Themes And Destruction In Wuthering Heights, By Emily Bronte

All my life I have been taught and reminded to never let the sun go down on my anger. I was taught to forgive others, not to be envious of what other people had, and not to allow myself to become bitter because of any resentment I might feel toward others. Although Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte, is a work of fiction, several of the actions of the characters in the novel provide a look at what could happen to those who choose not to forgive others or who insist on being envious and resentful of others. In fact, one of the most important themes of the novel is that people should recognize that constant anger and built up resentment can only lead to bitterness with often results in their own destruction and not necessarily the destruction

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.”