Heathcliff - Hero or Villain

However Catherine lured Heathcliff into a relationship, brain washed him into thinking that she truely loved him and was going to marry him one fine day. Instead she discarded their relationship and decided to marry Edgar Linton, a wealthy man. Catherine discarded her relationship with Heathcliff, for one main reason and that was because he was not a wealthy man. It was obvious that Catherine married Edgar so she could be the greatest woman of the neighbourhood and if she married Heathcliff it would degrade her and they would both end up as beggars . This a good example of how Heathcliff was a victim of class hatred.

Wuthering Heights is a novel which deviates from the standard of Victorian literature. The novels of the Victorian Era were often works of social criticism. They generally had a moral purpose and promoted ideals of love and brotherhood. Wuthering Heights is more of a Victorian Gothic novel; it contains passion, violence, and supernatural elements (Mitchell 119). The world of Wuthering Heights seems to be a world without morals. In Wuthering Heights, Brontë does not idealize love; she presents it realistically, with all its faults and merits. She shows that love is a powerful force which can be destructive or redemptive. Heathcliff has an all-consuming passion for Catherine. When she chooses to marry Edgar, his spurned love turns into a

In Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte uses the setting of the English Moors, a setting she is familiar with, to place two manors, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. The first symbolizes man's dark side while the latter symbolizes an artificial utopia. This 19th century setting allows the reader to see the destructive nature of love when one loves the wrong person.

The metaphors drawn from nature in Wuthering Heights drive the plot primarily through characterization. Rarely does the story venture outside, containing almost exclusively scenes leading up to a character’s departure and the response to his/her journey. The absence of tangible nature in a book so driven by its symbolism seems peculiar at first. Why does the author not provide the reader any detail of Heathcliff’s struggle against the storm after he departs in heartbreak? By narrating the storm in terms of how it is observed from inside, the reader loses the expected description of the storm’s intensity. Even Catherine’s diary, the most

Not only does Brontë do this with Heathcliff, but Catherine is also described using the unpredictable, wildness of the nature of the moors. ‘…returning his look with a suddenly clouded brow: her humour was a mere vane for constantly varying caprices.’ (II, 1) By comparing Catherine to her surrounding environment this, no doubt, confirms how the wild savagery of her upbringing, playing in the moors, has influenced her with a harsh and instinctive temper.

Emily Bronte’s dramatic novel, Wuthering Heights, is a compelling look into the human nature of the individual persona. Most of the novel could be used as an analysis of contrasts, the traits and personalities that form in the environment of little rules found crafted in the novel are each as unique as they are distinctive in how they represent themselves. Using the juxtaposition inherent in characters personalities, such as Heathcliff and Edgar, and the differences presented by settings of both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, Bronte submits us to the extreme conflicts and emotions that brood and grow with such polar characters. It’s in the polarity itself that the novel finds its power, using opposites of setting, personality, and traditional conventions Emily Bronte argues that humans are inherently selfish, only thinking of themselves before others and as such can only operate in a

Human beings can be truly deranged creatures. Often times they are seen as elevating and putting themselves on a pedestal. They will treat people who are not the same as them as they are garbage and worthless. Although it is not their fault to simply put it, it is human nature. More specifically the ugliness of human nature. The complex characters in Wuthering Heights are guilty of this. Their circumstances drive them to do unthinkable things which unfortunately have drastic outcomes. Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights is a beautifully written novel that shows the ugliness of human nature as seen through the depiction of toxic relationships, displaying revenge and vengeance in the differentiation of social class.

The first theme is that of displacement. After reading a majority of Wuthering Height there is a lot involving people who have been displaced. Our first example of this would be when Mr.Earnshaw brings back Heathcliff to Wuthering Heights “The master tried to explain the matter; but he was really half dead with fatigue, and all that I could make out, amongst her scolding, was a tale of his seeing it starving, and houseless, and as good as dumb, in the streets of Liverpool, where he picked it up and inquired for its owner." (Bronte, p.38) From this quote we can see that Heathcliff is out of placed due to the fact that he is very dirty, and ragged, where as the Earnshaws are fair-skinned and well-groomed.

Eventually Catherine and Heathcliff became friends again and fall in love with each other. Although it was obvious that Catherine loved Heathcliff, Catherine felt obligated to marry someone from the upper-class, like Edgar Linton, instead of a peasant like Heathcliff. When Catherine was with Edgar she was forced to act like a proper lady and suppressed her real personality; but with Heathcliff, Catherine acted like she always has. This depicted a Victorian woman’s struggle to hide who she really was to find a good husband.

This passage illustrates not only the stark difference of demeanor between Nelly and Heathcliff, but the shift in Heathcliff’s conduct and mindset when Catherine was no longer around. The passage begins by Nelly describing how peaceful Catherine’s death was and how she hoped her afterlife would be just as peaceful. Immediately after, Heathcliff proclaims that Catherine should “wake in torment”; a stark difference to Nelly and Heathcliff’s attitude about her death. Nelly wishes her to be peaceful, but Heathcliff is so selfish that he wishes Catherine a tortured afterlife to comfort himself. The juxtaposition of the peaceful tone set by Nelly and the agony expressed by Heathcliff sets the stage for Heathcliff’s deranged manner that continues through the rest of the book.

Earnshaw almost forces to conform to the disorderly system, like an ill-fitting puzzle piece. He is raised in a civilization that delegates him as the lowest of the low, and it causes him to develop resentment toward those in power. It is important for the reader to take note of Emily Bronte’s belief in the natural organization of social class – one that morphs in disorder. Therefore, Heathcliff can be viewed as the antagonist as he tries to construct a social class system that puts him at the top of the food chain around the previously natural Wuthering Heights. Rather than forcing himself into the puzzle of Wuthering Heights, he tries to build a new puzzle around himself. When Mr. Earnshaw establishes Heathcliff as his favorite child, Hindley is appalled by this disruption to the status quo. As a result, Hindley tries to gain power for himself by bullying Catherine and Heathcliff into positions lower than him; Heathcliff caused the inhabitants to fight for the social class structure that they had previously ignored. This is shown again when Catherine longs to be part of the upper class, saying “if I marry Linton, I can aid Heathcliff to rise and place him out of my brother’s power” (82). Heathcliff’s application of a new social structure does not help him have power over

In the first three chapters of Wuthering Heights, Lockwood is forced to grapple with the mystery of Heathcliff’s cruelty, watching him do things from “[striking] his forehead with rage” and “savage vehemence” to threatening to physically assault his daughter-in-law (27). The narrative which the original text of Wuthering Heights provides, however, is not concerned with the emotional progression of the individual, assuming that Heathcliff’s savagery is simply characteristic of his very existence. It is through Catherine Earnshaw’s perspective, manifested through her diaries, that Heathcliff’s cruelty can be assessed, not only as a product of his social environment, but as something deeply entrenched in his racial differences. Catherine’s sympathy

To begin with, the novel’s title, Wuthering Heights, demonstrates that Brontë wants to accentuate the idea of hostility. It is a direct indication to an unpleasant point, such as “hostility emerging from unrestricted exposure to whirling winds” (Analysis of Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë). Furthermore, Bronte even states that “wuthering” refers to “the atmospheric tumult to which its station is exposed in stormy weather” (Brontë 2). Simultaneously, the explanation of the events and residents in Wuthering Heights is

Consistent with most of Emily Bronte’s characters in Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff “is a manifestation of natural forces acting involuntarily under the pressure of his own nature” (Pittock 147). As such, Heathcliff succumbs to his ‘nature’ and reacts without empathy or respect for others. Throughout the novel, the characters, along with readers and critics, question Heathcliff’s ‘nature’. Is Heathcliff succumbing to human nature? Or is he not human at all? Going with the perception of the novel as a sublime take on reality, Heathcliff represents sublime humanity. People characterize themselves as civilized and moral, but conveniently overlook the unpleasant truths of civilization. Heathcliff exists in Wuthering Heights as a fully honest,

Can you love someone so much that it drives you mad? In Emily Bronte’s gothic romance novel, Wuthering Heights, she presents a character, Heathcliff, who is driven with so much passion for his one true love, Catherine, that he resorts to acts of violence to defend his love for her. Heathcliff is an antihero and his character has many complexities due to his undying love for Catherine. Although Heathcliff’s character is complex, most of his violence originates within him simply because he suffers from a deep passionate love for the one and only Catherine.