Wuthering Heights Character Profile

The opening of Wuthering Heights by Emily Brรถnte intrigues the reader immediately as we meet Heathcliff and learn about his lonely and misanthropic life at Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff, undoubtedly, is an intriguing character whom comes across as a sort of misfit as he is completely isolated from society. This character is completely the opposite of others in the novel and he seems to be symbolic of the uncivilized life. The moors, in general, is a symbol of this type of life as well and they seem to be a whole other character in the novel as important as the human beings who inhabit their surroundings. The moors are a lot like Heathcliff rough, dangerous, uncivilized and untamable.

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

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.

The importance this has towards the novel is that it shows that there is more to the Heights and the moors than just a feeling of the paranormal. There really is a ghost haunting the heights, and this entraps the reader by making them believe that there is more to the novel than just the basic story line. The other reason is that Brontë is trying to emphasise just how much Catherine was in love with Heathcliff.

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

He was extremely jealous of the way his father treated Heathcliff after adopting him. As a result of this, Hindley immediately canceled Heathcliff’s education, and practically forcing him to be a servant as retribution to the familial treatment. Finally, there is a strong predilection for the exotic, the remote, the mysterious, the weird, the occult, the monstrous, the diseased, and even the satanic, specifically as it revolves around ghostly figures. Lockwood had one of the most immediate interactions with these ghosts, by “knocking my knuckles through the glass, and stretching an arm out to seize the importunate branch: instead of which, my fingers closed on the fingers of a little, ice-cold hand. The intense horror of nightmare came over me: I tried to draw back my arm, but the hand clung to it, and a most melancholy voice sobbed, "Let me in—let me in!” This initiated a fear of the unknown and supernatural, affecting the entire cast from the rest of the novel. From these few and obvious examples, is necessities the conclusion that “Wuthering Heights” best exhibits the ideals that are encased within a Romantic

Bronte uses the supernatural as a big part of Wuthering Heights. It has an effect on Heathcliff with after the passing of his wife Catherine. He even digs up her body up just she will be in his hands. Heathcliff that her spirit is still with hi in the afterlife. HeathCliff also eventually passes away also, and people around say they saw both their spirits together.”I have a strong faith in ghosts: I have a conviction that they can, and do, exist among us!” (29.24). With Heathcliff says this he believes that Catherine’s ghost is still with him.

Martha Nussbaum describes the romantic ascent of various characters in Wuthering Heights through a philosophical Christian view. She begins by describing Catherine as a lost soul searching for heaven, while in reality she longs for the love of Heathcliff. Nussbaum continues by comparing Heathcliff as the opposition of the ascent from which the Linton’s hold sacred within their Christian beliefs. Nussbaum makes use of the notion that the Christian belief in Wuthering Heights is both degenerate and way to exclude social classes.

Just as The Moors represent danger and difficulty, the love between Cathy and Heathcliff endangers everyone associated with them through their recklessness and becomes difficult to figure out their intentions. The weather on The Moors also has a tendency to correspond with whatever mood Heathcliff happens to be in, which can be seen in the first chapter. When Lockwood shows up to Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff is cold and unwelcoming and as it just so happens there is a snow storm on The Moors. Another example of how The Moors reflects the characters would be well The Moors. This is portrayed when Nelly uses metaphors to contrast Heathcliff and Edgar.

In “Wuthering Heights”, Emily Bronte created a suspenseful setting by giving an eerie feeling to the story when Lockwood enters his new residence and it was not very welcoming to Lockwood. Bonte described snow as a dangerous thing that can kill you. “A sorrowful sight I saw; dark night coming down prematurely, and sky and hills mingled in on bitter whirl of wind and suffocating snow”, (Bonte 10). This setting gives Lockwood a life or death choice to make, does he go back to his residence or stay at his landlord’s house. He then decides and his decision causes us to learn about Heathcliff, Lockwood’s landlord. Early in the story Bonte gives us a good clue to Heathcliff which is. “The herd of possessed swine could have no worse spirits in them

I have stumbled upon my new residence and I had the pleasure, yet, not so pleasant, privilege to meet my new landlord, Mr. Heathcliff. I must say that I am completely out of place and certainly unwelcome at my new home. My first day was extremely shocking and disappointing yet intriguing all at the same time. Mr. Heathcliff is a very troubled soul. In fact, it seems as if all the members of Wuthering Heights seems to be troubled in one way or another. I seemed to find myself in the presence of many melancholy individuals who would rather see me leaving than stay. From the moment I arrived, I feel as though no matter what I say or how I behave is making their anger escalate. Mr. Heathcliff is a strange fellow and seems like a dark

Heathcliff’s proud commendation of spirits and the dead returning to walk the earth acts as a distressing reminder, a haunting that carries with it all the unfortunate history many would rather keep buried. It is yet another one of Heathcliff’s many Uncanny evocations. Nelly is appalled and condemned him, “You were very wicked, Mr. Heathcliff. Were you not ashamed to disturb the dead?” In this scene, Nelly is the voice of the Western perspective—logical and morally upright in the face of Heathcliff’s abject and strange actions which pay no regard to Victorian values or the desecration of a human corpse. To Heathcliff, his passion and love for Catherine is a spiritual force far more powerful than the accepted Western social rules he rebels against

The novel of Wuthering Heights involves passion, romance, and turmoil but most significantly carries cruelty as an overarching theme. Cruelty is apparent throughout the work most importantly when dealing with relationships between Heathcliff and Hindley, Heathcliff and Hareton, and even the emotional cruelty between Heathcliff and Catherine.

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).

“If wellness is this what in hell's name is sickness?” American singer Amanda Palmer captures what it means to reside in both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange in her hit song, “Runs in the Family”. Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights puts the ‘dysfunction’ in ‘dysfunctional families’ by using illness to demonstrate family dynamics. In the narrative, the affliction of mental illness is spread to almost all characters as they enter the household of Wuthering Heights, while residents at Thrushcross Grange are afflicted with physical illness, causing the ultimate upheaval of both households.