Heights when he fell sick. When Lockwood refused to let Catherine into the house, she said to him that she had been wandering the moors for twenty years. If this was not a ghost, and in fact only another dream, it was another prediction by Lockwood. At the time this dream occurred he had no way of knowing how long ago Catherine had died. One of Freud's most famous theories was that of the defense mechanisms. He believed that there was a constant battle going on in the mind between the id, the ego, and the superego. The id is the rational part of the brain that is very conservative and wants to do what is right, ignoring all instinctual desires and urges. The superego is the part of the brain that wants to follow all instincts and has no concern for doing what's right. It wants only to be pleased, like a child. The ego is the part of the brain that balances out the id and the superego ("Defense Mechanisms"). In an attempt to repress the superego's urges, the brain will many times use one of Freud's defense mechanisms ("Division of Mind").The characters in Wuthering Heights use defense mechanisms to repress their savage or unacceptable desires, and also to protect themselves from pain. For example, Heathcliff uses the displacement mechanism. This means that while he was upset at Catherine for marrying someone else and Edgar for taking his love, he took his anger out on Isabella who did not deserve his anger. He was so upset with the marriage of Catherine and Edgar that he could not control his anger and took it out on the person who was easiest for him to hurt. Freud believed that the internal struggle among the id, ego, and superego caused unhappiness ("Division of Mind"). This could be an explanation for Heathcliff's outrageous and cruel behavior. Because he was so savage and close to nature, his id had a very strong influence over his mind and behaviors. It is also obvious from this interpretation that Heathcliff possessed a very st...
