Social Status And Wealth In Wuthering Heights

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.

His wife, Mrs. Earnshaw, is furious that Heathcliff has been brought into the house and the Earnshaws’ son, Hindley, is jealous of the apparent love his father

Through self-centered and narcissistic characters, Emily Bronte’s classic novel, “Wuthering Heights” illustrates a deliberate and poetic understanding of what greed is. Encouraged by love, fear, and revenge, Catherine Earnshaw, Heathcliff, and Linton Heathcliff all commit a sin called selfishness.

13. Mr. Earnshaw returned home from Liverpool with an orphan (Heathcliff). His daughter Catherine took to Heathcliff, as did Mr. Earnshaw, but Hindley hated the boy and tortured him. Heathcliff had to be hard and insensible in order to cope with Hindley’s abuses. Nelly Dean repeatedly describes Heathcliff as “sullen.”

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

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.

In Wuthering Heights, one of the main negative parenting examples is shown in Heathcliff. Although Heathcliff was treated well by Mr. Earnshaw, his siblings and adopted mother differed. In the beginning this was stated, “He has been blaming our father(how dared he?) for treating H. too liberally; and swears he will reduce him to his right place-(Bronte, 15).” This quote shows the anger Heathcliff had, especially for Hindley. At the end of this quote he hints at planning his revenge against Hindley, later executing it on Hareton(Hindley’s son). This Later, this greatly affected Heathcliff as he looked for revenge when he mistreated Hareton just as Hindley had treated him when they were younger. Heathcliff also became a very bad person in general, wishing that Cathy not rest in peace and haunt him, and his manner and mischief towards everyone around him. Heathcliff's abuse towards Isabella is also a result of his childhood as well as the heartbreak of Catherine. In the novel, the parenting of Hareton symbolize hardship and strength. It symbolizes this because Hareton although not smart, powers through his rough childhood and shows strength in overcoming those obstacles, later ending up marrying Cathy and now is

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte was published in 1847 and received many contradictory judgements. One main judgement that criticized the novel was how multiple characters can have a change in characterization depending on the reader. Many of the novel's characters, such as Heathcliff, possess positive values, but readers tend to focus on their negative qualities which allows these characters to change. Growing up poor and homeless, Heathcliff’s character changes many times throughout the novel as he grows older and possess negative qualities towards other characters. Later residing as an old, lonely master, Heathcliff’s change in character at the end of Wuthering Heights signifies that he has gone mad and leads to intentions that Heathcliff has not committed suicide, but lost all will after all he has been through.

Human beings can be truly deranged creatures. Often times they are seen as elevating and putting themselves on a pedestal. They will treat people who are not the same as them as they are garbage and worthless. Although it is not their fault to simply put it, it is human nature. More specifically the ugliness of human nature. The complex characters in Wuthering Heights are guilty of this. Their circumstances drive them to do unthinkable things which unfortunately have drastic outcomes. Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights is a beautifully written novel that shows the ugliness of human nature as seen through the depiction of toxic relationships, displaying revenge and vengeance in the differentiation of social class.

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

Conversely, 'Wuthering Heights ' may be interpreted as a socio-economic novel. The novel opens in 1801, a date Q.D. Leavis believes Brontë chose in order “to fix its happenings at a time when the old rough farming culture, based on a naturally patriarchal family life, was to be challenged, tamed and routed by social and cultural changes”. At the time, the Industrial Revolution was under way in England; it was a dominant force in English economy and society. The traditional social class- dynamic was disrupted by an upwardly-inspired middle class. A new standard for defining a gentleman was challenging the conservative ideals of breeding and family. This reality provides the context for socio-economic readings of the novel. [8]

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

The social classes in Wuthering Heights are an insight to the society that  Emily Bronte experienced. The British society of 1770 wasn’t accepting of a person with darker features which is reflected in how Heathcliff is treated in the novel. Orphans were also never meant to rise from their station below the servants. This is an insight into why Hindley Earnshaw hated Heathcliff and referred to him as a usurper of his father’s affections. When Hidley became master of Wuthering Heights he returned Heathcliff to his “rightful” place.

Earnshaw became his adoptive father. “A dirty ragged black-haired child” the triplication of pre-modifying adjectives carry pejorative connotations as Heathcliff had been living on the streets of Liverpool therefore as he had been a homeless beggar, Nelly and the Linton’s believed that he was not fit for decent, well respect homes such as Wuthering Heights or Thrushcross Grange. The vocative “gypsy brat” (Ch.4) also carries pejorative connotations as young Heathcliff is condemned by religious folk and because he seemed to have no parents or a stable home, he was considered a ‘bastard’ child and a devil that “bred bad feeling in the house”

Social Classes in Wuthering Heights Wuthering Heights, a gothic novel written by Emily Bronte in the early nineteenth century, describes the conflict and the passionate bond between Catherine Earnshaw and her rough but romantic lover, Heathcliff. In the beginning of the book, Heathcliff, an orphan is made a part of the Earnshaw family. This adoption is not readily accepted by the older brother, Hindley, who sees the new child as a rival to his claim of dominance in the family. However, Catherine, the sister is quickly attracted to young Heathcliff, so different from anyone she had ever known. As the two grow older, Heathcliff finds himself falling in love with Catherine.