Finished up Wuthering Heights by Charlotte Bronte of late.  Okay,
so do we revile Heathcliff for his damning vengeance on the others, or what?  We
are evidenced that he was mistreated as a child, but no less so than most and he 
faired much better than he might have.  And he didn't exactly do a lot to endear 
him to anyone else there in childhood either, save Catherine.  What about 
Catherine's role in their downfall?  A passionate love affair, to be sure, but 
what could she have been thinking, marrying Edgar Linton to provide for 
Heathcliff?  Had she really known him, wouldn't she have known right away that 
he wouldn't accept charity, especially not in that form?  So maybe they really 
had no clue about each other, maybe a love so tangled in passion that they never 
really LOVED each other at all.  They certainly didn't communicate very well 
with each other, it seems. At least not until death parted them for so long.  

And yet, I understand their motivations.  I know why this is such a great story.  
Because somewhere inside so many of us are longing to be loved like this.  All 
consuming, beyond death, and as a song goes, If I got to be damned, I wanna be 
damned dancing through the night with you.  We know this is how we sometimes 
work.  

I love this book, and glad I reread it.

7/5/01