Note: the version of Wuthering Heights used by Oxford University Press for this article Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In Bronte's novel, Wuthering Heights, a person has the ability to achieve happiness only if his external state of being is a true and accurate manifestation of his internal state of being. The "double persona" that Catherine "adopts" to simultaneously maintain her relationship with the upper-class Linton family and her lower-class friend, Heathcliff (66), also manifests itself in most of the novel's other major characters, although the the division is usually less evident in other characters. It's less obvious because instead of being torn between two contrasting external states (only one of Catherine's reflects her internal state), characters are usually torn between their internal experiences of the world and their external facades. For all the characters, the possibility of happiness depends on a coherence between their internal and external ways of being. Catherine, in her inability to achieve happiness, is the clearest example of this in the novel, but the other three crucial characters in the novel: Heathcliff, Cathy (II), and Hareton, also demonstrate this. The relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff is a prime example. of possible happiness disabled by the inconsistency (internal vs. external) of one of its participants, Catherine. Catherine puts up a facade of "naive friendliness" to gain the love of the Linton children (Isabella and Edgar) to hide her true "unruly nature". She only allows this “unruly nature” to emerge when she is in the privacy of her home, Wuthering Heights, with Heathcliff (66). Catherine splits into two personalities. He demonstrates his "rebellious" character in the company of his true friend, Heathcliff, when he is in the comfortable environment of his home. This "personality" reflects how he feels internally. The other, which he wears to impress the Lintons, is fake. Catherine herself admits this inconsistency when speaking to the narrator, her servant, Ellen Dean. She states “I am Heathcliff,” but, at the same time, says she does not want to marry him because otherwise she would be a “beggar” (81-2). If she were really Heathcliff, being a beggar would not cause her distress because she would be behaving as herself and as what is appropriate to her nature. Catherine, however, chooses to live with the inconsistency and therefore denies herself the ability to achieve happiness by living as a "rebel" with Heathcliff. Even her love, Heathcliff, is incapacitated by her choice. In the first half of the novel, he tries to be consistent, inside and out. While Catherine was divided, Heathcliff remained “internally and externally repugnant” (67). At that point, if Catherine reached him, they would have the chance to become happy. But because she doesn't, she forces Heathcliff to give up his uniformity and divide himself, as she is. Bronte shows Heathcliff's split in the second half of the book, when he returns to Wuthering Heights. During this time, he has a hidden motive of revenge (against those who kept him from Catherine) and external behavior that shows false "love". His false "love" is only partially maintained, but is intended to deceive both Isabella and Hareton. Heathcliff "deceives" Isabella, Edgar's sister, into thinking that he loves her in order to "inflict vengeance" on Edgar (113). Catherine chooses to marry Edgar because she is of a higher class than Heathcliff, and the choice that Edgar's presence offers her keeps Heathcliff away from her. This is why Heathcliff wishes to take revenge on him. Then, Heathcliff deceives Hareton, the son ofhis enemy, Hindley, making him believe that he is the only one who loves him to keep him "ignorant" and thus exact his revenge on Hindley (187). He desires revenge on Hindley because it was he who made Catherine realize that Heathcliff was "too beggarly" for her. This split, between his internal desire to make up for his past absence from Catherine through revenge, and his external attitude that makes this revenge possible, remains with him until the end of the novel. And it prevents him from any experience of happiness. At the end of the novel, Heathcliff finally achieves a sense of "cheerfulness" and "joy", but only after he has made peace with the difference between his internal state and his external state. , and chose to fully follow his inner state by following Catherine to the tomb (326-8). This capacity for happiness for both Catherine and Heathcliff when they are together is present throughout the novel. When they are children, they enjoy running together. And then, even after Catherine has been "civilized" by the Lintons, she states that the music of a dinner party attended by all is "sweetest at the top of the stairs? where Heathcliff [is] confined" (59). Things are "sweeter" for her when she is around Heathcliff. Their last meeting before Catherine's death is also indicative of this possible happiness. Heathcliff cries out to Catherine "why have you betrayed your heart? You have broken it, and in breaking it, you have broken mine" (161). The implication of this cry is that they could have been happy if only they had stayed together. Along these same lines, both Catherine and Heathcliff express a feeling of “oneness” with each other. Catherine says that Heathcliff is "in her soul" (160) and that he is "more himself than she is" (80). Similarly, Heathcliff laments, after Catherine's death: "I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!" (167). It is possible for them to be happy when they are together because they bring out each other's true internal states in external behavior. They do it naturally because, since they feel "one" with the other, it is useless for them to try to hide something (or put on a false air) in the presence of the other. In contrast, the two persevering second generation characters, Cathy and Hareton, achieve happiness. They do this by not betraying themselves as Catherine (and Heathcliff) do and by acting according to their nature. Hareton is unhappy growing up because he was raised rudely by Heathcliff. This roughness, which he was forced to imitate, went against his natural inclination towards "softer feelings" (300). He is happy when he and Cathy establish their friendship because she encourages those softer feelings he kept inside to come to the surface. Cathy also goes through a period of unhappiness between her happy life with her father at Thrushcross Grange and her happy life with Hareton at the end of the novel. She is happy with her father and Hareton because they cherish her "deep and tender love" (188), and do not ask her to deny that integral part of herself. His unhappiness begins with an inconsistency between the way he behaves and the way he feels, caused by his interactions with Linton and Heathcliff. Cathy's relationship with Linton begins the split between her internal and external selves. Ellen, Cathy's nurse, intercepts her secret affair with Linton and forbids her from continuing it. At this point, Cathy is forced, to keep the relationship a secret from her father, to mask her sadness. Although she is crushed inside, she acts "wonderfully subdued on the outside" (228). Likewise, even after he begins to enjoy Linton's company, he continues to "pretend" to enjoy it, out of "pity" (267). Hence, Heathcliff's harsh treatment of her (as her master) forces her to repress her "deep and tender love" and take on a rude appearance. The).