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  • Essay / Parallels with the Garden of Eden in "Wuthering Heights"

    “The LORD God has caused every tree to grow out of the ground that is pleasing to the sight and good for food, including the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” we read in Genesis (Genesis 2:9). In the Genesis story of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden, a serpent, the figure of Satan, compels Eve to eat the fruit of the tree of “the knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2.17 ), what God specifically said to Adam and Eve. that they “shall not eat of it, for in the day that ye eat of it ye ​​shall die.” The apple of this tree gives Adam and Eve "the knowledge of good and evil" and they begin to lose their innocence. In Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, there seem to be endless parallels to the story of the Garden of Eden, with recurring patterns of innocence and unity, then seduction and fall. The most accurate parallels to Eden in Wuthering Heights come from the stories of Catherine and Heathcliff and their love for each other. Catherine and Heathcliff experience the story of Adam and Eve repeatedly, with various events representing their own blissful innocence, temptation, and disgrace. Interestingly, the story of the Garden of Eden and Adam and Eve continues with Catherine's offspring, Cathy, and her relationship with Hareton Earnshaw. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay One of the earliest examples of Eden in Wuthering Heights begins with the childhood friendship of Catherine and Heathcliff. As children, Catherine and Heathcliff are innocent and oblivious to the prejudices and expectations that their society considers custom. One night, when Catherine and Heathcliff are “banished from the drawing-room, for making a noise, or some slight offense of that kind,” (Bronte 50), they decide to run away and “wander at liberty” (Bronte 50 ). 51). During this “free stroll”, Brontë cleverly alludes to certain aspects of Eden and the history of the garden. Thrushcross Grange, with its walled grounds and fruit trees, is a very peaceful, almost heavenly place. Bronte rarely mentions the servants and the work they do when describing the Grange, giving the impression that inside the house the inhabitants still live in their leisure time (Burns 184-5). Drawn by curiosity, Catherine and Heathcliff run to Thrushcross Grange where they spy on the Lintons. There, Catherine is bitten on the ankle by the bulldog guarding the Grange and is taken in by Mr. and Mrs. Linton. When telling this story to Nelly Dean, Heathcliff explains: "'the devil had got hold of his ankle, Nelly...I took a stone and thrust it between his jaws, and tried with all my might to shove it down his throat. » » (Bronte 52). This is an obvious parallel to the serpent in the story of the Garden of Eden. After the serpent tempted Eve to eat the fruit of the forbidden tree, and God discovered it, he cursed the serpent: "The Lord God said to the serpent, 'Because you have done this, cursed of all animals and all wild creatures... “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your descendants and hers, he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel” (Gen 3:14-5). The use of the word devil to describe the bulldog that bit Catherine's ankle is a biblical allusion, because in the story of the Garden of Eden, the serpent was the figure of the devil. Furthermore, by having Heathcliff exclaim that "the devil had grabbed his ankle" and that "I took a stone and put it in his jaws" (Bronte 52), Bronte draws the parallel with Eden after God's curse on the serpent in which the serpent would strike theman's heel, and the man would strike the serpent's head. The next example of Eden in Catherine and Heathcliff's story is the fall from innocence that Catherine experiences after being nursed back to health inside Thrushcross Grange. After Catherine is bitten by the bulldog, she is brought into the house at Thrushcross Grange while Heathcliff is kicked out.Catherine's fall from childhood innocence. Luxury seduces her. Catherine eats Thrushcross Grange's produce, the 'plate of cakes' and drinks the hot, spicy 'glass of negus'... Catherine's taming has begun, a process that will lead her to abandon her rough and tumble childhood habits. to adopt good manners. …The girl who, five weeks before, was running barefoot in the dark…is now embarrassed by fashion and airs (Burns 186). This so-called "taming" marks the beginning of Catherine's fall from innocence and her introduction to adult life. Catherine's Eden could be seen as the freedom of childhood on the moors with Heathcliff, or even childhood itself. When Catherine returns to the Heights, she seems very sophisticated to the world around her. The people of the Heights claim that they “‘should hardly have known her’” (Bronte 55) and that she looks “‘like a lady now’.” Furthermore, with Catherine's new ways, she even considers sacrificing her and Heathcliff's deep love for class and rank in her social community. Edgar Linton is rich, handsome, and socially acceptable to the point that Catherine even says she would be "'the biggest woman on the block'" (Bronte 80) if she married him. Over time, Heathcliff and Catherine become more and more distant, and when Edgar proposes to Catherine, she accepts. While talking to Nelly about Edgar's proposal, Heathcliff overhears Catherine say "it would be degrading to marry Heathcliff now" (Bronte 82) and the fall is complete. It doesn't matter that she says she loves Heathcliff more than Edgar, the damage is done. Heathcliff flees the Heights and the childhood they represent and, on his own, will gain "the wealth and outward trappings of civilization which Catherine has learned to appreciate" (Burns 186). In this book, Catherine and Heathcliff reenact the part of the Adam and Eve story in which Adam participates in Eve's fall. Heathcliff, like Adam, will bite the fruit that Catherine (Eve) bit and fall from his childhood innocence as Adam and Eve gained the knowledge of what is good and what is evil (Burns 186). Another parallel to the Garden of Eden story in Wuthering Heights occurs with the love triangle of Catherine, Heathcliff, and Edgar. After Catherine marries Edgar and Heathcliff runs away, the Edenic paradise of Thrushcross Grange returns. Here again, the inhabitants stay inside the house and do not venture further than their magnificent garden. Nelly claims to have seen a “deep and growing happiness” (Bronte 93) in the lives of Catherine and Edgar. However, this veneer of peace and paradise is short-lived and this happiness is quickly lost. One night, as Nelly “returned from the garden with a heavy basket of apples” (Bronte 93) breathing “puffs of sweet, sweet air,” she saw a “tall man dressed in dark clothes, with a face and dark hair.” .” This mention of apples and the sweet, warm air of the garden is a biblical allusion to Eden and the fruits that Adam and Eve were tempted to eat. This dark man in the garden is Heathcliff, and in his return to the novel, he transforms into an evil figure or lying demon, like the Serpent of Eden, as Catherine calls him in chapter 11 (Burns 187). When Nelly sees Heathcliff upon her return in the novel, Brontë describes him as a dark intruder in the garden of Thrushcross Grange. Thatdraws a parallel with the serpent in the story of Eden who was one of Satan's servants and an intruder in the Garden of Eden. Like the serpent, Heathcliff attempts to convince Nelly to interrupt the peace in Heaven, or at the Grange in the context of this story. Referring to Nelly carrying his message, Heathcliff tells Nelly that he is "'in hell until you do!' » (Bronte 94). Additionally, Heathcliff, with his hand on the door, “raised the latch and I entered” (Bronte 94). It seems that Heathcliff wanted Nelly to enter the house without his consent. As Nelly enters the house and introduces Heathcliff, Edgar Catherine and Heathcliff all become involved in a big quarrel, which ends with Catherine going up to a room extremely ill. Once again, paradise has been invaded and divided into chaos. During Catherine's illness, she misses her childhood days with Heathcliff. This childhood was her Eden, and reminded of its loss with the return of Heathcliff, she is very upset. Catherine is delirious, she wishes she were a child again, and even imagines it, saying: "'the last seven years of my life have remained empty!' » (Bronte 124). This desire from her childhood represents her regret for biting the apple of society and losing her Eden when she was a child with Heathcliff. From now on, Catherine understands that social status is worthless if it doesn't make her happy. Furthermore, even though Nelly tells us that it is impossible to see the Heights from the Barn, Catherine still claims to see her "room with the candle in it and the trees swaying before it" (Bronte 125). This delusional statement shows how much Catherine longs for her past. She even seems to have gone crazy about it. (Burns 188). The allusions to Eden in Wuthering Heights continue with Catherine's daughter, who is named after her mother. Young Catherine, now known as Cathy, is isolated from the world outside the Grange. At thirteen, Cathy “had never left the park alone” (Bronte 183). This isolation causes Cathy to become curious about the outside world and frequently asks Nelly about it. Nelly tells Cathy to be happy and "'Thrushcross Park is the most beautiful place in the world'", but Cathy is not happy, saying that "'I know the park, and I don't know them'" ( Brontë 184). This allusion to the Garden of Eden directly precedes another “fall” in this book. Overwhelmed by curiosity, Cathy scales the walls of her Eden, Thrushcross Grange, on the moors and is tempted to the heights by our Satan figure, Heathcliff (Burns 189-90). Once in the Heights, Cathy ends up, after a long time, liking Hareton Earnshaw. Eventually, the two seem to fall in love and, in a reversal of Eden's story, begin to restore Eden. As Cathy and Hareton become closer, Cathy tells Hareton to clear land in order to import trees from Thrushcross Park. In doing so, Hareton removes the “blackcurrants,” who ironically happen to be the “apple of Joseph’s eye” (Bronte 300). After doing this, Joseph complains to Heathcliff, who, like God in the story of the Garden of Eden, threatens to expel Cathy and Hareton from the heights: "As for Hareton Earnshaw, if I see him listening to you, I will I will send him who seeks his bread where he can get it! Your love will make him an outcast and a beggar!' » (Bronte 304). This exclamation is very similar to that of God in the story of Eden when he cursed man, "because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded, “thou shalt not eat of it,” cursed. is the earth for your sake… By the sweat of your face you will eat bread’” (Genesis 3:17-9). In these two statements from Heathcliff and God, they both threaten to throw Hareton (or Adam) out, and threaten to »., 1992. 184-194.