The Characters Of Heathcliff In A Christmas Heights And A Weathering Heights

Mr. Earnshaw, the father figure at the Wuthering Heights estates, upon returning from a trip to Liverpool, has brought a young orphan boy in place of the gifts he promised his children. Despite Mr. Earnshaw’s kind heart, the family refuses to accept the boy. Wuthering Height’s maid, Ellen “Nelly” Dean, narrating the family’s history to Lockwood, tells him the family’s first impressions and their treatment of the boy. She states, “they entirely refused to have it in bed with them, or even in their room; and I had no more sense, so I put it on the landing of the stairs, hoping it might he gone on the morrow” (Brontë 40). Both children are upset at Heathcliff for have crushing the gifts their father has promised to bring back to them. Neither let him room with them, resulting in Heathcliff sleeping on the floor outside of Mr. Earnshaw’s room for the first night of his arrival. Aside from being an orphan, this was Heathcliff’s first experience with rejection at Wuthering Heights. Not only did the children dislike Heathcliff for have ruining their gifts, but the adults did not appreciate his arrival either. Nelly claims she hopes “it might be he gone on the morrow” (Brontë 40). In addition to wishing the boy would disappear, she refers to Heathcliff as not the pronoun “he,” but with the word “it,” degrading him to a “thing” as opposed to a human being. Nelly then descripes Mrs. Earnshaw’s opinion on the boy, “Mrs. Earnshaw was ready to fling it out of doors: she did fly up, asking how he could fashion to bring that gipsy brat into the house, when they had their own bairns to feed and fend for?,” (Brontë 39). She is just as welcoming as the children and maid, Nelly, are. She refers to him as a derogatory, gypsy boy,

Wuthering Heights is a novel whose main character is said to have a double significance. He is said to be both the dispossessed and the dispossessor, victim of class hatred and arch – exploiter, he simultaneously occupies the roles of working class outsider and brutal capitalist. Heathcliff has all these characteristics because of his experiences. He is a character moulded by his past.

The Development of Heathcliff’s Character in Wuthering Heights Heathcliff is a character who is ever present in “Wuthering Heights” and throughout the novel his character changes. At first he is a poor, homeless child, then he becomes a loved and neglected victim, then he is a degraded lover, and finally he transforms into a vicious, lonely master. Heathcliff is introduced into the novel as a homeless child. He is a ‘“dirty, ragged, black-haired child”’ who Mr. Earnshaw brings to Wuthering Heights from Liverpool. He is constantly referred to as ‘it’ and a ‘gypsy’.

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

The ugliness of human nature is undoubtedly shown through toxic relationships in Wuthering Heights. They toxicity can be shown through almost every character relationship. The bain of toxic relationships can be shown right in the beginning of the novel with Hindley and Heathcliff. They immediately get off on the wrong foot all because one of them chooses to let their ugliness take over. Hindley is extremely jealous of Heathcliff, “...and is subject to Hindley's jealousy almost right away” (Galt). His jealousy sparks from the fact that his father seems to favour Heathcliff over him. This does Heathcliff no favours as it causes Hindley to be cruel and brutal towards him. Infact, on several occasions Hindley can be found almost abusing Heathcliff, "Take my colt, Gipsy, then!" said young Earnshaw. "And I pray that he may break your neck: take him, and he damned, you beggarly interloper! and wheedle my father out of all he has.” (Bronte 4) and “‘ Off dog!’ cried Hindley, threatening him with an iron weight used for weighing potatoes and hay.” (Bronte 45). The abuse and hatred that Heathcliff receives from such a young age cause him to give the same treatment in the other relationships in his life. In Heathcliff’s relationship with Isabella he can be seen showing the same abuse towards her, Heathcliff seized, and thrust Isabella from the room; and returned muttering—"I have no pity! I have no pity! The more the worms writhe, the more I yearn to crush out their entrails! It is a moral teething; and grind

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

In Emily Bronte 's novel Wuthering Heights, we are taken back to the nineteenth century by a man named Lockwood. He is being told the story of his landlord, Heathcliff, and how he became the man that he is and what he has been through. We learn that Heathcliff was adopted by Mr. Earnshaw on a trip to Liverpool and was brought back to Wuthering Heights to his new family, a mother, a brother, and a sister. Upon arrival he was not greeted with any respect and or love. The Earnshaw 's had more love for the dirt on the bottoms of their shoes than they had for Heathcliff. Throughout Heathcliff 's childhood, he was bullied by his older brother Hindley because Hindley could see that Heathcliff was his father 's favorite child. Upon Mr. Earnshaw 's

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.

In the first part of Nelly’s narration, she begins by telling how Heathcliff comes about the house. ‘We crowed round, and, over Miss Cathy’s head, I had a peep at a dirty, ragged, black-haired child.’ Such language explores that he is no ordinary child. The other children - Hindley and Cathy, couldn’t believe what their father had bought home. ‘Mrs Earnshaw was ready to chuck it out of the doors…asking how he could fashion to bring that gipsy brat into the house.’ Such a phrase would imply that if they were seen with the ‘gipsy’ they would be looked down on. They don’t understand Mr Earnshaw’s reason to bring him home. Cathy and Hindley rejected Heathcliff ‘they entirely refused to have it in bed with them, or even in their room..I put it on the landing of the stairs, hoping it might be gone on the morrow’ Nobody wanted it to be part of the household. This first introduction to Heathcliff already explores the view he is socially beneath the other inhabitants of Wuthering Heights. He is typically described as outside of the family structure. This would make him self conscious about himself and could be a reason for his actions later on in his life.

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”

Someone having their true lover marry another person whom they do not truly love would be a difficult and undesirable situation. How a person in a similar situation reacts to it, especially in the long term, can reveal a lot about their character. Such is the case with Heathcliff, the main character of Wuthering Heights, a novel written by Emily Brontë. Wuthering Heights takes place from the late eighteenth century through the early 1800s (decade) within the two houses of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange and on the land surrounding them (1, 58). The two houses are located in England and are near the village of Gimmerton (1, 102).

It is the opinion of this essay that the character of Heathcliff evolves a lot more than the character of Catherine. When we first meet Heathcliff, he was found on the streets of Liverpool by Catherine’s father who then adopts him into the family as one of his own. This would have been a dramatic change for Heathcliff. Then after experiencing this quality of life until the death of the father he is then cast into the role of a servant/labourer by Catherine’s brother who despises him. Finally, when Heathcliff hears part of the conversation between Catherine and Nelly, he hears Catherine plans to marry Edgar Linton as she could never marry Heathcliff. “It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now”. (82) It is here Heathcliff leaves Wuthering Heights and returns three years later, a gentleman of means and of polite demeanour, not what you would expect from him. Here we can bring back the point that one’s environment dramatically affects one’s behaviour. Like Catherine, Heathcliff defies social norms expected of his gender. After he returns back from travelling having acquired great wealth and on the surface seems a changed man, he would be accepted into middle class society as he displays the characteristics expected of him. It is well described in the book to enforce the dramatic change in him for readers to understand how far he has come from