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I've been reading Terry Eagleton's Marxist critique of the bronte's and Eagleton writes that Catherine "reifies Heathcliff to a Hegelian essence, sublimely untainted by empirical fact".

I can't seem to find any simplified explanations of the concept of "Hegelian essence", so any help with understanding this concept would be appreciated.

Cart0grapher
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  • See [this post](https://philosophy.stackexchange.com/questions/2403/is-there-a-parallel-between-hegelian-essence-and-kantian-concept) for details about Hegel's notion of *essence*. – Mauro ALLEGRANZA Jan 13 '20 at 12:05
  • In the context of Bronte's novel, it means noting. The "pseudo-marxian" jargon: "reifies Heathcliff to a Hegelian essence", can mean that Catherine sees [Heathcliff](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heathcliff_(Wuthering_Heights)) as a sort of mytical character, half hero-half demon. – Mauro ALLEGRANZA Jan 13 '20 at 12:11
  • Thanks Mauro Allegranza, the above post was very useful. Your interpretation that Catherine views Heathcliff as a mythical character makes sense to me, as Heathcliff's 'essence' seems to be the idea of Heathcliff rather than his physical manifestation, many thanks :) – Cart0grapher Jan 13 '20 at 12:23
  • See some [lines above](https://books.google.it/books?id=PraDDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA102) : "the timeless metaphysical idea Heathcliff embodies." And after: "he would rather enact his essence..." Thus IMO, as per post linked, it is only "essence"; the Hegelian concept has no specific differences with the traditional (Aristotelian) notion that can be relevant for this context. – Mauro ALLEGRANZA Jan 13 '20 at 12:29

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