Reading Notes

Significant quotes

• "The young man and his opponent twisted in the grass. Take it out on each other if you cannot take out the ones who deserve it" (28).
• "White men eat you up, but sometimes colored folk eat you up, too" (55).
• "All the sleepless nights. In the light of morning she convinced herself that her scheming had been a dream. Those were not her thoughts, not at all. Because to walk around with that in your mind and do nothing was to die" (101). Referring to thoughts of escaping.
• "Why had they believed that two lowly slaves deserved the bounty of South Carolina? [...] It was still the south, and the devil had long nimble fingers. And then, after all the world taught them, not to recognize chains when they were snapped to their wrists and ankles" (147).
• "What a world it is, Cora thought, that makes a living prison into your only haven. Was she out of bondage or in its web: how to describe the status of a runaway? [...] Being free had nothing to do with chains or how much space you had" (183).
• "Slavery is a sin when whites were put to the yoke, but not the African. All men are created equal, unless we decide you are not a man" (186). From Cora's conversation with Ethel about scripture.
• "It was a joke, then, from the start. There was only darkness outside the windows on her journeys, and only ever would be darkness" (268).
• "We accomplished the impossible,' Mingo said, 'but not everyone has the character we do. We're not all going to make it. Some of us are too far gone. Slavery has twisted their minds, an imp filling their minds with foul ideas. [...] those who will not, cannot respect themselves. [...] They always disappear in the night because deep in their hearts they know they are unworthy. It is too late for them'" (289).
• "'We can't save everyone. But that doesn't mean we can't try. Sometimes a useful delusion is better than a useless truth'" (290).

• "He [Chandler] spent more days in jail than the runaways he brought in, snoring in a cell next to the miscreant he had stopped hours earlier. An imperfect model, but close to the shape Ridegway sought. Inside the rules, enforcing them, but also outside" (77).
• "If n*ggers were supposed to have their freedom, they woulnd't be in chains. If the red man was supposed to keep hold of his land, it'd still be his. If the white man wasn't destined to take this new world, he wouldn't own it now" (82).
• "'We have each of us made sacrifices for this new North Carolina and its rights,' Jamison said. 'For this separate nation we have forged, free from northern interference and the contamination of a lesser race. The black horde has been beaten back, correcting the mistake made years ago at this nations nativity'" (162).
• "Slavery as a moral issue never interested Ethel. If God had not meant for Africans to be enslaved, they wouldn't be in chains" (199).
• "'If he's [Homer's] free, why don't he go?' 'Where?' Ridgeway asked. 'He's seen enough to know a black boy has no future, free papers or no. [...] With me, he can learn about the world. Find purpose" (207).
• "Settlers needed the land, and if the Indians hadn't learned by then that the white man's treaties were entirely worthless, Ridgeway said, they deserved what they got [...] 'Progress,' Ridgeway said" (208-209).
• "'They must have done something to make God angry,' Boseman said. 'Just a spark that got away is all,' Ridgeway said" (210).
• "'We come up with all sorts of fancy talk to hide things. Like in the newspapers nowadays, all the smart men talking about Manifest destiny. Like it's a new idea. [...] 'It means taking what is ours, your property, whatever you deem it to be. And everyone else taking their assigned places to allow you to take it. Whether it's red men or Africans, giving up themselves, giving of themselves, so that we can have what's rightfully ours." (225-226).
• "'I prefer the American spirit, the one that called us from the Old World to the New, to conquer and build and civilize. And destroy that what needs to be destroyed. To lift up the lesser races. If not lift up, subjugate. And if not subjugate, exterminate. Our destiny by divine prescription---the American imperative'" (226).

• "'The choice is yours, of course,' the doctor said. 'As of this week, it is mandatory for some in the state. Colored women who have already birthed more than two children, in the name of population control. Imbeciles and the otherwise mentally unfit, for obvious reasons. Habitual criminals. But that doesn't apply to you, Bessie. Those are women who already have enough burdens. This is just a chance for you to take control of your own destiny.'" (116).
• "What if we performed adjustments to those n*ggers' breeding patterns and removed those of melancholic tendency? Managed other attitudes, such as sexual aggression and violent natures? We could protect our women and daughters from their jungle urges, which Dr. Bertram understood to be a particular fear of southern white men. [...] With strategic sterilization---first the women but both sexes in time---we could free them from bondage without fear that they'd butcher us in our sleep" (125).
• "Yet when his classmates put their blades to a colored cadaver, they did more for the cause of colored advancement than the most high-minded abolitionist. In death, the negro became a human being. Only then was he the white man's equal" (142).
• "The names of the dead were as important as the names of the living, as every loss from disease and suicide---and the other mishaps labeled as such for accounting purposes---needed to be justified to employers" (219).

Wuthering Heights Notes

• Ellen and Catherine: "'You may see some; and he won't always be handsome, and young, and may not always be rich.' 'He is now; and I have only to do with the present -- I wish you would speak rationally'" (79).
• Catherine: "It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff, now; so he shall never know how I love him; and that, not because he is handsome, Nelly, but because he's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same, and Linton's is as different as a moonbean from lightning, or frost from fire" (81).
• Catherine: "What were the use of my creation if I were entirely contained here? My great miseries in this world have been Heathcliff's miseries, and I watched and felt each from the beginning; my great thought in living is himself. If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and, if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the Universe would turn to a mighty stranger. [...] Nelly, I am Heathcliff -- he's always, always in my mind -- not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself -- but, as my own being -- so, don't talk of our separation again -- it is impracticable; and --" (82-83).
• "Catherine had seasons of gloom and silence, now and then: they were respected with sympathizing silence by her husband, who ascribed them to an alteration in her constitution, produced by her perilous illness, as she was never subject to depression of spirits before" (93).
• Isabella: "'You are a dog in the manger, Cathy, and desire no one to be loved but yourself!' [...] 'I love him more than you ever loved Edgar; and he might love me if you would let him!'" (102).
• Catherine: "Pray don't imagine that he conceals depths of benevolence and affection beneath a stern exterior! He's not a rough diamond -- a pearl-containing oyster of a rustic; he's a fierce, pitiless, wolfish man" (103).
• Catherine: "I was fairly beaten in protestations of devotion and admiration; and, moreover, I was informed that if I would but have the manners to stand aside, my rival, as she will have herself to be, would shoot a shaft into your soul that would fix you for ever, and send my image into eternal oblivion" (105).
• Edgar: "Will you give up Heathcliff hereafter, or will you give up me? It is impossible for you to be my friend, and his at the same time; and I absolutely require to know which you choose" (117).
• Catherine: "You and Edgar have broken my heart, Heathcliff! And you both come to bewail the deed to me, as if you were the people to be pitied! [...] You have killed me -- and thriven on it, I think" (160).
• Catherine: "'I wish I could hold you', she continued, bitterly, 'till we were both dead! I shouldn't care what you suffered. I care nothing for your sufferings. Why shouldn't you suffer? I do! Will you forget me -- will you be happy when I am in the earth? Will you say twenty years hence, 'That's the grave of Catherine Earnshaw. I loved her long ago, and was wretched to lose her; but it is past. [...] at death, I shall not rejoice that I'm going to her, I shall be sorry that I must leave them! [Heathcliff's future family]" (160).
• Catherine:"That is how I'm loved! Well, never mind! That is not my Heathcliff. I shall love mine yet: and take him with me -- he's in my soul" (161).
• Isabella's letter: "Is Mr Heathcliff a man? If so, is he mad? And if not, is he a devil?" (136).
• Heathcliff: "But do you imagine that I shall leave Catherine to his duty and humanity and can you compare my feelings respecting Catherine, to his?" (147).
• Heathclif: "I wish you had sincerity enough to tell me whether Catherine would suffer greatly from his loss. The fear that she would restrains me[...]" (147).
• "Heathcliff had opened the trinket, and cast out its contents, replacing them by a black lock of his own. I twisted the two, and enclosed them together" (170).
• Heathcliff: "I'll have her in my arms again! If she be cold, I'll think it is this north wind that chills me; and if she be motionless, it is sleep" (289).

• "He got on the bed, and wrenched open the lattice, bursting, as he pulled at it, into an uncontrollable passion of tears. 'Come in! come in!' he sobbed. 'Cathy, do come. Oh do -- once more! Oh! my heart's darling, hear me this time -- Catherine, at last!' The spectre showed a spectre's ordinary caprice; it gave no sign of being" (29).
• Catherine, to Ellen: "We've braved its ghosts often together, and dared each other to stand among the graves and ask them to come... But Heathcliff, if I dare you now, will you venture? If you do, I'll keep you. I'll not lie there myself; [...] I won't rest till you are with me... I never will!'" (126).
• Catherine, to Edgar: "My resting place where I'm bound before Spring is over! There it is, not among the Lintons, mind, under the chapel-rood; but in the open air with a head-stone" (127).
• Isabella's letter: "By the fire stood a ruffianly child, strong in limb, and dirty in garb, with a look of Catherine in his eyes, and about in his mouth" (137).
• Heathcliff: "[...] and I'll return there to-night; and every night I'll haunt the place, and every day, till I find an opportunity of entering" (151).
• Heathcliff: "Why did you despise me? Why did you betray your own heart, Cathy? I have not one word of comfort -- you deserve this. You have killed yourself. [...] You loved me -- then what right had you to leave me? [...] Because misery, and degradation, and death, and nothing that God or satan could inflict would have parted us, you, of your own will, did it. [...] -- oh God! would you like to live with your soul in the grave?" (162-163).
• Heathcliff: "'Why, she's a liar to the end! Where is she? Not there -- not in heaven -- not perished -- where? [...] You said I killed you -- haunt me, then! [... Be with me always -- take any form -- drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! [...] I cannot live without my soul!" (169).
• About Edgar: "He didn't pray for Catherine's soul to haunt him: Time brought resignation, and a melancholy sweeter than common joy. He recalled her memory with ardent, tender love, and hopeful aspiring to the better world, where, he doubted not, she was gone" (184).
• Heathcliff: "In two hours, I called Joseph to carry him up again; and, since then, my presence is as potent on his nerves as a ghost; and I fancy he sees me often, though I am not near" (287).
• Heathcliff: "You know, I was wild after she died, and eternally, from dawn to dawn, praying her to return to me -- her spirit -- I have a strong faith in ghosts; I have a conviction that they can, and do exist, among us!" (289).
• Heathcliff: "I looked round impatiently -- I felt her by me -- I could almost see her, and yet I could not! I ought to have sweat blood then, from the anguish of my yearning, from the fervour of my supplications to have one glimpse! I had not one" (290).
• Catherine Jr., to Heathcliff: "You have left me so long to struggle against death, alone that I feel and see only death! I feel like death!" (294).
• Heathcliff: "But, when I look for his father in his face, I find her every day more! How the devil is he so like? I can hardly bare to see him" (303).
• Heathcliff: "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 [...] by day I am surrounded with her image!" (323-324).
• Heathcliff: "...it is by compulsion [...] that I notice anything alive, or deadm which is not associated with one universal idea... I have a single wish, and my whole being, and faculties are yearning to attain it. [...] it has devoured my existence" (325).

• Hindley: "'Have mercy on your soul!' I said, endeavoring to snatch the glass from his hand. 'Not I! on the contrary, I shall have great pleasure in sending it to perdition, to punish its maker,' exclaimed the blasphemer" (76).
• Heathcliff: "I want you to be aware that I know you have treated me infernally -- infernally! [...] and if you fance I'll suffer unrevenged, I'll convince you of the contrary in a very little while!" (112).
• Heathcliff: "You are welcome to torture me to death for your amusement, only, allow me to amuse myself a little in the same style" (112). Referring to Catherine's marriage to Edgar.
• Catherine: "Well, if I cannot keep Heathcliff for my friend -- if Edgar will be mean and jealous, I'll try to break their hearts by breaking my own" (116).
• Catherine: "'If I were only sure it would kill him,' she interrupted, 'I'd kill myself directly!'" (121).
• Hindley: "I will have it back; and I'll have his gold too; and then his blood; and hell shall have his soul!" (140).
• Heathcliff: " I never would have banished him from her society, as long as she desired his, The moment her regard ceased, I would have torn his heart out and drank his bloo!" (148).
• Isabella: "Only, Ellen, promise you'll not mention a syllable of his infamous conversation to my brother or Catherine -- whatever he may pretend, he wishes to provoke Edgar to desperation -- he says he has married me on purpose to obtain power over him; and he shan't obtain it -- I'll die first!' (151).
• Heathcliff: "'Is it not sufficient for your infernal selfishness, that while you are at peace I shall writhe in the torments of hell?' 'I shall not be at peace,' [...]" (161).
• About Heathcliff: "He exerted preter-human self-denial in abstaining from finishing him, completely; but getting out of breath, he finally desisted, and dragged the apparently inanimate body onto the settle. There, he tore off the sleeve of Earnshaw's coat, and bound up the wound with brutal roughness [...]". (179).
• Hindley: "But what misery laid on Heathcliff could content me, unless I have a hand in it? I'd rather know he suffered less if I might cause his sufferings, and he might know that I was the cause. [...] But it is utterly impossible I can ever be revenged, and therefore I cannot forgive him. [...] Oh, if God would but give me strength to strangle him in my last agony, I'd go to hell with joy" (181-182).
• Heathcliff, about Linton: "Besides, he's mine, and I want the triumpth of seeing my descendent fairly lord of their estates; my child hiring their children, to till their fathers' land for wages[...] I despise him for himself, and hate him for the memories he revives!" (208)
• Heathcliff: "Mine has nothing valuable about it; yet I shall have the merit of making it [Hareton] go as far as such poor stuff can go. His [Linton] had first-rate qualities, and they are lost -- rendered worse than unavailing [...]" (219).
• Catherine Jr., to Heathcliff: "however miserable you make us, we shall still have the revenge of thinking that your cruelty rises from your greater misery! You are miserable, are you not? Lonely, like the devil, and envious like him? Nobody loves you -- nobody will cry for you, when you die!" (288).
• Heathcliff: "I have lost the faculty of enjoying their destruction, and I am too idle to destroy for nothing" (323).

Thoughts about theme stuff

What is the radiant abscence?

We only desire what we lack, and everyone lacks something. We yearn not for the object itself, but for the idea the object may fill the lack inside us. Natalie Wynn calls it "the radiant abscence," a desire for something so strong it blinds us, and prevents us from seeing what's really there in favor of what could be there. In Wuthering Heights, many characters project onto others what they desire, even if it isn't a true characteristic of the projectee. This applies to Catherine Sr. and Heathcliff. Catherine's many quotes about loving her Heathcliff signify a dissonance between what she percieves and what is really there. Heathcliff's love persisting after death is an even more extreme example--

For a different example: Isabella desires power and strength, in herself, and in the man she wants to marry, so she is attracted to Heathcliff's rough and strong nature. She, to use a modern phrase, wants to "fix him." It's the appeal in having a man that is so strong, and possibly violent, who has a soft spot for you, whom he would never be violent against. In a way, it makes Isabella in control of the power in that relationship. At least, if that's what happened in the book, which it isn't. You get it. Hopefully? AMA.

Why "violation"?

Wuthering Heights is a book about violation of boundaires. This is true in a literal sense--no one respects the boundaries between T.G. and W.H., and characters are always causing trouble by crossing them. But I think the most interesting example is with the boundaries of life and death. Ghosts (and revenge) are very promminent themes in the story. The subject of "haunting" or "being haunted" comes up often-- notably, Heathcliff wishes to be haunted after death by Catherine. Similarly, there are people who walk on the edge of the line, like Linton, who is close to death for much of his time in the book, or Hindley, who does not respect his own life to the extent that he lets himself waste away. Often, characters are so miserable that they may as well be dead.

In my opinion, Heathcliff's lack of respect for these boundaries and his bent on revenge is what leads to his downfall. His main problem is the fact that the people he could get revenge against are dead. He resolves to take his revenge on their descendants instead, where he is driven insane by his memories of Catherine Sr.. He eventually convinces himself that he's seeing her ghost everywhere and, well, goes crazy and dies because of it.