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Character of Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights
Discuss the relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine in Wuthering Heights
Character of Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights
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The Importance of Ghosts In Emily Bronte's ‘Wuthering Heights’
‘My fingers closed on the fingers of a little, ice-cold hand! The intense horror of nightmare came over me: I tried to draw back my arm, but the hand clung to it’ (Page 20)
In this extract Lockwood thought he had a dream, he remembers that he ‘turned and dozed’ and dreamt again, but the above extract shows that this was different from any other dream, it is much more realistic and increasingly frightening. This leads the reader to believe that this really is not a dream and that a supernatural being is causing this entire disturbance. The importance that this has to the novel is that it adds an element of excitement and mystery, rather than Lockwood just having a dream about a ghost by the end of the extract, they believe that there really was one there.
What makes this part of the novel all the more stirring is the fact that there is evidence that this really was a ghost at Lockwood’s window. For instance Lockwood says that that name of the ghost was ‘Catherine Linton’:
‘(Why did I think of Linton? I had read Earnshaw twenty times for Linton)’ (Page20)
This is to say that in any dream one would not expect to dream about someone they had never met before, and they would expect for their dreams to be a collaged combination of all the things that had happened to them. In this particular extract Lockwood is saying that he had read the name Earnshaw, all he saw ‘was nothing but a name repeated in all kinds of characters, large and small-Catherine Earnshaw,’ Lockwood is saying that if this really was a dream then why did it say Linton?
The theme of the afterlife is repeated all throughout the novel, and is especially reiterated by the fact that Heathc...
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‘There’s Heathcliff and a woman, yonder, under t’ nab,’ he blubbered, ‘un’ I dare not pass ‘em.’ (Page 288)
The primary importance of this sighting of the ghost is that it could actually be real. The evidence for this was that the moors were very much a favourite place for Heathcliff and Catherine to go walking. This is important because it shows that their love for each other has lasted until after their death.
The most important piece of evidence for these ghosts being real is that ‘neither the sheep would go on’ with the boy. As human kind we always say that animals do have a sixth sense and that they can detect the ghosts and other spirits which new cannot. Brontë has used ideas like the sheep so that the reader can gain a real perspective of what was on the moors, and of course how strong the relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff really was.
A parallel description is given to Heathcliff when he is called, in one instance of the Brontean text «dark almost as if [he] came from the devil” (Emily Bronte: 36)
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
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.
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.
Inwardness is also the key to the structure of the novel. The book begins in the year 1801, on the very rim of the tale, long after the principal incidents of the story have taken place. Mr. Lockwood, our guide, is very far removed from the central experiences of the narrative. Under Lockwood’s sadly unperceptive direction, the reader slowly begins to understand what is happening at Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. Gradually we move toward the center of the novel. In a few chapters, Nelly Dean, takes over from Lockwood, and the reader is a little closer to the truth. Still Nelly is herself unperceptive and the reader must struggle hard till reaching the center of the novel; the passionate last meeting of Heathcliff and Cathy in Chapter 15.
Wuthering Heights is not just a love story, it is a window into the human soul, where one sees the loss, suffering, self discovery, and triumph of the characters in this novel. Both the Image of the Book by Robert McKibben, and Control of Sympathy in Wuthering Heights by John Hagan, strive to prove that neither Catherine nor Heathcliff are to blame for their wrong doings. Catherine and Heathcliff’s passionate nature, intolerable frustration, and overwhelming loss have ruined them, and thus stripped them of their humanities.
His assertion focuses on how their relationship is a displaced version of symbiotic relationship between mother and child. Emotionally, Heathcliff is the world to Catherine just as a mother is to a child and a child to a mother. (p. 366). This statement is supported by a passage in the novel in which Heathcliff has left and she seeks him calling for him at intervals and crying hard enough to beat out any child (p. 88-90). Upon Heathcliff’s return, Brontë uses language that Wion believes depicts the cessation of their relationship’s development in the Freud’s oral stage of libidinal development (p. 368). Brontë uses phrases such as “drank from hers” when discussing them gazing at each other and “They were too much absorbed in their mutual enjoyment…” (p. 99, 368). The use of this language is interesting and begs us to question if its use was intentional to display the basicness and necessity of their relationship as if to say that they could just as easily not be together as they could stop consuming sustenance. The novel demonstrates many times that the relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff is fundamental to their existence. A major piece of evidence supporting this is Catherine’s breakdown when Heathcliff leaves as well as when Heathcliff and Edgar’s disagreement reaches a point where Edgar forces Catherine to decide between himself and
The moorland scenery generated a habitation that seemed away from the society and the rest of the world. This made a perfect staging for the strange, odd, funny, weird and occasionally ghostlike events that were revealed i...
Catherine and Heathcliff continue to defy their brother as they grow older, refusing to clean themselves, dress properly, or behave in a civilized manner. One day the two come to Thrushcross Grange (another house on the same land as Wuthering Heights), where they attempt to scare the two children, Edgar and Isabella Linton, who live there with their ...
the novel as a whole ends on a note of hope, peace, and joy, with
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
...ly declared their love there. As respite from the prison of Wuthering Heights the moors are a mysterious place that is liberating, and boundaryless. Catherine says, “I wish I were out of doors- I wish I were a girl again, half savage and hardy, and free” (105). Once Catherine compares Linton and Heathcliff saying, “My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods. Time will change it, I’m well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath a source of little visible delight, but necessary” (84).
This novel is set in the open moors of England, where Bronte grew up. Nelly Dean, the narrator, describes the setting when she and young Cathy go for a walk, ""Climb to that hillock, pass that bank, and by the time you reach the other side, I shall have raised the birds." But there were so many hillocks and banks to climb and pass, that, at length, I began to be weary...she dived into a hollow; and before I came in sight of her again, she was two miles nearer Wuthering Heights than her own home" (WH 163). Nelly Dean is a young middle-aged woman who is accustomed to physical labor, and her description of the moors help the reader realize the vastness of the scenery.
The murdered do haunt their murderers, I believe. I know that ghosts have wandered on earth. Be with me always—take any form—drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! it is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!" (25) Here Heathcliff is showing his passionate love for Catherine when he says “I cannot live without my soul!” He refers to her as his “soul” and can be characterized as an emotional wreck due to his reliance on Catherine’s presence. Her death signifies the last of Heathcliff’s love and passion, which is now dying off just like Catherine. Unfortunately, Heathcliff’s passion is undermined by his insidious nature. It first came about when he was poorly treated in his childhood. “Hindley became tyrannical. A few words from her, evincing a dislike to Heathcliff, were enough to rouse in him all his old hatred of the boy. He drove him from their company to the servants, deprived him