Heathcliff: the biggest douchebag in English Literature

Mar 17, 2011 17:09

Prompted by this post on Pajiba (you can read it here) and subsequent discussion, I had to go and watch the recent Masterpiece Theater production of Wuthering Heights. Gotta say, Tom Hardy is IMO the douchiest Heathcliff of them all, and that's really saying something, considering that Heathcliff is perhaps the douchiest character in all of English ( Read more... )

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notmarcie March 17 2011, 23:02:22 UTC
I thought it was Liverpool, not London. Theory I studied is that he is mixed race, product of a relationship between Mr Earnshaw and a freed/escaped slave (Liverpool being a huge port city with slave trade being crucial to its development)

I read WH at school and then at University. I got a lot more out of it the second time, mainly because I could see how actually Heathcliffe was a horrible abusive twatbag, rather than OH HE SO IN LOVE HE CANNOT CONTROL HIMSELF. Although I didn't find him sexy, maybe we read it a bit young, I think my class was 13/14 maybe?

I was quite glad when Cathy died. And Edgar.

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wasabi_poptart March 17 2011, 23:08:54 UTC
Was it Liverpool? Jeeze. it's been way too long since I read it last, and have no intention of going back to read it again!

Also, you bring up a really interesting point about bloodlines. If Mr.Earnshaw was Heathcliff's dad, then he and Cathy were half-brother and -sister (gosh, wonder where VC Andrews got her ideas from?) and then l'il Cathy goes and hooks up with both her cousins (Hareton after Linton dies). Not that hooking up with your cousin was any big deal then, but it's still pretty sketchy.

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notmarcie March 17 2011, 23:22:53 UTC
In Jane Eyre, Jane nearly marries St John who is a cousin. Of course she ends up marrying a man who locks his first wife in an attic.

Cousin marriage is still legal in the UK! Has been since the 16th century. Increasingly seen as a bit icky, but still pretty common in Muslim arranged marriages.

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wasabi_poptart March 17 2011, 23:30:58 UTC
Edward Rochester is next on my list of literary douchebags. This is definitely going to be a series :-)

BTW, I thought cousin marriage was outlawed in the US, but APPARENTLY NOT!

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h_loves_c March 18 2011, 00:05:03 UTC
In Texas you can't marry your first cousin, but your second cousins are fair game.

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notmarcie March 18 2011, 00:15:54 UTC
You can also marry adoptive brothers and sisters in the UK.

After Rochester can we have Darcy please?

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wasabi_poptart March 18 2011, 00:25:05 UTC
oh yeah. Darcy's high on my list. ;-)

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murgen March 18 2011, 14:22:21 UTC
I can't remember what the book is that Darcy is in (Pride & Prejudice?) but once I encountered Darcy and the husband of the obviously very bored wife (with the several lovely and still single daughters) in the first few pages, I just quit reading. I had enough of pompous douchebags when I was married to my last husband - don't need to read about them for entertainment.

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h_loves_c March 18 2011, 02:22:25 UTC
Ha - I acutally went and checked the consanguinity section of our Family Code, and you can NOT marry adoptive family members. I thought that you could, but not so much. I am pleasantly surprised, because there's not much I put past Texas when it comes to allowing creepy things to happen.

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wasabi_poptart March 18 2011, 02:23:48 UTC
I wish there was a "like" button for this!

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notmarcie March 18 2011, 15:05:39 UTC
What about marring your great-grandmother/father? England doesn't have a specific law against it, but Scotland does.

You can't marry former step parents though. Or adopted/step children. So Woody Allen would be in trouble.

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h_loves_c March 18 2011, 19:34:24 UTC
You know what I love/shudder to think about the great-grandparent prohibition? They need that for a REASON. Was there a rash of folks wanting to marry their grandpa's mom at some point in Scotland's history? Is that STILL a threat?

So many questions.

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