There are many examples of thematic quotes in Emily
Brontë's Wuthering
Heights.
Passion and
Love: in Chapter Nine, Catherine is speaking to Nellie of her feelings
for Heathcliff, and why she cannot marry him. She also speaks to her
lack of love for Edgar Linton.
'I've no more business to marry Edgar Linton
than I have to be in heaven; and if the wicked man in there [Hindley] had not brought
Heathcliff so low, I shouldn't have thought of it. It would degrade me to marry
Heathcliff now; so he shall never know I love him: and that, not because he's handsome,
Nelly, but he's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are
the same; and Linton's is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from
fire.'
Cruelty
(also in Chapter Nine):
[Hindley] entered, vociferating oaths dreadful
to hear; and caught me in the act of stowing his son away in the kitchen cupboard...and
the poor thing remained perfectly quiet wherever I chose to put
him.
'There I'e found it out at last!' cried Hindley,
pulling me back by the skin of my neck, like a dog. 'By heaven and hell, you've sworn
between you to murder that child!...But with the help of Satan, I shall make you swallow
the carving-knife...I want to kill some of you: I shall have no rest until I
do!...
'...I see that hideous little villain is not
Hareton: I beg your pardon, Nell. If it be, he deserves flaying alive for not running to
welcome me, for screaming as if I were a goblin...Kiss me, Hareton! Damn thee, kiss me!
By God, as if I would rear such a monster! As sure as I'm living, I'll break the brat's
neck.'
Poor Hareton was squalling and kicking his father's
arms with all his might, and redoubled his yells when he carried him up-stairs and
lifted him over the
bannister...
Hindley actually
drops the child inadvertently, but Heathcliff, providentially, just happens into the
spot below—unaware of the difficulty—until a child falls into his
arms.
Class
Conflict:
In Chapter Three, after Mr.
Earnshaw has died, Hindley has become the "lord" of the manner, returning with his wife.
He is cruel to both his sister Catherine, and his "foster brother"
Heathcliff.
'Poor Heathcliff! Hindley calls him a vagabond,
and won't let him sit with us, nor eat with us any more; and, he says, he and I must not
play together, and threatens to turn him out of the house if we break his orders. He has
been blaming our father (how dare he?) For treating H. too liberally; and swears he will
reduce him to his right
place—'
Supernatural:
in Chapter Thirty-Four, reports of seeing Heathcliff's ghost, and "a woman," abound in
the area where he lived and died.
But the country folk, if you ask them, would
swear on the Bible that he walks: there are those who speak to having met him near the
church, and on the moor, and even within this house...that old man by the kitchen fire
affirms he has seen two on 'em looking out of his chamber window on every rainy night
since his death...
...I encountered a little boy with sheep
and two lambs before him; he was crying terribly; ...'What's the matter, my little man?'
I asked.
'There's Heathcliff and a woman yonder, under t'
nab,' he blubbered, 'un' I darnut pass 'em.'
I saw
nothing...
The quotations
provided are what actually represent the themes you have identified: passion and love,
cruelty, class conflict and the supernatural. There are, of course others—such as
"revenge" and "nature," but these provide a well-rounded glimpse of the story's
plot.
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