Heathcliff’s Ambivalent Persona in Wuthering Heights Reading Heathcliff through the Prism of Confinement Heathcliffs ambivalenta persona i Wuthering Heights Tolkning av Heathcliff i ljuset av fångenskap Arlind Karanezi Faculty of Humanities and Social Science English 15 Credits Supervisor: Anna Linzie Examiner: Åke Bergvall Autumn Term 2019 1 Abstract The protagonist, Heathcliff in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, is found as an orphan and taken to Wuthering Heights by Mr. Earnshaw. Through a close connection with one of the children at Wuthering Heights, Catherine, and experiences of physical and mental confinement, Heathcliff forges his complex and ambivalent identity within Earnshaw’s family. Many critics seem to consider Heathcliff an unusually complex and ambiguous character. Still, this essay shows that the text is quite clear when it comes to the function of Heathcliff if he is interpreted through the prism of “confinement” as a key motive. Additionally, Heathcliff’s behavior and actions as a result of his confinement, will be explained with the help of Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytical concepts, namely, defense mechanisms. Because of the psychological confinement, this essay shows how Heathcliff’s struggle influences three important thematic areas: identity, behavior and liberation. Subsequently, this struggle leads Heathcliff at using strategies of defense and ill-treatment of other characters. Ultimately, Heathcliff’s psychological liberation is possible only in another realm of existence, that of the afterlife where his death and reunion with Catherine coincide. Keywords: Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff Earnshaw, confinement, identity, behavior, defense mechanisms, psychological liberation. 2 Sammanfattning Heathcliff, som är huvudpersonen i Emily Brontes Wuthering Heights, återfinns föräldralös och förs till Wuthering Heights. På grund av erfarenheter av fysisk och psykisk instabilitet konstruerar Heathcliff sin komplexa och ambivalenta identitet inom familjen Earnshaw, genom en nära anknytning till Catherine. Många kritiker tycks anse att Heathcliff är en ovanligt komplex och tvetydig karaktär. Trots allt, denna uppsats visar att texten i själva verket är mycket tydlig när det gäller Heathcliffs funktion om han tolkas genom "fångenskap" som ett huvudmotiv. Dessutom, med hjälp av Sigmund Freuds psykoanalytiska begrepp som försvarsmekanismer, skildringen av Heathcliff och hans handling som ett resultat av hans fångenskap kommer förklaras. På grund av psykologiska fångenskap, denna uppsats visar hur Heathcliffs kamp påverkar tre centrala tematiska områden: identitet, beteende och befrielse. Därefter, denna kamp leder Heathcliff till att använda strategier för försvar och misshandel av andra karaktärer. I slutändan, Heathcliffs psykologisk frigörelse kan bara vara möjlig i en annan existentiell sfär, i det ögonblick då hans död och hans återförening med Catherine sammanfaller. Nyckelord: Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff Earnshaw, fångenskap, identitet, beteende, försvarsmekanismer, psykisk befrielse. 3 In the novel Wuthering Heights (1847) by Emily Brontë, many situations of confinement are represented to the reader. For instance, the male protagonist Heathcliff is locked in the attic as a boy while growing up, and perhaps more importantly, he becomes psychologically confined. This psychological imprisonment is mainly generated by the other protagonist, Catherine, but also her brother Hindley. As critics have pointed out, confinement in Wuthering Heights occurs as a result of the need of containing and controlling others (Crouse 179). By trying to maintain the situation under their control, the characters of Wuthering Heights confine one another. Heathcliff is the central character in the novel when it comes to confinement and the destruction that follows from it; therefore, it is of essential importance to analyze Heathcliff’s confinement to understand his destructive motives. Concerning the motives of villainous behavior, this essay intends to interpret Heathcliff as an ambivalent persona under the influence of psychological imprisonment. Furthermore, to better understand Heathcliff’s behavior and actions, psychoanalytic theory, such as defense mechanisms, will be used to analyze this issue. Regarding Heathcliff’s identity as a character, a close reading of key passages shows that Heathcliff’s identity is obscure, and this ambivalence can be the reason for his erratic behavior. Because of his behavior and destructive tendencies, many critics see Heathcliff as “a villain and destroyer of the world”. But according to Samantha Przybylowicz in “(Dys)Function in the Moors: Everyone’s a Villain in Wuthering Heights”, “Heathcliff is placed in this position through the Nelly/Lockwood narration frame, which causes him to appear to exceed the villainy of other characters” (7). Due to the ambiguous identity that he is presented to the readers, it may seem as Heathcliff is impossible to understand. This essay, however, will focus on examining Heathcliff’s obscure identity through the prism of confinement. The reading shows that the text is quite clear when it comes to the function of Heathcliff if he is interpreted through the prism of “confinement” as a key motive. Three central thematic areas in the text, which will be analyzed in this essay, concern Heathcliff’s identity, Heathcliff’s behavior, and Heathcliff’s liberation. Regarding critics, they differ in the interpretation of Wuthering Heights and its main protagonist Heathcliff. Critics argue that Heathcliff’s behavior can be understood in motivational terms (Paris 241), and as a character, Heathcliff exhibits patterns of confinement (Crouse 179). Furthermore, Heathcliff may not be entirely definable (Boyd 31) as he is a symbolic manifestation of the raging spirit trapped inside Wuthering Heights (Muller 75). Lastly, it seems that Heathcliff does not achieve his 4 freedom, except when he is a ghostly presence (Tong 229). In this essay, I am going to argue, firstly, that Heathcliff’s identity in Wuthering Heights is obscure only if analyzed outside the prism of confinement. Secondly, that Heathcliff confines other characters not only to contain and control them but also as a means to escape his imprisonment. And thirdly, because of the harsh psychological reality that he experiences in the text, Heathcliff is in search of liberty, a sort of peace. In terms of reading, it can be argued that he fails to escape from his psychological confinement, and that leaves only death as a possible realm of liberation. In the end, through death, Heathcliff finally achieves psychological liberation, which coincides with spiritual union with Catherine. In seeking to understand Heathcliff’s behavior and motives, I turn to psychoanalytical theories. “Psychoanalysis is a form of study which lays emphasis on the working of the human mind, its application in literature helps in providing a better understanding of the literary characters as it gives the reader an insight into their ‘mental universe’” (Priya 2). Because of the ambiguity, critics study characters using concepts of psychoanalysis called defense mechanisms. Findings in personality and social psychology are related to a general theory of the defense mechanisms (Baumeister, Dale, Sommer 1083). Before applying the defense mechanisms in this essay, a short introduction to some psychoanalytical terms will be given. Sigmund Freud is considered to be the founder of psychoanalysis. Freud’s idea is that the human mind is dual, consisting of the conscious and the unconscious. It is the unconscious, which is the most important because it contains the primary driving power behind all our actions and behavior. Furthermore, according to Freud, the psyche consists of the superego, the id, and the ego. The id comprises of our ‘primitive impulses’ and is entirely unconscious. Superego stands outside of the self; and refers to our conscience, and it is about moral values. The ego is both conscious and unconscious, as it balances the superego and the id. By defending itself from the unconscious mind, the ego activates some processes in the conscious mind called defense mechanisms. Freudian defense mechanisms include concepts like repression, denial, sublimation, and projection. These concepts will be used to analyze Heathcliff’s behavior and actions in the subsequent sections of this essay. Defense mechanisms can be used to help to achieve a more definite and accurate portrayal of Heathcliff as a character, furthermore, to understand his hidden motives and make it easier to give a better judgment. 5 Concerning psychoanalytic readings of literary work, “Freud didn’t invent psychoanalytic principles; he discovered them operating in human beings. So, any literary text that accurately describes human behavior or that is the product of an author’s unconscious will include psychoanalytic principles whether or not the author had any awareness of those principles when writing the work” (Tyson 32). Heathcliff, as an ambiguous character-led many psychoanalytical critics to study the protagonists of Wuthering Heights by using Sigmund Freud’s concepts. In this respect, this essay will use defense mechanisms to analyze our protagonist and try to show why Heathcliff is behaving in a certain way regarding some central events in the novel. Heathcliff’s adoption of defense mechanisms results due to the conflict in him between the conscious and the unconscious mind. Everything that Heathcliff experiences during childhood is going to influence his unconscious mind.