Characters of Catherine and Heathcliff in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights

1614 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Settings in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights

The Characters of Catherine and Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights

Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights can be considered a Gothic romance or an essay on the human relationship. The reader may regard the novel as a serious study of human problems such as love and hate, or revenge and jealousy. One may even consider the novel Bronte's personal interpretation of the universe. However, when all is said and done, Heathcliff and Catherine are the story. Their powerful presence permeates throughout the novel, as well as their complex personalities. Their climatic feelings towards each other and often selfish behavior often exaggerates or possibly encapsulates certain universal psychological truths humans are too afraid to express. Heathcliff and Catherine's stark backgrounds evolve respectively into dark personalities and mistaken life paths, but in the end their actions determine the course of their own relationships and lives. Their misfortunes, recklessness, willpower, and destructive passion are unable to penetrate the eternal love they share.

Heathcliff's many-faceted existence is marked by wickedness, love, and strength. His dark actions are produced by the distortion of his natural personality. Although Heathcliff was once subjected to vicious racism due to his dark skin color and experienced wearisome orphan years in Liverpool, this distortion had already begun when Mr. Earnshaw brought him into Wuthering Heights, a "dirty, ragged, black-haired child"(45; ch.7). Already he was inured to hardship and uncomplainingly accepted suffering. Heathcliff displays his strength and steadfastness when he had the measles, and when Hindley treated him cruelly if he got what he wanted. From the very beginning he showed great co...

... middle of paper ...

...of the novel? Or is revenge the central and recurring idea? Is Bronte proposing that as humans we have the right to meddle with the cosmic, dark and questioning universe just as Catherine and Heathcliff manipulated with their own lovers and family? Perhaps it is simply a book about characters, each to his own, meandering through puddles, with cloudy morals and mistaken ideals. With a darkness within and beauty without, stumbling back and forth a two-mile stretch of land searching for something they've had all along. Maybe it's a book about reality.

Works Cited

Damrosch, David, et al., ed. The Longman Anthology of British Literature: Vol. B. Compact ed. New York: Longman - Addison Wesley Longman, 2000.

Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights. Norton Critical ed. 3rd ed. Ed. William M. Sale, Jr., and Richard J. Dunn. New York: W. W. Norton, 1990.

Show More
Related

  • Comparison of Scenes from William Shakespeare's Henry V

    554 Words  | 2 Pages

    they will have if they win the war with less men, 'and if to live, the

    Read More

  • Ways Shakespeare builds dramatic tension in Act 2 scene 2 of Henry V

    1676 Words  | 4 Pages

    In what ways does Shakespeare build up dramatic tension in Act 2 scene 2 of ?Henry V??

    Read More

  • The Theme Of Revenge In Charlotte Bronte's Wuthering Heights

    1759 Words  | 4 Pages

    Many years later, Heathcliff returns to the Heights to begin his plan of revenge. Therefore, Bronte suggests that society can distort one’s personality because it provides the situation in which money and greed can fulfill one’s vanity and ambitions for social status, and she indicates that revenge is an index of the hatred that the pressures of society can produce. Thus, one uses revenge to cover up their wounded heart and tricks themselves into a cycle of hatred and self-deception.

    Read More

  • Absence of Heroes and Villains in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    788 Words  | 2 Pages

    could be a hero as he lived and grew up by himself. A villain is

    Read More

  • Distortions and Exaggerations in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights

    1017 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Character Analysis Of Wuthering Heights

    995 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Demise of a Soulmate in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights

    706 Words  | 2 Pages

    Emily Brontë’s novel Wuthering Heights, set in the countryside of England’s 1700’s, features a character named Heathcliff, who is brought into the Earnshaw family as a young boy and quickly falls into a passionate, blinding romance with the Earnshaw’s daughter, Catherine. However, Heathcliff is soon crushed by this affection when his beloved chooses the company of another man rather than his own. For the remainder of the novel he exudes a harsh, aversive attitude that remains perduring until his demise that is induced by the loss of his soulmate, and in turn the bereavement of the person to whom the entirety of his being and his very own self were bound.

    Read More

  • Selfishness in "Wuthering Heights"

    797 Words  | 2 Pages

    Within such a work of art, Emily Bronte described and unlocked many truths about how it’s human nature to perform selfish acts. The actions that Catherine, Heathcliff and Linton all completed were out of love, horror, and hatred.

    Read More

  • Bioghraphy -- Emily Bronte

    881 Words  | 2 Pages

    . The reader sees an extraordinary inwardness in Emily Bronte’s book Wuthering Heights. Emily has a gloomy and isolated childhood. . Says Charlotte Bronte, “ my sister’s disposition was not naturally gregarious; circumstances favored and fostered her tendency to seclusion; except to go to church, or to take a walk on the hills, she rarely crossed the threshold of home.”(Everit,24) That inwardness, that remarkable sense of the privacy of human experience, is clearly the essential vision of Wuthering Heights. Emily Bronte saw the principal human conflict as one between the individual and the dark, questioning universe, a universe symbolized, in her novel, both by man’s threatening and hardly-to-be-controlled inner nature, and by nature in its more impersonal sense, the wild lonesome mystery of the moors. The love of Heathcliff and Catherine, in its purest form, expresses itself absolutely in its own terms. These terms may seem to a typical mind, violent, and even disgusting. But having been generated by that particular love, they are the proper expressions of it. The passionately private relationship of Heathcliff and Catherine makes no reference to any social convention or situation. Only when Cathy begins to be attracted to the well-mannered ways of Thrushcross Grange, she is led, through them, to abandon her true nature.

    Read More

  • Interweaving Characters and Surroundings in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights

    1715 Words  | 4 Pages

    Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights is a novel about lives that cross paths and are intertwined with one another. Healthcliff, an orphan, is taken in by Mr. Earnshaw, the owner of Wuthering Heights. Mr. Earnshaw has two children named Catherine and Hindley. Jealousy between Hindley and Healthcliff was always a problem. Catherine loves Healthcliff, but Hindley hates the stranger for stealing his fathers affection away. Catherine meets Edgar Linton, a young gentleman who lives at Thrushcross Grange. Despite being in love with Healthcliff she marries Edgar elevating her social standing. The characters in this novel are commingled in their relationships with Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange.

    Read More

  • The Power of Love in Wuthering Heights

    1397 Words  | 3 Pages

    Heathcliff and Catherine have loved each other since their childhood. Initially, Catherine scorned the little gypsy boy; she showed her distaste by “spitting” at him (Brontë 27). However, it was not long before Heathcliff and Catherine became “very think” (Brontë 27). They became very close friends; they were practically brother and sister (Mitchell 122). Heathcliff is intent upon pleasing Catherine. He would “do her bidding in anything” (Brontë 30). He is afraid of “grieving” her (Brontë 40). Heathcliff finds solace and comfort in Catherine’s company. When Catherine is compelled to stay at Thrushcross Grange to recover from her injury, she returns as “a very dignified person” (Brontë 37). Her association with the gente...

    Read More

  • Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

    736 Words  | 2 Pages

    (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.

    Read More

  • Diagnosing Heathcliff, What Could be Wrong?

    1671 Words  | 4 Pages

    Emily Bronte’s, Wuthering Heights, includes the struggle for happiness, like marry like, and revenge. Heathcliff grew up neglected and abused. When he fell in love with his long time friend, Catherine Earnshaw, she betrayed him by choosing another man over him, causing Heathcliff to become bitter and rude to everyone who comes in contact with him. He goes out of his way to make everyone miserable and unhappy just like himself. Although the perspective of Heathcliff is seen as “a mad man,” he is actually suffering from Antisocial Personality Disorder, Conduct Disorder, and Depression.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Personality In Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights

    759 Words  | 2 Pages

    Brontë promotes the fact that personality is indicated in early age, in that while a person’s upbringing affects their outlook, the heart of the disposition is given at birth. If one is evil, it has been decided beforehand, and anyone wicked cannot be forgiven. Brontë’s views on personality can be interpreted as an argument for the innate qualities of humankind and its ultimate regard for the mind. While she acknowledges Heathcliff’s past and lack of assistance, Brontë implies that childhood is not the only indicator of lifestyle, and that an adjustment of mindset must be made as an active choice. There is satisfaction in that he never receives a redemption arc, nor does any character forgive him during his lifetime. By emphasizing his true nature, a statement is made in that fate will occur if unimpeded, and a lack of effort lets destiny continue its path. These examples of unforgiveness establish the idea that Heathcliff is an evil human from the beginning who will never be

    Read More

  • Bronte's Use of Language and Setting in Wuthering Heights

    822 Words  | 2 Pages

    Bronte's Use of Language and Setting in Wuthering Heights Between pages 15 and 18 there are identifiable ways in which 'Bronte' uses 'language and setting' to establish the characters and create a distinguishable atmosphere. In this essay, themes, genres and styles will be discussed to show how 'Bronte' establishes the characters; there will also be a discussion of the 'gothic' elements which Wuthering Heights contains. Many people would argue that the style of 'Wuthering Heights' is peculiar and complex, the power of Wuthering Heights owes much to its complex narrative structure and to the device of having two conventional people relate a very unconventional tale. Bronte importantly introduces the element of 'the supernatural' into chapter 3 which is an important technique as it grips the reader. Lockwood has come into contact with the ghost of Cathy, who died 18 years before, Some might argue that she is a product of Lockwood's imagination, and it is clear that Bronte has presented these facts in this way so that the reader can make up their own mind on the subject.

    Read More

More about Characters of Catherine and Heathcliff in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights

Open Document