Explore How Heathcliff Is Portrayed by Bronte

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 character defined by his sympathetic past. Growing up as an orphan from a tender age, deprived of a structured family and family support system, exposed to the negative influences life offered, it is almost a certainty that his behaviour will not be that of an ideal gentleman.

The Development of Heathcliff’s Character in Wuthering Heights Heathcliff is a character who is ever present in “Wuthering Heights” and throughout the novel his character changes. At first he is a poor, homeless child, then he becomes a loved and neglected victim, then he is a degraded lover, and finally he transforms into a vicious, lonely master. Heathcliff is introduced into the novel as a homeless child. He is a ‘“dirty, ragged, black-haired child”’ who Mr. Earnshaw brings to Wuthering Heights from Liverpool. He is constantly referred to as ‘it’ and a ‘gypsy’.

16. Thrushcross Grange has a more civilized nature than Wuthering Heights. Wuthering Heights is personified by storms, stunted plants, and characters that cannot fulfill their own passions with ease. Thrushcross Grange is more enclosed and is not as much exposed to the bitter winds. Gardens and flowers are illustrated in reference to the Grange, and this evokes a sense of optimism and beauty. The Grange is also more associated with money and the material world than is Wuthering Heights, which is more connected to nature. Thrushcross Grange protects the Linton family from Heathcliff and Wuthering Heights itself.

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]

While Wuthering Heights was a symbol of darkness and winter, Thrushcross Grange could only be described as its opposite. Thrushcross Grange can be seen as a happy place that is light and summery. Its inhabitants are blissful and naive. They did not worry or have to fend for themselves because there is always money and servants to wait on them. The inhabitants of the house are ignorant of the cruelties and injustices of the outside world. When Isabella, Edgar's sister, marries Heathcliff and is taken to the Heights, she too learns these realities and is destroyed by them. She is imprisoned in the Heights by her husband. Isabella writes Nelly and describes her depression;

Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights display of cultural and physical features of an environment affecting one’s character and moral traits is showcased through the first Catherine’s development throughout the novel. Catherine is forced to “adopt a double character”, as she lives as a rebellious, passionate woman on the turbulent Wuthering Heights, while behaving politely and courtly on the elegant Thrushcross Grange(Bronte, 48). Each of these environments also contains a love interest of Catherine’s, each man parallel with the characteristics of their environments: Heathcliff, the passionate and destructive, residing in Wuthering Heights, while the civilized and gentle Edgar inhabits Thrushcross Grange. Catherine’s development in character due to her setting significantly contributes to the theme that pursuing passionate love is dangerous, such as the love shared by Heathcliff and Catherine.

The importance this has towards the novel is that it shows that there is more to the Heights and the moors than just a feeling of the paranormal. There really is a ghost haunting the heights, and this entraps the reader by making them believe that there is more to the novel than just the basic story line. The other reason is that Brontë is trying to emphasise just how much Catherine was in love with Heathcliff.

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

Nussbaum also establishes a conflict between the fundamental Christian world of the Lintons, and the chaotic world of Heathcliff. The distinction is clearly drawn as a virtuous and companionate world in which the Linton’s live, while Heathcliff is drawn to immoral and devious actions. The author does not however see it this simple. The superficial piteous world is in fact shadowed by a shallow a fake ideal of life. Even Catherine realizes the forged environment in which the Linton’s live, as she explains, “in whichever place the soul lives. In my soul and in my heart, I’m convinced I’m wrong.” Even though Heathcliff is portrayed as a demonic figure, he also is shown as the romantic Christina lover. This love is the driving force behind his urge to fight against what is expected of him. Both the Linton’s and Heathcliff are not given the satisfaction of becoming the portrait for the ideal Christian.

Emily Bronte’s portrayal of Heathcliff presents him to readers “as dark almost as if it came from the devil’ and a ‘dirty, ragged, black-haired child.” (Emily Bronte) Although her suggestive description indicates Heathcliff is black, the author’s lack of a definitive depiction evokes ambiguity. Bronte purposefully intrigues readers with her absence of certainty by selecting specific language and creating a semantic field of the colour black. Bronte resurfaces the reader’s assumptions

Love is a strong attachment between two lovers and revenge is a strong conflict between two rivals. In the novel Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte uses setting to establish contrast, to intensify conflict, and to develop character. The people and events of Wuthering Heights share a dramatic conflict. Thus, Bronte focuses on the evil eye of Heathcliff's obsessive and perpetual love with Catherine, and his enduring revenge to those who forced him and Catherine apart. The author expresses the conflict of Wuthering Heights with great intensity. Hence, she portrays a combination of crucial issues of romance and money, hate and power, and lastly

The presentation of childhood is a theme that runs through two generations with the novel beginning to reveal the childhood of Catherine and Hindley Earnshaw, and with the arrival of the young Liverpudlian orphan, Heathcliff. In chapter four, Brontë presents Heathcliff’s bulling and abuse at the hands of Hindley as he grows increasingly jealous of Heathcliff for Mr. Earnshaw, his father, has favoured Heathcliff over his own son, “my arm, which is black to the shoulder” the pejorative modifier ‘black’ portrays dark and gothic associations but also shows the extent of the abuse that Heathcliff as a child suffered from his adopted brother. It is this abuse in childhood that shapes Heathcliff’s attitudes towards Hindley and his sadistic

Someone having their true lover marry another person whom they do not truly love would be a difficult and undesirable situation. How a person in a similar situation reacts to it, especially in the long term, can reveal a lot about their character. Such is the case with Heathcliff, the main character of Wuthering Heights, a novel written by Emily Brontë. Wuthering Heights takes place from the late eighteenth century through the early 1800s (decade) within the two houses of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange and on the land surrounding them (1, 58). The two houses are located in England and are near the village of Gimmerton (1, 102).

The novel suggests that the building is far from civilised places, on page twenty-four, chapter two; “..On that bleak hill top the earth was hard with a black frost, and the air made shiver through every limb..” This says that Wuthering Heights is isolated on a bleak hill top, it is dull and miserable and the earth is “..Hard..” and contains “..Black frost..”. The use of “..Black frost..” is Gothic as it describes even the frost as evil. Normal frost is white but “..Black frost..” symbolizes evil. This is very Gothic. Emily Brontë uses a lot of imagery to create tension for the reader. For example on pages thirty-one and thirty-two, chapter three when Lockwood is shown to his chamber in Wuthering Heights by Zillah, Emily Brontë uses a lot of images to create the feeling that the room and the surrounding is coffin like. This makes the building, Wuthering Heights feel supernatural and very Gothic. The house itself is very Gothic, containing tall dark arches and gargoyle statues. There are lots of shadows. Emily Brontë chooses realistic descriptions of the building/house, Wuthering Heights; “..One or two heavy black ones (chairs) lurking in the shade..“. “..Black..” reoccurs frequently in the novel as it suggests evil. The word “..Lurking..” is interesting because it suggests that something does not belong in a place , it is mysterious, as in his case the chairs have no place in Wuthering Heights. Almost as is the chairs are alive and they have thoughts and