In Wuthering Heights, Bronte depicts the turbulence of the psyche through his characters. Heathcliff, Edgar, and Catherine are not depicted as three separate characters, but rather as three parts of a single psyche. Heathcliff, Edgar, and Catherine respectively represent what Freud later called the id, superego, and ego. Struggling against society, Heathcliff follows his own animalistic desires as his identity, refusing to succumb to cultural dictates. As a superego, Edgar articulates British societal precepts, repressing a person's natural instincts. Catherine, the ego, constantly struggles between her id and her superego, Heathcliff and Edgar, in search of balance. The interaction between these characters shapes the plot not only of the novel, but also of the mind. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essayHeathcliff embodies the dark side of the psyche. Upon his first introduction into society, he is described as being "as dark almost as if it came from the devil" (Bronte 26). Heathcliff's immediate association with the Devil establishes him, like Satan, as the antithesis of society, fighting against the dictates and morals imposed by the surrounding culture. With original sin, man is intrinsically evil, making his innate instincts, which make up the id, opposed to those taught by society. In "What's Wrong With Emily Jane?" » Thomas Moser states that more than a century ago, Emily Bront dramatized what Freud later called the id. She discovered and symbolized in Heathcliff "... that part of us that we know so little about... the child that hides in everyone..." The primary traits that Freud attributed to the id apply perfectly to Heathcliff : “the source of the psyche”. energy; the seat of instincts...the essence of dreams; the archaic foundation of personality: selfish, asocial, impulsive” (Stoneman 89). Heathcliff is considered a “moral poison” (Bront 84) by Edgar, the embodiment of society. Just as the id exists in the internal world, outside the external world of the superego, Heathcliff exists outside of society. Arriving at Thrushcross Grange after his prolonged absence, we see Heathcliff outside the gate with "his fingers on the latch as if he intended to open it for himself" (Bronte 68). Heathcliff's placement outside the gate is metaphorical of his exclusion from society; even when he tries to break in, he is excluded and prevented from entering the society contained within Thrushcross Grange. Upon his authorized entry, Nelly observes that Heathcliff is no longer rough or uncivilized, "his face... looked intelligent... and his manners were even dignified" (Bronte 70). Despite his apparent societal conformity, Heathcliff struggles within it, fighting "a bitter life since [he] last heard [Catherine's] voice... fighting only for [her]" (Bronte 71) because he is not part of society. No matter how “well trained” (Bronte 70) Heathcliff is for society, he still remains “an unrecovered, unrefined, uncultured creature” (Bronte 75), incapable of properly interacting with society, just as the id cannot connect with the superego. Edgar personifies cultural ideals like the superego. his emotions. Edgar distances himself from “his wife’s occupations” (Bronte 88), which constitute the most expressive part of his life. When Catherine locks herself in her room, Edgar does not appeal to her or beg her to come out, but on the contrary, he “is continually among her books, since he has no other society” (Bronte 89 ). Throughout thenovel, books are associated with morality; Edgar's immersion in his books represents his immersion in the principles of society, avoiding not only the passion of his wife's episode, but also more importantly the passion of life. Edgar himself emerges into society to "avoid...access to emotion" (Bronte 85) not only during the Catherine incident, but constantly throughout the novel, including after Catherine's death. Catherine when he takes “Cathy’s education entirely upon himself” (Bronte 139). As Cathy grows up, he “entrusts her to no one else” (Bronte 140), carefully educating her to make her a scholar in society. By not leaving Cathy “alone beyond the reach of the park” (Bronte 140), Edgar acts as a superego, imposing societal ideology while repressing her natural instincts to explore. Edgar tries to create a Cathy different from his mother, without passion or desire, a bit like the superego tries to distance the ego from the internal world of the id. Living in a repressive society, Catherine is constantly forced to choose between her heart and her mind, her identity and her superego, her inside and her outside. Catherine struggles to ease the conflict with reason, but cannot stop the clash between "'Here! and here!'... striking one hand on her forehead and the other on her chest. 'In any place where lives the soul’” ( Brontë 58). Catherine wonders about both worlds and neither as she crosses out and rewrites “Catherine Earnshaw; here and there varied to Catherine Heathcliff, then again to Catherine Linton” (Bront 13) on her windowsill. Likewise, his “pen and ink commentary.” ..[on] every piece of blank that the printer had left" (Bronte 14), suggests that she is not in the morality of her books nor outside the pages of society, but rather is hesitant between the two Like her reflections written in her books, Catherine lives on the margins of society, but has never been completely absent from it, trying “to break their hearts by breaking her own” (Bronte 86). ), she recognizes that when she fights between the two worlds of Heathcliff and Edgar, she is still linked to both, but at the same time, Catherine is aware that she does not belong to either world. to Nelly that she has "no more to marry Edgar than... to be in paradise", because as an ego, she still contains the primitive desires of the id which are incompatible with society, but "that would degrade [her] to marry Heathcliff” (Bronte 59) because she struggles to adapt to the ideals of the external world of the superego, which repress the id. To compensate for her displacement, Catherine seems to “allow herself such latitude” (Bronte 79). Anne Williams, in “The Child is the Mother of the Man,” asserts that “Bronte tells a different story. Culture, she says, tragically. not only separates a woman’s head from her heart…It also cuts her off from the energy and culture of active power attributed to man…” (Stoneman 91). In an attempt to balance herself, Catherine stretches between inside and outside, never able to find the middle plane. There is no clear line separating ego from id, nor is there a clear separation between Catherine and Heathcliff. Although they don't always admit that they are inseparable, Catherine recognizes that Heathcliff is "more [herself] than [she] is." Whatever [their] souls are made of, his and [his] are the same” (Bront 59), just as Heathcliff recognizes after Catherine’s death that he “cannot live without [her] life!” [He] cannot live without [his] soul” (Bront 124). As a child, Catherine initially tried to distance herself from Heathcliff, as she "refused to have him in bed...or even in [her] room" (Bront 27), but the two soul mates quickly became "very welded” ( Bront 27). As she reachesAt maturity, Catherine attempts to separate herself from the id to become part of the ego ideal in the outside world, thus initiating the regression of their relationship. When she returns to Wuthering Heights after spending five weeks at Linton's Thrushcross Grange, the heart of polite society, she asks for Heathcliff while she "takes off her gloves and shows her fingers". inside” (Bronte 38). Since the id is the source of all activity, her five weeks of "doing nothing" indicate that she has turned away from the dynamism and energy of Heathcliff, towards the simple life of the ego ideal. When Heathcliff appears, as they shake hands, Catherine looks “with concern at the dark fingers she held in his” (Bronte 39). The contrast between Catherine's "wonderfully whitened" hands and Heathcliff's "dark fingers" depicts the ego ideal. the gap widens between them in the outside world, but the union of their two hands illustrates the remaining internal bond. Despite her distance, Catherine fears that she has “obtained no embellishment from… contact with” (Bronte 39) Heathcliff, demonstrating to her. eternal link with Heathcliff. In his article “Infanticide and sadism in Wuthering Heights”, Wade Thompson states that: she always loved Heathcliff. After puberty, she never manages to transform her childhood passion for identity... into a passion for the union of opposites. Her marriage to Linton, a weak, respectable and undemanding person, is essentially an escape... For her, Heathcliff is and always will be her wild "childhood" lover; Linton is her respectable "adult" lover... she simply regards her "love" for [Heathcliff] as entirely different from her "love" for Linton... The "love" she can offer Heathcliff is... . expressed in pain (Stoneman 87). Catherine creates her own misery by detaching herself from Heathcliff in an attempt to survive in society. In her existence without Heathcliff, Catherine endures "very, very bitter misery...It was kindness to him that caused...the agony [she] frequently felt" (Bronte 73), but the choice was hers and the consequences from which she must suffer. To live with Edgar, Catherine must separate from Heathcliff. To appeal to Edgar's ideals, she is forced to "betray her own heart" (Bronte 119) by repressing her identity, "for Edgar's sake, to satisfy him" (Bronte 60). After her first stay in the good society of the Lintons, Catherine returns with “fingers wonderfully whitened” (Bronte 38). As white is the traditional color of purity, her newly acquired "whiteness" demonstrates the suppression of her intrinsically evil side, the id, making her acceptable in society. After the marriage, "Catherine Linton is now also different... from... Catherine Earnshaw" (Bronte 109). The more she immerses herself in society, the more she causes a brain shift, further separating herself from her identity, Heathcliff. Catherine fatally separates from Heathcliff to become part of an accepted society. She represses her natural desires, ultimately leading to her death. After Heathcliff left his deathbed, she “recognized no one” (Bronte 123). Heathcliff's departure represented the complete departure of his identity; this separation proved fatal. In “The Child is the Mother of the Man,” Williams explains that: What Freud called “castration” is therefore not female submission to her “natural” defect. Rather, it is the culture's demand that she separate herself from her own "masculine" principle, in order to marry and have access to the rewards that culture bestows on the "real" woman... Showing that Cathy dies from this separation, it being cut off from her. soul partly masculine, Bront undermines, 1998.