On Morbidity Of Characters

Emily had a very unique experience. She was morbidly reserved and rarely left her home in the wild moors. Emily's life journey was also unique because it consisted of a series of failures. All her attempts to earn a living were thwarted. Her father was a clergyman and her mother, sisters and brother died very young. Her unique experience must have had a big impact upon her writing career. It provided her with the first-hand source materials of literature and art.Knowing the impact of Emily's unique experience upon Wuthering Heights, we could, with the help of modern psychoanalysis, understand the morbidity of Wuthering Heights and its characters. This thesis mainly deals with Freudian theories of death drive and dream interpretation, Adler's theory of inferiority complex as well as Jung's theory of collective unconscious in order to interpret the morbid mentalities of Hindley, Catherine, Mr. Lockwood, Heathcliff, Mr. Earnshaw and Frances.In the past, scholars and critics focused mainly upon its dual narration structure, its Gothic tradition and its symbolism. Recent years saw some scholars and critics who tried to interpret this novel psychologically. The most typical of these interpretations was Freudian reading. They saw in the symbiosis of Heathcliff, Catherine and Edgar Linton the relationship of Freud's id, ego and superego. Other scholars and critics also noted the sadistic nature of the love between Heathcliff and Catherine. Their studies, though illuminating enough, are very fragmentary. Through the minute psychoanalysis of the distorted mentalities of the main characters in the novel, this thesis is aimed to reach the conclusion that Wuthering Heights is a morbid novel about a herd of morbid people.