While reading Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë, all I could think about was Mozart's famous Der Spiegel (The Mirror), or as it is more commonly known as - The Tabletop Duet. The reason it is called such is because the two violinists place the music in between them so that Violin 1 plays it facing upright while Violin 2 plays it upside down. This creates a very neat mirror effect that isn't quite the same the second time, though it does sound extremely similar. It is just like Wuthering Heights. The infamous romantic triangle between Heathcliff, Catherine, and Edgar is mirrored by their children: Cathy, Linton, and Hareton. However, just like Mozart's Duet, the mirror distorts the image so that the second round isn't quite the same as the original.
In the original triangle, Catherine and Heathcliff grew up together. On day, they were getting into trouble when they landed themselves at Thrushcross Grange. Catherine had injured her ankle causing the both of them to spend an impromptu five weeks there. It is at this point Catherine meets Edgar Linton. Edgar falls in love with Catherine, but Heathcliff was also in love with her. Due to social reasons, Catherine accepts Edgar's marriage proposal despite her love for Heathcliff. Heathcliff runs off and leaves Catherine and Edgar for five years. When he comes back, events escalate to the point where Edgar forces Catherine to choose between himself and Heathcliff. Catherine picks Edgar, but the depression caused from her separation from Heathcliff causes her to spiral to her deathbed. She gives birth to Cathy and dies shortly afterward. Cathy grows up at Thrushcross Grange without knowledge of Heathcliff or his son Linton, nor of Hareton (Catherine's nephew who is forced to work as a servant when Wuthering Heights should have gone to him as the head of the Earnshaw family). Much like the original image, Cathy gets into trouble and winds up at Wuthering Heights where she meets Hareton. Instantly they become friends, just as Catherine and Heathcliff did - the Lady and the servant. Nelly finds her and brings her back in an attempt to keep Cathy from Hareton as Edgar wouldn't be happy. Edgar then brings Linton to the Grange where Cathy meets him for the first time. Heathcliff demands his son back and that is the last Cathy sees of both Linton and Hareton for 3 years. While bird-hunting, Cathy runs into Heathcliff and Hareton again where she doesn't quite recognize Hareton. She ends up going back to Thrushcross grange to meet Linton again, though she also doesn't recognize him. Cathy mocks Linton with Hareton but writes letters in secret to him. Cathy is slowly falling into the same hole as her mother. She is caught in a love triangle but this time, the points aren't quite the same. The Mirror Duet showcases this nicely as the second half sounds much like the first half, but it isn't the same. The second half of Wuthering Heights sounds much like the first half, but it isn't the same.
1 Comment
Noah Poirier
11/12/2014 11:43:42 am
I consider myself a music enthusiast, although I know absolutely nothing about the science of music; all I know is that I love t. My heart is just as passionate for music as it is for visual art, although my brain is far more ignorant to its structure. Nonetheless, art is art, and I very much appreciate your insight into the similarities of the structure of this novel to that of this famous musical composition. You've bridged together two separate entities (writing and music) successfully which I hope to replicate in my own blog by focusing on the similarities that link writing and visual art. Leave a Reply. |