Character Analysis- Heathcliff
To everyone, but
Catherine and Hareton, Heathcliff seems to be an inhuman monster or even
incarnate evil. From a literary perspective, he is a man of stormy emotions,
who shuns humanity because he himself has been ostracized; a rebellious hero,
who functions as a law unto himself. Heathcliff is both despicable and
pitiable. His one sole passion is Catherine, yet his commitment to his notion
of a higher love does not seem to include forgiveness.
Readers need to
determine if his revenge is focused on his lost position at Wuthering Heights,
his loss of Catherine to Edgar, or if it his assertion of dignity as a human
being. The difficulty most readers have relating to and understanding
Heathcliff is the fact that he hates as deeply as he loves; therefore, he is
despised as much as he is pitied.
Character Analysis- Catherine Earnshaw
Often viewed as
the epitome of the free spirit, Catherine is torn between two worlds. On the one
hand, she longs to be with Heathcliff, her soul mate: their life together,
growing up and playing on the moors, represents the freedom and innocence of
childhood. On the other hand, she recognizes what a marriage to Edgar can do
for her socially, and she enjoys those things that Edgar can provide for her.
Ultimately, she is self-absorbed and self-centered, and although she claims to
love both Heathcliff and Edgar, she loves herself more, and this selfish love
ends up hurting everyone, who cares for her.
Not until she nears
death does Catherine turn exclusively towards Heathcliff, abandoning Edgar.
Ironically, Heathcliff does not fully forgive her, and because of this, Edgar
is the man, who gives every appearance of loving Catherine unconditionally.
Character Analysis- Cathy Linton
Cathy's nature, a
combination of both her parents, is key to revising the past. Her wildness and
willfulness lead her to Wuthering Heights and the problems and pitfalls related
therein. Her constant loyalty, good nature, and perseverance, however,
eventually restore order and love to the farmhouse, thwarting Heathcliff's
plans for revenge.
Just as Catherine's
presence dominates the first half of the text, Cathy's rules the second. Edgar
tries to keep her from Wuthering Heights and from Heathcliff, but her
attraction to a man and her independent nature — characteristics that mirror
her mother — once again make Edgar's appeals ineffective.
Character Analysis Edgar Linton
Edgar
represents the typical Victorian hero, possessing qualities of constancy and
tenderness; however, a non-emotional intellectual is not the type of person,
who can make Catherine happy in the long run. Edgar loves and understands
Catherine more than anyone realizes, but love alone is not enough to sustain a
relationship. He ends up losing everything, his wife, his sister, his daughter,
and his home to Heathcliff because good does not always overcome evil. He is a
foil for Heathcliff.
Character Analysis-Ellen (Nelly) Dean
Nelly
serves as both outsider and insider as she narrates the primary story of Wuthering
Heights. Although she does not exhibit the extreme lengths of cruelty shown
by Heathcliff and Catherine, Nelly often is an instigator, who enjoys the
conflict around her. Nelly can be seen as a combination of Heathcliff's cruelty
and Catherine's self-centeredness.
Heathcliff's Obsession
Throughout Wuthering
Heights two distinct yet related obsessions drive Heathcliff's
character: his desire for Catherine's love and his need for revenge. Catherine,
the object of his obsession, becomes the essence of his life, yet, in a sense,
he ends up murdering his love. Ironically, after her death, Heathcliff's
obsession only intensifies.
Heathcliff's
love for Catherine enables him to endure Hindley's mal treatment after Mr.
Earnshaw's death. But, after overhearing Catherine admits that she could not
marry him, Heathcliff leaves. Nothing is known of his life away from her, but
he returns with money. Heathcliff makes an attempt to join the society to which
Catherine is drawn. Upon his return, she favors him to Edgar, but still he
cannot have her. He is constantly present, lurking around Thrushcross Grange,
visiting after hours, and longing to be buried in a connected grave with her so
their bodies would disintegrate into one. Ironically, his obsession with
revenge seemingly outweighs his obsession with his love, and that is why he
does not fully forgive Catherine for marrying Edgar.
After
Catherine's death, he must continue his revenge, a revenge that starts as
Heathcliff assumes control of Hindley's house and his son, and continues with
Heathcliff taking everything that is Edgar's. Although Heathcliff constantly
professes his love for Catherine, he has no problem attempting to ruin the life
of her daughter. He views an ambiguous world as black and white: a world of haves
and have-nots. And for too long, he has been the outsider. That is why he is
determined to take everything away from those at Wuthering Heights and
Thrushcross Grange, who did not accept him. For Heathcliff, revenge is a more
powerful emotion than love.
Major Themes
Of the major themes in Wuthering
Heights, the nature of love, both romantic and brotherly but, oddly enough,
not erotic, applies to the principal characters as well as the minor ones.
Every relationship in the text is strained at one point or another. Brontë's
exploration of love is best discussed in the context of good versus evil, which
is another way of saying love versus hate. Although the polarities between good
and evil are easily understood, the differences are not that easily applied to
the characters and their actions.
The most important relationship is
the one between Heathcliff and Catherine. The nature of their love seems to go
beyond the kind of love most people know. In fact, it is as if their love is
beyond this world, belonging on a spiritual plane that supersedes anything
available to everyone else on Earth. Their love seems to be born out of their
rebellion and not merely a sexual desire. They both, however, do not fully
understand the nature of their love, for they betray one another: Each of them
marry a person, whom they know they do not love as much as they love each
other.
Contrasting the capacity for love
is the ability to hate. And Heathcliff hates with a vengeance. Heathcliff
initially focuses his hate toward Hindley, then to Edgar, and then to a certain
extent, to Catherine. Because of his hate, Heathcliff resorts to what is
another major theme in Wuthering Heights, revenge. Hate and revenge
intertwine with selfishness to reveal the conflicting emotions that drive
people to do things that are not particularly nice or rationale. Some choices
are regretted while others are relished.
These emotions make the majority of
the characters in Wuthering Heights well rounded and more than
just traditional stereotypes. Instead of symbolizing a particular emotion,
characters symbolize real people with real, oftentimes not-so-nice emotions.
Every character has at least one redeeming trait or action with which the
reader can empathize. This empathy is a result of the complex nature of the
characters and results in a depiction of life in the Victorian Era, a time when
people behaved very similarly to the way they do today.
Book Summary
Wuthering Heights opens with Lockwood, a tenant of
Heathcliff's, visiting the home of his landlord. A subsequent visit to
Wuthering Heights yields an accident and a curious supernatural encounter,
which pique Lockwood's curiosity. Back at Thrushcross Grange and recuperating
from his illness, Lockwood begs Nelly Dean, a servant who grew up in Wuthering
Heights and now cares for Thrushcross Grange, to tell him of the history of
Heathcliff. Nelly narrates the main plot line of Wuthering Heights.
Mr. Earnshaw, a Yorkshire Farmer
and owner of Wuthering Heights, brings home an orphan from Liverpool. The boy
is named Heathcliff and is raised with the Earnshaw children, Hindley and
Catherine. Catherine loves Heathcliff but Hindley hates him because Heathcliff
has replaced Hindley in Mr. Earnshaw's affection. After Mr. Earnshaw's death,
Hindley does what he can to destroy Heathcliff, but Catherine and Heathcliff
grow up playing wildly on the moors, oblivious of anything or anyone else —
until they encounter the Lintons.
Edgar and Isabella Linton live at
Thrushcross Grange and are the complete opposites of Heathcliff and Catherine.
The Lintons welcome Catherine into their home but shun Heathcliff. Treated as
an outsider once again, Heathcliff begins to think about revenge. Catherine, at
first, splits her time between Heathcliff and Edgar, but soon she spends more
time with Edgar, which makes Heathcliff jealous. When Heathcliff overhears
Catherine tell Nelly that she can never marry him (Heathcliff), he leaves
Wuthering Heights and is gone for three years.
While he is gone, Catherine
continues to court and ends up marrying Edgar. Their happiness is short-lived
because they are from two different worlds, and their relationship is strained
further when Heathcliff returns. Relationships are complicated even more as
Heathcliff winds up living with his enemy, Hindley (and Hindley's son,
Hareton), at Wuthering Heights and marries Isabella, Edgar's sister. Soon after
Heathcliff's marriage, Catherine gives birth to Edgar's daughter, Cathy, and
dies.
Heathcliff vows revenge and does
not care who he hurts while executing it. He desires to gain control of
Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange and to destroy everything Edgar Linton
holds dear. In order to exact his revenge, Heathcliff must wait 17 years.
Finally, he forces Cathy to marry his son, Linton. By this time he has control
of the Heights and with Edgar's death, he has control of the Grange.
Through all of this, though, the
ghost of Catherine haunts Heathcliff. What he truly desires more than anything
else is to be reunited with his soul mate. At the end of the novel, Heathcliff
and Catherine are united in death, and Hareton and Cathy are going to be united
in marriage.
