Love/Relationships in Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Wuthering Heights

Love as transgressive/ transcendental in ‘Tess’

“Her idolatry of this man was such that she almost feared it to be ill-omened.” - Tess regarding Angel as a god

“those of a divinity who could confer bliss to those of a being who craved it” - Tess’ features in the twilight

“Artemis”, “Demeter”, “As if they were Adam and Eve” - Angel regarding Tess as a goddess, free of sin

“her cooing voice, plaintive in expostulation, disturbed the darkness, the velvet touch of her lips passed over his brow and he could distinguish the air of her warm breath” - Tess haunting angel after he leaves her - all consuming

CONTEXT: Victorian culture treated idolatry as a serious and compelling moral problem, particularly the Protestant meaning of idolatry (devotion to a person that hinders supplication to God)

Love as transgressive/ transcendental in W.H.

“Nelly, I am Heathcliff!”

“Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same” - radical, overwhelms her own individual personal identity

“Haunt me, then!… Be with my always - take any form - drive me mad! Only do not leave me in this abyss where I cannot find you!” - transgressive

“I appeared to feel the warm breath of it” - (Catherine as he digs up her grave) - H is psychologically haunted, leads to his death

“he has seen two of ‘em… every rainy night since his death”

CONTEXT: transgression is a major element of the Gothic convention. Additionally, Christianity believes that only angels and devils could appear to the living bearing the resemblance of one they had once known (ghosts) - H as a devil

Love as a force for change in ‘Tess’

“fine feathers make fine birds” - Tess is transformed from a simple field girl D’urbeyfield to more noble D’Urberville on wedding night

Angel’s love for Tess transforms her in his eyes - idealisation, viewed her as a “pure and virginal daughter of Nature”

Upon her confession (Phase the Fifth), states he has been loving “Another woman in your shape”

Alec’s “love” for Tess causes him to backslide from Christianity - “You temptress,… You dear witch of Babylon”

Angel and Tess’ wedding on 31st Dec - new beginnings, false hope, change for the worse

Love as a force for change in ‘Wuthering Heights’

Heathcliff - '“rough as a saw-edge, and hard as whinstone”

However, his love for C1 transforms him - “transfiguration of Heathcliff”, has acquired wealth from a mysterious source, however, outcome is altogether bad as they do not get together

Hareton - “gold put to the use of paving-stones”

Love for C2 is mutual, her benevolence transforms him entirely from the “rough and uncultivated” boy Lockwood thought was a servant to a “responsibly dressed” young man whose “handsome features glowed”

C1 teaching him to read - “she bent down to superintend his studies”

“one loving and desiring to esteem, the other loving and desiring to be esteemed”

CONTEXT: Children from poorer families would have to work - no education (Hareton treated like lower class), upper class would be educated - Cathy’s love lifting him through the ranks, raising him, whereas Catherine - “It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff”

Nature and love in ‘Tess’

Nature setting the conditions for love, like a matchmaker (love is natural)

“oozing fatness and warm ferments”, “hiss of fertilisation” - sensual, imagery

“it was impossible that the most fanciful love should not grow passionate”

“an emotion thrust upon them by cruel nature’s law” (other milkmaids)

Nature and love in W.H.

C1 talking about her love for H vs E - “Edgar’s is as different as moonbeams from lightning or frost from fire”

“My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods”

“My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath”

C2 + Hareton planting flowers in W.H.

clear the “black current trees” and “planning together an importation of plants from the Grange” , “sticking primroses in his porridge”- their love is blossoming, Hareton blooming - T.G.-ified

Gender dynamics in love (Tess)

Male dominance (Angel and Alec) - “your creature”, “my pretty”, “like a puppet”

“they are all yours”,

“I was your master once, I will be your master again” , “kiss of mastery” - ownership over women

CONTEXT - Gender roles in Victorian period - women as inferior to men, properties of their husbands

Alec’s rape of Tess - ultimate play for male domination - “beautiful, feminine tissue”, “gossamer” vs “coarse patterns”

Tess murdering Alec - reclaiming power

Gender dynamics in love (W.H.)

C1’s subversion of gender roles, takes the more dominating role in her relationship with E and H - E is effeminate, likened to honeysuckle whilst C1 is the more violent, masculine thorn -

“It was not the thorn bending to the honeysuckle, but the honeysuckles embracing the thorn”

“the gunpowder lay as harmless as sand, because no fire came near to explode it”

As a woman, has no social power over men so uses sickness + their love for her as a dorm of manipulation to control them - she has to take more extreme measures

“You have treated me infernally!”

“If I were only sure it would kill him, I’d kill myself directly!”

“I’ll try to break their hearts by breaking my own”

“I’ll cry myself sick!”

C2+Linton - initially C2 has “resolved to make a pet of her little cousin”, but after marriage - “It’s all mine - papa says everything she has is mine” - shift in power, Linton dominates

CONTEXT: Women did not have property rights until the 1870 Marries Women’s Act