There’s nothing about Wuthering Heights that hasn’t been said already. Except, you’re wrong. Attention all literature lovers and fellow Swifties. What I’m about to say may interest you. Even if you’re just a literature enthusiast or just a Taylor Swift fan, I think I can convince you to be the other. Okay, maybe, at least get you to read one classic or listen to one song by Swift.
Wuthering Heights has been intriguing and capturing readers for almost two centuries. On the other hand, Miss Swift released her album folklore smack dap in the middle of quarantine. Yet, her beautiful storytelling woven into this album has entranced listeners just as ardently through this past year. Taylor Swift explained her inspiration behind each song she found in, her self-quoted “folklorian woods.” Referring to track number five, called ‘my tears ricochet' Swift says it is about “an embittered tormentor showing up at the funeral of his fallen object of obsession.” Months later, on a quiet drive one night, I was playing the song in the car. In the cool night breeze was the first time, I properly listened to the song, and like a clichéd Eureka moment, I could somehow envision the entire story of Heathcliff and Cathy along the lyrics of the song. I’m putting in the link to the song here:
Although, I would recommend listening to it after reading the post, if you are a first-time listener.
It came to me so swiftly (please don’t cringe at the pun) and intensely, that I now feel the need to share it with all of you. So here are the lyric-by-lyric parallels I drew. Although Swift is known to use literature references in several of her songs, Wuthering Heights was not the inspiration behind this song. Everything I say, is completely my opinion, and not endorsed by Swift.
Background image source: ‘Yorkshire Moors At Night’ – A Judith Levin original oil sketch. Retrieved from pinterest.com
In my mind, this song would be Cathy expressing herself posthumously. The first line is directly referring to the time period immediately after Cathy’s death. Although Heathcliff never attends her actual funeral, he goes through his own process of grieving. Here, I’m thinking of the word ‘sunlit’ as used immanently opposite to the dark aesthetic of Wuthering Heights. Both the setting of the novel and the tone of the story are gloomy (murky moors and strained domestic relations), it still happens to be the place where Cathy and Heathcliff’s friendship blossoms into love. Which is why, something as obscure as grieving the death of the one you love would only take place in a mental, and literal room flooded with sunlight for Heathcliff. The lyric uses ‘we’ because Cathy is right there with Heathcliff.
As for the second lyric, it's almost self-explanatory for someone already familiar with Wuthering Heights. It isn’t a story about opposites attract, rather, it’s about two people who fall in love because of how much they identify with each other. They even acknowledge this in the book. Quote reference, Cathy says, “I am Heathcliff,” and “Whatever souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” So, if Cathy is on fire, naturally Heathcliff would be too.
Despite the deep, crippling hurt that Cathy caused Heathcliff, by marrying Edgar, there wasn’t ever a question in either of their hearts about her love for him. Cathy declares to Nelly before marrying Edgar that she always has and always will, only love Heathcliff, despite her desire to marry Edgar. For her, marriage does not necessarily mean that she is leaving Heathcliff behind. Yet, Heathcliff, pained and wanting revenge on the circumstances of his life, chooses to respond by marrying Edgar’s sister, torturing Cathy, himself and even Isabella and Edgar Linton.
Referring to the first lyric, Cathy doesn’t die gracefully like a ‘lady’ after she becomes unwell with the brain fever, steadily chipping away at her mind. Her death isn’t quick, smooth and painless, it torments her, as well as everyone around her. She died dreaming of home, longing to go back to the Heights, yearning for Heathcliff but also cursing him. She died in agony because she ‘didn’t have it in her.’ Heathcliff takes the blame for her death, although he only admits it to himself. Quote reference, “You say I killed you, haunt me then”. Years later, he’s the master at Wuthering Heights, he’s the one in power, and although he’s making everyone’s life a living hell, it still makes him a ‘hero flying around saving face’, 'Saving face', because he has self-admitted the guilt of killing Cathy.
As for the second lyric, despite her death, despite his hate, despite the pain they caused each other, Cathy is the only one Heathcliff ever wanted. He blames her as much as he blames himself for her death. He literally curses her; he’s enraged with her for dying on him. And now, the pain has bounded back to him, as his pain.
Here, stones connote two aspects. One, the metaphorical stones they catapulted at each other, by their life altering actions. Two, the stone, they could have chosen, the quintessential symbol of companionship (a diamond ring) to be with each other in life as they’d always been since childhood, rather than choosing separation.
Referring to the earlier quote mentioned by Heathcliff, he demands Cathy haunt him. Emily Brontë actually goes onto write their storyline such that Cathy’s ghost haunts Wuthering Heights, especially visiting her old room and tapping on the window asking Heathcliff, “Let me in! Let me in!” Whether you choose to believe that Cathy’s ghost actually does haunt the Heights, or that it is Heathcliff’s hallucination or even just used for symbolism, the first lyric goes perfectly with the situation in the book. She didn’t want to haunt him, one because she would have lived a full life had they not tormented each other so, and two, I believe the sole reason is Heathcliff wanting for her to haunt him. If not for these, Cathy could have died in 'peace'.
As for the second lyric, although Heathcliff never attends her funeral and never ‘buries her’, he is now the master at the Heights, which for me connotes the ‘jewels she gave him’ since her life essentially led to the circumstances that enabled him to own the estate, once her family home. He now runs the place she once called home, a home she desperately desired to return to but was powerless to do so. ‘As you bury me’ reminds me of the fact that he blamed and damned her for dying, while also torturing her own daughter for what her parents did.
The chorus comes in again with only a single lyric changed: “Cause when I’d fight you used to tell me I was brave.” This brings me back to earlier in their childhood when Heathcliff arrives, an uncivilized, unruly, and unkempt boy who forms a bond with the young Cathy. She soon takes up to dressing up and living like he does, which leads to their being monikered ‘savages.’ As their friendship takes root, they develop a deep loyalty for each other and Cathy, despite receiving several reprimands for roaming around with Heathcliff, remains unwavering in her friendship. She even stands her own when her elder brother, then master of the estate threatens her for 'fraternizing'. For this staunch attachment and fight, Heathcliff respects her and finds her brave.
After marrying Edgar Linton, Cathy moves to Thrushcross Grange and never returns. Close to her death, she desires to go back to her home, and hallucinates that she is at the Heights, but dies before her wishes come true. Even when she haunts Heathcliff, pleading to him to let her in, she is unable to enter, which is why she would come to sing the first lyric after death.
In reference to the second one, Heathcliff is infuriated with Cathy, but he confesses that he would forgive her for wounding him but not for hurting herself, as she is the one he loves above all else, even himself (“I forgive what you have done to me. I love my murderer — but yours! How can I?”). Everything he does after the marriage and even after her death, no matter how hatefully he may curse her, she knows as well as he, that he still misses her desperately ‘in his bones.’
This is the only time; I’ve changed my point of view of the person singing. Up until now, it was Cathy, However, here, for the first lyric it is Heathcliff, as he is seen in the novel rushing out onto the dark moors, calling out to Cathy after she dies, cursing and apologizing to her, conversing with her ghost or with his hallucination.
The second lyric goes back to Cathy, she blames him for her ill health near her death (she tells Heathcliff, “You and Edgar have broken my heart,”), haunts him as he desires. He cannot sleep (which is mentioned in the novel) because he is haunted by her dreams and her voice, here referring to the word, ‘lullabies’ which he ‘stole’ by killing her, as she claims. Lullabies carry folklore-like legacy in cultures, so won't a stolen lullaby restrain sleep rather than putting it on like a blanket?
She didn’t have it in herself to go with grace, and the ‘battleships’, here, Cathy and Heathcliff, have sunk, ‘beneath the waves.' Her death (literally her grave) has left her indisposed for them to inflict any more pain on each other. However, it also alludes to a phantom promise that she will return for Heathcliff, from beneath the grave.
Coming to the second lyric, Cathy declares early on, that Heathcliff and her are the same, and the claim that Heathcliff killed her. If we hold this to be true, then, if she is defeated and dies, doesn’t it kill Heathcliff just the same? His entire life revolved around the sole purpose of Cathy. Quote in reference from the book by Heathcliff, “I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!”
While cursing her for leaving him and then dying on him, wishing that somehow, she had stayed, and they hadn’t ruined themselves, he turns into his, ‘worst fears’ when he’s the master at Wuthering Heights; he turns into another Hindley Earnshaw. He treats Hindley’s son Hareton, just like Hindley once treated Heathcliff. He tortures and abuses both his wife, Isabella and his son Linton.
These lyrics clearly spell out Heathcliff’s later life. He lives by causing pain because he once suffered the same pain, solely blaming Hindley and his treatment for how he turned out. The pain he is drunk on, is that caused by Hindley, Cathy’s betrayal, and the hurt he brought upon both Cathy and himself. He blames both himself and Cathy for her death. He’s, ‘crossing out the good years’, which are only those years he spent with Cathy.
All of Cathy is all of Heathcliff. All her happiness, all her rage, all her agony and all her tears are his. So, she looks on, as all her tears turn into his tears.
Now every time I listen to the song, I'm transported back to the moors of Wuthering Heights. Where the moors end and the folklorian woods begin, I can never know.
Drop in the comments whether my pondered parallels painted Heathcliff and Cathy in your imagination. Did my analogies do justice to their story? Which other songs do you think bring out the story of Wuthering Heights? Are there any other songs that have strongly reminded you of the stories embedded in your mind? Comment below, and if you like these parallels drawn, share this post with literature lovers and fellow Swifties.
I’ll end with another Taylor Swift pun; Look What Literature Made Me Do.
(Context: Look What You Made Me Do is another song by the same singer songwriter; Taylor Swift)
Other sources:
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë originally published in December of 1847
Track number five: my tears ricochet from Taylor Swift’s eighth studio album, folklore, released on 24th July 2020.
YouTube video link from Taylor Swift for ‘my tears ricochet’ recorded during the filming of folklore: the long pond studio sessions released on Disney + Hostar on 25th November 2020
Haven't read the book, but after reading this blog surely going to read it❤️🔥