Saturday, June 27, 2009 Heathcliff Analyzed

Further to my attempt to understand Heathcliff, I have completed an in-depth study of this date's strip. The following observations were made:

1. The cat Heathcliff is standing in the old man's front yard. We are led to believe that it is night by the moon appearing between the houses, in front of a black cloud which has somehow taken a square chunk out of the moon. The cat has managed to obtained a small cat-sized tuba which he is playing, despite the late hour.

2. An old woman has apparently been roused from her sleep in the neighboring house. She is looking out of her window with fogged-up glasses towards the tuba-playing cat. Her visage indicates that she may be sleepwalking, or comatose, or both.

3. The old man (apparently Heathcliff's owner) is standing in his doorway. Despite the light spilling out into the yard, he casts no shadow, leading us to believe that he is a vampire. He is nonchalantly trying to explain Heathcliff's uncatlike behavior by stating that the tuba playing is his mating call. As the sound of a tuba would send normal cats running, we are left in the dark as to what Heathcliff wishes to mate with. We saw in my previous post that Heathcliff had attempted to mate with the old man's head; however, in this strip it appears that he wishes to mate with a sheep. This seems evident by the fact that he is blowing balls of wool from his tuba.

Unfortunately, after this analysis, I feel even further from understanding whatever humor may be lurking within this comic.