Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights Essay

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.

Heathcliff is a victim of class hatred but he also manipulates situations to his advantage and becomes an arch - exploiter. For example, after the death of his wife, Hindley went insane. Heathcliff used this opportunity to take revenge and took Wuthering Heights away from Hindley. He then went further and married Edgar’s sister, not for love or monetary gain but to get back at Edgar for marrying Catherine, and treated Edgar’s sister terribly.

When Isabella and Edgar came to Wuthering Height for the party, they made Heathcliff in temper. “Begone, you vagabond! What, you are attemting the coxcomb, are you” Wait till I get hold of those elegant locks - see it I won’t pull them a bit longer” (Bronte, 42). After Hindley said that, Heathcliff was not very angry. But master Linton continued “They are long enough already. I wonder they don’t make his head ache. It’s like a colt’s mane over his eyes!” (Bronte, 42). Heathcliff’s violent nature is started by Edgar. Heathcliff threw a tureen of hot applesource to the speaker. This Heathcliff’s action prove that he became more cruel and sinister. Everything is limited. But Hinley’s behavior is not limited. Day by day, Heathcliff is severely tortured. And the demin in him grows

Heathcliff cried vehemently, "I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!" Emily Brontë distorts many common elements in Wuthering Heights   to enhance the quality of her book. One of the distortions is Heathcliff's undying love for Catherine Earnshaw. Also, Brontë perverts the vindictive hatred that fills and runs Heathcliff's life after he loses Catherine. Finally, she prolongs death, making it even more distressing and insufferable.

Cruelty compels one to inflict cruelty upon others. In her novel, Wuthering Heights, Brontë illustrates the rough life of Heathcliff, conflicted with whether he should focus his life on loving Catherine Earnshaw or inflicting revenge on those who tortured him as a child. Mr. Earnshaw adopts Heathcliff into the Earnshaw family as an orphan gypsy, a social class that most of the Earnshaw did not care for. The eldest child of Mr. Earnshaw, Hindley, abuses Heathcliff horribly, shaping the way Heathcliff perceives the world around him. Catherine Earnshaw, Hindley’s younger sister, motivates Heathcliff to endure this pain through their affectionate relationship. With his heart focused on revenge, Heathcliff devises a cruel plan to retaliate those who hurt him; he returns to Wuthering Heights as a refined, powerful man. He takes some of his anger out on Hareton Earnshaw, Hindley’s son; this parallels Hindley’s abuse towards Heathcliff. Through Hindley’s and Heathcliff’s abusiveness in Wuthering Heights, Brontë asserts that cruelty cycles from its perpetrators to its victims.

In Emily Bronte 's novel Wuthering Heights, we are taken back to the nineteenth century by a man named Lockwood. He is being told the story of his landlord, Heathcliff, and how he became the man that he is and what he has been through. We learn that Heathcliff was adopted by Mr. Earnshaw on a trip to Liverpool and was brought back to Wuthering Heights to his new family, a mother, a brother, and a sister. Upon arrival he was not greeted with any respect and or love. The Earnshaw 's had more love for the dirt on the bottoms of their shoes than they had for Heathcliff. Throughout Heathcliff 's childhood, he was bullied by his older brother Hindley because Hindley could see that Heathcliff was his father 's favorite child. Upon Mr. Earnshaw 's

The relationship between Heathcliff and Hindley revealed and developed the abusive nature of Heathcliff. Heathcliff was taken in as a young boy into a wealthy family that had two children. Ever since the day he was brought home the eldest son, Hindley, resented how the father favored him more. For example, Heathcliff threatened to tell their father if Hindley did not let him have his horse. This one childish threat had created the foundation of the resentment between the two men. Heathcliff threatened to tell their father that Hindley was making him feel unwelcome and abused emotionally, Hindley decided to not see if Heathcliff was going to follow through with the threat therefore gave him the horse. Later on through life, once the father dies, Hindley decides to take his absence as an excuse to start really physically abusing Heathcliff. He would beat him and punch him without thought of how this would transfer into the rest of his life. Heathcliff was also verbally assaulted by Hindley which is a twist on the traditional sense of cruelty. Hindley is demeaning towards Heathcliff and calls him a slave and make sure that he know that he is not equal with himself or his sister Catherine. This point planted the seed of doubt and not being good enough for the rest of his life. This continual mental assault forged the mindset of little Heathcliff to how he would exact revenge on Hindley for all of his wrongdoings. This cruelty from Hindley was due to the favoritism that Heathcliff received as a child, the death of his father, the death of his wife, and the constant reminder of his wife through his son. The constant cruelty is the motive for Heathcliff's actions once he returns to the Heights. Through baiting Hindley, in his own personal torment from his wife's passing, all the money and possessions are gambled away with Heathcliff as the new owner. Wuthering Heights itself

This leads to him running away from the heights entirely, leaving Catherine to marry Edgar. “He had listened till he heard Catherine say it would degrade her to marry him.” (81). Upon his return (two years later), Heathcliff marries Isabella to get back at Catherine, and her speech about how marrying him would degrade her. Isabella is also taken against her and her family’s will. Heathcliff kidnaps her and locks her away at the heights. In a letter written to Nelly, Isabella confirms that it was truly against her will for her leaving, and that she cannot return in the time of crisis in her brother’s life. “… an entreaty for kind remembrance and reconciliation, if her proceeding offended him: asserting that she could not help it then, and being done, no power to repeal it.” (140). In the act of kidnapping Isabella, Heathcliff’s intent is to hurt Catherine. Catherine would develop almost a jealous-like temper towards the whole situation, as Heathcliff knew it would. Even on Catherine’s deathbed, there is a constant push and pull (in almost a literal sense) of the cruelty that goes on between the two of them. Between the crying, the vexing, and the constant apologies, comes the brutal cruelty of the words Catherine speaks to Heathcliff. “I shall not pity you, not I. You have killed me – and thriven on it, I think.” (164)

Catherine Earnshaw grows very fond of Heathcliff as the years pass. She eventually falls passionately in love with him, but because of Heathcliff's poor financial status and character, she chooses to marry Edgar Linton of Thrushcross Grange. Her reasoning becomes evident in dialogue with Ellen Dean, the housekeeper. In response to Ellen asking why Catherine wants to marry Edgar, Catherine replies, " 'he will be rich, and I shall like to be the greatest woman of the neighbourhood, and I shall be proud of having such a husband' " (106). After marrying Edgar, she refuses to let go of her longings for Heathcliff. This total disregard for others and admiration of herself leads to extreme pain for Edgar, Heathcliff, and herself. This pain is such that it remains with each person until they are laid to rest.

Emily Bronte’s, Wuthering Heights, includes the struggle for happiness, like marry like, and revenge. Heathcliff grew up neglected and abused. When he fell in love with his long time friend, Catherine Earnshaw, she betrayed him by choosing another man over him, causing Heathcliff to become bitter and rude to everyone who comes in contact with him. He goes out of his way to make everyone miserable and unhappy just like himself. Although the perspective of Heathcliff is seen as “a mad man,” he is actually suffering from Antisocial Personality Disorder, Conduct Disorder, and Depression.

Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights is told from a complicated point of view. The narrator of the past is Nelly Dean, while the present time narrator is Mr. Lockwood. Set as a story within a story, Nelly tells Lockwood an eyewitness account of her dealings with the Earnshaws and the Lintons, while Lockwood is the outsider who records in his diary Nelly’s stories of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. From the novel’s beginning, Lockwood proves himself to be objective, while Nelly is subjective as she is able to recall details from many years ago in order to tell the tale of Wuthering Heights. Lockwood’s curiosity brings the reader into the Emily Brontë’s world, but it is Nelly who is most reliable as she is the first hand witness to the two generations of Wuthering Heights.

Heathcliff overhears this conversation between Nelly and Catherine and leaves Wuthering Heights after hearing Catherine say that it would degrade her to marry him. Heathcliff tries to make himself more presentable to Catherine by moving up the social system. However, he does this by cheating and taking advantage of people. Heathcliff takes advantage of Hindley's state of alcoholism and takes over Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff also takes advantage of Edgar Linton's will my making young Catherine (the daughter of Catherine Earnshaw and Edgar Linton) marry Linton (the son of Heathcliff and Isabella Linton)

While at Thrushcross Grange, she grows infatuated with Edgar, despite her love for Heathcliff. Edgar came from an upper class family as well and took care of her when she was in a dog accident. This leads to her acceptance of Edgar Linton’s marriage proposal despite her statements regarding her love for Heathcliff. Heathcliff overhears unfortunate passages of Catherine's discourse and disappears for a period during which he mysteriously makes his fortune and changes irrevocably from the person he was. Vengeance consumes him, and Heathcliff attempts to destroy the lives of those who wronged him, (as well as their children). Ultimately, Heathcliff’s bitterly executed vengeance is effaced by a love between Hareton and Cathy that mirrors Heathcliff’s own love for Catherine. Hareton is Catherine’s nephew and Cathy is Catherine’s daughter, which makes the two first cousins.

It is important to understand that Heathcliff returning to Wuthering Heights is for the purpose of seeking revenge on the people that have wronged him. Hindley receives money and squanders it away and once he dies Heathcliff takes over. Catherine dies also during childbirth, and Heathcliff ask to be haunted by her spirit on earth. Nelly Dean was her nursemaid. Heathcliff is cruel to his own son, Linton who he forces into pursuing Catherine; this is the only way

The self-consuming nature of passion is mutually destructive and tragic. The gothic Victorian novel, Wuthering Heights, was written by Emily Bronte and published in 1847 where Bronte challenges ideas of religious hypocrisy, social classes, gender inequality and mortality. Wuthering Heights was first ill received being too much removed from the ordinary reality in the mid-nineteenth-century; however, Emily Bronte’s novel was remarked as one of the finest Victorian novels in the twentieth-century finally being accepted, well deservingly, as the fantastic and subjective work it truly is. Emily Bronte, in Wuthering Heights, exceedingly and consistently portrays the undeniable truth of Catherine’s and Heathcliff’s toxic love that ultimately becomes their downfall, only to conclude Cathy’s and Hareton’s marriage as restoring the peace and order back into the chaos prolonged by Catherine’s and Heathcliff’s relationship. Even though the hysterical love between Catherine and Heathcliff continuously proves to distraught their lives and the lives around them, they still manage to fight through life and death to finally be united, but to do that, Catherine and Heathcliff both essentially had to meet their death beds.