Question

Which of the following is the best description of Catherine and Heathcliff’s love in Wuthering Heights?

Answer 1

Answer:

They are passionate, but their love transgresses social boundaries.

Explanation:

This question is incomplete, so here is the full question:

"Which of the following is the best description of Catherine and Heathcliff’s love in Wuthering Heights?.

1. Heathcliff loves Catherine all his life, though his love is unrequited.
2. They are passionate, but their love transgresses social boundaries.
3. Catherine is merely infatuated with Heathcliff, and her passion dies out soon.
4. Heathcliff’s love for Catherine is outshone by Edgar Linton's."

The answer is 2. They are passionate, but their love transgresses social boundaries.

The reason for this is that Catherine and Heathcliff are described as coming from a very different background. Heathcliff is an orphan and quite possibly a member of the Roma people (considering the way his looks and speech are described), which in the England of that time meant he was of the lower class. He is poor, living in the Earnshaw household at the mercy of Catherin's father, with no status in the society.

Earnshaws weren't part of the elite class, but they owned the estate and had their own employees workers on it, meaning they were not working class. Therefore, Catherine's position in society is much better than Healthcliffs. Catherine did not want to marry Heathcliff and chose to marry Linton to enter the higher class.

The ideas of classes in the society of the time are the social boundaries that prevented Healtcliff's and Catherine's passionate love.