Essay on Selfish Love in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights

Edgar Linton, normally gentle, also uses physical violence when he fights with Heathcliff over Catherine Earnshaw, now his wife Catherine Linton. Like Hindley, Edgar does not realize that violence cannot produce love. His fight with Heathcliff results in Catherine’s insanity and her eventual death. Catherine, too, is not flawless. When Nelly, under Hindley’s orders, chaperones Edgar’s visit with Catherine Earnshaw, Catherine is furious and strikes Nelly. When her nephew Hareton weeps at this abusive display, Catherine seizes the child and shakes him. She then strikes Edgar when he tries to stop her. The root of Catherine’s violence is not the same as the one that plague Hindley and Edgar: she does not physically hurt her family because she wants to be loved. She feels that she is already loved by everyone, but she

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.

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

As a consequence of Heathcliff's visit to the Grange, Edgar's sister Isabella falls in love with him, and her feelings seem to be sincere. In this one-sided love affair Heathcliff takes advantage of the innocent girl's infatuation to foster his obsession for revenge. (Isabella is her brother's heir). Catherine's reaction is very hard to interpret. It is natural that she is jealous, if she still feels the same for him as before, and that may be the reason why she dissuades Isabella from marrying Heathcliff. But the words she uses, telling her what an abominable creature Heathcliff is, are not the sort you expect to hear from someone talking of a sweetheart. Later on when her husband and Heathcliff are having a quarrel, she stops Edgar from hurting her friend . There is an excess of emotion, and her explanation to this behaviour is that she wants them both, Edgar and Heathcliff: "Well, if I cannot keep Heathcliff for my friend - if Edgar will be mean and jealous, I'll try to break their hearts by breaking my own" (109).Her love for Heathcliff has not cooled down, instead it seems to be a stronger obsession than ever considering the torments she goes through, when she becomes seriously ill.The last time Catherine and Heathcliff see each other is a very heart-rending meeting. Their love for each other is as strong as ever, and Heathcliff

“You teach me how cruel you've been—cruel and false. Why do you despise me? Why did you betray your own heart, Cathy? I have not one word of comfort. You deserve this.

Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights display of cultural and physical features of an environment affecting one’s character and moral traits is showcased through the first Catherine’s development throughout the novel. Catherine is forced to “adopt a double character”, as she lives as a rebellious, passionate woman on the turbulent Wuthering Heights, while behaving politely and courtly on the elegant Thrushcross Grange(Bronte, 48). Each of these environments also contains a love interest of Catherine’s, each man parallel with the characteristics of their environments: Heathcliff, the passionate and destructive, residing in Wuthering Heights, while the civilized and gentle Edgar inhabits Thrushcross Grange. Catherine’s development in character due to her setting significantly contributes to the theme that pursuing passionate love is dangerous, such as the love shared by Heathcliff and Catherine.

At the beginning of the novel, Heathcliff was a victim of orphanage at a young age. He had never experienced unconditional love from anyone. After Mr. Earshawn’s death, Catherine became his addiction because she accepted him for who he was in his eyes. At first, Catherine despised Heathcliff. In time, he latches on to her becoming totally engulfed with her. This devotion turns into an overwhelming love addiction towards her (“Wuthering Heights Love and Betrayal). Catherine’s presence helps calms the family’s antagonism for him. Heathcliff tolerated a lot from the family because of the love he shared with Catherine (Peele).

In Emily Bronte’s legendary story, Wuthering Heights, everything is mostly centered on one character: Heathcliff. As the story moves through three stages, Heathcliff’s traits begin to change. Wuthering Heights captures the unique romance felt between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw. Heathcliff’s desire for Catherine consumes him, and eventually drives him to dark stages in his life. At the beginning of this story, Heathcliff is quite blissful. However, throughout the story he begins to fall deeper into the shadows of greed. At the story’s end, Heathcliff has shifted into an astonishingly evil man. Throughout the story, Heathcliff becomes a prime example of what love can do to a person.

His demeanor when Catherine dies completely changes and the reader learns that he was madly, madly in love with her. His love for Catherine changed his mental state; he no longer thought rationally. Rationally, if Heathcliff loved Catherine, he would wish her to be at peace, because loving someone means wishing them to be happy; however, because he was so greedy with what little love he did receive that Heathcliff wished Catherine to be forever stuck on the earth haunting him and “driving him mad”. Nelly then describes Heathcliff as a “savage beast” who was physically hurting himself for Catherine. None of these traits mark Heathcliff as a level headed being; a trait that could be predicted when he married Isabella and made her life terrible for the sole purpose of upsetting Catherine and Edgar. This insanity only becomes more prevalent after Catherine dies, when he raises Haerton as a farmhand and imprisons young Catherine and Nelly at Wuthering Heights when her father was

Even though she is in love with Heathcliff, she marries Edgar Linton from Thrushcross Grange. The marriage of Catherine and Edgar crushed Heathcliff and brought out more inner demons. To Heathcliff this was “a crucial act of self betrayal and bad faith.” (Novel for Students 321) Not only did Edgar marry the love of his life, he also treated Heathcliff as a lesser being because of his class. As a way to get back at Edgar, Heathcliff marries his Isabella, Edgar’s sister. This is a way to obtain his land. Love did not drive Heathcliff to oppose the marriage. Another goal was to break up the marriage but Heathcliff “actuated not by love but by hatred of the Lintons” (David Cecil 245). As a final stab in the heart, Heathcliff secretly plans the marriage of the children Linton and Catherine; so that once Edgar and Linton pass away he becomes owner of the two estates. Heathcliff’s plot was to destroy anyone who took away any happiness in his life by any means possible. The love of his life was stolen away from him, the only person who cared when there was darkness. All Heathcliff could think to do was bring the darkness and pain to those around him.

Characters in Wuthering Heights exemplify the effect of dual natures and the destructive impact such internal struggles can have on filial relations. The motives that drive the characters are inextricably linked to the warring forces inside them that are the impetus for the rash and ruinous actions that are common to both major households in the novel. Consequently, the prevalence of duality throughout the novel signifies the importance of a double nature in characterizing humanity. Catherine is the most relevant example of contradictory natures as they define her personality throughout her life. Therefore; in Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, the recurring

Born in 1818, Emily Bronte, known as the Laureate of the Moors, feared that people would not read her novel because of her gender. When Bronte turned twenty-seven, she published Wuthering Heights. At approximately the same time, her two sisters, Charlotte and Anne, published their literary works. Looking at Emily Bronte’s Victorian novel, Wuthering Heights, this literary work seems to be yet another book about a grumpy man who tries to take revenge on everyone who hurts him throughout his life. Looking deeper into this novel, readers see that the story revolves around several complex characters who must endure indescribable pain and suffering in their quest for love. The Earnshaw family decides to make Heathcliff who is the primary

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!”

The gothic and often disturbing Wuthering Heights is Emily Bronte’s classic novel that contains undeniably powerful writing that created her timeless love story. Andrea Arnold transformed her masterpiece into a cinematic rendition to recreate the wild and passionate story of the deep and destructive love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff.

Love is a strong attachment between two lovers and revenge is a strong conflict between two rivals. In the novel Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte uses setting to establish contrast, to intensify conflict, and to develop character. The people and events of Wuthering Heights share a dramatic conflict. Thus, Bronte focuses on the evil eye of Heathcliff's obsessive and perpetual love with Catherine, and his enduring revenge to those who forced him and Catherine apart. The author expresses the conflict of Wuthering Heights with great intensity. Hence, she portrays a combination of crucial issues of romance and money, hate and power, and lastly