Is “Wuthering Heights” the Original Situationship?

Isabella De La Cruz
2 days ago
4 min read

Value: the regard that something is held to deserve; the importance, worth or usefulness of something

By: Isabella De La Cruz

Value is rarely inherent; it is assigned.

Gold is just a mineral, and a diamond is just a rock.

Yet both are deemed precious because we said so.

Maybe that’s why “Wuthering Heights” feels like the original situationship.

It understands the thrill of being chosen by someone who doesn’t know what they want.

Maybe, somehow, they’ll decide they want you. At the end of the day, that is what makes toxic love so seductive: sometimes we are not chasing the person nearly as much as we are chasing the possibility of being chosen.

Isn’t that what everyone wants at the end of the day: to feel valuable?

To believe that all the miscommunication, all the inflated egos, were worth it.

But let’s cut the bullsh*t — it’s never worth it.

All you get in return is the privilege of wondering “what if” for the rest of your short, mundane life. Just ask Catherine.

Now, if “Wuthering Heights” is the original situationship, what does that say about the rest of us who have been in one? Catherine and Heathcliff confuse love with power, just in different forms. Neither of them can be vulnerable without first inflicting a painful sting on the other, just enough to remind the other of the power they still hold while keeping their twisted egos intact. They never admit what they want.

Instead, they hide behind standoffish subtext, bruised pride, and jealousy so constant it becomes its own kind of love language. In their world, the one who feels most betrayed somehow loves harder, as if emotional damage were proof of devotion.

Heathcliff wants Catherine, her obsession, her flaws, all of it — but more than anything, he wants to be her choice and the validation that comes with it. Catherine, meanwhile, wants Heathcliff’s devotion and the undying passion of what they share, yet she cannot let go of the status and security attached to the life she chose instead.

Her tragedy is that she does not just betray Heathcliff: she betrays her own chance at happiness when she admits that marrying him would “degrade” her. In one word, Brontë exposes the rot at the center of their relationship: Catherine would rather protect her status than choose the love she cannot live without.

“I have not broken your heart — you have broken it; and in breaking it, you have broken mine.” — Heathcliff

By weaponizing her choice, he makes sure she goes down with him in their shared pain of regret, infidelity and loss. His power lies in making sure she feels the pain of choosing wealth over the true happiness they believed they were destined for. Once people become more committed to wounding each other, communication stops being honest and becomes strategic instead.

And that’s exactly where a lack of communication begins rotting everything from the inside out.

No one likes being vulnerable. The entirety of human existence is built on self-preservation; it is in our DNA, that survival of the fittest mindset. Or, in this case, survival of the situationship.

I’m sure we have all been there, not wanting to tell that one person how we really feel, because the second we do, it feels like we’re handing over the power.

When they know you look forward to their good morning text or your evening rendezvous, it starts to feel like surrendering in the metaphorical battle. But isn’t the real power having the courage to be honest about your feelings?

Our generation thinks “talking” is the norm: emotional intimacy is expected, but commitment is somehow optional, and dates are reserved only for serious commitments. We expect everything to fall into line, meanwhile inflicting pain over and over again because the one person you’re committed to isn’t anything serious.

Cue the forehead kiss of doom at night.

But remember, you’re just “keeping it casual.”

“The one who’s in love always wins, even if their heart is broken, because loving makes you truly alive.” — Ethan Hawke

Even if their heart is broken, loving means they were at least brave enough to feel something real. Isn’t that the real pain, and the real power? Having the power to be proud of your feelings? Since when did caring and wanting something real and authentic become a sign of weakness or losing?

Some of my best friends have fallen victim to the eight-month situationship, and it often happens because one or both parties are too scared to admit how they feel. We could avoid months of secret glances, fake attempts to make each other jealous and 2 a.m. yearning if someone had the courage to just say the truth out loud.

That is what makes “Wuthering Heights” so painfully modern and timeless.

Heathcliff and Catherine never say what they actually mean or want. They rely on emotional warfare, strategy and silence in an attempt to get what they want, how they want it. Silence becomes its own form of cruelty and, let’s be honest, the most common one in a situationship. They test, provoke and punish — and they even admit to it.

“Let us call a truce now, for this silence will kill us both.” — Heathcliff

Wouldn’t it be a shame to lose your person simply because you didn’t speak up, or just as bad, stay in a limbo of “what are we” that does not properly appreciate, identify or respect what a real relationship should be?

That’s the real warning of the original situationship in “Wuthering Heights”: confusion is not enough, jealousy is not devotion, silence is not depth and emotional instability is just self-disrespect. When love becomes a game of pride, silence and control, everyone loses.

Their relationship falls apart because neither of them knows how to love without turning it into a struggle for power, destroying everyone and everything around them. Treating their world like a chessboard and the people in it like pawns until checkmate is called and the queen goes down (in this case quite literally).

In the end, the real tragedy is not loving, but being too prideful to be honest with yourself and everyone around you before it's too late.

Isabella De La Cruz is a third-year Business Administration major specializing in Mass Communication. When she’s not being a corporate siren, you can find her adding “Maneater” to her resume. IG: isabella_de_la_cruz__