CATHERINE'S

PORTRAIT AND
HER DUALITY
(CHAPTER3 VS CHAPTER 9)

DUȚU ANDREEA MIHAELA

OVIDIUS UNIVERSITY
THE FACULTY
OF LETTERS
2022,E1
 CONTENT
1. General aspects,
2. Introduction to chapter 3 (young
Catherine),
a) Direct characterization,
b) indirect characterization,
3. Lockwood's dream and the disruptive
element,
4. Catherine - the ghost,
5. Portrait of Mrs. Heathcliff- Cathy,
6. Introduction to chapter 9,
7. Catherine as an adult and her duality,
8. Love versus social refinement.
 GENERAL ASPECTS
In this presentation I will summarize
both the subject of the Wuthering Heights
in chapters 3 and 9, as well as Catherine's
interaction with other characters and the
way she is perceived by others.

The purpose of this presentation is to

illustrate Catherine's portrait and her duality
(how she changed over time, choosing to marry
Edgar out of interest and giving up what she
loves).
Both the apparition in the
form of a ghost and the portrait of his
daughter Cathy will be presented,
specifying the similarities with her
mother.
 THE
PORTRAIT

DIRECT INDIRECT

Physically
Moral
*narrator *by the
actions
*another (appearance,
Characters speech,
*by the character feelings etc)
 2. Introduction to chapter 3
(young Catherine)
* Chapter 3 has Lockwood as the narrator.
Nelly Dean

* He is initially guided by Zillah to the room where he will

sleep.

* There he is looking for his bed.

* He discovered that the bed formed a small closet

(a little room).
Lockwood
 *He finds a shelf with moldy books in that room.
*The ledge was covered with different writings representing the name
Catherine:
• Earnshaw,
• Heathcliff,
• Linton.
*He falls asleep and wakes up to the filter of the candle leaning on
a book.

(A Bible printed in small letters, on which

was written a date and the name Catherine Earnshow, her book)
 A) DIRECT CHARACTERIZATION
*Lockwood manages to illustrate a moral portrait of Catherine, that all the books in the library
were used, which meant that the girl liked to read.

* He destroys this appearance of the girl who likes to read, adding that those books were not used
properly.
*Every white part of the book was written:

Joseph's portrait (those writings did not reflect the analysis of the texts but illustrated
was considered simple but very various events from the girl's life as well as
similar to reality. some drawn portraits).
(she was not talented)

*Her writing was bad, the narrator comparing it to hieroglyphics:

”An immediate interest kindled within me for the unknown Catherine, and I began forthwith to decipher her faded
hieroglyphics” (Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights. Collins Classics. UK, 2010. 21).
 B) INDIRECT CHARACTERIZATION
Lockwood finds another text written by Catherine and through it we are
exposed to different actions from the girl's childhood from which we can identify her
main features:
• lover (missing father);
• realistic (awareness of the facts that happen around them);
• merciful (he takes pity on Heathcliff);
• vengeful (desire to take revenge on her brother);
• good planner (makes plans about how to take revenge):
• faithful (Participated in the bridge at the prayers said by Joseph):
• in a hurry (she wants Joseph to finish faster because it's cold in the attic);
• playful (with Heathcliff);
• Joseph calls her a bad girl (when she snuggles next to Heathcliff);
• he has no respect for books (he throws them on the floor and tears their covers, and he
influences Heathcliff to do the same).
 It reverts to direct characterization,
with the narrator stating that Catherine is
becoming weepy:

”I suppose Catherine fulfilled her

project, for the next sentence took up another
subject: she waxed lachrymose”

(Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights.

Collins Classics. UK, 2010, p.23).
3. LOCKWOOD'S DREAM. THE DISTURBING
ELEMENT
He opens a blank page and sees a title printed in red letters:

”I began to nod drowsily over the dim page: my eye wandered from manuscript to print. I saw a red
ornamented title ‘Seventy Times Seven, and the First of the Seventy-First.’ A
Pious Discourse delivered by the Reverend Jabez Branderham, in the Chapel of Gimmerden Sough”
(Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights. Collins Classics. UK, 2010, 24).

From this moment, Lockwood has a rather long dream, extended over two pages.

THE DISTURBING ELEMENT CONSISTS OF:

• the fight between people in his dream,
• Branderham's shots in the board of pulpit,
• the branch that touched the window. at this moment he knows
Catherine directly and
begins
(Hetobreaks
describe
theher.
window to grab the branch but another hand grabs his hand.)
 4. CATHERINE THE GHOST
DIRECT CHARACTERIZATION

-hands small and cold as ice,

- the voice of a heartbreaking melancholy,
by the narrator
-baby face,
-human aspect: hits his wrist and bleeds.

*she states she is 22 years old

self-characterization
(22 years since she has been haunting)
 ”If the little fiend had got in at the window, she probably would have strangled
me!’ I returned. ‘I’m not going to endure the persecutions of your hospitable ancestors
again.
Was not the Reverend Jabez Branderham akin to you on the mother’s side?
And that minx, Catherine Linton, or Earnshaw, or however she was called she must
have been a changeling wicked little soul! She told me she had been walking the earth
these twenty years: a just punishment for her mortal transgressions, I’ve no doubt!’”

(Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights. Collins Classics. UK,

2010. 28.)
 The next day, downstairs, Lockwood meets Joseph
and sees Hareton Earnshow opening a door leading to
the room where Zillah and Mrs. Catherine (Cathy)
were, at which point the girl is described.
5. THE PORTRAIT OF CATHY
DIRECT:
-she liked to read without interruption;
-Heathcliff called her ”goose” or ”sheep” so as not to offend her;
-From the words of Heathcliff who said that the girl lives only at his mercy, we
deduce the fact that she is helpless;

INDIRECT:
- she has no respect for books because she slams the book, just like her
mother;
-lazy, stubborn, when she tells Heathcliff that she will never work;
-she has good reflexes because she dodges quickly when Heathcliff wants to hit
-she hasshe
her(So theisability toversion
a softer control than
his anger as she retreats into other room to
her mother.);
avoid a larger conflict with Heathcliff;
 Lockwood is led by
Heathcliff to Thrushcross Park
and then continues on his own
to the Grange because there is
no way to get lost from there.

Nelly Dean takes over the

role of the narrator,
begins to tell Lockwood,
at his insistence, the story of the
widowed girl, but also
Heathcliff's.
6. INTRODUCTION TO CHAPTER 9
• Hareton falls over the railing but is caught by Heathcliff.

• Nelly was holding Hareton on her knee to put him to sleep, and
is interrupted by Catherine.

• The two will have a discussion from which we will analyze the
portrait of Catherine as an adult.
 7.CATHERINE AS AN ADULT
• naughty, because she listened to the arguments of the
others: ”Miss Cathy, who had listened to the hubbub
from her room, put her head in, and whispered, ‘Are
you alone, Nelly?’ (Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights.
Collins Classics. UK, 2010. 81).

• the physical appearance is described directly by the

narrator: ”The expression of her face seemed
disturbed and anxious. Her lips were half asunder,
as if she meant to speak, and she drew a breath.”
(Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights. Collins Classics.
UK, 2010. 81).

• she is empathetic because she asks Nelly about

Heathcliff and then starts crying ”‘Oh, dear!’ she cried
at last. ‘I’m very unhappy!’ ” (Bronte, Emily.
Wuthering Heights. Collins Classics. UK, 2010. 82).
• The narrator says that nothing bothers Catherine, from which we infer
her indifference ” No, she felt small trouble regarding any subject, save
her own concerns” (Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights. Collins Classics.
UK, 2010. 82).

• her eyes made her easy to bear: ”she pursued, kneeling down by me,
and lifting her winsome eyes to my face with that sort of look which
turns off bad temper, even when one has all the right in the world to
indulge it.”(Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights. Collins Classics. UK,
2010. 82).

• She is described by the narrator as being irritable.

• She is also a liar because she says she loves Edgar.
• Nelly also tells us Catherine’s age, 22 years old.
• Catherine loves out of interest, which is inferred from
the fact that she agrees to marry Edgar Linton only
because he is rich, for her social status.

• She is rebellious, she doesn't need Nelly's consent to

marry Edgar, she makes her own decisions.

• Her decision-making power is riddled with insecurity.

• her heart tells her that she is wrong to marry Edgar

which means she has the ability to anticipate her own
mistake
• she is sad and her hands are shaking - directly
characterized by Nelly: ”She seated herself by me again:
her countenance grew sadder and graver, and her clasped
hands trembled.” (Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights.
Collins Classics. UK, 2010. 84).

• she is influenced by her dream.

• she can't be happy that day, and she forces Nelly to listen
to her: ” Nelly, I shall oblige you to listen: it’s not long; and
I’ve no power to be merry to-night.’”(Bronte, Emily.
Wuthering Heights. Collins Classics. UK, 2010. 85).

• she had an unusual appearance: ” Catherine had an

unusual gloom in her aspect, that made me dread something
from which I might shape a prophecy, and foresee a fearful
catastrophe.” (Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights. Collins
Classics. UK, 2010. 85).
• Catherine tells Nelly that she dreamed she was in heaven but that place was not
for her. The angels banished her to Wuthering Heights where she wept with
happiness.

• Catherine interprets this dream as her desire to marry Edgar.

• If her brother hadn't been mean to Heathcliff, she wouldn't have married Edgar.
She would feel degraded now if she married Heathcliff.

• She loves Heathcliff and identifies with him, saying that he is more her than
herself

• She keeps her empathetic character but, lacking moral

character, she claims that she married Linton to help
Heathcliff rise.
 • she compares the love for Linton to the leaves, i.e. fleeting, and the love for
Heathcliff to the rocks, permanent.
• her madness wears Nelly out of patience.

Joseph interrupts their conversation.

Nelly tells Catherine that she is sure Heathcliff overheard their conversation.
Catherine, desperate, starts looking for him and is missing for a long time, but
she does not find him.
She misbehaves with Joseph, calling him a donkey.
The narrator-character says that she tried to calm her down, but she was in
no mood and went to cry in the rain.
Desperate, Catherine sleeps on a bench.
The narrator also says that Catherine is stubborn because she did not want
to change her wet clothes.
⮚ HINDLEY HAS THE FOLLOWING OPINION ABOUT CATHERINE'S ACTIONS:

⁂ he says that Catherine is sick, that's why she doesn't want to sleep;

⁂ tells Catherine she is a liar when she contradicts Joseph;

⁂ he asks her if she spent the night with Heathcliff and she starts to cry (as if she were to blame
for his disappearance) ;

⁂ He starts insulting her and sends her to the room;

THE NARRATOR DESCRIBES HER DIRECTLY AT THE END OF THE CHAPTER 9:

-Nelly got scared when she saw her and called a doctor thinking she was sick
- stubborn, she asks to be sent to Thrushcross Grange, where she sickens the Lintons, who die in
a few days;
-she thought she was mature, although she wasn't;
-can't bear to be contradicted;
-people were nice to her (Hindley) so as not to make her worse.

At the end of the chapter, Nelly (N2) and Lockwood (N1) go to bed.
8.CATHERINE` DUALITY LOVE VS SOCIAL
REFINEMENT
Following the parallel between chapters three and nine, we can
observe the fact that Catherine is the main character of the novel, a
simple girl of nature, pure, who, contrary to appearances, creates two
contradictory personalities.
We are therefore dealing with a binary, that of Catherine as a
good, loving, empathetic, devoted person and, on the other hand, a
Catherine full of revenge, rebellious, indifferent, more interested in
how she will be seen by society if she marries Edgar:
,, The elder Catherine is the problematical figure in the book; she
alone belongs to both orders of representation, that of social reality
and that of otherness, of the Romantic Sublime.”(Bloom. Bloom’s
Modern Critical Interpretations: Introduction, Edited and with an
introduction by Harold Bloom. 2007. 5).
 In the third chapter instead, we are dealing with a Catherine
less interested in money, she gets along well with Heathcliff,
therefore being his friend.
The interest in money is evoked in chapter nine, in the
conversation with Nelly, when Catherine confesses to her that she is
marrying Edgar for money, and to help Heathcliff get rid of Hindley
more easily:
”And, like Blake’s metaphor of the lamb, Nelly’s pious
alternative has no real meaning for Brontë outside of the context
provided by its tigerish opposite.“
(Bloom. Bloom’s GUIDES: Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar on
Wuthering Heights and Milton’s Satan. USA, p.59).
 In conclusion,
the author manages
to create a well-
defined portrait of
Catherine in the
two chapters.
She is
exhibited in the
young and mature
version, her portrait
being easier to
outline and easier to
identify her duality.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights. Collins Classics. UK: 2010.

Bloom. Bloom’s Modern Critical Interpretations: Introduction,

Edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom. New York: 2007.

Bloom. Bloom’s GUIDES: Wuthering Heights. Sandra M. Gilbert

and Susan Gubar on Wuthering Heights and Milton’s Satan. USA:
2008.
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THANKS!