Transcript Symbols of Light and Dark in Wuthering Heights Beware of Binary opposites!

Symbols of Light and Dark in
Wuthering Heights
Beware of Binary opposites!
The forces and figures of darkness are
affiliated with + the value of energy and –
the threat of chaos
HEATHCLIFF
The forces and figures of light are affiliated
with + the value of order and – the threat
of sterility
EDGAR LINTON
• Pure darkness makes for destruction and
anarchy
• Pure light makes for sterility and stasis
• Heathcliff, dark in nature and cut off from
the light, becomes pure destructive energy
• Linton Heathcliff, light in nature and cut off
from the energy of darkness, becomes
frozen in sterile impotence
Nietzsche
Nietzsche called the light and dark the
Apollonian and Dionysian impulses in life.
Psychic integration depends on the human
capacity to blend the Apollonian and
Dionysian into a life of ordered energy