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.
1.
Emily Jane Brontë
Emily Jane Brontë lived a
quiet life in Yorkshire with her clergyman father; brother, Branwell Brontë;
and two sisters, Charlotte and Anne.
The sisters enjoyed writing poetry and novels, which they published under
pseudonyms. As "Ellis Bell," Emily wrote Wuthering
Heights (1847)—her only published novel—which garnered wide critical
and commerical acclaim.
Born on July 30, 1818, in
Thornton, Yorkshire, England, Emily Brontë is best remembered for her 1847
novel, Wuthering Heights. She was
not the only creative talent in her family—her sisters Charlotte and Anne
enjoyed some literary success as well. Her father had published several works
during his lifetime, too.
Emily
was the fifth child of Reverend Patrick Brontë and his wife, Maria Branwell
Brontë. The family moved to Haworth in April 1821. Only a few months later,
Brontë's mother died of cancer; her death came nearly nine months after the
birth of her sister, Anne. Her mother's sister, Elizabeth Branwell, came to
live with the family to help care for the children.
At
home in Haworth, Brontë enjoyed her quiet life. She read extensively and began
to make up stories with her siblings. The surviving Brontë children, which
included brother Branwell, had strong imaginations. They created tales inspired
by toy soldiers given to Branwell by their father. In 1835, the shy Emily tried
leaving home for school. She went with Charlotte to Miss Wooler's school in Roe
Head where Charlotte worked as a teacher. But she stayed only a few months
before heading back to Haworth.
Coming
from a poor family, Brontë tried to find work. She became a teacher at the Law
Hill School in September 1837, but she left her position the following March.
Brontë and her sister Charlotte traveled to Brussels in 1842 to study, but the
death of their aunt Elizabeth forced them to return home. Some of Emily's earliest
known works involve a fictional world called Gondal, which she created with her
sister Anne. She wrote both prose and poems about this imaginary place and its
inhabitants. Emily also wrote other poems as well. Her sister Charlotte
discovered some of Emily's poems and sought to publish them along with her own
work and some by Anne. The three sisters used male pen names for their
collection—Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton
Bell. Published in 1846, the book only sold a few copies and garnered
little attention.
Again
publishing as Ellis Bell, Brontë published her defining work, Wuthering Heights, in December 1847. The
complex novel explores two families—the Earnshaws and the Lintons—across two
generations and their stately homes, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange.
Heathcliff, an orphan taken in by the Earnshaws, is the driving force between
the action in the book. He first motivated by his love for his Catherine
Earnshaw, then by his desire for revenge against her for what he believed to be
rejection.
At first, reviewers did not
know what to make of Wuthering Heights.
It was only after Brontë's death that the book developed its reputation as a
literary masterwork. She died of tuberculosis on December 19, 1848, nearly two
months after her brother, Branwell, succumbed to the same disease. Her sister
Anne also fell ill and died of tuberculosis the following May.Interest in
Brontë's work and life remains strong today. The parsonage where Brontë spent
much of her life is now a museum. The Brontë Society operates the museum and
works to preserve and honor the work of the Brontë sisters.
Sources:
https://www.biography.com/writer/emily-bronte
Links for more information:
1. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Emily-Bronte
(Emily Bronte)
2. https://medium.com/@scrbblyblog/wuthering-heights-character-analysis-2ce29fa0f870
(Character Analysis)
3. https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/w/wuthering-heights/character-list
(Character Analysis)
4. https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/w/wuthering-heights/critical-essays/major-themes
(Themes)
5. https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/discuss-various-techniques-wuthering-heights-398131
(Techniques)
6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYCSL5cZCio
(Movie-Wuthering Heights)
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