Wuthering Heights – The Ending (An Attempt at a Commentary)

Résumé du document

The passage, being at the very end of the novel, follows directly Heathcliff's death and stages the final events of Wuthering Heights. Prior to it, Nelly Dean gives her brief account of Heathcliff's death and funeral. Then, we are presented with her conversation with Lockwood who, in turn, puts an end to the story. Starting with Lockwood's narrative, which integrates that of Ellen Dean and extends over the more or less short narratives of five other characters, "mirroring" its beginning, the story comes to its end. The text of the final paragraphs can be taken as emblematic of the reader's relation to the whole story in the sense that the interpretation of the events depends entirely on the individual discernment of every reader. The ending of the novel poses many a problem for the reader. Unequivocal interpretation of it, and of the whole text for that matter, is not possible.

Extraits

[...] We cannot ignore it when reading the ending for we still remember it and the memory troubles us throughout the final paragraphs in the same way as it perturbs Lockwood himself. What Lockwood supposes is that the Heights will now be available the use of such ghosts as choose to inhabit At the least, this is an ambiguous remark; we know that Lockwood has actually seen some sort of ghost at the Heights (as the visual overtone of his speech attribution observed” helps to suggest). [...]

[...] Thus, we may choose to believe without hesitation that Catherine and Heathcliff are either real ghosts, haunting the region, or something of a ghost-like memory that is to be transmitted for generations, consciously or not, to the members of the closed communities of the Heights and the Grange. They are, therefore, never to rest in peace and this seems much more appealing to the reader than a simple sound dismissal of the supernatural. But above all, Catherine and Heathcliff's ghosts are symbols. They become a part of the symbolism of opposition between the two houses; they are emblematic of the antagonisms “nature vs. [...]

[...] In that case we might regard the final situation of Cathy and Hareton in the light of an impoverishment rather than an enrichment of their experience. The nature and direction of our interpretation depends much on what we take Emily Brontë's attitude to be towards the second generation. Wuthering Heights could very well end with the words “Together they would brave Satan and all his legions.” However, the author chooses to add almost a page of impressions which apparently have nothing to do with the young couple. [...]

[...] Catherine and Heathcliff are exempt from the ordinary patterns of behaviour of normal human beings, but there are other, and more mysterious, ways in which they appear to disobey the laws of nature. A fairy-tale atmosphere surrounds both of them: it clings to Catherine, and it thickens during her illness when she seems to possess the power to transport herself in imagination back to the Heights, viewing this as a return to her essential nature. She recognizes (correctly) that Nelly is inimical to it. [...]

[...] We are frequently tempted to believe the ostensible stability of the ending. However, it is by no means certain that the dead are at peace, at least in the same sense that they continue to trouble the contentment and worry the nerves of Nelly, Joseph, Lockwood and the whole community for that matter. Certainly, it is an uphill task for Nelly's common sense to dispel her own doubts; she can rationalize the superstitions of the others but cannot suppress her own suspicions. [...]