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The role of Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights
Revenge as a theme of gathering heights
Revenge as a theme of gathering heights
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Recommended: The role of Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights, a novel by Emily Brontë, is a passionate love story, but is also a story fueled by revenge and hatred. This is especially true for one of the main characters, Heathcliff, who lives a life full of bitterness and contempt. The last straw that turns Heathcliff into a vengeful man is when his childhood friend marries someone else. He ends up making a decision that impacts the life of his childhood friend's daughter, Cathy, all out of revenge against her father. These terrible events that plagued Heathcliff are what drive him to take revenge on those who wronged him, and make this a story of good and evil, and of hate and love. From the moment that Heathcliff arrived at Wuthering Heights, he was surrounded my bitterness and hate. Heathcliff was brought into Wuthering Heights to live by Catherine and Hindley’s father, while he was a poor, dirty, and fatherless young boy. This made the children who already lived in Wuthering Heights apprehensive to the young boy, but one of the children, Catherine, eventually learned to accept him. Her brother, Hindley, however, treated Heathcliff as a slave. This fueled a bitter hate towards him deep in Heathcliff. …show more content…
He runs away from the life where he is a stable boy, only to come back to be with her, but she has moved on to a man named Edgar Linton. “The ledge, where I placed my candle, had a few mildewed books piled up in the corner, and it was covered with writing scratched on the paint. This writing, however, was nothing but a name repeated in all kinds of characters, large and small- Catherine Earnshaw, here and there varied to Catherine Heathcliff, and then again to Catherine Linton,” (19). Her true love was Heathcliff, but she ended up becoming Catherine
What usually comes to mind when one thinks of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights? Most will visualize tortured lovers against the extraordinary moors. Perhaps one will even recall the scene of one lover, Heathcliff, opening the grave of his Catherine to dig a space where they can be joined eternally. Yet another equally powerful emotion appears throughout the novel as an antithesis to love, that of revenge. Revenge first forms the basis of the actions of Hindley, the Earnshaw son, toward Heathcliff. Later revenge is mirrored in the vengeful actions of Heathcliff after he loses Catherine. In the process of gaining revenge, both characters lose their own humanity and their souls.
The final sense of alienation and the most implicating occurs with Catherine's marriage to Edgar, Heathcliff considers this a betrayal of his love for her, since she wants the social status and existence at the Grange. Heathcliff is however proud and determined and does not cower when opposed by those consider themselves to be superiors. Finally, when he realizes that Catherine has chosen status, wealth and position over him, he disappears for three years and returns in the manner of a gentleman.
Heathcliff cried vehemently, "I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!" Emily Brontë distorts many common elements in Wuthering Heights to enhance the quality of her book. One of the distortions is Heathcliff's undying love for Catherine Earnshaw. Also, Brontë perverts the vindictive hatred that fills and runs Heathcliff's life after he loses Catherine. Finally, she prolongs death, making it even more distressing and insufferable.
The complicated nature surrounding Heathcliff’s motives again adds an additional degree of ambiguity to his character. This motivation is primarily driven by Catherine’s marriage to Edgar and past rejection of Heathcliff, since he was a servant whom Hindley disapproved of. Prior to storming out of Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff overhears Catherine say, “It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now…” (Brontë 87). The obstacles that ultimately prevent Heathcliff from marrying Catherine provide insight into Heathcliff’s desire to bring harm to Edgar and Hindley. The two men play prominent roles in the debacle, Edgar as the new husband and Hindley as the head figure who refused Heathcliff access to Catherine. Following this incident, Catherine says, “Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same…” (Brontë 87). Catherine’s sentiment indicates she truly would rather be with Heathcliff, but the actions of others have influenced her monumental decision to marry Edgar. Furthermore, Heathcliff is motivated to not only ruin Edgar’s livelihood, but also gain ownership of his estate, Thrushcross Grange. This becomes clear when Heathcliff attempts to use Isabella
Catherine Earnshaw appears to be a woman who is free spirited. However, Catherine is also quite self-centered. She clearly states that her love for Edgar Linton does not match how much she loves Heathcliff. She is saying that she does love both, and she is unwilling to give one up for the other; she wants “Heathcliff for her friend”. Catherine admits that her love for Linton is “like the foliage in the woods”; however, her love for Heathcliff “resembles the eternal rocks beneath”. She loves Heathcliff and yet she gives him up and marries Linton instead, Catherine believes that if she marries Heathcliff it would degrade and humiliate her socially.
Throughout Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff's personality could be defined as dark, menacing, and brooding. He is a dangerous character, with rapidly changing moods, capable of deep-seeded hatred, and incapable, it seems, of any kind of forgiveness or compromise. In the first 33 chapters, the text clearly establishes Heathcliff as an untamed, volatile, wild man and establishes his great love of Catherine and her usage of him as the source of his ill humor and resentment towards many other characters. However, there are certain tensions, contradictions, and ambiguities present in Chapter 34 that establish the true intensity Heathcliff's feelings towards Catherine; feelings so intense that they border on a jealous obsession.
In the novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, Heathcliff is an orphan boy brought to Wuthering Heights by Mr. Earnshaw, who has two children of his own already - Catherine and Hindley. Heathcliff changes over the course of his life by the following; Heathcliff begins by getting along well with Catherine Earnshaw, however, Catherine Earnshaw is introduced to Edgar Linton and Heathcliff becomes jealous of their forming relationship, and once Catherine has passed away after delivering Edgar’s child, Heathcliff becomes haunted by her ghost, and wishes to only be united with her in death.
Catherine Earnshaw is the daughter of Mr. Earnshaw and his wife; Catherine falls powerfully in love with Heathcliff, the orphan Mr. Earnshaw brings home from Liverpool. She was born at Wuthering Heights and was raised with her brother Hindley. Catherine loves Heathcliff so intensely that she claims they are the same person but does not marry him because Hindley has degraded him after their father's death so her desire for social advancement motivates her to marry Edgar Linton instead, a neighbour from Thrushcross Grange and he is handsome and rich, another reason for Catherine marrying him. She is quite passionate about Heathcliff though, and does not want to give him up. She becomes ill when Heathcliff and Edgar fight, and dies in childbirth.
When reading Wuthering Heights one is naturally drawn to the love story, as sad and perverse as it may appear on its face, the torrid affairs and events which came about through primarily through the very selfish, self-centered, and sadistic individuals Catherine and Heathcliff, as the two of them destroyed lives of the people that were involved with them. What started out innocently with Mr. Earnshaw loving an orphan boy, whom he named Heathcliff, and taking him into his family as a son, soon turned into jealousy and conflict between his natural born children and Heathcliff. Hindley, natural born son of Earnshaw and the brother of Catherine, hated Heathcliff from the day he arrived the manor at Wuthering Heights. At every opportunity Hindley scoffed at the love his father felt for the “dark skinned” boy and shamed his father at ...
The basic conflict of the novel that drives Heathcliff and Catherine apart is social. Written after the Industrial Revolution, Wuthering Heights is influenced by the rise of new fortunes and the middle class in England. Money becomes a new criterion to challenge the traditional criterias of class and family in judging a gentleman’s background. Just as Walpole who portrays the tyrannies of the father figure Manfred and the struggles of the Matilda who wants to marry the peasant Theodore, as depicted in the quote “(…) improbability that either father would consent to bestow his heiress on so poor a man, though nobly born”(p. 89), Brontë depicts a brutal bully Hindley who torments Heathcliff and separates Catherine from him. Heathcliff, a gypsy outcast picked u...
Catherine is trapped between her love of Heathcliff and her love for Edgar, setting the two men down a path of destruction, a whirlwind of anger and resentment that Catherine gets caught in the middle of. Catherine is drawn to Heathcliff because of his fiery personality, their raw attraction and one certainly gets the sense that they are drawn together on a deeper level, that perhaps they are soulmates. C. Day Lewis thought so, when he declared that Heathcliff and Catherine "represent the essential isolation of the soul...two halves of a single soul–forever sundered and struggling to unite." This certainly seems to be backed up in the novel when Catherine exclaims “Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He's always, always in my mind--not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being...” This shows clearly the struggle Catherine feels as she is drawn spiritually to Heathcliff, but also to Edgar for very different reasons. Edgar attracts Catherine predominantly because he is of the right social class. Catherine finds him "handsome, and pleasant to be with," but her feelings for him seem petty when compared to the ones she harbours...
Wuthering Heights is a novel which deviates from the standard of Victorian literature. The novels of the Victorian Era were often works of social criticism. They generally had a moral purpose and promoted ideals of love and brotherhood. Wuthering Heights is more of a Victorian Gothic novel; it contains passion, violence, and supernatural elements (Mitchell 119). The world of Wuthering Heights seems to be a world without morals. In Wuthering Heights, Brontë does not idealize love; she presents it realistically, with all its faults and merits. She shows that love is a powerful force which can be destructive or redemptive. Heathcliff has an all-consuming passion for Catherine. When she chooses to marry Edgar, his spurned love turns into a destructive force, motivating him to enact revenge and wreak misery. The power of Heathcliff’s destructive love is conquered by the influence of another kind of love. Young Cathy’s love for Hareton is a redemptive force. It is her love that brings an end to the reign of Heathcliff.
(2) Emily Bronte’s purpose in writing Wuthering Heights is to depict unfulfilled love in a tragic romance novel and hence the theme of Wuthering Heights is love is pain. Emily Bronte reveals an important life lesson that love is not sufficient for happiness and if anything, stirs up more agony. This message is important because, although it is difficult to accept, the message is devastatingly honest. In Wuthering Heights, two characters named Heathcliff and Catherine loved each other immensely. However, their pride and adamance disabled them from making any progress on their romantic relationship. In fact, Heathcliff and Catherine purposely hurt each another through reckless and cruel actions. The author is exemplifying a recurring theme in history that love is associated with pain. The message allows readers to be aware that love is not constant perfection and happiness.
Wuthering Heights is a novel whose main character is said to have a double significance. He is said to be both the dispossessed and the dispossessor, victim of class hatred and arch – exploiter, he simultaneously occupies the roles of working class outsider and brutal capitalist. Heathcliff has all these characteristics because of his experiences. He is a character moulded by his past.
Throughout the dark, romantic novel, Wuthering Heights, Brontë explores the false realities of high social status and wealth in Victorian society and its damaging consequences by outlining the loving, yet dysfunctional relationship of Catherine and Heathcliff. In the beginning of the novel, the orphan, Heathcliff, and Catherine, the daughter of Mr. Earnshaw grow up with each other in the mysterious complex of Wuthering Heights, and over time learn to deeply love one another. Catherine even goes on to articulate that, “He’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same” (Brontë 70). Although for many years Heathcliff and Catherine had adored each other, Catherine’s new found love for gaining social status and wealth triggers her to marry Edgar, an individual whom she is not emotionally