How Does Heathcliff Change In Chapter 7 Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights is a novel whose main character is said to have a double significance. He is said to be both the dispossessed and the dispossessor, victim of class hatred and arch – exploiter, he simultaneously occupies the roles of working class outsider and brutal capitalist. Heathcliff has all these characteristics because of his experiences. He is a character moulded by his past.

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’.

   "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

Heathcliff is abused; his only source of love is his dearest Catherine, yet even that love cannot thrive in Heathcliff’s environment. The problem is not that his love is unrequited, but rather that Catherine believes she would fall to ruin if she were to be with Heathcliff “It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love him---because he's more

What Catherine is saying here is that she loves Heathcliff so much that even when she dies she will always be with him, and she will always have him in her soul. The significance is that she does actually appear at the window to Heathcliff showing that her love is so strong that she will remain with him forever. What is interesting is that she never does come in through the window, she remains outside. This could mean

Catherine could not have married Heathcliff because of his social standing. They both knew that they could not have married but they still loved each other till the day they died. Both characters married later on in their lifetime, Catherine married Edgar Linton and Heathcliff married Edgar’s sister Isabella. Edgar is the reason him and Catherine became so distant, and this irritated him. After Heathcliff came back after his trip, he came back different.

In Wuthering Heights, the character Heathcliff is quite passionately in love with Catherine Earnshaw/Linton. His love for her overpowers his life, his desire to live comes from her, and his need to get his revenge on her and the those who wronged him. Heathcliff wishes Catherine torment. He wants her to suffer always, but states he cannot live without her, and that she is his soul. Heathcliff’s quote parallels to an earlier chapter in the narrative, when Catherine claimed to Nelly that her and Heathcliff are one in the same.

Another aspect which is relevant today and forever it shall remain relevant is selfishness. Catherine's selfish character was depicted when she wanted both Edgar and Heathcliff at the same time. In the beginning, she was introduced as a 'high spirited' character who was wild. However, she drastically changes throughout the book. When she hurts her leg and is forced to stay at Thrushcross Grange, she returns to Wuthering Heights as a well dressed and dignified lady. She was easily swayed to the superior lifestyle of the Lintons and began to look down upon Heathcliff. She even laughs at his rough and dirty appearance and says "I didn't mean to laugh at you. I could not hinder myself Heathcliff. Shake hands at least! What are you sulky for? It was only that you looked odd. If you wash you face and brush your hair, it would be alright. But you are

The exclusive relationships in the novel depict the dangers of obsession. Throughout the novel, Heathcliff shows his love for Catherine through obsessive behavior patterns. After Catherine died of childbirth, Heathcliff mourns deeply over their childhood memories shared. He pays homage at her funeral and observes her perished body.

Heathcliff finally meets Catherine for the last time as he tells her that, Heathcliff is angered with her even at her deathbed and is vengeful even when she is taking her last breaths. He is in the belief that when his revenge on Catherine is complete, he will regain his tattered identity. He fulfills his vengeance by telling Catherine that she, “deserves this” and that she has, “killed herself”. However, after Catherine’s death and his revenge fulfilled, Heathcliff feels as lost as ever, he comes to understand that the only way he can recover his true identity is to be with his true love, Catherine. With Heathcliff having, All of the calculating, rage, and cruelty have finally tired Heathcliff.

Since Cathy and Heathcliff suffer an identity crisis during their adolescence, they see each other as the ―psychological equivalent of identical twin ship‖ and ―only by clinging to one another‖ do they try to survive Burgan mention . For this reason, Heathcliff leaves Wuthering Heights as soon as he learns that Cathy gives preference to Edgar because he feels deprived of his only source of identity. He goes off in quest of a new identity. This prolepsis points to Heathcliff‘s vindictive and calculating personality. As in, the prolepses in this novel prophesy the revenge to be successfully exacted by the protagonist.

In Emily's Brontë’s novel Wuthering Heights, she asserts that love, while it is usually described as unchanging and everlasting, has to come from a place of understanding and a willingness to change, otherwise it becomes destructive and toxic. The story begins when Mr. Lockwood asks Nelly, a maid who worked at Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, to tell him the story of Heathcliff, the landowner. She tells him that Mr. Earnshaw, the landowner before Heathcliff, brought Heathcliff into his home, where Mr. Earnshaw’s son, Hindley, bullied him, and Mr. Earnshaw’s daughter, Catherine, grew closer to him. Catherine spent a few weeks at Thrushcross Grange where she met the Linton family, became a proper young lady, and married Edgar Linton.

Ultimately, Heathcliff’s love grows to become obsessive rather than loving and produces detrimental effects to his own self. He believed that “the murdered do haunt their murderers” whilst passionately asking to be haunted

Bronte, The author of the Wuthering Heights, expresses many themes and morals in her book. The one most important in the Wuthering Heights is the theme of love and cruelty. The main characters, Catherine and Heathcliff, show these actions time and time again. They occur because of the other, much like the yin and the yang. Love leads to cruelty and cruelty leads to love. In Wuthering Heights, there are two different types of love shown: platonic and passionate. Both of these types of love lead to cruelty to other characters. As Heathcliff states boldly within the first few chapters of the novel, love’s cruelty survives even beyond death. “Cathy, do come. Oh do – once more! Oh! My heart’s darling; hear me this time, Catherine, at last!”

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)