PSYCHOLOGICAL INTERPRETATIONS OF WUTHERING HEIGHTS

Emily Bronte

Psychological analyses of Wuthering Heights abound as critics apply modern psychological

theories to the characters and their relationships,

A FREUDIAN INTERPRETATION

The most common psychological readings are Freudian interpretations. Typical of Freudian

readings of the novel is Linda Gold's interpretation. She sees in the symbiosis of Catherine,

Heathcliff, and Edgar the relationship of Freud's id, ego, and superego. At a psychological level,

they merge into one personality with Heathcliff's image of the three of them buried (the

unconscious) in what is essentially one coffin. Heathcliff, the id, expresses the most primitive

drives (like sex), seeks pleasure, and avoids pain; the id is not affected by time and remains in

the unconscious (appropriately, Heathcliff's origins are unknown, he is dark, he runs wild and is

primitive as a child, and his three year absence remains a mystery). Catherine, the ego, relates to

other people and society, tests the impulses of the id against reality, and controls the energetic id

until there is a reasonable chance of its urges being fulfilled. Edgar, the superego, represents the

rules of proper behavior and morality inculcated by teachers, family, and society; he is civilized

and cultured. As conscience, he compels Catherine to choose between Heathcliff and himself.

In Freud's analysis, the ego must be male to deal successfully with the world; to survive, a

female ego would have to live through males. This Catherine does by identifying egotistically

with Heathcliff and Edgar, according to Gold. Catherine rejects Heathcliff because a realistic

assessment of her future with him makes clear the material and social advantages of marrying

Edgar and the degradation of yielding to her unconscious self. Her stay at Thrushcross Grange

occurs at a crucial stage in her development; she is moving through puberty toward womanhood.

She expects Edgar to accept Heathcliff in their household and to raise him from his degraded

state; this would result in the integration of the disparate parts of her personality–id, ego, and

superego–into one unified personality. Confronted by the hopelessness of psychological

integration or wholeness and agonized by her fragmentation, she dies.

Gold carries her Freudian scrutiny to the second generation; the whole history of both

generations of Earnshaws, Lintons, and Heathcliffs may be read as the development of one

personality, beginning with Catherine Earnshaw and ending with Catherine Linton Heathcliff

Earnshaw. The second Cathy has assimilated and consolidated the id/Heathcliff and the

superego/Edgar through marriages with Hareton and Linton.

JUNGIAN INTERPRETATIONS

Jungian readings also interpret the relationship of Catherine and Heathcliff as aspects of one

person; those aspects may be the archetype of the shadow and the individual or the archetypes

of the animus/anima and the persona. These interpretations are derived from Jung's distinction

between the collective unconscious and the personal unconscious. The collective unconscious is

inherited, impersonal, and universal. The content of the collective unconscious is mainly

archetypes; some archetypes occur in a particular society or time period, others are the same in

all societies and times. The archetypes may find expression in myth and fairy tales. The most

common and influential archetypes are the shadow, the animus, and the anima. Every human

being also has a personal unconscious, in which material is stored that was once conscious but

has been forgotten or repressed. The personal unconscious adapts archetypes based on the

individual's experiences. The personal unconscious finds expression in dreams and metaphor.

The shadow. In the collective unconscious, the shadow is absolute evil. In the personal

unconscious, the shadow consists of those desires, feelings, etc. which are unacceptable, perhaps

for emotional or for moral reasons. The shadow is generally equated with the dark side of human

nature. The shadow is emotional, seems autonomous because uncontrollable, and hence becomes

obsessive or possessive. Heathcliff, then, can be seen as Catherine's shadow–he represents the

darkest side of her, with his vindictiveness, his sullenness, his wildness, and his detachment from

social connections. She rejects this part of herself by marrying Edgar, thereby explaining

Heathcliff's mysterious disappearance. But Heathcliff, the shadow, refuses to be suppressed

permanently; Jung explains that even if self-knowledge or insight enables the individual to

integrate the shadow, the shadow still resists moral control and can rarely be changed. Cathy's

efforts to integrate Heathcliff into her life with Edgar are doomed; her inability to affect

Heathcliff's behavior can be seen in his ignoring her prohibition about Isabella. The resurfaced

Heathcliff obsessively seeks possession of Catherine to insure his own survival.

The animus and the anima. What Jung calls the persona is the outer or social self that faces the

world. The animus is the archetype that completes women, that is, it contains the male qualities

which the female persona lacks. The animus generally represents reflection, deliberation, and

ability for self-knowledge and is male. Similarly, the anima represents the female traits that a

man's persona lacks, generally the ability to form relationships and be related, and it is female.

The relationship of the anima/animus to the individual is always emotional and has its own

dynamic, because, as archetypes, the anima and animus are impersonal forces. The individual is

rarely aware of his anima/her animus. In some of its aspects, Jung says, the animus is the

"demon-familiar." The animus of a woman and the anima of a man take the form of a "soul-

image" in the personal unconscious; this soul-image may be transferred to a real person who

naturally becomes the object of intense feeling, which may be passionate love or passionate hate.

"Wherever an impassioned, almost magical, relationship exists between the sexes, it is invariably

a question of a projected soul-image." When a man projects his anima onto a real women or a

woman projects her animus onto a man, a triad arises, which includes a transcendent part. The

triad consists of the man, the woman, and the transcendent anima/animus. Not surprisingly, the

object of the projection will be unable to live out the lover's animus or anima permanently.

Now to apply Jung's theory to Catherine, for whom Heathcliff is the animus, and to Heathcliff,

for whom Catherine is the anima. For Catherine, Heathcliff expresses anger and hostility,

freedom, command, irresponsibility, rebellion, and spontaneity. For Heathcliff, Catherine is

beauty, love, status, and belonging. The projection of their soul-images explains their profound

sense of connection or identity with each other, e.g., Catherine's "I am Heathcliff" speech and

Heathcliff's references to Catherine as his soul and his life. The element of transcendence in the

projection is expressed in Catherine's vision of something, some life, beyond this one, in her

view of existence after death, in Heathcliff's longing to see Catherine's ghost, and their life

together after death. And is there any question about Heathcliff's being a "demon-familiar"?

MONOMANIA: A NINETEENTH CENTURY THEORY

An entirely different approach is taken by Graeme Tytler, who applies nineteenth-century

psychological theory to the novel. In Brontë's day, an obvious label for Heathcliff would have

been monomaniac, a term which is today equated with obsession but was in the nineteenth

century a specific disorder with clearly defined symptoms and progression. Graeme Tytler

theorizes that Heathcliff fits the contemporary medical diagnosis of monomania, as defined by

Jean Etienne Dominique Esquirol, one of the founders of modern psychiatry. Esquirol defined

monomania as "the disease of going to extremes, of singularization, of one-sidedness." The

application of this definition to Heathcliff is too obvious to need further comment; equally

relevant to a diagnosis of Heathcliff is Esquirol's listing of the causes of monomania:

Monomania is essentially a disease of the sensibility. It reposes altogether upon the affections,

and its study is inseparable from a knowledge of the passions. Its seat is in the heart of man, and

it is there that we must search for it, in order to possess ourselves of all its peculiarities. How

many are the cases of monomania caused by thwarted love, by fear, vanity, wounded self-love,

or disappointed ambition.

Tytler distinguishes stages in the development of Heathcliff's monomania. Heathcliff shows a

predisposition to monomania up to and slightly after Catherine's death in such behavior as his

single-minded determination to be connected to her after her death. It is, however, not until

eighteen years or so after her death that he shows signs of insanity. Much of what he says and

does after Chapter 29 is symptomatic of monomania–hallucinations, insomnia, talking to himself

or to Catherine's ghost, his preoccupation at meals and in conversation, his sighs and moans, his

harsh treatment of Cathy and Hareton, and his being haunted by Catherine's image.