Heathcliff - why were ( & probably still are ) so many women in love with him?

Wuthering Heights is a masterpiece. I always felt so sorry for Heathcliff, but thought Cathy was a disturbed and totally selfish character.
I never found him attractive in any way.

Iam64

Monica - ‘silly’ is a withering assessment of the wuthering story. I enjoyed it, thank you

I am sure I have read and enjoyed books you would consider silly. I do not retract that adjective.

M0nica

Iam64

Monica - ‘silly’ is a withering assessment of the wuthering story. I enjoyed it, thank you

I am sure I have read and enjoyed books you would consider silly. I do not retract that adjective.

“Silly” is a very strange summation of an acknowledged masterpiece of English literature, even if it is not to your taste.
It has a complicated plot, dramatic storyline and written by a twenty seven year old living reclusively.
Would a silly book engender so much academic interest and many dramatisations?
I think not.

Kandinsky

Dee1012

I think you’ve nailed it.
Plus Heathcliff is always played by very good looking actors.

Oh I loved Timothy Dalton playing the Dark, brooding Heathcliff. My hormones must have been raging back in the day, ha. I have just watched him in 1883, playing a sexual deviant, put me right off him.

M0nica

Iam64

Monica - ‘silly’ is a withering assessment of the wuthering story. I enjoyed it, thank you

I am sure I have read and enjoyed books you would consider silly. I do not retract that adjective.

Oh dear MOnica, I typed in haste and gave the wrong impression, I’d meant to say how much I enjoyed your use of ‘silly’ to describe what has long been seen as a masterpiece.
Not, how much I enjoyed Wuthering Heights.

Even before my training and work introduced me to domestic abuse, I recognised it when I saw it.

hollysteers

M0nica

Iam64

Monica - ‘silly’ is a withering assessment of the wuthering story. I enjoyed it, thank you

I am sure I have read and enjoyed books you would consider silly. I do not retract that adjective.

“Silly” is a very strange summation of an acknowledged masterpiece of English literature, even if it is not to your taste.
It has a complicated plot, dramatic storyline and written by a twenty seven year old living reclusively.
Would a silly book engender so much academic interest and many dramatisations?
I think not.

I see Wuthering Heights as a 'cult' book. the Emperor's new clothes of fiction. So many people who consider themselves intellectual and deep and like to think they lead culture decide to take up a book aand then othes follow because they are afraid that if they say the book is ridiculous people will laugh at them. the Emperors new clothes comparison. Then the book takes on a life of its own and everyne just thinks its great because everyone thinks it great.

It isn't. It is a silly book about unreal people posturing and posing. Give me Anne Bronte's books any day, just as dramatic and based on reality.

He always struck me that he would need a good wash😄😄.

My paternal ancestors came from Haworth. All worsted weavers. Extraordinarily hard life. I guess some would have known the Brontes. They are all buried in the very overcrowded church cemetery. Whole families from tiny children upwards.

SueDonim

This thread has reminded me that I recently found a video of a song that Jim Steinman wrote, which was based one of his favourite books - Wuthering Heights. He said of it

This song is an erotic motorcycle. It's like Heathcliff digging up Cathy's corpse and dancing with it in the cold moonlight. You can't get more extreme, operatic or passionate than that. I was trying to write a song about dead things coming to life. I was trying to write a song about being enslaved and obsessed by love, not just enchanted and happy with it. It was about the dark side of love and about the extraordinary ability to be resurrected by it once dead. It's about obsession, and that can be scary because you're not in control and you don't know where it's going to stop. It says that, at any point in somebody's life, when they loved somebody strongly enough and that person returns, a certain touch, a certain physical gesture can turn them from being defiant and disgusted with this person to being subservient again. And it's not just a pleasurable feeling that comes back, it's the complete terror and loss of control that comes back. And I think that's ultimately a great weapon.

I’m not sure about the motorbike bit, mind! In the accompanying video there are brief glimpses of a character who is either Heathcliff, taken from the film with Lawrence Olivier, or a modern reenactment. I was mesmerised by it, I must admit! It’s decades since I read the book, though.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=By82Udvc53w

One of my favourite Jim Steinman songs - although love anything he wrote!

M0nica

hollysteers

M0nica

Iam64

Monica - ‘silly’ is a withering assessment of the wuthering story. I enjoyed it, thank you

I am sure I have read and enjoyed books you would consider silly. I do not retract that adjective.

“Silly” is a very strange summation of an acknowledged masterpiece of English literature, even if it is not to your taste.
It has a complicated plot, dramatic storyline and written by a twenty seven year old living reclusively.
Would a silly book engender so much academic interest and many dramatisations?
I think not.

I see Wuthering Heights as a 'cult' book. the Emperor's new clothes of fiction. So many people who consider themselves intellectual and deep and like to think they lead culture decide to take up a book aand then othes follow because they are afraid that if they say the book is ridiculous people will laugh at them. the Emperors new clothes comparison. Then the book takes on a life of its own and everyne just thinks its great because everyone thinks it great.

It isn't. It is a silly book about unreal people posturing and posing. Give me Anne Bronte's books any day, just as dramatic and based on reality.

Monica you say ‘as I see it’ which is fair enough as that’s your own opinion of the book.
I don’t recognise the Emperors new clothes of fiction as why would anyone think it was an intellectual or deep novel?
It’s an emotional and dramatic story with a ghostly element to it set on the bleak Yorkshire Moors.It’s unusual as well that the ‘heroine’ of the story is a nasty piece and so is the ‘hero’.
Each character feels well rounded and you can connect to them.
All the Bronte sisters were very good writers.

I agree with lots of comments here, what seems attractive to a young teenager is not what we want as adults. I think depending on our age, we may each have our own image of Heathcliffe. Mine is Ian McShane from the TV series in the mid 1960s. It was quite scary at times. I was babysitting at a remote farm on a 'wuthering' kind of night. I was watching the series and it was getting very tense when there was a terrible screeching noise just outside the window of the room I was in. In great terror I moved the curtain and looked out. There was just enough moonlight to see a load of pigs just outside.

I agree about Villette, MayBee70. As for WH, I am 100% with MOnica.

grumppa

I agree about Villette, MayBee70. As for WH, I am 100% with MOnica.

Thank you!