Obsessive Love
... her heart would always be incomplete without Heathcliff. After she accepted Edgar’s marriage proposal, she stated, “My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I’m well aware as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath- a source of little visible delight, but necessary.” In this statement Catherine displayed her everlasting feelings for Heathcliff. She knew that despite the time they spent away from each other and all that had happened, she would always love him and he would always love her. She went on to say that, “He’s always, in my mind- not as a pleasure any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being.” Clearly she felt that their relationship existed on a higher level than that of typical mortals. She knows that despite marrying Edgar her heart and soul will always be united with Heathcliff. Heathcliff did not take very well to Catherine’s leaving Wuthering Heights. When she returned, he was filled with mixed feelings of joy and sorrow. Mainly his feelings had become so intense that he became incapable of forgiving her for leaving him. He had kept track of the days until she returned to Wuthering Heights and waited for her every day in the moors. When she did not return he became obsessed with getting revenge. After her marriage to Edgar, he became even more obsessed with revenge because he wanted Catherine to understand how much he was hurt by her decision. Heathcliff didn’t understand that although Catherine married Edgar, she never stopped loving him. Originally when Heathcliff fled from Wuthering Heights, Catherine was devastated and she was very pleased when he returned. Despite their love, they found it intolerable to be nice to each other because neither character got what they really wanted. The only solution to their misery was to take it out on the other. Their obsession created a kind of love-hate relationship that appeared to contain far more hate than love. However, no matter how much they fought and what terrible things were said they always knew that they would end up together in the end. Heathcliff became so obsessed that his moods fluctuated wildly based on the varying temperaments of Catherine. After her death, he dug up her bones just to see her face. He was lost without her and felt that living for him was more painful than death itself. He had it arranged for a side of both his and her coffin to be removed so that they could mingle etern...