Heathcliff is a complex and enigmatic character in Emily Brontë's novel "Wuthering Heights." He is a man of great passion and emotion, but also one who is deeply troubled and conflicted.
Heathcliff's early life is shrouded in mystery, as he is orphaned at a young age and taken in by Mr. Earnshaw, the owner of Wuthering Heights. From the beginning, Heathcliff is treated poorly by Mr. Earnshaw's son, Hindley, and is ostracized by the other members of the household. Despite this, Heathcliff develops a deep bond with Mr. Earnshaw's daughter, Catherine, and the two become inseparable.
As they grow older, Catherine becomes engaged to Edgar Linton, a wealthy young man from the nearby Thrushcross Grange. Despite his love for Catherine, Heathcliff is resigned to the fact that she will marry Edgar and decides to leave Wuthering Heights. However, Catherine's marriage to Edgar is tumultuous, and she eventually returns to Wuthering Heights, where she dies giving birth to their daughter, Cathy.
Heathcliff's love for Catherine is all-consuming and he becomes consumed by grief and anger after her death. He becomes determined to take revenge on those who have wronged him, including Hindley and Edgar. He becomes the owner of Wuthering Heights and begins to manipulate and control those around him, including Cathy and Hareton, the son of Hindley.
Despite his cruelty and manipulation, it is clear that Heathcliff is a deeply troubled and damaged individual. His past experiences, including his mistreatment as a child and the loss of Catherine, have had a profound impact on his character and his actions. In the end, Heathcliff's actions lead to the destruction of many lives and the ruin of Wuthering Heights, and he ultimately dies alone, consumed by his own hatred and misery.
Overall, Heathcliff is a complex and multifaceted character whose actions are driven by his deep love for Catherine and his intense emotions. Despite his flaws and his cruelty, it is clear that he is a man who has suffered greatly and has been shaped by the events of his past.
Heathcliff (Character)
It is far from being the case: I have lost the faculty of enjoying their destruction, and I am too idle to destroy for nothing. Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 2nded. Heathcliff was her soul and she knew he was. The rivalry is almost immediate. Yes, you may kiss me and cry and wring out my kisses and tears. Lockwood predicts Heathcliff will maintain his reserve and abstain from showing his feelings.
How sympathetic is Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights?
The series ran for 56 issues, changing to the Heathcliff's Funhouse which also switched over to Marvel with issue 6. I wish he'd been soldered in lead — and I bribed the sexton to pull it away, when I'm laid there, and slide mine out too. That Heathcliff is given the name of an Earnshaw son who died in childhood confirms the impression of him being a superhuman changeling, an otherworldly being that takes the place of a human child Arnold Kettle. Edward also opens Janes eyes to a world that is bigger than she realized due to his company at the house, wealth, and opportunities at the favorable Thornfeild manor at which she was employed by him. Although at this point, Heathcliff could be called evil for making people's lives around him miserable, even Nelly, with her simplistic view of the situation decided that Hindley, because of Frances' death, had become so malicious that it "was enough to make a fiend of a saint". Because misery, and degradation, and death, and nothing God or Satan could inflict would have parted us, you, of your own will, did it. For example when asked why he should not leave retribution to God, Heathcliff replies "No, God won't have the satisfaction that I shall.
Character Analysis Of Heathcliff In 'Wuthering Heights'
He appears to be slightly overweight and has two black, conjoined eyes with a black nose. He is unable to have any other goals in life because of this relationship and therefore is crippled by it until he dies. Works Cited Brontëë, Emily. The protagonist, but also the antagonist, Heathcliff, dies from his decision in motivations. As the story progresses, it becomes clear that the most effective emotional abuse Heathcliff suffers from is from his love, Catherine. Retrieved 4 August 2010.
Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights: Character Analysis & Revenge
Nelly warned him to avoid Heathcliff. This means that he sometimes does not take all of the factors of a situation into account when he makes up his mind to do something. In the 1800s, fictional characters that were created to undermine the female stereotype were not accepted in literature. Yes, you may kiss me, and cry, and wring out my kisses and tears; they'll blight you—they'll damn you. He is badly treated by Hindley and his love for Catherine which is more like a twin's than a lover's becomes all-enveloping. Furthermore , he is a calculated character. Heathcliff, as an eavesdropper, partially discovers her dilemma, and what he hears motivates him to leave.
Character of Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights Essay Example
For the most part, Heathcliff endures the physical abuse better than expected for a child in his circumstances. It will be ten times blacker with that guest than it ever was before! He is brooding, ostracized from society in some way, intelligent, arrogant and hyper aware of himself. She analyzes his transformation in appearance and demeanor and makes contrasts with Edgar Linton, setting the two men in competition once again. This writing, however, was nothing but a name repeated in all kinds of characters, large and small—Catherine Earnshaw, here and there varied to Catherine Heathcliff, and then again to Catherine Linton. You have killed yourself.
Heathcliff In Wuthering Heights: Character Analysis Essay Example
However, his wish that her soul would not rest shows the selfish side of his love: He prays that she would haunt him so he would not lose her. A prime example of this shocking characterisation which in a rational, civilised world we could not condone, is the section already studied where Heathcliff digs up the grave of Catherine to get closer to her. He professes his love to Catherine on her deathbed after she gave birth to her daughter: ''I have not broken your heart - you have broken it; and in breaking it, you have broken mine. This intensely powerful language presents Heathcliff as animalistic; the wild embodiment of evil unburdened by human conscience. Bittered by the constant rejection — by his parents, by his adoptive family, by his love, — Heathcliff himself rejects any thoughts of happiness for himself and instead focuses on hurting others. Schultz, the manager of the local fish store, called the Elite Fish Market; tipping over, and much more often somersaulting garbage cans into the air, to the annoyance of the local sanitation workers; annoying the milkman to get milk usually by tricking them into dropping a milk bottle or two ; bothering the hard-working sailors who work on the Tuna Fleet; harassing and abusing the dog population; being an informant to the local dog catchers; and pursuing female cats.
Hindley loses his property to Heathcliff in gambling. Heathcliff spends so much of his time in an elaborate attempt to destroy Thruschross Grange and Wuthering Heights, with all their inhabitants. Catherine again acts as a catalyst by confining the two to a room and Heathcliff manages to rile Hindley so much that he draws a gun and knife on him. Its violence, extremities and gothic nature still have qualities that shock modern day readers of the novel, and this is due to the fact that every section of the novel ensures the reader asks questions of ones own morality. I was amazed, more than ever, to behold the transformation of Heathcliff. It was the same room into which he had been ushered as a guest, eighteen years before. He as I said in question one, suggests that he is going to treat Cathy badly, almost as a slave, when he takes her back to Wuthering Heights.
The more the worms writhe, the more I yearn to crush out their entrails! He had grown a tall, athletic, well-formed man; beside whom my master seemed quite slender and youth-like…His countenance was much older in expression and decision of feature than Mr. It is ironic then that we view Edgar very much as a weak character, does this suggest that humans are week? As Nelly witnesses his reaction, the readers see his passionate and desperate love for Catherine. Necrophilia is act which would shock and disgust twenty-first century audiences let alone Victorian ones, however it is in context with the rest of the novel, and Heathcliffs character seems reasonable. Apart from his passional bond with Catherine, his relations with other characters are almost exclusively antagonistic. I could not think him dead: but his face and throat were washed with rain; the bed-clothes dripped, and he was perfectly still. American comic strip Heathcliff Author s Peter Gallagher 2001—present Website. None of the main protagonists could one describe as being rationale, not all the characters are of made up of such extremities as Heathcliff, some of them, such as Edgar could be described as Human like.
One could almost conclude that the very people Heathcliff manipulated created their own fate by allowing him to witness what would destroy them. He loves Catherine, and she loves him, but settling both of their scores kept them sharing their final goal - being together. Inevitably, Edgar Linton proposes to Catherine. But she prefers to marry Edgar for his position and breeding, and he vows vengeance on Hindley, Edgar and their children. Heathcliff arrives in the summer of 1771, a small, withdrawn boy. There are two families in Wuthering Heights: the Lintons, who are polite and civilized, and the Earnshaws, who are less civilized.
