Wuthering Heights By Emily Bronte

Throughout time, the moon has been seen as an important symbol in Western culture. Due to the moon’s constant presence every night, it has come to be associated with death and rest. Furthermore, it is seen as a symbol of beauty and perfection that cannot be attained by humans. Finally, the moon’s cyclical movement has caused it to be representative of emotions, time and change. In Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, the moon appears in many different circumstances. Early in the novel, the moon foreshadows the failure of a relationship between Heathcliff and the older Catherine. As the novel unfolds, the moon’s appearance begins to reveal the true inner nature or state of characters. Finally, the moon begins to symbolize the impact of change, or the lack of change, over time on the characters of Heathcliff and the younger Catherine. Throughout Wuthering Heights, Brontë uses the cosmological body of the moon to foreshadow the inability to attain perfection, to reveal the truth about certain characters, and finally to demonstrate effects of change on humans in order to emphasize the power of nature in the lives of humans.

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,

When Isabella and Edgar came to Wuthering Height for the party, they made Heathcliff in temper. “Begone, you vagabond! What, you are attemting the coxcomb, are you” Wait till I get hold of those elegant locks - see it I won’t pull them a bit longer” (Bronte, 42). After Hindley said that, Heathcliff was not very angry. But master Linton continued “They are long enough already. I wonder they don’t make his head ache. It’s like a colt’s mane over his eyes!” (Bronte, 42). Heathcliff’s violent nature is started by Edgar. Heathcliff threw a tureen of hot applesource to the speaker. This Heathcliff’s action prove that he became more cruel and sinister. Everything is limited. But Hinley’s behavior is not limited. Day by day, Heathcliff is severely tortured. And the demin in him grows

Upon hindsight following the two novels, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte and Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, one would label the monster and Heathcliff to be nothing short of villainous characters. Throughout each individual novel the two leads perform heinous actions that should leave readers feeling repulsed, and with no ounce of sympathy towards the principal characters; nonetheless, it is impossible not to. Heathcliff and the monster are not evil but rather characters to sympathize, both are the products of their environment and correspondingly, although for divergent reasons, are motivated by the supereminent emotions—love and hate.

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.

The descriptions used in the story distinguish the appearance of one class from another. “He is a dark-skinned gypsy in aspect, in dress and manners a gentleman: that is as much a gentleman as many a country squire (Chapter 1).” Heathcliff is rich and is perceived to be a gentleman, which is in contrast to his past as a ward of the country, and as a servant. In his past, Heathcliff is brought home by Mr. Earnshaw, and

Heathcliff was the primary character that drove the plot of Wuthering Heights. The novel began and ended with him and his vindictive actions are most important to the progression of the story. He was unique from the other characters in the way that he looked, with “black eyes [withdrawn] so suspiciously under their brows...[and] dirty, ragged, black hair” (Bronte 3, 37). Mr. Earnshaw had generously brought this gipsy boy when he returned from a trip, picking him up from the miserable factory towns occupied by the lower classes in 1840. Earnshaw’s family did not receive this boy well, so Heathcliff was often characterized as a demon, epitomizing the equivocal attitude of the upper class, who at times felt charitable to and at times afraid of the lower class.

Anger resulted from class struggle is a basic foundation for Emily Bronte's Victorian novel Wuthering Heights. This anger is portrayed through such relationships among characters such as Heathcliff, Hindley, and Catherine. The novel was published during the Industrial Revolution when labors had to fight for fair conditions in the workplace and the power was in having money. Firstly, the relationship between Heathcliff and Hindley is based on anger as Hindley used the power of his social class as a mean to get his revenge back. Hindley makes use of his aristocratic class by insulting Heathcliff as Nelly narrates that Hindley uses words such as "Vagabond" (Bronte 47), "worse than a brute" (54), "a dog" (31), and "imp of Satan" (31).

In Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, nobility in action is difficult to obtain, because of this, Heathcliff is viewed largely as a manipulative tyrant among outside peers and observers. He was not, however, a totally evil man throughout the novel as, although his execution is morally grey, his ultimate motivations could be considered noble, or even selfless. He acted solely for the benefit of others he loved in his life; improving himself for Catherine, comforting Catherine in her last moments, and preparing his son’s future to be financially effortless. Brontë wrote Heathcliff to act questionably due to the love he felt for his immediate family to show motive is paramount in action, and although Heathcliff’s execution may be dark, his motives and person are partisan.

The scene foreshadows Heathcliff’s skillful manipulation of others and his abuse of Mr. Earnshaw’s favoritism. Hindley is sent off to school by Mr. Earnshaw and returns upon his father’s death as master of the house, with a wife who rekindles the struggle for dominance with “A few words from her, evincing a dislike to Heathcliff, were enough to rouse in him his old hatred of the boy” (44). Hindley turns Heathcliff into a servant and takes away his education from the curate. This retaliation is an exaggerated effort to please his wife, displaying Hindley’s unforgiving remembrance of their fierce childhood interactions and his perception of Heathcliff’s social standing. However, this show of dominance backfires when Cathy spends much of her time mischief-making with Heathcliff and lessens the occasional punishments. Despite this Heathcliff’s animosity and motive for vengeance builds, starting by letting Hindley borrow his money under the

After perusing Emily Brontë’s novel Wuthering Heights, it becomes blatantly obvious that every character in the book is motivated to behave in a specific way. Although Heathcliff’s motivation is easily identified as revenge, and Cathy Heathcliff is motivated by fear to reside at Wuthering Heights, it would seem that two characters, Edgar Linton and Hindley Earnshaw, encounter similar circumstances, yet respond to them in completely different ways. By comparing and contrasting these two perplexing characters, perhaps the reason behind them acting so distinctly from one another can be revealed.

Throughout Wuthering Heights, Keats’ poetry and The Wasp Factory, the outsider is arguably presented as bitter and destructive because they are rejected by others, as they threaten society’s norms and structure by their mere presence or actions. Although these texts are situated in different eras, they explore similar ideas of how alienation can affect outsiders, and how they pose a threat to society. Bronte’s portrayal of alienation in the Gothic Wuthering Heights explores how rejection increases the outsider’s bitter and destructive nature, and this is similar to Banks’ contemporary Gothic novel, The Wasp Factory, as Frank’s alienation results in an equally destructive, bitter character. Although this may also be seen in Keats’ Romantic poetry, as outsiders are presented as a danger to society, a Romantic idea of escape in alienation

In Emily Bronte’s novel Wuthering Heights, we are introduced to the mysterious and enigmatic character of Heathcliff. Throughout the novel he is hellbent on exacting his revenge on those who have caused him the most pain in his life; as the story continues, this lust for revenge pushes him closer and closer to the point of madness. Without having read the book it is easy for a reader to write this character off as a villain, however, Bronte artfully portrays his character, his backstory, and his motivations in a way that elicits echoes of sympathy.

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