Hate, love and revenge take place within the Earnshaws’ and Lintons’ story through a dynamic almost solely based on the fundamental importance of class in late 1700’s Yorkshire. Wuthering Heights is Emily Bronte’s story of these families’ struggles with status which were relevant and normal for that time period. The idea of the importance and the struggle of class can be seen throughout the novel. It is brought forth primarily through Heathcliff and others treatment of him. First, through Nelly’s insistence on Heathcliff imagining a better past for himself, Hindley’s treatment of Heathcliff and the effect this has on Catherine’s feeling, Catherine’s and Isabella’s marriages to Edgar and Heathcliff respectively, and Cathy’s marriage to Hareton.
Heathcliff is received with hatred by his new siblings, Hindley and Catherine. The treatment given to him by the Earnshaw children is caused by his adoptive status and his past as a beggar in Liverpool. His past puts him in a class that is beneath Wuthering Heights and the Earnshaws’. Nelly, the housekeeper, gives Heathcliff advice in regards to his class; "Were I in your place, I would frame high notions of my birth; and the thoughts of what I was should give me courage and dignity to support the oppressions of a little farmer!" (Bronte, 82). If Heathcliff were to imagine a better past where he was in a higher class than that of what he is – a lonely beggar who has found a place to stay through Mr. Earnshaw- it would improve his self-esteem and he would be able to act as through he was of a higher status. His class status is thus of the utmost importance in that it decides the way he will be treated in his new home.
As time passes, Catherine begins to warm up to Heathcliff; she...
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... is an allusion to something elemental beyond class. Through Heathcliff and his many experiences it can be seen that nothing can trump the importance of class – not childhood, love, hate, or money. Class has an unconditional importance within the novel and cannot be outshined by any other struggle. All though, there is also Bronte’s use of a relationship of souls, an element of self that goes beyond social class. This element is seen through Catherine and Heathcliff, however, it is trumped and ruined by class. It is also seen through Cathy and Hareton, whom are not ruined by class in the end, but attempt to find a way to fix their classes in order to be happy. Thus, social class is of great importance, but, Emily Bronte suggests that it is not the only thing that is important.
Works Cited
Bronte, Emily, Wuthering Heights. Ed. Beth Newman. Broadview, 2007
Throughout Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë presents and develops several pairs of characters, ideas, and locations that work both together and in contrast to each other, such as the temporal, and perhaps most obvious, juxtaposition of the two properties Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. Within these locations emerge three distinct character pairs, tied together by the similar type of relationship upon which each is based: a brother and sister connection, although not necessarily one defined by genetics. These three pairings include narrator Nelly Dean and Hindley Earnshaw, Cathy Earnshaw and Heathcliff, and Isabella and Edgar Linton. Each relationship is unique: Nelly and Hindley are both nursed by Nelly’s mother and are raised alongside one another, but Nelly is a servant to the Earnshaw family; Cathy and Heathcliff are raised together after Cathy’s father brings the supposed orphan Heathcliff home from Liverpool; and Isabella and Edgar are biologically brother and sister. Yet, aside from being based on a brother/sister relationship, all three of these pairs share another commonality, which is that each pairing experiences at least one separation and reunion of some sort. These separation periods and times in which the pairs are reunited greatly impact not only their own relationships, but also those of the other pairs and, ultimately, the course of the novel.
From the beginning of the novel and most likely from the beginning of Heathcliff's life, he has suffered pain and rejection. When Mr. Earnshaw brings him to Wuthering Heights, he is viewed as a thing rather than a child. Mrs. Earnshaw was ready to fling it out the doors, while Nelly put it on the landing of the stairs hoping that it would be gone the next day. Without having done anything to deserve rejection, Heathcliff is made to feel like an outsider. Following the death of Mr. Earnshaw, Heathcliff suffers cruel mistreatment at the hands of Hindley. In these tender years, he is deprived of love, friendship, and education, while the treatment from jealous Hindley is barbaric and disrupts his mental balance. He is separated from the family, reduced to the status of a servant, undergoes regular beatings and forcibly separated from his soul mate, Catherine. The personality that Heathcliff develops in his adulthood has been formed in response to these hardships of his childhood.
The initial downward spiral of Heathcliff’s life was predominantly caused by harsh influences in the environment in which he was raised. Heathcliff, an adopted child, grew up in Wuthering Heights, a desolate and dystopian estate when compared to the beauty of the neighboring Thrushcross Grange. In childhood, Heathcliff displayed evidence of a sympathetic personality through his emotional attachment to Catherine and kind attitude towards Nelly. At the time of Mr. Earnshaw’s death, Nelly describes a scene where, “Miss Cathy had been sick, and that made her still; she
As a young girl, Nelly was the housekeeper at Wuthering Heights. When Mr. Earnshaw returns from a business trip in Liverpool he brings with him an orphaned, gypsy whom he names Heathcliff. From the moment Catherine, Mr. Earshaw’s youngest daughter, laid eyes on Heathcliff, it seemed to be love at first sight. Heathcliff and Catherine spent every minute together and shared everything. As Catherine and Heathcliff get older, Mrs. Earnshaw grows concerned with Catherine’s un-lady like behaviour and sends her to live at Thrushcross Grange with a well- established family called the Lintons.
Both Catherine and Heathcliff grow up in environments of neglect and abandonment, causing them to develop voids in their personalities. Mr. Earnshaw brings Heathcliff to Wuthering Heights, and he says “but you must e’en take it as a gift from God, though it’s as dark almost as if it came from the devil” (Brontë 34). Here Heathcliff is a victim of racial profiling, which is detrimental to development because it has the affect of degrading the self worth of an individual. Heathcliff’s savior refers to him as a spawn of the “devil.” This combined with the reaction of the other tenants of Wuthering Heights makes Heathcliff an outcast. They repeatedly call him “it” and Catherine even “[spits] at the stupid little thing” as Nelly recalls (35). This unwelcoming behavior is a rejection of Heathcliff. Brontë is creat...
In Wuthering Heights, it is almost as if the story of Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff is repeated through Cathy Linton and Hareton Earnshaw. There are some discernible differences between these two relationships, but the general outline of the stories share some striking similarities. For example, Heathcliff could not be with Catherine Earnshaw because her brother, Hindley, had reduced him to the status of a brute. After Mr. Earnshaw's death, Heathcliff was treated like a servant instead of a member of the family. Later in the story, Heathcliff does the same thing to Hareton, Hindley's son, but in a subtle way that prevents any animosity on Hareton's part. Hindley loses everything that would have been Hareton's inheritance, leaving Hareton with nothing. Heathcliff takes advantage of the situation and Hindley's wealth is inevitably turned over to Heathcliff. Heathcliff sees p...
In “Wuthering Heights” Emily Bronte vividly present the main character, Heathcliff, as misanthropist after he suffers abuse, degradation, and loses his beloved Catherine. Heathcliff, a black, orphan gipsy child, is brought to live in upper-class society by Mr. Earnshaw’s generosity. Heathcliff is an outcast in his new society. Thus, Heathcliff’s temperament is depicted in “Wuthering Heights” as cruel, abusive, and vindictive against those who humiliated and not accepted him in society.
Mr. Earnshaw’s children, Catherine and Hindley Earnshaw, quickly develop their own opinions of Heathcliff. He and Catherine become friends and playmates in a short amount of time. Bronte makes evident Catherine’s feelings for Heathcliff in saying “She was much too fond of Heathcliff. The greatest punishment we could invent for her was to keep her separate from him” (46). On the contrary, Hindley develops a strong disdain for both the individual and the situation, considering Heathcliff as nothing more than an outsider. This fact is supported in one of the first ill encounters between the two, as “Heathcliff had gone to loose the beast and shift it to his own stall; he was passing behind it, when Hindley finished his speech by knocking him under its feet, and without stopping to examine whether his hopes were fulfilled, ran away as fast as he could” (Bronte 44). Heathcliff handled such brutal encounters with Hindley fairly well, or at least he appears to from an outside perspective. It is quickly discovered that he only kept himself contained because the outcome in a bickering situation with Hindley was usually favorable for him. Heathcliff begins showing his true colors as he provokes Hindley’s
Although Wuthering Heights is about the love relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine, the story is told mainly form the perspective of Nelly Dean, a servant in the employ of Ernshaw's who makes it very clear from the outset of her narrative that she never like Heathcliff. One could wonder if her perspective is to be taken as truth, considering the problems of subjectivity of voice, if it were not for the introduction, at the very opening of the novel, in which the minor character, Mr. Lockwood, opens the novel with his observations on the chaos he finds at Wut...
Catherine and Heathcliff’s ardour , intensity warmth for another appear to be the centre of Wuthering Heights, given that it is strongest and more abiding , deep-rooted than any other feeling demonstrates and exposed in the tale, and that it is the beginning , cause of most of the larger collision and clash that construction the novel’s intrigue . Catherine and Heathcliff’s tale, Nelly disapproves and condemns both of thembrutally, cruelly and sternly , condemning their feeling as impure ,dissolute ,indecent .,lewd but this passion is certainly one of the most conclusive and carchy appearance of the book. It is not effortless to adjudge whether Brontë intends the reader to blame and disapprove these lovers as reproachable or to apotheosize , glorify them as sentimental heroes whose love eclipses social benchmarck and normal honesty , morality, integrity. The tale is actually configurated around two coextensive love stories, the prime half of the novel focused on the love between Catherine and Heathcliff, while the le...
The countless negative emotions forced upon Heathcliff in his past resulted in his development of extreme hate as an adult. Heathcliff’s hate manifested itself in his quest for revenge and his lust for power. Wuthering Heights establishes an unyeilding human emotion which can take over a man’s life. Hate can only be quelled through revenge or death. In Wuthering Heights, Bronte uses Heathcliff to show the development of his hate and revenge from the past thorough adulthood, and warns against the destructive power of pure hatred.
Emily Bronte will forever be known for the infamous romance of Heathcliff and Catherine in Wuthering Heights. Not many couples can boast such a tumultuous and violent relationship, or of such passion and devotion. Catherine and Heathcliff share a bond that reaches deeper than a physical attraction. From their childhood until their deaths, their lives revolve around the other. Their preoccupation with each other does not represent the loving nature of most relationships; in fact, it often exhibits animosity and resentment. Their equally passionate and emotional personalities often clash, and lead to an obsession with getting revenge for each other’s many acts of rejection and heartlessness. One begins to wonder while reading how their relationship could be that of true love; after all, they seem entirely unfeeling towards the other’s pain, especially when they are the cause of it. They never strive to be considerate of each other’s happiness, and when the other one is upset, they never attempt to fix things for them. Overall, their relationship is not that of romantic love so much as one of extreme passion, flashing from ardor to abhorrence.
Throughout Emily Bronte’s novel Wuthering Heights, a theme is presented: people need to be valued in order to do good in the world, and when they are not they cause destruction. When Heathcliff was adopted by Mr. Earnshaw, Mr. Earnshaw’s family viewed Heathcliff as a thing rather than a child. Heathcliff was rejected by the servants and the Earnshaw family for being an orphan and being poor. The social status of the Victorian Age was as follows: if a person was white and plump, he/she was identified as wealthy; but if a person was dark-skinned he/she was classified in the working class. This is so by those who were dark-skinned had to spent much of their lives
Wailed in distress over forbidden love, “Nelly, I am Heathcliff!” (82) is considered one of the most poignant lines in Emily Bronte’s gothic romance, Wuthering Heights. In this admission, Catherine Earnshaw is claiming the identity of her lover for herself — suggesting they are so intertwined that separation is impossible. Why is it that Bronte chooses to create such an interdependent relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine; so much so that they claim to possess the same being? Arising from Heathcliff and Catherine’s similar childhoods of benign neglect and mistreatment as un-loved outcasts, Bronte suggests that their development into adulthood is hindered and linked from the start — both children associating personality-fulfilling alter
In the novel Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte strongly emphasizes the dynamic and increasingly complex relationship of Mr. Heathcliff and Catherine. Heathcliff, the abandoned gypsy boy is brought to Wuthering Height by Mr. Earnshaw to be raised with his family. After Mr. Earnshaw's death, he suffers harsh abuses from his "brother" Hindley and from Catherine, whom he dearly loves. This abuse will pave the way for revenge. The evolving and elaborate plans for revenge Mr. Heathcliff masterminds for those who he feels had hurt him and betray him is what makes Wuthering Heights a classic in English literature. The sudden change in feelings and emotions in Mr. Heathcliff are powerful scenes. Revenge becomes the only reason to live for him. Revenge is the main theme in Wuthering Heights because it highlights important events, personality flaws, and the path of destruction.