Importance of Affirmation: Perceived Value Effect

Catherine tries to better her station both by wedding Edgar Linton and by her steady perusing. She snickers at Hareton on account of his absence of training. Heathcliff concedes that Hareton is

Heathcliff resents her scorn. He desires to regain her approval. He attempts to be “decent” and “good” for her sake (Brontë 40). However, his attempt to be decent fails miserably. He resents the attentions that Catherine gives to Edgar. Catherine would rather wear a “silly frock” and have dinner with “silly friends” than ramble about the moors with him (Brontë 50). Heathcliff keeps track of the evenings Catherine spends with Edgar and those that she spends with him. He desperately wants to be with Catherine. When Catherine announces to Nelly her engagement to Edgar, Heathcliff eavesdrops, but leaves the room when he “heard Catherine say it would degrade her to marry him” (Brontë 59). Catherine has spurned his love, choosing Edgar over him. Heathcliff cannot bear this rejection. The love he possesses for her transcends romantic and filial love (Mitchell 124). He feels that he is one with her (Mitchell 123).

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

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.

Catherine’s crisis starts with her decision to marry Edgar Linton. “Yes, and it worries me, and I must let it out! I want to know what I should do. To-day, Edgar Linton has asked me to marry him, and I've given him an answer. Now, before I tell you whether it was a consent or denial, you tell me which it ought to have been.”(77) Catherine starts to worry about the decisions she made because she realized she loves Edgar but not nearly as much as she loves Heathcliff. Cathy went on to admit this saying “Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same; and Linton’s is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire.” (80) She knows she shouldn't marry Linton because she loves Heathcliff more than anyone else, but she does

A Devil Stalks Wuthering Heights Every now and then there are people who are so evil, that they appear to be a devil on Earth. These people walk around harming all those around them and cause chaos wherever they go.

Once in the kitchen catherine was telling nelly that she loved Heathcliff and wanted to him but it would degrade her to do so according to her family, but in the same sentence she said that she loved him.” ...it would degrade me to marry heathcliff now; so he shall never know how i love him…”.(bronte.81) Not hearing the last part he left. He still loved her because when he found out she was sick he traveled on foot. When he got there she was happy “oh edgar darling!

Similarly, both Linton and Cathy despise Heathcliff’s actions towards them. Cathy and Linton despise Heathcliff because he seems to limit their freedom. Heathcliff forces Cathy and Linton to get married because of his obsession with Cathy’s mother Catherine. Despite this, Cathy also has hatred because Linton is dying and Heathcliff is not

We can appreciate the affliction and despair of Heathcliff but still he is cruel and the sole guilty of their sorrow and pain. Catherine should have chosen him instead of Edgar so they would have been happy. But she destroyed their possibilities together and now Heathcliff, in one of his most cruel moments, tell Catherine that she deserves to die. Heathcliff is not a traditional gentleman, nor a man, and of course he is not a traditional lover. A common lover would wish his beloved to be at peace.

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

The character of Hareton is used by Brontë as a tool to show not only how willing Heathcliff is to take revenge, but also to show how Heathcliff ended up how he did by choice, whereas Heathcliff, thrown into the same if not worse situation by Heathcliff, decided to educate himself and become the best person he could, eventually leading him to win Cathy’s heart.

“But poor Hareton, the most wronged, was the only one who truly suffered,” (page 315 in Wuthering Heights) Nelly Dean states as her reaction to Heathcliff’s demise, showing that Hareton was able to show sympathy for Heathcliff when he died. It is not until the ending that the story of Hareton finally gets the prize he truly deserved. Heathcliff’s death symbolizes Hareton’s liberty and he eventually is able to chase his love for younger Cathy. Cathy and Hareton are the only characters that aren’t affected by vengeance, selfishness, arrogance, and intense desire. The only happy ever after Wuthering Heights had was their marriage and Hareton triumphs with true romantic redemption. Not only is Hareton’s freeing from sin the righteous and most harmless, but it is a representation for what Catherine and Heathcliff could have had. Heathcliff’s story begins through heartache and arrogance, it is carried out by vengeance, and concludes with himself cruelly gaining power in the wrong cunning ways. It is because of his pain and suffer that Heathcliff creates

Even when Hindley treats Heathcliff like a servant, “because Cathy t[eaches] him what she learn[s], and work[s] or play[s] with him in the fields … Heathcliff b[ears] his degradation pretty well”(40). Heathcliff still feels loved, which explains his contention; however, when his love is taken away, so was his satisfaction. Also, although Heathcliff wants to “accost”(288) Hareton, he cannot, because while closely examining him“ his startling likeness to Catherine connected him fearfully with her” (288). Heathcliff envies Hareton’s love, but he still loves Catherine and cannot hurt Hareton because he looks too much like his lost love. Finally, Hareton does not take revenge on Heathcliff, but he instead chooses to love Heathcliff. After Heathcliff dies, “[Hareton] sat by the corpse all night, weeping in bitter earnest. He pressed its hand, and kissed the sarcastic, savage face that everyone else shrank from contemplating” (298). Even after all the torture and humiliation Hareton faces, he still loves Heathcliff like a father, although he was treated the worst by Heathcliff. Because he does not ruin himself by taking revenge on those who either degraded or mocked him and instead chooses to break the cycle of vengeance, he ends up wealthy and happily married to Cathy. This is how he departs from Heathcliff’s

He’ll undertake to torture any number of cats,” (Brontë 338). Any display of sympathy from Cathy amplifies Linton’s ability to be selfish and petulant. Without Cathy the relationship would be non-existent, since both the relationship and Linton rely on her. More importantly, if Linton were not revealed to be ill, Cathy’s sensitive heart may have not have accepted his cruelty or marriage. Cathy and Linton’s relationship possesses no passion or kindness, since it is essentially Cathy's guilt which motivates her to care, and Linton’s motivation lies in his fear of Heathcliff treating him cruelly. Cathy plays the martyr, displaying the third unhealthy adolescent relationship, ridden with irrational guilt, and motherly instincts to protect and care for the weak. Cathy believes Linton needs her, and associates this with loving her, accepting all his anger and flaws, “I know he has a bad nature...But I’m glad I’ve a better to forgive it; and I know he loves me, and for that reason I love him.” (Brontë 353). She herself states she loves Linton since he loves her, and boasts she is capable of forgiving Linton even though he acts

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.