How Is Heathcliff A Dynamic Character

     Heathcliff, to some, began life as a crime. His foster brother Hindley shunned him as a reject from society while viewing Heathcliff’s

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.

This cold treatment only progressed and became abusive when Mr. Earnshaw, one of the few people to ever care about Heathcliff, dies and his son who loathes the protagonist becomes the master of Wuthering Heights. “He drove him from their company to the servants, deprived him of the instructions of the curate, and insisted that he should labour out of doors instead; compelling him to do so as hard as any other lad on the farm” (Bronte 71).

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.

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

At one point in Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff locks Catherine and Nelly into a room for several days and even “seized her [Catherine] with the liberated hand, and, pulling her, on his knee, administered, with the other, a shower of terrific slaps on both sides of the head” (271). Heathcliff slaps Cathy after she refuses to say in the room with Nelly for the sole reason that Cathy is Catherine’s daughter, and Heathcliff takes out his anger at Catherine on her daughter, which shows how much fury he still has after all of these years. Heathcliff also tries to marry Cathy to Linton in order to take control of Wuthering Heights when Edgar dies. He says that Wuthering Heights would “go to me; but, to prevent disputes, I desire their union, and am resolved to bring it about” (215). The hope of preserving the memory of Catherine is what drives Heathcliff to force his son to marry Catherine. If Linton were to become heir of the property, it would ensure Heathcliff's ownership of Wuthering Heights, fulfilling his

Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, Mr. Earnshaw’s daughter, quickly became inseparable forming an innocent yet incestuous bond. The only sentiment Heathcliff held was loyalty to Catherine and Mr. Earnshaw, so when they were both taken away from him, Earnshaw by death and Catherine by Edgar Linton, he adopted a resolute vengeance. Jealousy led him to lash out at Edgar Linton because he felt entitled to

Within Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, avenging what are thought to be wrongdoings between the characters is a common theme. Throughout the story, Heathcliff Earnshaw is hellbent on having his revenge, as he believes this is the best way for him to feel better about what has happened to him. The adopted son goes to great lengths to form his evil plan and become someone he thinks he will be proud of. Instead, through his antics, Heathcliff brings himself down mentally and ends up more unhappy than when he began. As he tortures Hindley, Edgar, and Hareton, he starts to deteriorate and never recover as his anger and violence forms and blinds him from leaving a forty-year grudge alone.

Much of the charm and allure of Wuthering Heights stems from Heathcliff, one of the main characters and the destined lover of Catherine Earnshaw. He is passionate and short-tempered, and he is also very prideful of himself despite the fact that he was considered a “dirty, ragged, black-haired child” and a “gipsy brat” (Bronte 37). Heathcliff is insecure as a young boy. At first, Heathcliff believes himself to be inferior to Edgar Linton, a light-skinned, dapper boy that was his rival for Catherine Earnshaw’s love. He wishes that he had “light hair and a fair skin, and was dressed and behaved as well, and had a chance of being as rich as [Edgar Linton] [would] be,” (Bronte 56).

Heathcliff is introduced in Nelly's narration as a seven-year-old Liverpool foundling (probably an Irish famine immigrant) brought back to Wuthering Heights by Mr. Earnshaw. His presence in Wuthering Heights overthrows the prevailing habits of the Earnshaw family, members of the family soon become involved in turmoil and fighting and family relationships become spiteful and hateful. Even on his first night, he is the reason Mr. Earnshaw breaks the toys he had bought for his children. "From the very beginning he bred bad feelings in the house". Heathcliff usurps the affections of Mr. Earnshaw to the exclusion of young Hindley-: "The young master had learnt to regard his father as an oppressor rather than a

Heathcliff was brought to Wuthering Heights by Mr. Earnshaw at a young age. The portrayal of being of Heathcliff being lower than the Earnshaws leads to Catherine being instructed to stay away from Heathcliff. However, Catherine and Heathcliff become inseparable. Catherine becomes

In the novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, Heathcliff is introduced as an orphan. Thus, leading to the development of his character and his many relationships, both healthy and negative. Heathcliff is discriminated against throughout the novel because of his origin. The relationships he bore reveals how it effects his character and also further develops the novel due to Heathcliff’s connection to the characters. In the novel Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte creates the character of Heathcliff by utilizing relationships and the significance of origin.

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

Wuthering Heights establishes the replicating cycle of the second and third generation of the Earnshaw and Linton family line. Throughout each individual generation, names are reclaimed as well as characteristics within the personages are recycled. Cathy Linton is entitled after her beloved deceased mother Catherine Earnshaw Linton. Under the observation of her father, Edgar Linton, and later of Heathcliff, Cathy displays various behaviors and qualities that her mother possessed. A prime trait mutual by both is a frenzied temper especially displayed