Not only does Cathy use her erotic ways to get what she desires, but she also uses physical pain and eventually, murder. After fighting with her father about Cathy’s attempt at running away, Cathy had had enough. One night Cathy leaves an apron in the oven of her house, locks all the doors, steals her father’s money, and leaves her parents to die in her childhood home, erupting into flames. Enjoying every second of her act and not feeling any remorse, Cathy’s cheeks “were bright with color and her eyes shone and her mouth turned up in its small childlike smile” (85). The murder of her parents is Cathy’s first real act of evil that Steinbeck shows in the book, showing how much hatred she is capable of and the extent to which she will go to get her way.
Cathy, catching a glimpse of her friend in his concealment, flew to embrace him; she bestowed seven or eight kisses on his cheek within the second, and then stopped, and drawing back, burst into a laugh, exclaiming, 'Why, how very black and cross you look! and how - how funny and grim! But that 's because I 'm used to Edgar and Isabella Linton. Well, Heathcliff, have you forgotten me? ' (Bronte, 45). (Hindley is speaking).
After Cathy was caught in her lies and was punished for it, she found herself drained and powerless until she met Adam and Charles Trask. When the men come in contact with Cathy, they both perceive different emotions toward her. While Charles thought she was unappealing, Adam fell “head-over-heals” for Cathy and she seized Adam’s foolishness as an opportunity for her to re-gain control. After Adam took her under his wings and her strength slowly built back up, he surrenders to her beauty and proposes. At this point, Cathy has Adam wrapped around her fingers but Charles sees through her malevolent behaviors.
Cathy is one of the characters that are so complex in her being that she out of
In Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, Heathcliff’s strong love for Catherine guides his transformation as a character. While Heathcliff enters the story as an innocent child, the abuse he receives at a young age and his heartbreak at Catherine’s choice to marry Edgar Linton bring about a change within him. Heathcliff’s adulthood is consequently marked by jealousy and greed due to his separation from Catherine, along with manipulation and a deep desire to seek revenge on Edgar. Although Heathcliff uses deceit and manipulation to his advantage throughout the novel, he is never entirely content in his current situation. As Heathcliff attempts to revenge Edgar Linton, he does not gain true fulfillment. Throughout Wuthering Heights, Brontë uses Heathcliff’s vengeful actions to convey the message that manipulative and revenge-seeking behaviors will not bring a person satisfaction.
The involvement of a family member with the previously misjudged character directly causes each heroine’s fallout of sorts with her future husband, who will henceforth be referred to as the hero. Catherine’s brother James becomes involved with Isabella before she is known to be such a determined flirt, but when she all but abandons him for Captain Tilney, it becomes known to General Tilney that Catherine’s family is not as rich as formerly supposed, and this results in
Cathy, the twin’s mother, insists that there is only evil in the world, and immersed herself into taking advantage of other people’s flaws and weaknesses. Cathy also had that freedom of choice, but she always made the wrong decision and remained the totally evil character throughout the novel.
Her sly and calculated personality prevents her from completing a task without precise and careful planning. Therefore, when Cathy, a being who lacks a certain aspect of humanity, initially meets Adam Trask, she sees a weak, motherless, puppy-like man she can easily manipulate. She acts under the false pretense of what Adam longed for the most: motherly care. However, to many readers and characters, Cathy seems
Another way the idea of good versus evil is expressed is by the internal conflicts of the characters. Cathy is good example of a character that has an inner conflict of good versus evil. Cathy, the most evil of all in this novel, kills her parents, manipulates Adam and Charles, attempts to abort her children, shoots Adam, abandons her twin sons once they are born, and murders Faye, her friend and boss. However, the good in Cathy overcomes the bad. By the end of the novel she becomes religious and she leaves all of her fortune to her son. Charles is also a good example of a character struggling with inner conflict. Whenever Adam beats him in a game, Charles becomes very abusive towards him; once he almost kills Adam. However, Charles also protects Adam from others and he does, in fact, love him. He "fought any boy who ... slurred Adam and ... protected Adam from his father's harshness" (Steinbeck 491). Adam is forced to join the service and is sent to war, Charles tries to keep in touch with him by writing letters. In
When Cathy is first introduced, the narrator calls her a monster, but in chapter seventeen, the narrator begins to doubt his claim, pitying her “waiting for her pregnancy to be over, living on a farm she did not like, with a man she did not love” (138). By including a statement discussing her unhappiness gives Cathy a human motivation to escape, although her escape is evil. When Cathy leaves, she shoots Adam because he attempts to stop her, but she does not aim for his head or heart to kill him, only a shot to the leg, which is enough to stop him, but not enough to kill him. A fatal shot would have been easy for Cathy, however, she had no reason to, so she only damaged Adam enough to achieve her goal. Unwanted pregnancies and unhappy marriages are all situations women attempt to escape, and in some cases, in extreme ways, like shooting their husbands. Humanizing Cathy connects humanity to evil.
When Catherine resides in Thrushcross Grange, her coarse demeanor is heavily augmented by the values of the upper class. Catherine’s return from a five weeks stay at Thrushcross Grange renders “her manners much improved” and her appearance as a “very dignified person” (Bronte,37). Catherine proves to be a proper, civil woman, when on the Grange, picking up on the well-mannered tendencies of Edgar and
As a young orphan who is brought to Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff is thrown into abuse as Hindley begins to treat Heathcliff as a servant in reaction to Mr. Earnshaw’s death. As a reaction to both this and Catherine discarding Heathcliff for Edgar, Heathcliff’s sense of misery and embarrassment causes him to change and spend the rest of his time seeking for justice. Throughout this time, Heathcliff leans on violence to express the revenge that he so seeks by threatening people and displaying villainous traits. However, Heathcliff’s first symptom of change in personality is when Heathcliff runs into Hareton after Cathy “tormented
Martha Nussbaum describes the romantic ascent of various characters in Wuthering Heights through a philosophical Christian view. She begins by describing Catherine as a lost soul searching for heaven, while in reality she longs for the love of Heathcliff. Nussbaum continues by comparing Heathcliff as the opposition of the ascent from which the Linton’s hold sacred within their Christian beliefs. Nussbaum makes use of the notion that the Christian belief in Wuthering Heights is both degenerate and way to exclude social classes.
The novel of Wuthering Heights involves passion, romance, and turmoil but most significantly carries cruelty as an overarching theme. Cruelty is apparent throughout the work most importantly when dealing with relationships between Heathcliff and Hindley, Heathcliff and Hareton, and even the emotional cruelty between Heathcliff and Catherine.
Catherine’s story begins with the description of her living in the village Fullerton where she has grown up with her family of nine siblings and her parents (who educated her over the years). It is then that family friends of the Morlands, the Allens, (a wealthy couple without children), proposal that Catherine comes along with them to visit the tourist town of Bath. Catherine is more than willing to take up the invitation but her expectations of the outside world are exaggerated due to her reading