Top 2 Wuthering Heights quotes
“It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love him; and that, not because he’s handsome, Nelly, but because he’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same, and [Edgar’s] is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire."
- Catherine Earnshaw, Chapter IX
This is an important section of the book, as Heathcliff hears Cathrine's speech to Nelly and learns that she would feel degraded by marrying him. Heathcliff departs the region immediately after hearing Catherine utter those words and does not remain to hear the rest of her response. Catherine's decision to marry Edgar is based upon her desire to materially rise in society, yet she acknowledges that her love for Heathcliff is beyond all considerations. It is also interesting to note that Heathcliff and Catherine's relationship is never described like other Heterosexual relationships which generally conjure up complementary opposites but their love always elicits imagery of unity and oneness.
“That, however, which you may suppose the most potent to arrest my imagination, is actually the least, for what is not connected with her to me? and what does not recall her? I cannot look down to this floor, but her features are shaped on the flags! In every cloud, in every tree—filling the air at night, and caught by glimpses in every object by day, I am surrounded with her image! The most ordinary faces of men and women—my own features—mock me with a resemblance. The entire world is a dreadful collection of memoranda that she did exist, and that I have lost her!”
- Heathcliff, Chapter XXXIII
This quote from Heathcliff describes his inner feelings about the loss of Catherine to Nelly. It indicates a crescendo of his feelings of frustration at being separated so long from Catherine, with whom his being is so inexorably tied. Heathcliff famously states that he cannot live without his soul when he first learns of Catherine's death. The seriousness of his words is evidenced through the knowledge that he had excavated her grave to view her remains but yet only saw her corpse as a reminder of her absence.
