This quote comes in Chapter Twenty Seven of this excellent
novel and is said by the younger Catherine to her uncle, Heathcliff, as he abducts her
and forces her to marry his son, Linton. Of course, Catherine is distraught because she
has left her father, who is dying, back in Thrushcross Grange and she is aware that he
could die any minute. Thus it is that she will do anything to get back to be by her
father's death bed. Her appeal to the human sympathies of her uncle, while misguided in
terms of getting what she wants, are actually completely correct in this
quote:
"Have
you never loved anybody in all your life, Uncle? Never? Ah! you must look once – I'm so
wretched – you can't help being sorry and pitying
me."
Of course, unknowingly,
she is talking about her mother, the first Catherine, who Heathcliff did desperately
love. However, Heathcliff is so fixated on causing suffering to her father and on
achieving his desire to see his son marry her so that he can inherit Thrushcross Grange,
that he is not moved at all by this appeal to his sentiments.
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