In Her Mother’s Image

In Her Mother’s Image

At the beginning of Wuthering Heights Lockwoode makes a mistake in
assuming that young Catherine II was Heathcliffe’s wife. It is easy to see how
he, a stranger unfamiliar with the Earnshaw-Linton family history could have
made such a mistake. But, had Lockwoode known about the life of the woman
Heathcliffe had always wanted to marry, Catherine I, and then have been able to
compare it to life of her daughter, Catherine II, he would never have been able to
make that mistake, for the lives of the mother and daughter were as different as
night and day.
To start, Heathcliffe, the current master of the house in which Lockwoode
was staying, loved Catherine I more than anything in the world. They spent
hours, even days at a time together, and almost always cherished each other’s
company. Their relationship, however, was not one of social equals. Through a
series of events, Heathcliffe had become Catherine’s servant, and it was for this
reason that Catherine refused to marry the man she loved, feeling that it would
‘degrade’ her to do so.
It is, among other things, because of this that Heathcliffe hates Catherine
II with all his heart. To him, she is a symbol of the woman he could never have
because of his lowly status. Through no fault of her own, she becomes the
object of his hatred and is treated much worse than her mother ever was;
Heathcliffe even makes her his servant. Her relationship with Heathcliffe is at
the opposite end of the spectrum wh...

In Her Mother’s Image

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