Love as Terror, Destruction, and Misery in "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Brontë

Book excerpt: Essay from the year 2019 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 5.0, Jan Kochanowski University of Humanities and Sciences in Kielce, language: English, abstract: This paper refers to numerous faces that love takes in the novel "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Bronte. The aim of the paper is to analyze the various aspects, described by Emily Brontë as love, which in fact, lead to terror, destruction and misery for most of the characters. Emily Bronte’s "Wuthering Heights" of 1847 had an amazing impact on novelists to come and with the moment of its appearance, it is said to have revolutionized the gothic genre. Sadly, Emily did not live long enough to enjoy its effect. The first of many new editions was issued in 1850, two years after Emily’s death, it had a preface written by Charlotte who used this opportunity to try to explain to the Victorian readers how such violent subject matter could have been imagined and put into words by her sister. Adopted by the authors of Gothic literature, the idea of the sublime became a central factor for the Gothic writings, around which all the action is built. As such, the novel "Wuthering Heights" has all of the above mentioned elements –there is no feeling of security, there are tormenting emotions and ruins both of the buildings and of the metaphorical – of love and humanity.