The Heath in Us

My first book of 2009 was the classic Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.  I've wanted to read this book for a while for several reasons:

1) Being Brontë's only book, I was curious what made her stand the test of time.  

2) Many people (including my mother) have called this book the classic love story of Catherine and Heathcliff

3) I had just finished the Twilight series (a big waste of good reading time) and for some reason, Stephenie Meyer kept on referring to Wuthering Heights, so I wanted to see what parallels there were to the series.

I loved the character of Heathcliff.  He was such a troubled, dark, evil individual, yet you couldn't help but be on his side.  You could understand why he was such a brute, after hearing about all the abuse he endured from Hindley.  My only upset was that we didn't know the complete history of Heathcliff.  However, that only made him that much more intriguing.

The biggest emotion I felt during the reading was longing.  For every character at some point, they weren't satisfied with what they had.  While they made sacrifices (Catherine marrying Edgar) and difficult decisions (Catherine II living with Heathcliff), they always wanted what they couldn't have.  Some characters let this longing haunt them into death (Heathcliff), while others let their longing guide them to something they wanted and could achieve, like Catherine marrying Hareton.  The lesson here: we all want something we can't have.  In fact, the idea that we can't have it makes it all that more desirable.  In the end though, its how we take that desire to get satisfaction out of our lives that counts.