“She was much too fond of Heathcliff. The greatest punishment we could invent for her was to keep her separate from him.” How far is Nelly’s comment a fair summary of the relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff and the problems it contains?

In Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, the theme of love is central; particularly the love between both Catherine and Heathcliff. Bronte’s illustration of the love between the two protagonists transgresses beyond the “normal”, romantic love previous authors, such as Jane Austen, would portray. Emily Bronte’s love uniting both Catherine and Heathcliff contains undeniable gothic conventions alongside the idea of idolised romance; she has created a love story which includes aspects of passion, lust and suffering. Nelly, commenting on the relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff, states “She was much too fond of Heathcliff. The greatest punishment we could invent for her was to keep her separate from him”, suggesting that the intense love they had for one another will forever be problematic.

It is important here to focus on Nelly’s use of the adverb “too”, as it describes that Catherine’s love towards Heathcliff goes beyond average. When having to choose between Heathcliff and Edgar, Catherine concludes “I’ll try to break their hearts by breaking my own”. For Heathcliff, Catherine refuses to eat or sleep and also willingly exposes herself to a chill when she is feverish. Here, Catherine’s love towards Heathcliff has resulted in a form of mental anguish, a gothic trope. Not only this, but it also suggests that the greatest love story within Wuthering Heights is explored through acts of violence, another gothic trope. It is also due to Catherine’s immense love for Heathcliff (alongside social position and stability) that she chooses to marry Edgar; she will “aid Heathcliff… with [her] husband’s money”. Unfortunately, Catherine’s act of “kindness” could not stop Heathcliff from hearing her say “it would degrade me to marry Heathcliff”, which resulted in him running away. This leads Catherine to stay out in a storm all night, causing her to be sick in the morning. The storm here, a form of pathetic fallacy, could be used to represent the tension between the two, whilst her sickness is another gothic trope possibly used to portray her to be “weaker” without her soul mate. However, Catherine is also seen to tell Nelly, “I am Heathcliff - he’s always, always in my mind - not as a pleasure any more than I am always a pleasure to myself - but as my own being”, further emphasising the fact that she was “much too fond of Heathcliff”. This means that, if her love for Heathcliff is as real as she describes it to be, choosing to marry Edgar is a mistake.

Moreover, we could also argue that Nelly’s punishment, “to keep her [Catherine] separate from him [Heathcliff]”, can be seen as a catalyst to the problems within Catherine and Heathcliff’s relationship. In chapter six, we find that Catherine and Heathcliff have run to Thrushcross Grange, and once there, see Edgar and Isabella fighting through one of the windows. Here, the window could be a form of separation, exposing the opposite rather than the truth, as it is seen to parallel the two civilised Linton children with the “wild” Catherine and Heathcliff, with the use of paralleling being an additional gothic trope. Moreover, through the use of the parallels, Bronte is not only juxtaposing the social status of the children, but also how their relationship is perceived - Edgar and Isabella fight, whilst Catherine and Heathcliff cannot bear to be apart. Nonetheless, following this we find Catherine to be “trapped” at Thrushcross Grange, as she has been bit by the Linton’s dog, a violent act with dark undertones. Once returning home to Wuthering Heights after a number of weeks without Heathcliff, we recognise that she has transformed from a “wild wick” into society’s ideal woman, as illustrated by her new dress. The dress, valuable economically and socially approved, must be sacrificed (or dirtied), if she wants to be as close to Heathcliff as she was before. This therefore describes how keeping Catherine separate from Heathcliff at Thrushcross Grange created a number of problems in their relationship, whilst also foreshadowing how some of these problems, such as having to be approved by society, will repeatedly come between Catherine and Heathcliff love for each other.

However, Jay Clayton (who specialised in Victorian Literature) contradicts the belief that the separation tore the two apart; he states “Catherine’s declaration of love attempts to recover a lost state of being even as it claims that this lost unity will endure forever… Catherine and Heathcliff’s tragic tale depend on their being separated”. Possibly, as Clayton suggests that the love between Catherine and Heathcliff “depends on their being separated”, Nelly’s punishment of separating the two acted as an incentive to further evolve the love they have for each other. When Heathcliff sees a changed Catherine return from Wuthering Heights, he tells Nelly to “make [him] decent”. Heathcliff chooses to change for his relationship with Catherine, however due to his low, immutable status in society, only receives more hate from Hindley - he sees Heathcliff to be only a “brute of a lad”.

In conclusion, it is accurate to say that Nelly’s comment on Catherine and Heathcliff’s relationship, “She was much to fond of Heathcliff. The greatest punishment we could invent for her was to keep her separate from him”, describes it to be complicated. As stated before, the lovers’ relationship thrives on uniting both love and punishment to form a torturous love towards one-another. As a result this emphasises how, for their love to succeed, it must be problematic; and for that reason the punishment Nelly invents for both Catherine and Heathcliff will always encourage their relationship to grow further.