Some wounds made by either emotional or physical damage are so deep that they can never heal. This irreplaceable damage can lead to one of the most destructive motivations a human can seek: revenge. If left unattended, revenge will grow inside an individual, then consume their thoughts and ruin their own anEmily Brontë illustrates this evil force in her novel, “Wuthering Heights” through her characters Heathcliff, Hindley, and other minor characters as their thirst for revenge led them to their own and their victims’ downfalls. Overall, revenge in Wuthering Heights serves for main motivation for the perpetrators, which gives one a sense of reality as both the victims and perpetrators demonstrate the evil actions love, hate, and revenge all intertwined can make. Since the beginning of the novel, Hindley’s thirst for revenge on Heathcliff was sparked on by his father’s favoritism. From the moment, Heathcliff walked in Wuthering Heights, Hindley saw him as an inferior, and grew an immense amount of hate for him. Hindley’s disrespect toward Heathcliff soon led his father to favor his adopted son, which only worsened Hindley’s hate. In fact, Hindley’s envy led him to accuse his father of “treating” Heathcliff “too liberally” and he swore that “he will reduce” Heathcliff “to his right place” (Brontë19). Clearly, Mr.Earnshaw’s favoritism made Hindley bitter, and Hindley began the cycle of revenge in the novel as he swore to lessen Heathcliff’s position in the household. However, eventually Hindley’s misbehavior got him sent away to college, but he comes back when his dad dies to take the opportunity to finally take on his revenge. Hindley first “deprived” Heathcliff from the “instruction of the curate”, and he “insisted that he should labor outdoors instead; compelling him to do so as hard as any other lad on the farm” (Brontë 40). By depriving Heathcliff from an education, and lessening him from the privileges Mr. Earnshaw had provided him with, Hindley fulfills his revenge. Hindley took Heathcliff’s status in Wuthering Heights and subjected him to the social class of a servant to satisfy his aching heart broken by his childhood memories of his father’s favoritism. Furthermore, Hindley’s revenge reveals that
The audience can instantly see that there is a hierarchy that has developed between Hindley and Heathcliff. Hindley acts as if Heathcliff is his servant, and wants Heathcliff to welcome guests “like the other servants”. This will later develop and show reader’s how Hindley’s impact on Heathcliff has changed Heathcliff as a person.
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.
Hindley hated him”’. This shows that Mrs. Earnshaw neglects Heathcliff, not loving him as much as her other children. Hindley hates Heathcliff and therefore abuses him, making him a victim. However, Mr. Earnshaw loves Heathcliff, and along with Hindley and Mrs. Earnshaw, makes him into a loved and neglected victim.
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.
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.
When evaluating the family problems of a typical middle class American you may find deaths in the family, divorces, money problems, sibling rivalries, and more. In Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, all of the above is seen with a topping of vengeance and selfishness. This interesting conflict is caused by the abusive actions of the characters. From relationship to relationship, one character abuses another to get to their way or to get back at another character for their own wrongdoing. Having this occur frequently throughout the novel creates a dumbfounded sort of tone and leaves the reader on the edge of their seat. Throughout the novel Wuthering heights, Emily Bronte emphasizes the characters ' abusive and unhealthy relationships; this is exemplified through repeated vengeant duality, internal and external conflict, and irrational thinking.
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.
was to run away to the moors in the morning and remain there all day."
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
Novels often use the emotion of hate to create tension and distress in the plot. Wuthering Heights uses Heathcliff’s disdain for the other characters to add conflict to the story. Wuthering Heights examines the source of Heathcliff’s hate as well as its effects on the other characters throughout the story. Heathcliff’s relationships with other characters also suggests the universal theme that breeds hatred.
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.
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!”
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
Hindley personified jealousy and cruelty as a child towards Heathcliff for he felt the gypsy was “a usurper of his parent's affections and his privileges” so to carry out his revenge, he physically abused Heathcliff “I shall tell your father of the three thrashing you’ve given me this week” Heathcliff does not retaliate to his abuser, however, but bribes his adoptive brother or he would “speak of these blows” threatening Hindley that he would “get them again with interest’” from Mr. Earnshaw, should he hear that the boy who is now his favourite, it would seem, was being violently bullied. The modal auxiliary verb ‘shall’ portrays a certainty that Heathcliff will stay to his word should his threats be ignored and the inter-dentals ‘three thrashings’ emphasise