Heathcliff, it’s me Cathy

I have had the dubious pleasure of seeing and *shudder* hearing various horrific renditions of this lovely song by you people this week since Mr. Ng’s lecture.

Yelsh.

My poor husband who has been a Kate Bush fan since before you were all born would be most appalled. I shall spare his feelings by not telling him what you have done. The dear man was actually the one who showed me the song for the first time when I told him that I was going to start teaching Wuthering Heights, sat with me patiently while I searched for and found version after version of music videos, live versions, montages and covers by other artistes of the same song, and discussed with every ounce of his attention a critical dissection of the lyrics and the use of poetic devices as well as the degree of relevance as a representation of the key romantic relationship within the text.

I thought I’d put up the youtube videos here, so that you can more easily find and reference the following:

a) the version Mr. Ng shared with you,

You guys laughed at the dancing, but it was pretty avant gard for its time because it was when people started adapting and dancing out the meaning rather than adhering to classical dance forms.

Tell you what: since you laughed so much, why don’t you come up with a new version of the dance to symbolise the relationship between Cathy and Heathcliff, hmm? If you can do better and look ‘better’ in the process, then you can laugh.

b) the outdoor version of the video that was released in the US,

I wonder what it says that the version for release in the US had to be set so differently and projecting such a different image of Cathy. Red, of course, denotes passion, and Cathy as a character is quite passionate and temperamental. The idea of her (or her spirit, given the lyrics of the song) as a temptress is much stronger here than in the previous video because in the last one, the white dress gives her a demeanor of being forlorn and more innocent than she actually is. The Cathy depicted here is a much more ‘experienced’ or ‘knowing’ one, it looks like.

Think about this image also from the cultural perspective: is your generation familiar with the Chinese superstition that women who die (by suicide specifically) wearing red dresses become some kind of angry female spirits who aim to destroy men (or something like that; I can’t remember if the actual supernatural form is some kind of female vampire)?How does that perspective affect your perception of the figure dancing in this video?

c) Kate Bush performing this song LIVE,

I was wondering if I should add this and then I decided that it was worth the risk that you might all freak out (at least you’ll do it at home where I can’t see it happening).

Watch her expression as she is performing. It’s kind of hard to miss, really. What kind of a Cathy do you think she is trying to portray through this performance of the song? What kind of archetypes do you see playing out in her changes of expression?

Huh. If you guys can express yourselves as vividly and as well in the performance of this song without cracking up, it’d might be something really worth watching for Lit night next year. IF you really adhere to that as the standard — are you up for it?

and

d) the song put to a montage from the 1992 film starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche.

As with all film adaptations, the film can’t quite live up to the novel though it may have elements which hit the nail on the head or which offer useful symbolic or alternative perspectives. Mr. Ng plans to show the film later on, I believe. If you decide to seek film adaptations of the novel to watch, please do remember that film-watching is not a substitute for reading the text. There are inevitably nuances in the text which are not encompassed in any film version, no matter how true to the text. You will be examined on Emily Bronte’s writing style, and that you can only examine from her writing, not script-writers’ adaptations of her writing.

That being said, for those of you who have difficulties visualizing in your mind’s eye the landscape or the characters, the film might give your imagination a start, at least. I find that putting images to the words as I am reading helps make the novels I read much more exciting. Re-creating different mental versions also helped me get through reading texts more than once, especially when I had to prepare for exams, etc.

I’m including the lyrics to the song (ref. below), and I want you to take note of how Kate Bush actually uses imperfect rhyme to create a rather disquieting effect because, as you should know by now, even if Heathcliff does love Cathy, she’s actually calling him from beyond the grave which suggests that 1) her soul is not at rest, and 2) if he follows her, he might be walking into a kind of ‘trap’ of eternal damnation.

This actually makes for a rather interesting contrast because when there is use of perfect masculine end-rhyme couplets (night / right) which suggest some kind of harmonious end and completion, it’s actually the opposite because she’s wanting to ‘grab (his) soul away’, and so, rather than creating the impression that they’ll be ‘happily ever after’ when his soul joins hers, it creates the image of Cathy having turned into some kind of succubus who wants to drain away his male power.

Out on the wiley, windy moors
We’d roll and fall in green
You had a temper, like my jealousy
Too hot, too greedy
How could you leave me?
When I needed to possess you?
I hated you, I loved you too

Bad dreams in the night
They told me I was going to lose the fight
Leave behind my wuthering, wuthering
Wuthering Heights

(Chorus) Heathcliff, its me, Cathy come home
I’m so cold, let me in-a-your window

Oh it gets dark, it gets lonely
On the other side from you
I pine alot, I find the lot
Falls through without you
I’m coming back love, cruel Heathcliff
My one dream, my only master

Too long I roam in the night
I’m coming back to his side to put it right
I’m coming home to wuthering, wuthering,
Wuthering Heights

Oh let me have it, let me grab your soul away
Oh let me have it, let me grab your soul away
You know it’s me, Cathy

This last video I just found. It’s not really a video; it’s an audio track of a recently re-recorded (2008) version of the song by Kate Bush.

It is, as one of the viewers commented on the youtube page, “less screechy” than the original, even though she did not do an updated version of the music video. You can, of course, take the initiative to search other covers of the song. Some of the covers have even been sung by men, which is kind of strange, since the recipient of the song is supposed to be a man (Heathcliff).

Ah well, says who men can’t fall in love with male fictional characters and want to knock on their windows and ask to be let in because they’re feeling cold and lonely, hmm?

Here’s one of my other favourite versions, mainly cos it makes me laugh:

It’s The Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain. I love the way they chase this couple every which where. Especially for the last chorus repeat.

Boys, isn’t this a great idea if you guys really want to do an ‘SR Arts Adapts Wuthering Heights‘ live MTV for next year’s Lit Night?

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