Explore the Different Types of Love Shown in Wuthering Heights

Explore the different types of love shown in Wuthering Heights Pages 70 -75 The love shown in Wuthering Heights on pages 70-75 is not only those of morality love, but also love that aches, and both types are each, for a different man. The simpler of the two is that of which Catherine feels for Edgar. Having chosen to marry Edgar, through no other reason than it is moral option; Catherine feels no true love towards him. When conversing with Nelly, and questioned on just what it is that Catherine loves about him, it is apparent, that she struggles to find an emotionally invested response.
The responses that she does return to Nellys question, consisting of the adjectives, ‘handsome’, ‘pleasant’ and ‘rich’ all show that Catherine feels for Edgar’s appearance, which is also evidential later in the passage; ‘He is young and rich now, and I have only to do with the present. ’ This further shows the reader that Catherine’s love for Edgar is far from reliable, nor worth losing Heathcliff over. Catherine’s fight between both her heart and her head causes her to feel that Nelly is taunting her and doesn’t understand the dilemma of her situation; ‘but if you will not mock at me, I’ll explain it.. and further mentions that she can only give a small insight of how it is she feels; ‘I can’t do it distinctively. ’ The fact that Catherine feels quite apprehensive towards letting Nelly in on her ‘secret’, a secret in which she and she alone feels ownership over, which fails to include Heathcliff’s feelings toward her, shows that this love, the love for Heathcliff, is much harder to explain, hence she can find no words to describe it, compared to that of her love with Edgar.
She later goes on to explain how in a dream, she visions herself in heaven and how she ‘broke her heart with weeping to come back to earth… ’ This could be considered a vision into the future, in which due her decision, the decision to marry Edgar, she would eventually be in heaven, but without Heathcliff. Yet again, reference to how she cannot describe that it is Heathcliff she cannot live in death or life without and how it is Heathcliff of which she feels the strongest love towards, is apparent.

Further into the extract, Catherine finally is truthful to Nelly on how she truly feels, and how those feelings are towards Heathcliff. Yet, although she is honest, she stills refers back to how she should be moral, ‘It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff; so he shall never know I love him. ’ How Catherine admits her love, although may not have been best said, the fact that she can say she loves Heathcliff, and with such emotion and sadness, shows that a truer love runs through their relationship, compared to that she has with Edgar.
She later says that Heathcliff is more herself than what she is. This reference, of two people living like one, shows furthermore, that their love is stronger, and more possessive, a love in which two people cannot be themselves without the other. Heathcliff’s love for Catherine is briefly described by Nelly to Catherine, in which her honesty startles her. Enlightening Catherine to exactly what it is Heathcliff would lose; ‘a friend and love, and all! ’ further distresses Catherine, in which she reveals her true reasons for marrying Edgar, which are to help Heathcliff.
Although the plan, as Nelly describes as nonsense, would fail to ever work, the reason in which she has made the plan, in order to rescue Heathcliff from her brother, shows that they’re love runs deeper still. The deepness in which in runs, in which she feels it is her duty to save Heathcliff from his perils rather than marry him as he is, shows how Catherine idioticness and young, foolish mind cannot comprehend how she should react to her feelings for Heathcliff. Pages 146 -149 In pages 146-149, it is made clear to us that Catherine, clearly ill, is sure to die, and requests that Heathcliff be by her side.
This instantly shows that a dying person last wish, in some cases, would be to be near those they love dearly and truly, and in this case, Catherines is Heathcliff. His love for her is also apparent, ‘he bestowed more kisses than ever he gave in his life before’ through the amount of kisses sent upon her. His love through his actions for her as she lays dying, is also further insight as to how he’s felt about anyone else, as the amount of kisses he places upon her, are more than those for anyone else, and most likely, those that mean more.
The use of ‘earnestly’ shows yet again, the possessiveness they share for each other and how one can surely not bare to see the other in weakness, not knowing that it is their love, that has made them weak towards each other. Even as Catherine continues to lie dying, she tortures Heathcliff by not revealing her feelings truly to him, the feelings she holds so tightly for him, jokingly mentioning that him and Edgar ‘have broken her heart. ’ The quotation, possibly meaning that having chosen Edgar over Heathcliff, and Heathcliff’s departure, that he broke her heart, and by still choosing
Edgar, he broke hers by not being able to love Heathcliff truthfully, yet it could also mean that by living with Heathcliff and by leaving him in her death, she will have lost him both to Edgar, and therefore her heart has been broken twice. Further reference to how the two loves cannot live by themselves, is that of when Heathcliff exclaims how he ‘could as soon forget her as his existence. ’ The continued reference of two hearts that can only live as one, constantly runs through their story, making their love the most powerful in the whole two-parted story.
Catherine then goes on to admit that she cannot wish to be parted from Heathcliff once more. Referred to as ‘Mrs Linton’ during the scene yet again, shows how they have been parted in live, as the name ‘Linton’ is a constant reminder of how Catherine’s blindness encouraged her to choose loyalty and morality, over true love. During Catherine’s death, Heathcliff requests to know why she ‘betrayed her heart’ and why if ‘she’d loved him, what right she had to leave him’.
Catherine’s response to Heathcliff’s begs for answers are that she is dying for her mistakes, and she believes that her death is due to her bad decisions made in life, that she is forced to live without Heathcliff in the most harshest of ways. The love between Heathcliff and Catherine is apparent from the beginning, and it is also clear that she doesn’t share the same love for Edgar as she does for Heathcliff. A love of which aches, and turns individuals mad in their own lives, is the strongest in the book and especially in these scenes. A love of morality compared to that of a possessive, true love, wins no prizes in a competition.