10 lovely quotes from Wuthering Heights
“I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!”
Wuthering Heights is a tragic romance written by Emily Brontë. It was considered extremely controversial when it was first published in 1847 due to its gothic and unconventional themes.
With themes of romance, mental and physical cruelty, revenge, love and hatred, Wuthering Heights, the only novel written by Emily Brontë has acquired a cult following in our modern times and is considered one of the greatest novels written in English.
Here are 10 of my favourite quotes from Wuthering Heights-
1. “I "never told my love" vocally; still, if looks have language, the merest idiot might have guessed I was over head and ears."
Our expressions can convey our feelings better than any words can.
But…
Should we display our emotions in an uncommunicative way and leave it to another person to interpret? That doesn’t seem like a good strategy.
Nonetheless, I love this quote because I imagine this being said by a teenager who’s too shy to ever confess his feelings to the girl he adores but everyone around him is aware of his love.
2. “I love the ground under his feet, and the air over his head, and everything he touches, and every word he says. I love all his looks, and all his actions, and him entirely and altogether."
Haven’t we all felt a love with such a deep admiration that everything our beloved person does, we love it?
But this often leads to tragedy because we fail to see that person’s fault and become blinded in love.
3. "I love him; and that, not because he’s handsome, Nelly, but because he’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same."
Arguably the most popular quote from Wuthering Heights. Her love for this man isn’t because of superficial things like handsomeness but because of the deep connection between them. Which makes her believe that they are soulmates as they are so alike and understand each other so well.
4. “I cannot express it; but surely you and everybody have a notion that there is or should be an existence of yours beyond you. What were the use of my creation, if I were entirely contained here?"
The idea of us beyond us is something many of us have wanted, and can be achieved by different people by different things. Some feel this idea is fulfilled when they have a loving partner, some by having kids, and some by creating something meaningful.
5. My great thought in living is himself. If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the Universe would turn to a mighty stranger.”
The only thing that makes her feel familiar with this world is her lover and if he’s dead, she’d feel alienated with the whole world around her.
6. "He’s always, always in my mind– not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being."
This again points to the fact that the woman who’s speaking, thinks that she and her lover are the same being.
7. “If he loved with all the powers of his puny being, he couldn’t love as much in eighty years as I could in a day."
This quote suggests that the speaker is so confident of his deep love that he knows no one else can match it.
8. “I gave him my heart, and he took it and pinched it to death, and flung it back to me. People feel with their hearts, Ellen, and since he has destroyed mine, I have not power to feel for him."
Giving someone the most vulnerable and cherished thing of yours, only to see them hurt it, of course, makes people cynical.
9. “He was attached by ties stronger than reason could break– chains forged by habit, which it would be cruel to attempt to loosen."
Sometimes even if we’re irrationally attached to someone letting them go and breaking that bond can create immense pain.
10. “For what is not connected with her to me? and what does not recall her? I cannot look down on this floor, but her features are shaped on the flags! In every cloud, in every tree– filling the air at night, and caught by glimpses in every object, by day I’m surrounded with her image! The most ordinary faces of men, and women– my own features mock me with a resemblance. The entire world is a dreadful collection of memoranda that she did exist and I have lost her!”
Just like in Quote 6, in which a woman said her lover never leaves her mind, in a similar fashion in this quote a man says his dead or unavailable lover is always on his mind and everything on earth reminds him of her and torments him.
I hope these quotes convince you to read this classic. These quotes are just the surface, Wuthering Heights is much more deep and leaves a long-lasting impact on the reader’s mind. Happy reading!!
