Emily Bronte 's Wuthering Heights

To begin, Heathcliff uses Isabella as a means of exacting revenge on Edgar Linton, whom he despises. When Heathcliff finds out Isabella is in love with him, he is delighted. His pleasure comes not from a mutual like for Isabella, but rather a vision for revenging Edgar. After Catherine lets slip that Isabella is in love with him, Heathcliff says to her, “...and if you fancy I’ll suffer unrevenged, I’ll convince you of the contrary, in a very little while! Meantime, thank you for telling me your sister-in-law’s secret: I swear I’ll make the most of it. And stand you aside!”(112). Heathcliff’s comment

Though Bronte’s star-cross lovers have seemly bend gender roles, with Catherine exhibiting more masculine traits and Heathcliff with feminine, their relationship still epitomize Beauvoir’s views on the gender dual standard in relationships. The mysterious and untamed disposition of Heathcliff drew Catherine to him, they were very much a like and had a strong connection from childhood. As this love grew it became a part very much of them. However, despite their similar personalities, they were not equals. She modifies herself for love. Catherine went against her independent character and rejected herself to be one with Heathcliff. While, he remains the same. Heathcliff never truly sees Catherine as his equal, he persists on being the superior. Though he has called her his existence on numerous occasions, Heathcliff never refers to himself as Catherine. His love stems from his obsession to possess her and her adoration. Like, the slave owner, he is the master who needs his slave to perpetuate his superiority, she is a conquest to be collected. Ergo, as Heathcliff was losing Catherine to the clutches of death, he exclaims that would never forget her because she is his existence (Bronte 124). A master

When Heathcliff returns three years later, his love for Catherine motivates him to enact revenge upon all those who separated him from her. Since he last saw Catherine, he has “fought through a bitter life”; he “struggled only for [her]” (Brontë 71). Nelly observes a “half-civilized ferocity” in Heathcliff’s brows (Brontë 70); she views him as “an evil beast…waiting his time to spring and destroy” (Brontë 79). Heathcliff’s obsessive love for Catherine becomes a menacing threat. Heathcliff reproaches Catherine because she “treated [him]

   "My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I am Heathcliff" (81)" These words, uttered by Catherine, in the novel Wuthering Heights are for me the starting point in my investigation into the themes of love and obsession in the novel. Catherine has just told her housekeeper that she has made up her mind to marry Edgar Linton, although she is well aware that her love for him is bound to change as time passes. That she is obsessed by her love for Heathcliff she confirms in the above quotation and by saying that she will never, ever be separated from him. Why does she not marry him then? Well, she has

Harsh, wild and unforgiving; the Yorkshire moors on which Emily Brontë played, provided the backdrop and catalyst of turmoil in her most tragic book Wuthering Heights. Born in 1818 in rural England, Haworth she lived in the heart of these wild, desolate expanses which provided her an escape where she truly felt at home and where her imagination flourished. Along with her sisters and brother, the Brontë children in their pastimes would often create stories and poems largely based on their playful ramblings in this environment.

In the novel “Wuthering Heights”, Emily Bronte portrays the character of Catherine in many ways. Bronte displays Catherine to the audience as a paradoxical character as she has both good and bad characteristics. Catherine’s actions raise the question where she deserves to be pitied rather than condemned. I firmly believe that Catherine deserves to be condemned and not pitied.

The division of the classes were clear, and depending on which one, were often quite tough to succeed in. The majority of women belonged to the lower-class like Catherine Earnshaw was. Catherine knows that “if Heathcliff and I married, we should be beggars” (72) Nelly agrees with Catherine, and marrying Edgar will give Catherine the opportunity to “escape from a disorderly, comfortless home into a wealthy respectable one” (Brontë 70). Catherine sees that social and financial stability requires being a lady, which erases the rebel she once was. It was not unusual for women to search for a man who was well

In the book Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, Heathcliff has taken it upon himself to seek revenge against anyone who mistreated him. While doing so, his cruel acts lead to the demise of the first generations of Earnshaws, the family who adopts him. Although his animosity is aimed to one it becomes out of control, it spreads to everyone like a disease of cruelty and heartbreak. Unfortunately a bitter childhood and betrayal of the heart turns a kind soul into an evil sour man searching for vengeance. The avengement of Heathcliff brings on the rage and corruption to the Earnshaw – Linton families tearing through the first generation.

As Isabella is in “the firm clutch of Catherine, (100)” it is clear that Catherine has not changed for the sake of her marriage and still harbors the same pull towards Heathcliff and forceful inclinations that she possessed at the Heights. At this point in her life, her struggle between passivity and violence is manifested in her feelings toward both Edgar and Heathcliff. She is inexplicably drawn to both of them and does not endeavor to choose between them because she finds them both integral to her survival. This results in dynamic changes that alter the Grange itself. While married to Edgar and living in Thrushcross Grange, an inhabitance that once seemed characterized by its peace, Catherine brings strife between the inhabitants, especially when she reunites with Heathcliff. Isabella and Edgar, who once represented the epitome of passivity, are drawn to violence at the intrusion of Heathcliff into their own home, as encouraged by Catherine. While the Lintons are products of Thrushcross Grange, Catherine exhibits control over their natures by drawing out violent actions from characters that are otherwise known for their frailty. This reveals that Isabella and Edgar exhibit this same duality and can be persuaded to reveal their violent tendencies because it is opposing forces are a defining aspect of humanity. As a result of

Vengeance unleashes its utmost immoral behaviors in its perpetrators. And although its success brings temporary happiness, it ultimately rewards remorse. In the novel, Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte, the current tenant of Thrushcross Grange learns the history of the events that took place on the Yorkshire moors: the intense, dramatic romance between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, her betrayal of him, and Heathcliff’s resentful vengeance on the innocent heirs. In conversations of Bronte’s classic, Wuthering Heights, questions about the book’s meaning inevitably emerge. While many argue that the book focuses on love, others assert that the nature of redemption lies at the heart of the

At her age, Catherine should have felt the happiest she has even been after Edgar’s proposal, but her emotions toward Heathcliff changed all that. One way she states her love for Heathcliff by saying: “’My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath’” (Brontë 74), illustrating the everlastings of her emotions and that they will never fade no matter what happens. Yet on the other hand, her ambitions get the best of her in which she says to Nelly: “’I shall like to be the greatest woman in the neighbourhood, and I shall be proud of having such a husband [Edgar Linton]’” (Brontë 71). Instead of marrying for true love as seen throughout fairy tales, Catherine marries Edgar solely for reputation, following her mind instead of her heart. The conflict of her following her heart or her mind has led her into denial by imagining that by marrying Edgar she is doing the right thing and that she could raise Heathcliff, for at this time he is poor. Catherine is not the only one affected by denial, Isabella Linton is as well.

This is the first time Catherine herself makes a statement in regards to Heathcliff’s true nature, and it is this final nail in the coffin that sets Heathcliff’s nature to the reader. If we were unconvinced before, we would certainly be convinced now, given Catherine’s astute analysis. Four months after Heathcliff’s return, he carries Isabella away from the Grange and marries her for the chance of attaining her brother’s land. His vengeance is taking

Mr. Heathcliff progresses through his own type of personal revolution which he supports the culture of his enemies, to use them primarily against the future. Noticing the contradictions Catherine states, “It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff, now; so he shall never know I love him; and that, not because he’s handsome, Nelly, but because he’s more myself than I am”(Bronte 70). Since Catherine’s brother, Hindley, has given Heathcliff the status of a servant, she cannot marry him. Here contradictions between both social classes, upper class has to be with the rich and lower class with the poor. Even though Catherine admits that she loves Heathcliff and finds him very handsome she still marries Edgar Linton, who has social position and money.

With this description, Catherine emphasizes the social values of the eighteenth century through her willingness to defy authority and reason, pitting her against the strict societal expectations of the era. However, the exposure of Catherine to Thrushcross Grange as she stays at the manor to recover from the injury to her ankle, prompts a transformation in her romanticist character that openly explores the cultural values of the Yorkshire Manors. The civility of the Lintons in Thrushcross Grange transforms the once-defiant and youthful Catherine into a mature and well-groomed lady that develops an internal conflict between her love for the well-mannered and wealthy Edgar Linton and the lowly Heathcliff. In Brontë’s novel, Catherine emphasizes her characterization in a scene where she laments this internal conflict saying, “I've no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in heaven; and if the wicked man in there had not brought Heathcliff so low, I shouldn't have thought of it. It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love him” (Brontë

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë features the prominent characters of Edgar and Nelly, and their relations with main protagonist Catherine. Edgar, Catherine’s husband and one of her love interests, primarily sees his wife as an intelligent lady who occasionally uses dramatics to get her way. Said dramatic outbursts tend to be violent as well as shock Edgar. Early on in their relationship he seems to believe she has gotten over these emotional episodes. Until he finds her violently shaking her little brother and when Edgar attempts to intervene she strikes him. He goes to leave and she tries to convince to stay, and then starts crying about being alone.