Wuthering Heights, Part One

I remember being rather frustrated with Wuthering Heights when I read it in high school.  I think I just got all of the different names and who was related to who mixed up.  This second time reading it though, it makes a lot more sense.  I do remember that when I read it the first time, I had the same feeling toward the Heathcliff and Hindley relationship as I did this time.  I remember whenever I had friends over to my house to hang out, my parents always treated them a little bit better than they treated me, just because they were guests.  Something like my dad offering my friend Josh a drink when he was up and neglecting to offer me one kind of got under my skin because I didn't understand the concept.  Because of that experience and others like it, I can certainly relate to how Hindley felt when his parents brought home the orphan Heathcliff.  All of the sudden, the favorite and oldest child becomes "second fiddle".

Another thing that stood out to me was Catherine's great desire to keep social order intact.  She said that even though she loved Heathcliff more than anything in the world, she had to marry Edgar because Hindley had demeaned Heathcliff so much that he kind of became a lower class.  It has always driven me crazy in stories like this and Romeo and Juliet that people were so concerned that everything they did had the potential to damage their public perception.  They had an attitude of "This is just the way things are and there is no changing it".