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Analysis of female characters in wuthering heights
Analysis of female characters in wuthering heights
Biographical elements in wuthering heights
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In Emily Bronte’s novel, Wuthering Heights, the main character comes from a mysterious background which heavily impacts both his personality and relationships with others. Heathcliff is found abandoned on the streets by Mr. Earnshaw as a young boy. Bronte utilizes literary devices such as foreshadowing, juxtaposition, and symbolism to highlight the profound impact that Heathcliff’s background had on him. Each of these devices are utilized together to present the destructive nature of revenge.
Without reservation, Bronte utilizes the characters in the novel to her advantage to bring forth her purpose. Heathcliff is the main character and comes from an obviously mysterious background. He is left alone on the streets as a young boy with no form
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Heathcliff is an individual whose existence surrounded around loss and adjustment. Bronte utilizes juxtaposition to add to the complexity of his character. Heathcliff presents himself in a clean, proper manner many years after he was first discovered. This image juxtaposes heavily with his true intentions. On the outside he appears to be a trustworthy man, although he is actually devilish in nature. After the death of Mr. Earnshaw, Hindley takes complete control over the lives of Heathcliff and Catherine. Due to the continuous loss of those around him, he found it hard to trust. From a modern perspective, Heathcliff could be seen as having an obsessive disorder. He gains a relationship with Catherine that quickly delves into a form of obsession. His constant craving for power and attention demonstrates this idea. He becomes upset when she becomes involved with a man other than him. Heathcliff’s obsessive personality is not just displayed in regards to Catherine but also in regards to revenge. Heathcliff’s background has heavily impacted him. His previous abandonment and abuse has led to him feeling entitled to things that are not rightfully his. He can be seen obtaining the land and estate of Hindley and pursuing that of Edgar Linton also. He pursues and obsesses over what he believes would benefit his life the most. This was what drove his destructive desires for revenge. This could be understood as him trying to live a life that he never thought would be possible for
Brontё further imposes the reader against this repressive society that emulates Heathcliff’s rejection because of his inexorable revenge. His revenge against Hindley begins to threaten the system because even with his nebulous and “gypsy” background he manages to ascend into the bourgeoisie status, reducing the unequal system to mere superstition. Arnold Kettle argues that these values represented in Wuthering Heights, which Heathcliff rebels, “reflects the specific tyranny of Victorian capitalist society” against gypsies and those with little social economic status, which Heathcliff embodies.
The struggle to fulfill their uncontrollable desires haunt Brontë’s character’s throughout the novel. Not only do they imitate each other’s desires at times, but they also have their own purposes, whether it be revenge or greed.
Primarily, Heathcliff's hunger for revenge blindsides the character’s, Hindley, Catherine, Hareton, and young Catherine. Revenge is what Heathcliff wishes to
Bronte also proves that non-human things can change, such as the manner of Wuthering Heights. The idea that people and objects can transform is shown throughout the novel through many examples. The protagonist of the novel, Heathcliff, was shown to have gone through the biggest transformation. In the beginning of the novel, Heathcliff is an orphan brought home to live with a high-class family. He is described as “a dirty, ragged, black-haired child; big enough both to walk and talk.yet when it was set on its feet, it only stared round, and repeated over and over again some gibberish that nobody could understand” (Bronte page 36).
The central conflict in the novel "Wuthering Heights" written by Emily Bronte is Heathcliff. Heathcliff's internal conflicts affect how all of the other characters interrelate. Heathcliff throughout the book never does anything honorable or dignified. Heathcliff creates whirlwinds of problems by just being present, sometimes, by not even doing a thing. Heathcliff's problems not only the affect the Earnshaw's but also their neighbors Edgar & Isabella Linton.
Throughout the book, readers do not find out anything about his past life. Since he was an orphan he seems to represent wild and natural forces which were seen as amoral and dangerous for society. Heathcliff can be viewed as a demonic character because of his social class. When he first came to the house Mr. Earnshaw says “ See here wife; I was never so beaten with anything in my life; but you must e’en take it as a gift of God; though it’s as dark almost as if it came from the devil”(Bronte 36). As a matter of fact, Bronte compares Heathcliff to devil which shows his personality. It foreshadows Heathcliff may be the cause of tragedy, at Wuthering Heights. Shortly after Heathcliff’s arrival Ms. Earnshaw passed away. Two years after, Heathcliff’s arrival Ms. Earnshaw passed away, Hindley“… learned to regard his father as an oppressor rather than a friend, and Heathcliff as a usurper of his parent’s affections” (Bronte38). To explain Heathcliff’s representation of wild is present as Ms. Earnshaw died quickly after Heathcliff’s arrival. The representation of wild represents Heathcliff as a demonic character because his decent is unknown. Many critics believe, Heathcliff may be the evil force that causes tragedy within in the
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.
In the book, Heathcliff shows madness when he ran away from Wuthering Heights for three years. He overheard what Catherine said about not marrying him so she could marry Edgar, so he ran away and didn’t return for three years. He had a reason to get mad and to run away because he really loved Catherine and he really wanted to marry her, but she didn’t want to marry him because of his social class, she wanted to marry Edgar because he had a higher social class than Heathcliff. Heathcliff thought that Catherine really loved him, so when he overheard her talking, it really hurt his feelings to know that she was choosing Edgar over him because of social class.
The basic conflict of the novel that drives Heathcliff and Catherine apart is social. Written after the Industrial Revolution, Wuthering Heights is influenced by the rise of new fortunes and the middle class in England. Money becomes a new criterion to challenge the traditional criterias of class and family in judging a gentleman’s background. Just as Walpole who portrays the tyrannies of the father figure Manfred and the struggles of the Matilda who wants to marry the peasant Theodore, as depicted in the quote “(…) improbability that either father would consent to bestow his heiress on so poor a man, though nobly born”(p. 89), Brontë depicts a brutal bully Hindley who torments Heathcliff and separates Catherine from him. Heathcliff, a gypsy outcast picked u...
He faced much abuse from his brother, Hindley, as well as being a social outcast. Heathcliff was able to live a comfortable life during the lifespan of Earnshaw, and was able to persist through the abuse of Hindley, but Heathcliff’s true breaking point came from the romantic rejection from his lifelong best friend, Catherine. Catherine was Earnshaw 's daughter, who was slightly younger than Heathcliff. At first, Catherine had rejected Heathcliff 's friendship due to the fact he was a foreigner, but as time went on, they began to grow on each other. “She was much too fond of Heathcliff. The greatest punishment we could invent for her was to keep her separate from him: yet she got chided more than any of us on his account.” (5.10)They were two very adventurous children, and spent all their time together. They were two of the same children, but this began to change under the influence of the Linton family. Catherine for a short period of time lived with the Lintons after one of the guard dogs bit her leg after she and Heathcliff trespassed onto their territory. Prior to the trespass, Heathcliff and Catherine mocked the Linton children for their petty antics and delicate nature.”...instead of a wild, hatless little savage jumping into the house, and rushing to squeeze us all breathless, there 'lighted from a handsome black pony a very dignified person, with brown ringlets falling from the cover of a feathered beaver, and a long cloth habit, which she was obliged to hold up with both hands that she might sail in.” (7.1) With Catherine 's renowned attitude, Heathcliff was left without a friend. As time progressed, Heathcliff began to develop romantic feelings towards Catherine. Although Catherine also had a strong feeling that she was destined to be with Heathcliff, she was unsure if she could marry him due to his low social stature. "I 've no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be
There is a superstitious idea surrounding Heathcliff throughout Bronte's novel, giving off the first impression of powerfulness, he is handsome yet comes across as melancholy. Described as the ‘imp of Satan’ by Hindley, Bronte uses his cruelty as merely an expression of his frustrated love for Catherine, or that his sinister behaviours serve to conceal the heart of a romantic hero. Critic Joyce Carol Oates argues that Emily Bronte does the same thing to the reader that Heathcliff does to Isabella, testing to see how many times the reader can be shocked by Heathcliff's gratuitous violence and still, masochistically, insist on seeing him as a romantic hero.
Heathcliff and Catherine have loved each other since their childhood. Initially, Catherine scorned the little gypsy boy; she showed her distaste by “spitting” at him (Brontë 27). However, it was not long before Heathcliff and Catherine became “very think” (Brontë 27). They became very close friends; they were practically brother and sister (Mitchell 122). Heathcliff is intent upon pleasing Catherine. He would “do her bidding in anything” (Brontë 30). He is afraid of “grieving” her (Brontë 40). Heathcliff finds solace and comfort in Catherine’s company. When Catherine is compelled to stay at Thrushcross Grange to recover from her injury, she returns as “a very dignified person” (Brontë 37). Her association with the gente...
It is a question that has baffled readers and critics alike through generations, a question that can be endlessly pondered upon and debated over, as to why Emily Bronte chose to name her first and only novel, after the house in which a sizable part of the action chronicled takes place, despite being armed with characters of such extra-ordinary strength and passion as Heathcliff or Catherine. But on close scrutiny, a reader can perhaps discern the reason behind her choice, the fact that Wuthering Heights is at once a motif, a setting and according to a few critics, even a ‘premonitory indication’ of the tempestuous nature of things soon to occur.
Bronte's Use of Language and Setting in Wuthering Heights Between pages 15 and 18 there are identifiable ways in which 'Bronte' uses 'language and setting' to establish the characters and create a distinguishable atmosphere. In this essay, themes, genres and styles will be discussed to show how 'Bronte' establishes the characters; there will also be a discussion of the 'gothic' elements which Wuthering Heights contains. Many people would argue that the style of 'Wuthering Heights' is peculiar and complex, the power of Wuthering Heights owes much to its complex narrative structure and to the device of having two conventional people relate a very unconventional tale. Bronte importantly introduces the element of 'the supernatural' into chapter 3 which is an important technique as it grips the reader. Lockwood has come into contact with the ghost of Cathy, who died 18 years before, Some might argue that she is a product of Lockwood's imagination, and it is clear that Bronte has presented these facts in this way so that the reader can make up their own mind on the subject.
In Emily Brontë’s well renowned, dramatic Gothic novel Wuthering Heights, Brontë’s character development of Heathcliff to have horrid motives, a vengeful ego, and to transform from an innocent child to a tyrannical madman exemplifies the corruptions and immoralities of Victorian Society and its destructive effects on an individual.