The Conflicting Destinies of Two Stable Boys: Heathcliff Heathcliff Versus Hareton Earnshaw Within the realm of popular culture and consumerism, there has always been an ongoing discourse regarding whether or not one’s way of being raised affects his or her future. We set societal examples, analyzing the childhoods of individuals like criminals and millionaires, and we use them as models of hardship or prosperity in order to accurately explain their position in life. However, what if our personal history really has no influence on our future success or failure at all? In Emily Brontë’s novel Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff Heathcliff and Hareton Earnshaw are used as parallels who seek opposite destinies, asserting that one’s past does not determine …show more content…
Heathcliff is proud of his beastliness because he is blinded by his desire for power. When Heathcliff arranges marriage between the second Catherine Linton and his son Linton Heathcliff, he gives Linton advice on how to treat his newlywed, demanding that Linton is “not to be soft” with Catherine, for she is merely his wife (213). Thus, it is evident that control is most important to Heathcliff, and being physically and emotionally malicious aids him. Contrary to Heathcliff, Hareton is less proud of his unpolished appearance because of his hunger for knowledge and his longing for respect from others, specifically from his cousin Catherine Linton. When Cathy and Hareton meet outside Wuthering Heights amidst one of Cathy’s visits to Linton, Cathy makes fun of Hareton for not being able to read his name. Describing Hareton, Cathy recounts, “The fool stared, with a grin hovering about his lips, and a scowl gathering over his eyes, as if uncertain whether he might not join in my mirth; whether it were not pleasant familiarity, or what it really was, contempt” (191). This indicates that Hareton is ashamed to be seen lesser than Cathy, and only wants to be recognized as equal to her in terms of intellect and pride. Thus, the contrast between Heathcliff’s need for dominance and Hareton’s yearning for acceptance reflects how different these two are regarding their future goals and
Although certainly not as complex as the character of Heathcliff, Hareton Earnshaw from Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel, Wuthering Heights, is a compelling character in his own right. He is a character who has been raised to be a massive fuck you to the family that he was born into, nonetheless, he seems to have no issue with this, because he loves the man, as a father, who made him this way. Yet, despite his feeling content with being uneducated and acting as a servant to his father figure, regardless of being born into a wealthy family, Hareton eventually makes an effort to effectively change who he is for love. With this in mind, the focus of this essay will be to evaluate how Hareton came to be who he is, and why him changing for love, even if
Over a long period of time, an individual’s social status has always had a great impact on relationships between others. Relationships such as friendship, romance and even family relationships are greatly influenced by one’s social status. When people value social status to the utmost importance, it often acts as a barrier to further solidify relations with others. “Wuthering Heights” is a classic novel written by Emily Bronte which illustrates how social status gets in the way of relationships. This story (set in eighteen hundreds) displays the true nature of the people at that time because they excessive had pride. Since they had excessive pride, they often judged people based on their social class; hence changing their relationship between each other. In this novel social class was measured by observing an individual’s wealth, appearance and manners. Heathcliff happens to be the male lead character of this story that lacks social class due to his rebellious relationship with Hindley. Afterwards, Hindley degrades Heathcliff’s status this affects his connections with Catherine and Nelly. Since Heathcliff’s status diminishes, Catherine becomes reluctant to continue her affair with Heathcliff. Nelly also becomes wary of Heathcliff because his personality changes after restoring his own status. Thus, it is clearly seen that social class has an impact on the story by altering Heathcliff’s relationship between Hindley, Catherine and Nelly.
Although, Mr. Earnshaw tried to make Heathcliff an equal part of the family, Heathcliff never truly fits in. Heathcliff is from a completely different social class than the rest of his “family”. This led to the hatred that Hindley felt towards Heathcliff. Hindley robs Heathcliff of his education, forces him to work as a servant at Wuthering Heights and frequently beats him. Throughout this all, Heathcliff never complains.
We see his pride, his passion and sensitivity; we see that he is very close to nature: all of these things are genetic character traits, visible in Hareton's father and aunt, Hindley and Catherine Earnshaw. With Heathcliff, his nurture enhances parts of his personality, whereas in Hareton's nurture, his nature is dulled and moulded so it is less extreme. This is done by denying Hareton of experience. At the end of the novel, Hareton is very much a product of his nature; Cathy's nurturing allows this to change.
Heathcliff and Cathy have a sadistic relationship. They are only truly in love when they are hurting each other. As Catherine lay dying, she wants Heathcliff, her love, to join her in death. She pleads to him:
of all[society’s]wishes”(232).Hareton was also a lower status than Cathy, but their love union was cherished unlike Catherines, and Heathcliff's love which shows Bronte’s view of love.Her view seems to prefer the domestic,stable,and serene love of the second generation to the eccentric love of the first generation lovers.
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.
Heathcliff wants to protect hareton from getting thrown off that balcony or anything else that would happen that was bad to him, but also wants to corrupt him.
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
Linton Heathcliff is only interested in himself. He is a sickly and scared young man. Like his mother Isabella Linton who accused Catherine Earnshaw of selfishly wanting Heathcliff for herself – in which she didn't- Linton enjoys inflicting and watching people suffer. As Heathcliff threatened to kill Linton, Linton only thought about his own life and, decided to betray Cathy, tricking her into staying at Wuthering Heights and getting married to him, instead of returning to Thurshcross Grange to where her father lies on his deathbed.
The sympathetic part of Heathcliff shows through when he sees Catherine in the beginning stages of her sickness after childbirth. “He neither spoke, nor loosed his hold, for some five minutes, during which period he bestowed more kisses than ever he gave in his life before, I dare say…” (159). The sympathetic part of Heathcliff kicks in when he sees the woman he loves dying right before him. Heathcliff began to ask Catherine the questions he had not been able to ask her before, whether it had been due to his pride or to his absence - was insignificant., “‘...You loved me - then what right had you to leave me? What right - answer me - for the poor fancy you felt for Linton?” (162). When the novel begins, it is mentioned that Heathcliff is shouting, “‘Come in! Come in!’ he sobbed. ‘Cathy, do come. Oh do - once more! Oh! My heart’s darling, hear me this time - Catherine, at last!’” (28). Heathcliff attempts to get Catherine’s ghost to speak to him, because his main goal is to be united with her in death. Heathcliff’s character changes relatively fast when he sees Catherine dying in her bed. There is a sympathetic side shown that has not been quite expressed before, and also the feelings that Heathcliff kept bottled
Definitive criteria for judging the success or failure of a work of fiction are not easily agreed upon; individuals almost necessarily introduce bias into any such attempt. Only those who affect an exorbitantly refined artistic taste, however, would deny the importance of poignancy in literary pieces. To be sure, writings of dubious and fleeting merit frequently enchant the public, but there is too the occasional author who garners widespread acclaim and whose works remain deeply affecting despite the passage of time. The continued eminence of the fiction of Emily Bronte attests to her placement into such a category of authors: it is a recognition of her propensity to create poignant and, indeed, successful literature.
He cares little for his son, despises Heathcliff, and seeks to control all around him. He begins drinking and as it becomes more frequent, his frame of mind while drunk causes others to fear him. Hindley’s drinking and gambling, both efforts to cope with the loss of his wife and years of hatred and bitterness only put him in a position to lose everything he has. He hates Heathcliff, wishes his son was dead, and causes others to fear his dangerous nature. During Heathcliff’s three year absence from Wuthering Heights, Hindley’s condition deteriorates as he becomes more dependent on alcohol and gambling. When Heathcliff returns and Hindley recognizes that he is now wealthy, he invites Heathcliff to stay at Wuthering Heights not out of kindness but out of his desire to use Heathcliff’s money. It is this decision that places him in debt to Heathcliff and that finally brings Hindley to total ruin. “They say Mr. Earnshaw is worse and worse since he came. They sit up all night together continually: and Hindley has been borrowing money on his land; and does nothing put plan and drink…” (103) When Hindley dies “true to his character, drunk as a lord” (186), he leaves no inheritance for his son, Hareton, “who should now be the first gentleman in the neighbourhood, was reduced to a state of complete dependence on his father’s inveterate enemy; and lives in his own house as a servant deprived of the advantage of wages, and quite unable to right himself, because of his friendlessness and his ignorance that he has been wronged.”
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...
Young Cathy’s love for Hareton is a redemptive force. It is her love that brings an end to the reign of Heathcliff. 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).