is not limited to merely the factual truth: it must include all aspects of the truth, all points of view, and all versions.

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The moor is a haunted, creepy, unknown land: in such a setting, ghostly appearances become a natural feature of the world, not a supernatural one (Cecil 150). Later in the novel, an apparition of Hareton Earnshaw appears to Catherine, and she recalls that “my bodily eye was cheated into a momentary belief that the child lifted its face and stared straight into mine!

When the ghost of Catherine first appears to Lockwood, she appears against the backdrop of the moors, just outside the window, like she had risen out of the wild land and was trying to find her way inside to safety (119). ’ I asked, struggling, meanwhile, to disengage myself. It vanished in a twinkling; but immediately I felt an irresistible yearning to be at the Heights” (203).

Even though Lockwood, and to some extent Nellie, are uncomfortable talking about supernatural events, they feel it is their duty to tell the entire story regardless of its plausibility.

Smajic writes that holders of the “fixed, stable narrative point of view,” are in a double bind when presenting the supernatural to their audience, since they must deal with the “instinctive faith in the evidence of one’s sight and the troubling knowledge that vision is often deceptive and unreliable” (1109).

Lockwood and Nellie struggle to tell a story that calls into question the reliability of their own vision, yet must correlate the two perspectives in order to adhere to the standards of realism.

Smajic writes that ghost story authors attempt to answer the unsettling question of when “to draw the line between objective and subjective perception in general, between optical fact and optical illusion” (Smajic 1109).The ghost story provides additional detail to the class conflict, setting, characters, and realism in the novel.Ghosts, despite their incredulity in modern science, were an inexplicable, inextricable part of life, and as such, are a part of the realism depicted in .Catherine and Heathcliff are part of each other, so much so that they haunt each other after death.Additionally, the introduction of the ghost of Catherine at the beginning of the novel makes it clear that the story is unfinished, the characterization is still progressing, and that even though some of the characters are dead, their memory is very much alive in the minds of the living characters.Heathcliff’s belief that she is still out walking the moors, and Lockwood’s experience with her outside his window, develop Catherine and Heathcliff’s highly spiritual relationship.Without the existence of the ghost story in is that as a realist narrator, he has the duty to recount the entire story, without leaving any detail out.Since the moor is such a supernatural setting, it is realistic to include supernatural events in any realist story set in the moor.The story of could not take place without the ghost story, not only because ghosts belong to the setting and society, but because ghosts and the supernatural are a large part of Catherine and Heathcliff’s relationship.The lower class’ fear of ghosts is not just part of the ghost story; it demonstrates how the characters in the novel perceive reality, thus adding cultural detail to the story and enhancing the realism of the work.In addition to being part of the lower class’ folklore, ghostly visions seem to belong to the moor and the Heights. Catherine’s ghost is strongly associated with the moors, suggesting that the land itself was haunted or prone to visits from the supernatural.