Literary Analysis Of Wuthering Heights

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.

Cathy and Hindley alter him into a vicious, lonely master: ‘“The tyrant grinds down his slaves and they don’t turn against him, they crush those beneath them”’. This shows that Heathcliff will not take revenge on Cathy directly, but will hurt those who are close to her. This is because Cathy married Edgar Linton and said that it would degrade her if Heathcliff was her husband. In addition, he will take

Another one of the many things Heathcliff wanted was power. He seduced and married Isabella Linton, not out of love, but out of selfish thoughts of abusing her to get revenge against her brother, Edgar because he married Heathcliff’s lover. When Isabella died, Heathcliff’s son Linton was handed over to him; Heathcliff forced Linton to marry Edgar and Catherine’s daughter, Catherine – or Cathy – Linton. When Ellen found letters written between the two, Linton’s letters “rendered natural,

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]

   "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 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.

When Catherine resides in Thrushcross Grange, her coarse demeanor is heavily augmented by the values of the upper class. Catherine’s return from a five weeks stay at Thrushcross Grange renders “her manners much improved” and her appearance as a “very dignified person” (Bronte,37). Catherine proves to be a proper, civil woman, when on the Grange, picking up on the well-mannered tendencies of Edgar and

In this passage of Wuthering Heights, Brontë expresses the moment of Heathcliff's reaction to Catherine Linton's death. In this particular passage, Emily Brontë utilizes syntax to illustrate Heathcliff's obsessive love for the late Catherine Linton. Brontë expresses Heathcliff's deep, hidden emotions through the use of syntax. In the beginning, few questions are asked by Heathcliff, such as if "she died like a saint," to convey his curiosity about his true love's death (Brontë 164).

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

“I am not deceitful: if I were, I should say I loved you, but I declare I do not love you: I dislike you the worst of any body in the world except John Reed… I am glad you are no relation of mine: I will never call you aunt again as long as I live…and if anyone asks me how I liked you, and how you treated me, I will say the very thought of you makes me sick, and that you treated me with miserable cruelty”(Bronte, 36)

"And if the wicked man in there had not brought Heathcliff so low, I shouldn't have thought of it. It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now" - Catherine.

Heathcliff's role as an avenger is helped by his intelligence and understanding, not just of his own motivations, but of the motivations of others. He recognizes the source of Isabella's infatuation that-: "she abandoned this under a delusion" - "picturing in me a hero of romance". He also capitalizes on Linton's poor health by inviting the pity of Cathy so that her affection and sympathy would facilitate a marriage that would leave he, Heathcliff, as master of the Grange.

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

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

Self-Centered. Heathcliff is self-centered, caring for himself and his interests and having little concern for others. This trait is greatly amplified by his love for Catherine and hatred for Mr. Linton. One example of this is when he trapped Cathy and her companion for no less than five days in his house at Wuthering Heights, forcing Cathy to marry Linton (255, 260). “And there I remained enclosed [in a chamber], … [for] Five nights and four days I remained, seeing nobody but Hareton [when he brought food],” shows how little Heathcliff is concerned for others, and how much he cares for his own interests (260). His own self-interest causes him to want control over Thrushcross Grange, as evidenced by the fact Linton will gain control of it after Mr. Linton, who is in poor health, dies if he (Linton) marries Cathy (263). However, Linton was also in poor health and was going to