On the 30th July, 1818, the English poet and novelist Emily Bronte was born. She was revered and celebrated as a visionary writer, illuminating a little known corner of the world, a world once viewed as ineffable, dark and strange. She articulated the feelings of solitude, and alienation, distinct life experiences inextricably entwined with the Yorkshire moors.
In her singular artistic vision, the moors are rendered characters in their own right. They are bleak, forbidding and inhospitable. They are not merely the barren backdrop to the drama, they are at the centre of the narrative and ultimately inform its direction. According to literary legend, she loved the moors so intensely that she could not bear to be separated from them, and even felt physically ill when she was forced to leave them behind.
Bronte was a prodigious and precocious poet, composing over seventy poems in her lifetime. However her literary fame, or perhaps infamy was secured with her extraordinary novel, “Wuthering Heights”. Her fellow poet, and near contemporary, Emily Dickinson praised it as “electric”. It is an astounding compendium of jealousy, revenge and unrelentingly savage cruelty. All of the drama and intrigue surrounds two wildly disjointed families.
However in spite of the tenacity, strong wills and highly spirited nature of all of the characters, especially Catherine “Cathy” Earnshaw, fate ultimately intervenes. The burgeoning love between Cathy and Heathcliff is doomed from the start. Tragedy was a constant in Emily Bronte’s personal life, and she poured this into her writing. In a life shaped by upheaval, illness and death seemed the only certainties.
The omnipresence of death is yet another tragic consequence of living far too intensely, as Bronte herself ruefully admits, “she burned too bright for this world”. The whole novel is rich in similarly potent imagery. Most of the novel’s power and impact derives from her gifts as a poet and skills as a linguist.
One astonishing example is her expert use of alliteration to illustrate a scene. In one remarkably affecting chapter of the book, a lively and enthusiastic Cathy expounds upon the “woods and sounding water, and the whole world awake and wild with joy”. This unique landscape shaped her imagination in startling ways. The title itself originates from the peculiarities of this wilderness. “Wuther” means to howl or to eddy. On the highest peaks, the wind and rain create this unnerving and ghostly effect.
These moorlands are open, bare with black hollows and crags, and this astonishing phenomenon of nature is much more pronounced during the cold, dark months of winter. It is an almost supernatural experience to encounter it. Bronte’s profound ardour for her beloved moors is apt. It is truly poignant to read. The reader begins to acquire an insight into her feelings of loss and pain when detached from the natural environment. One especially moving episode reveals the depth of feeling, affection and attachment to nature and the wilderness when Cathy calls out for help during her enforced confinement, declaring in a frantic state of panic and desperation that “I’m burning! I wish I were out of doors…I’m sure I should be myself were I once among the heather on those hills”. Even the name “Heathcliff” indicates a love for the elemental.
Ironically, “Wuthering Heights” was once miscategorised as a romantic novel. The stark style of the writing and the darkness of the subject matter illustrate the exact opposite. Malice emanates from every page. Nature is cruel, and red in tooth and claw. It is pitiless, and unsentimental. Heathcliff is the embodiment of this cold, bleak and loveless landscape. He is merciless in his mission to destroy. However Heathcliff’s fate is unequivocal, he dies friendless and alone. He is returned to the same savage earth that created him. The novel’s bleak conclusion is unsparing, “under that benign sky; watched the moths fluttering among the heath and hare-bells; listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass; and wondered how anyone could ever imagine unquiet slumbers”.
The unsparing quality of nature was an ever present reality for Emily and her siblings. Emily succumbed to the same illness that took them away, and she died at the age of thirty. However no-one will ever forget her luminous presence and legacy.
Ponderings 