#the heathcliff earnshaw theory – @thevampiricnihal on Tumblr

I am surprised that Isabella’s racist assertion that Heathcliff looks like the local fortune-teller’s son

(“The cowardly children crept nearer also, Isabella lisping “Frightful thing! Put him in the cellar, papa. He’s exactly like the son of the fortune-teller that stole my tame pheasant. Isn’t he, Edgar?”)

is taken here as a hint that Heathcliff really is the local fortune-teller’s son.

You would think that this is not Wuthering Heights but Kate Chopin’s “Desiree’s Baby”.

I find this to be an interesting reading and would be open to a fanfic with this premise, but I think the line’s intention is more “garden-variety racism” than “secret parentage conspiracy”.

There really are readings as varied as there are readers, especially with this book.

Edit:

In “Desiree’s Baby” too:

“The baby, half naked, lay asleep upon her own great mahogany bed, that was like a sumptuous throne, with its satin-lined half-canopy. One of La Blanche’s little quadroon boys—half naked too— stood fanning the child slowly with a fan of peacock feathers. Désirée’s eyes had been fixed absently and sadly upon the baby, while she was striving to penetrate the threatening mist that she felt closing about her. She looked from her child to the boy who stood beside him, and back again; over and over. “Ah!” It was a cry that she could not help; which she was not conscious of having uttered.” (italics mine)

We first think that this line is about Desiree’s baby being a quarter Black like “La Blanche’s little quadroon boy”, and indeed that’s the case. But I think if we closely read the short story we can also theorize that Desiree’s baby and La Blanche’s son are siblings, I think it is implied that Desiree’s husband is sleeping with his slave La Blanche:

“And the way he cries,” went on Désirée, “is deafening. Armand heard him the other day as far away as La Blanche’s cabin.” (italics mine)

Why is Desiree’s husband at La Blanche’s cabin? I think he is the father of her child.

This theory that Heathcliff looks like “the fortune-teller’s son” because they are siblings and not just because they are of the same ethnicity reminded me of this line and this implication in this short story.

I wrote my undergraduate thesis about “Desiree’s Baby” and I think the fans of discussing Heathcliff and the “Heathcliff Earnshaw” theory should read more American fiction on race. They play with these ideas even more than Wuthering Heights.

#wuthering heights #heathcliff #Heathcliff’s race #the heathcliff earnshaw theory #kate chopin #desiree’s baby

thevampiricnihal

I once read a post (I think it was on here, I really don’t remember, sorry) that said:

“Wuthering Heights is about what Heathcliff and Cathy are to each other and the answer is more painful than words can express”.

I think this is a beautiful way of putting it (and I think the original sentence was much more beautiful, I am paraphrasing it) and it has been haunting me ever since I read it.

But is it true? I think the context was that Heathcliff was Cathy’s biological brother in this poster’s view. And I truly love the above sentence so much that I want to momentarily believe in this theory that I usually don’t favor.

(As an aside, Wuthering Heights is about two things: Heathcliff and Cathy’s bond and the more conventional revenge plot motivated by that bond. Heathcliff being Mr. Earnshaw’s son is detrimental to the latter aspect of the story in my view. My problem is not so much with Cathcliff being incestuous as much as with this rendering Heathcliff’s revenge on the social forces which separated them moot).

But even if Heathcliff and Cathy are biologically related, does that inherently make “what they are to each other” “painful”? They are not Oedipus and Jocasta, having four children and ruling a kingdom together. Their relationship is sexless enough that many critics view it as a wholly asexual relationship. I don’t agree that it is asexual but I do think that it was unconsummated. And frankly, Cathy and Heathcliff (attempt to) devour their own children and defeat death to be able to embrace each other again, I don’t think that they would care about incest that much. What makes Oedipus so painful is that Oedipus and Jocasta care.

Anyway, I love the sentence. I absolutely love it conceptually. But is it applicable to Wuthering Heights?

The person who came up with the sentence, I truly genuinely don’t remember who you are. If you see this post, feel free to reclaim your sentence and to explain it and to argue with me.

#wuthering heights #heathcliff #catherine earnshaw #the heathcliff earnshaw theory

thevampiricnihal reblogged

veritablydumb

Okay so it feels weird that Mr. Earnshaw adopted a kid out of the blue and decided to raise him as a son. I wonder if Heathcliff is a distant illegitimate relative.

Mr. Earnshaw seems like a good man so he decided to adopt Heathcliff and raise him. I don't think Heathcliff's his illegitimate son though. It just doesn't fit. Or maybe Heathcliff is just a strange kid he felt sorry for. I don't know. Maybe something is revealed later.

minetteskvareninova

My guess would be that Heathcliff is related to someone who Mr. Earnshaw knows and is bound to by some measure of duty, but who isn't necessarily a blood relative. Maybe son (illegitimate or otherwise) of an old friend?

thevampiricnihal

In the Japanese Wuthering Heights retelling A True Novel by Minae Mizumura the Heathcliff-equivalent was an illegitimate nephew of the Joseph-equivalent.

I myself made “Clyffe Stone” the illegitimate child of “Lord Brunty” (I am proud of this name), a family friend of the “Eyrnshaws”, in my Asoiaf AU Fanfic “Westerosi Heights”:

Westerosi Heights - moonbeam_lightning - A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin [Archive of Our Own]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

archiveofourown.org

But of course in actual Wuthering Heights the start of the story is intended to be a bit “fairy-tale-like”, so there is no elaborate explanation.

#wuthering heights #a true novel #my fanfic #asoiaf #heathcliff #the heathcliff earnshaw theory

thevampiricnihal reblogged

thevampiricnihal

(Chapter 10)

Nelly initially mistaking Heathcliff for Hindley is the only part of the book that makes me go “maybe” on them being biologically related (Heathcliff being Mr. Earnshaw’s son). Especially since Heathcliff is a man of color and Hindley is a presumably brown-haired white man. Though the scene is pointedly set in a dusky September evening.

All this is to say is that I respect this theory, I can even find points in its favor if I try, but it is not for me.

ryoastra

I think the biggest reason for me that Heathcliff wouldn't be related to any of the characters biologically is the narrative. Every other character is related biologically, or becomes it, (besides the servants) and Heathcliff is obviously meant to be completely unrelated from the beginning to fulfil the role of the dark outsider.

On the point of you using the argument of Heathcliff's being a man of colour, I would have to dispute you. I also read the novel as that, and I think the novel can be read as that, but there is never any solid proof of Heathcliff's being a man of colour, so I'm always tentative towards using it as an argument when critically analysing the novel.

However, despite disputing your reasoning, I definitely agree that Heathcliff and Hindley shouldn't be read as being related.

thevampiricnihal

“On the point of you using the argument of Heathcliff's being a man of colour, I would have to dispute you. I also read the novel as that, and I think the novel can be read as that, but there is never any solid proof of Heathcliff's being a man of colour, so I'm always tentative towards using it as an argument when critically analysing the novel.”

He is consistently called “gypsy” (Romani) and Romani people are usually considered “people of color” (though I acknowledge that they can be “white-passing” in Britain). He is once called a “Lascar” (South Asian sailor) and is once (admittedly fancifully) speculated to be the son of an “Indian queen and the emperor of China”.

But the most important thing, even beyond his actual ethnicity, is that he is consistently mistreated directly because of his dark skin and presumed ethnic background, which is the definition of racism:

Heathcliff’s physical description is thick black brows, dark skin (noticeably darker than the brunette Earnshaws who can tan) and deep-set eyes. If a person with this physical description is “white”, then a lot of Middle Eastern people are “white”, and Middle Eastern people are absolutely not treated as “white”, especially not in Europe.

So yes, we don’t know exactly what ethnicity Heathcliff is. But race is fictional anyway. And he is undoubtedly a victim of racism. So I guess it depends on your definition of “person of color”: Is not being considered “white” and being a victim of racism enough to make one a “person of color”? I genuinely don’t know.

I am a light-skinned black-haired Turkish woman, I still am not sure if I am a “person of color”.

#wuthering heights #the heathcliff earnshaw theory #heathcliff #Heathcliff’s race

thevampiricnihal

(Chapter 10)

All this is to say is that I respect this theory, I can even find points in its favor if I try, but it is not for me.

#wuthering heights #the heathcliff earnshaw theory #heathcliff #hindley earnshaw

thevampiricnihal

There are two kinds of people who want Heathcliff to be Mr. Earnshaw’s bastard son

1) People who want the family tragedy to have been caused by adultery instead of charity. They also tend to interpret Cathcliff as sexless.

2) People who are really into fictional incest.

Interestingly these two groups exist on the two entirely opposite sides of the “Wuthering Heights fan” spectrum. The former are “Grange critics”, the latter are “Heights critics”. As delineated by Terry Eagleton:

I don’t like the theory, but not because of the incest. I simply think that him actually being Mr. Earnshaw’s son would render Heathcliff’s revenge kind of moot. But I am not as opposed to it as I used to be.

#wuthering heights #the heathcliff earnshaw theory #terry eagleton

thevampiricnihal

From the 1920 book The Symbolism of Wuthering Heights by Colman Kavanagh

I find it interesting that Christian readings of Wuthering Heights frequently go with the “Heathcliff is Mr. Earnshaw’s son” reading (as we can also see in this post). It is like all this family tragedy can’t stem from charity, no, it has to be adultery that poisoned the well.

I am not saying that all Christian interpretations of the novel go with this theory and nor am I saying that everyone who believes in the “Heathcliff is Mr. Earnshaw’s son” theory is doing a Christian reading, and I am not even saying that the theory is invalid (it is valid if you accept that it is just one interpretation among many), I am just saying that there is a pattern.

#wuthering heights #heathcliff #the symbolism of wuthering heights #the heathcliff earnshaw theory