Wuthering Heights Period 1 Connector
While reading the book, there are many connections I have been able to make with the text and with real life situations and characters. One connection I am able to make is to with a painting by the artist Seth Skim. He drew a picture of a chipped vase, with a person in the background looking very forlorn and like he has made the wrong decision. This can be compared with Catherine in the scenes after Heathcliff leaves the first and second time. The colors included in this painting are a collection of different blues, greens, browns, and whites. Each color represents a different feeling. The blue could represent Catherine’s sadness and coldness throughout her life so far. The green could represent the good life she is trying to live without much success, for there is a limited amount of green in the painting. The brown is only present in the hair of the man in the painting. This could also represent the only color Catherine valued was her beauty, her hair could be an example of this. The white could represent the emptiness of Catherine’s life, for she is very lonely and unloved by many and white is a color that has no visible color within (if that makes sense)!In Catherine’s life, there is much color, but because she is living life so fast and not stopping to think of the effects of the decisions she makes, there seems to be an absence of color. The broken vase represents her broken life and the negative outcome of her decisions! Any other thoughts about the painting? To view it, do a Google image search for “broken vessel”. It should be one of the first images to come up. Any other connections that you guys see to this painting?
Category: Per 1 WH Con 2 comments »
March 1st, 2009 at 8:32 pm
I agree with some of your connections, but there are two I slightly disagree with. First of all, was her attempts at living a good life really that unsuccessful? She is married to a wealthy handsome man. The only thing she really misses is her time with Heathcliff outside and Heathcliff himself. And, in a way, isn’t it her fault in the first place that Heathcliff ran away, and drifted out of her life so much? The second thing is, how is she living life so fast and not thinking about her decisions? Are you refering to her self-induced illness and not thinking through the decision to starve herself? Because, that is the only thing I can think of that connects to this.
March 2nd, 2009 at 5:36 pm
To expand on this, some colors have multiple meanings. Especially blue, which can mean sadness and grief, but it can also mean calm and relaxation. Maybe there is so much ‘blue’ in Catherine’s life because she is trying to settle her life, get rid of the roller-coaster ride she has between Edgar and Heathcliff.
I agree with what you said about the white in her life. Without Heathcliff, she is empty. When he returns, she gets extremely giddy, and then he leaves twice, and she has a breakdown. This also can connect to the green, because she is technically successful, being wealthy and married to a good looking guy, but the scarceness of it could relate to the fact that it doesn’t matter how successful she is, she won’t realize it without her true love.