Inadvertently, “Wuthering Heights” is an Asian style story among books labeled as English literature. And “The Sorrows of Young Werther” is another Asian style story, but that doesn’t really belong to English literature.
The reason I am thinking about this book is that an Asian American girl’s email reminds me of a conversation we had long time ago. She talked about her love for “Jane Ayre” and her dislike (or indifference really) for “Wuthering Heights.” I wanted to say, “but Wuthering Heights is an Asian story.” However I didn’t say it. Saying it seems to imply that since she has Asian blood in her vein, she should like Wuthering Heights, which is an absurd implication or presumption.
I know that she was born and raised in here, being so Americanized that she is unable to understand my Asian sentiment in finding beauty from a bleak and wind-swept moor, and admiring a story which sublimes death and doom. Well, probably she understands such sentiment, but doesn’t feel it entertaining or worth indulging herself in.
Anyway, reflecting on Wuthering Heights, I have to say even if I like the story very much, I don’t think some of the characters are treated fairly by the author.
For example, Edgar Linton has androgynous traits and is portrayed as a weak minded, effeminate, pale person who doesn’t deserve Katherine’s love. This is a very biased opinion and it is a derogatory description. I mean women like androgynous male figures and enjoy their company, but many books deliberately depict them to be unworthy characters.
Remember in Pride & Prejudice, George Wickham is an androgynous male figure who is very handsome, very popular with girls, very communicative in conversations. However he is also described as a scheming villain who wants to elope with ladies one after another, who likes to gamble and borrow money, who spreads rumors about the Dacy family which has been so nice to him. This is such an unfair bias against androgynous male who can be just as courageous, honest, caring, responsible as other men. There are many fan fictions for P&P which try to make mends to Mary and Mr. Collins, who are portrayed as pedantic and ridiculous in the original book. However I think the biggest unfairness is leveled on George Wickham.
Now come back to my story of “Wuthering Alternatives”, which will be portraying Edgar as a handsome androgynous neighbor who is liked by all the ladies, especially Katherine. And Katherine also loves Heathcliff and doesn’t know which one to choose as her husband. So she tries to maintain a good relationship with both. Fights break out between Edgar Linton and and Heathcliff. The two young men dislike each other due to their personality differences, but they respect each other’s skills and characters.
Edgar’s sister Isabella tricks Heathcliff into marrying her. He tries to beat her up, but she is stronger than he thinks. It ends up that she manipulates him. He doesn’t like the manipulation and runs away to London, but he can’t handle the big city and has to come back to beg Isabella for forgiveness. Isabella forgives him, but not for long. During Heathcliff’s absence, she has forged a good relationship with a farmer who really likes her. So Isabella separate from Heathcliff and marries the farmer.
Katherine is already married to Edgar now. Heathcliff goes to her for comfort after losing Isabella. Katherine and Heathcliff have an affair. They don’t want Edgar to know, but he eventually understands what is going on. He is devastated, but still Katherine doesn’t know which one to choose since she loves both.
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Haoyan Do 