The Height of Passion

Wuthering Heights is the best book I have read till date. The overwhelming passion floods out from the book and engulfs you into it like a whrilpool. I share my feelings for this all consuming book in the tiniest possible hope that you might share the same. I was overawed by it even before I read the first page. Actually this book belonged to my late grandfather, who had bought it with the plan of reading post his retirement. But, as fate would have it, he passed away even before his superannuation. The tragedy in this book and that of its owner kind of overlaps, doesn't it? Well! it sure holds a special place in my heart.

Emily Bronte is perhaps one of the very few lady writers to have written from the male point of view with Heathcliff as the protagonist. Wuthering Heights is the name of the place where Heathcliff is brought as a toddler and is ill treated especially by Hindley, the son of Mr.Earnshaw. The novel revolves around the passionate love between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw and how a misunderstanding, stemming from a deep-rooted class insecurtiy, ruins not only their lives but the lives of all those around them as well.

Though Heathcliff is termed as a 'diabolical' character, yet I couldn't but fall in love with him. Bronte's powerful potrayal of the setting, the characters and their emotions made me a part of the whole saga. It took a while for me to get started, but once the drama unfolded it felt as if I was sucked into the book and could see everything happening in front of my own eyes.

While reading the book I could almost feel like Alice, except that this Wonderland was a tragic one. I wanted to scream out and stop Heathcliff when he rushed out of the house on that stormy night. I felt sorry for Linton and at the same time hated him for marrying Catherine Earnshaw. Towards the end, when Heathcliff suffers a mental breakdown and desperately seeks to meet the dead Catherine Earnshaw, I felt as helplessly desperate as him.

Bronte has weaved the whole story so inrticately that I missed the book when it ended, though, throughout, I was hoping it to end because of the pain I felt. Hareton and Catherine Linton's love not only redeems the novel in the end but also acts as a much needed breather. I hoped to have the sweet taste of their love to linger on after the book ended, but it was Heathcliff who occupied my thoughts as soon as I closed it.

He is still ruling my thoughts even after so many years and looks like he will continue to do so for many more years to come.

While declaring her love for Heathcliff to Nelly, Catherine Earnshaw says "I am Heathcliff". While reading the book I felt it and even now I feel that "I am Heathcliff".