Wuthering Heights

I have traditionally been dubious about frame novels, and "Wuthering Heights", while initially promising, has, in the end, reinforced my distaste for them. I feel that the ending of the novel is severely minimized by the inclusion of Lockwood. Overall, since the beginning, Lockwood's inclusion had been limited, and there was very little mention of him to interrupt the flow of the primary narrative, but from about page 256, when we are informed about Lockwood's intention to depart from Thrushcross Grange, the story pays him undue attention. It seems to me as though the wrapping up of the main story, including Heathcliff's death and the imminent marriage of the scions of the two houses, young Catherine and Hareton, is told much more in the context of Lockwood's listening.

We are interrupted in our contemplation of Catherine and Hareton by Lockwood's increasing voice, as on page 264 he himself contemplates Catherine's face , "...and I bit my lip, in spite, at having thrown away the chance I might have had, of doing something  besides staring at its smiting beauty." As a reader, I found this in particular to derail my attention towards the focus of the romance and instead begin to consider what Lockwood might have changed about the story by being more of an active participant. Part of the power the novel had held for me to this point was the isolation of its characters, in the fact that its events plowed forward, unceasing, with no one else being able to interfere with what took place. This comment, delivered as somewhat of a cast off phrase, reminded me that, despite Heathcliff's seemingly omnipotent role as the manipulator of events, he might not hold so firm a control over things. It forced me to remember that at almost any point, the intervention of another party could have drastically changed the way the plot unfolded. I feel that here, Lockwood robs the story of an essential quality of predestination, a sense that things were uncontrollable, and the perception of Heathcliff as a grand force of nature.

Lockwood is even given the important task of ending the novel, in his contemplation of the three graves, two conjoined. His final comment, somewhat derisive, is here: "I lingered round them, under that benign sky; watched the moths fluttering among the heath, and hare-bells; listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass, and wondered how anyone could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleeprs in that quiet earth." To this point, part of the romance of the relationship between the first Catherine and Heathcliff had been the clues given from every side, including Lockwood, that something so simple as death could not separate the lovers. Lockwood's nightmare at the beginning, and Heathcliff's subsequent reaction to it, might in fact be the strongest evidence to support that. While Lockwood does mention the rumors of the mysterious couple wandering the moors together, presumably Catherine and Heatcliff, I feel that his commentary towards the end, though understandable as an outsider to the events, prevents me as a reader from fully investing in these beliefs, and in the end, provides a weak start to a novel with a strong beginning.