Wuthering+Heights+-+Supernatural


 * __Wuthering Heights and the Supernatural __**

__Volume 1:__ //' ...knocking my knuckles through the glass, and stretching an arm out to seize the importunate branch: instead of which, my fingers closed on the fingers of a little, ice-cold hand! The intense horror of nightmare came over me...As it spoke, I descerned, obscurely, a child's face lo oki n g through the window...'   //  -pg29 →this ghost appears during a nightmare Lockwood has at his stay in Wuthering Heights. After this point this ghost does not appear through the rest of volume one. However as the book continues we are provided with the story of the ghost as well as reasoning behind its haunting a specific character -Heathcliff
 * early in the book (within the first few chapters) were are provided with the eerie presence of a ghost

__Volume 2:__ //' ...Catherin Earnshaw, may you not rest, as long as I am living!...haunt me...The murdered do haunt their murderers...I know that ghosts have wandered on earth. Be with me always - take any form - drive me mad!...I cannot live without my soul!' // - pg199 →it is at this point that we are given reason to the presence of the ghost. In this case, Heathcliff's desire for Catherine to haunt him is a direct result of his complete wanting for them to be together. A wild and passionate love between the two characters, forces Heathcliff to live a life seeking to find her presence in any way and seek revenge on those whom he felt responsible for taking her away from him. // 'The entire world is a collection of memoranda that she did exist, and that I have lost her!...Hareton's aspect was the ghost of my immortal love, of my wild endeavours...my happiness, and my anguish-' -pg 379 ''...he cleared a vacant space...and leant forward to gaze more at his ease. Now, I perceived he was not looking at the wall...it seemed...that he gazed at something within two yards distance. And whatever it was, it communicated, apparently, both pleasure and pain, in exquisite extremes ...' -pg 387 →// during his state of delirium Heathcliff sees Catherine everywhere he goes. This provides him with closure that his life is near end. We witness a change in his character and countenance, which stems solely from the presence of the ghost and his deteriorating health.
 * After talking with Nelly about the death of Catherine, in a fit of wild passion, Heathcliff begs that Catherine haunt him for the remainder of his days
 * It is not until further into volume 2 that this particular ghost is mentioned. Nearing death, Heathcliff spirals into a state of bewilderness, stating that his is not far from his heaven and that he can see //her//.

__Extra:__ E.g. //→////' ...my presence is as potent on his nerves, as a ghost; and I fancy he sees me often, though I am not near...he wakes and shrieks in the night by the hour...and calls you to protect him from me...' - //pg 336 (quote taken from when Heathcliff is describing to Cathy the state of her husband of one week Linton. → //'Those deep black eyes! That smile, and ghastly paleness! It appeared to me, not Mr Heathcliff, but a goblin...Is he a ghoul, or a vampire?'// -pg 385 (quote taken from Nelly's description of Heathcliff in his last days of life) →// 'The flash of her eyes had been succeeded by a dreamy and melancholy softness: they no longer gave the impression of looking at the objects around her; they appeared always to gaze beyond, and far beyond - you would have said out of this world...Are you possessed with a devil...?' // -pg 188-89 (quote taken from when Heathcliff visits Catherine when she is near death; during her ravings he questions whether or not she is possessed)
 * Whilst the presence of the ghost of Catherine is the dominating facet of supernatural within the novel, it appears that Bronte uses the description of nightmares and unworldly elements to illuminate the situation of the character as well as provide insight into the mental state of characters.


 * (IN SUMMARY) Supernatural is used throughout the novel to provide the reader with a greater depiction of a character's situation. Mainly used as a device to portray character's near death, the supernatural creates eerie, sombre and frightening moods and atmosphere within the settings. (A possible reason for it's being used as a device to depict death in the novel can be linked to Romantic thoughts with regard to the unseen and unknown - death and life after death being only experienced by those who die, with none living in the present world to account for events that occur in this final stage of life).