One element of the fantastical remains from the fictional lands of the young Emily's imagination, and that is the influence of ghosts. The house of Wuthering Heights is haunted from the moment we see it. Regardless of whether we interpret the supernatural as real or imagined in the book (and it is never made clear quite what we should believe in that respect) its impact on the characters is enormous. And, despite being the daughter of a clergyman, Emily Brontë contrived to describe a world without God. After death, as the characters in this book would have it, we either roam the earth (like Heathcliff and Cathy) or strive for a final release from misery of life into a peaceful void (Edgar). We do not hear of divine retribution for the wrong-doers at the Heights. Justice here is meted out by the hand of the strongest and the richest - perhaps a reflection on the factory owners of the industrial north in Brontë's time. Only repellent servant Joseph, set on damning all around him to hell for their actions, and the preacher in Lockwood's first dream remind us of the influence of religion, and what they show us is utterly malign and vindictive. Everything is a sin. It is from this very premise that some are deemed wrong irrespective of their actions that leads to the novel's disastrous events, which are less like a tragedy than a complete purging of all people, love and life. No wonder this is a book of hauntings.
2087
jacobvanloon
dededos
kianamaiart
annaxmalina
