Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
characters in wuthering Heights
setting in wuthering heights symbolism
tragic relationships in wuthering heights
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: characters in wuthering Heights
WUTHERING HEIGHTS
MAIN CHARACTERS
Catherine Earnshaw ~ She is the daughter of Mr. Earnshaw and the sister of Hindley. She is also Heathcliff’s foster sister. Heathcliff and Catherine are in love, but she marries Edgar Linton instead. When Cathy died, she wanted both Heathcliff and Edgar to suffer because Edgar never understood why she loved Heathcliff and Heathcliff because he never knew why she married Edgar.
Catherine Linton ~ She is the daughter of the older Catherine and Edgar Linton. Her mother Catherine died shortly after she was born. She married Linton Heathcliff and became Catherine Heathcliff. Then after her husband’s death she married Harenton and became Catherine Earnshaw.
Mr. Earnshaw ~ He was a farmer and father of Hindley and Catherine. He is a kind- hearted man who takes Heathcliff in after he found him lying on the street, although his family protested he still took him in.
Edgar Linton ~ He is Isabella’s older brother, who marries Catherine Earnshaw and is the father of there daughter, Catherine Linton. He is a gentle bred, refined man, a patient husband and loving father.
Ellen Dean ~ Ellen is one of the main narrators. She has been a servant for the Linton’s and Earnshaw’s all her life. She knows all of them better than any one else. People that are close to her call her Nelly.
Frances Earnshaw ~ She is Hindley’s wife. She was a rather giddy woman. She displayed a great fear of death, which tells us why she died of tuberculosis.
Harenton Earnshaw ~ Harenton is the son of Frances and Hindley Earnshaw. He marries young Catherine and grows up with his Uncle Heathcliff; his both mother and father die. He is ruff and uncultured having been kept from civilization from so long by Heathcliff.
The Wuthering Heights belongs to Harenton even though Heathcliff runs the household.
Hindley Earnshaw ~ Is the only son of Mr. and Mrs. Earnshaw, he is also Catherine’s older brother. He becomes a violent alcoholic after his beloved wife Frances dies. Also Hindley never got along with Heathcliff because Hindley felt rejected from his father’s affection, because Heathcliff the favorite child of Mr. Earnshaw.
Heathcliff ~ He is taken in by Mr. Earnshaw and raised along with Catherine and Hindley. Catherine was a moving force in his life, and he hated all those who stood between him and his beloved Cathy. However, he was of unknown descendants and was found in Liverpool starving on the streets.
Heathcliff says, speaking about Edgar, “I hated him with a hatred that turned my life to a gall… I would have torn his heart out, and drank his blood!” (146). He truly hated him for stealing Cathy away. In revenge, he marries Edgar’s sister, Isabella Linton, making them in-laws. He abuses Isabella and she describes herself feeling “particularly cheerless”(137) while living with him. After Cathy dies and Isabella runs away, the only thing Edgar has left is his daughter, Catherine. Since Edgar stole the one person Heathcliff loves most, he decides to take away Catherine, the last person alive that Edgar truly loves. Heathcliff uses his son, Linton, as a pawn and shows him no compassion; when talking about his son's health he says “His life is not worth a farthing, and I won't spend a farthing on him” (278). Using Linton as a pawn, he forces him to marry young Catherine to spite Edgar. This will also lead to the Heathcliff family ownership of Thrushcross Grange after Edgar’s death. Heathcliff’s vengeful actions are infectious as they hurt everyone around him. Ultimately, it destroys himself mentally and he dies after his mental and physical states slowly
“My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods; time will change it… My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath... Nelly, I am Heathcliff!” This quote from Catherine explains her love for both men, even though one is stronger than the other. Her love for Edgar is superficial. Edgar Linton is made to feel helpless when Catherine falls into a catatonic depression, after she is alerted that Heathcliff and Isabella eloped. He was gullible to Catherine's love, even if it was not a full devotion to him. She needed to keep up her responsibility as Edgar's wife, and not let herself fall for Heathcliff. Similarly to what Eleanor Roosevelt said, “And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility”
In conclusion, Heathcliff is ultimately to blame for the unhappiness and distress of Cathy, Hareton, and Linton. The children grew up in different homes, with different family structures, social statuses and personalities. Linton chooses to take on a stronger personality, influenced by his father. Hareton chooses to develop a relationship with Cathy, whom had previously been unkind and mocking and together they grow.
Healthcliff- An adopted member of the Earnshaw family. As a child, he was sullen and
3. Heathcliff: This abusive and cruel character was born as an orphan. After Catherine decides to marry Earnshaw, their relationship is damaged and he acts only in revenge
Heathcliff was adopted by Mr Earnshaw. He was then given a well structured and steady family including a brother Hindley and sister Catherine. Mr Earnshaw made certain that nobody took advantage of Heathcliff and poured out his affection onto Heathcliff. However Heathcliff became overwhelmed by all the attention and affection, manipulated the situation and used it to his advantage.
Heathcliff, to some, began life as a crime. His foster brother Hindley shunned him as a reject from society while viewing Heathcliff’s very existence a grievous crime, particularly because Mr. Earnshaw’s love and affection were displaced towards Heathcliff instead of himself. Far later in the novel, this terrible attitude backfires upon Hindley, who is misused and cheated out of ownership of Wuthering Heights by Heathcliff. This crime parallels another: Heathcliff’s abhorrent abuse of both Hindley in his weakened state and Hindley’s son Hareton, who is made the stablehand instead of the rightful owner of the Heights. Heathcliff also trespassed when he imprisoned Catherine upon her visits to his son Linton. He coerced her into marrying Linton while her own father was dying, and so gained ownership of Thrushcross Grange as well as the Heights.
The initial downward spiral of Heathcliff’s life was predominantly caused by harsh influences in the environment in which he was raised. Heathcliff, an adopted child, grew up in Wuthering Heights, a desolate and dystopian estate when compared to the beauty of the neighboring Thrushcross Grange. In childhood, Heathcliff displayed evidence of a sympathetic personality through his emotional attachment to Catherine and kind attitude towards Nelly. At the time of Mr. Earnshaw’s death, Nelly describes a scene where, “Miss Cathy had been sick, and that made her still; she
Since the adoption of Heathcliff into the Earnshaw family, “Hindley hated him” particularly because Mr. Earnshaw “took...
Heathcliff is a character who was abused in his childhood by Catherine’s brother, Hindley, because of his heritage as a “gypsy”, and Hindley was jealous of the love that Heathcliff got from Mr. Earnshaw, Hindley’s father. This is also selfishness upon Hindley’s part since he only wanted his father’s love for his sister and himself. So to reprimand Heathcl...
The children of Hindley and Frances Earnshaw, Catherine and Edgar Linton, and Heathcliff and Isabella Heathcliff, are all subjected to the mistreatment of Heathcliff, as a part of his revenge plan. Those children
Before marrying Linton, Catherine says to Nelly that she loves King of England Linton, as a result of he's civilized and well-mannered. And later on, she acts as a docile better half till the reappearance of Heathcliff. Then it may be tried that only if Catherine feels robbed of the rights to fancy her natural love will she begin to rebel against her husband. Catherine’s eternal love for Heathcliff is that the strongest opposition against her husband. From Catherine’s purpose of read, the Linton’s area unit ne'er in contrast to the Earnshaw, for she is consistently below the tense management of the top of families. Thus, a standard girl cannot refuse to simply accept the destiny of being controlled. Catherine isn't associate in nursing exception. Bolted in Thrushcross farm, Catherine expresses a deep depression and a discomfort of being bereft of freedom and privileges. Catherine,
From the beginning of the novel and most likely from the beginning of Heathcliff's life, he has suffered pain and rejection. When Mr. Earnshaw brings him to Wuthering Heights, he is viewed as a thing rather than a child. Mrs. Earnshaw was ready to fling it out the doors, while Nelly put it on the landing of the stairs hoping that it would be gone the next day. Without having done anything to deserve rejection, Heathcliff is made to feel like an outsider. Following the death of Mr. Earnshaw, Heathcliff suffers cruel mistreatment at the hands of Hindley. In these tender years, he is deprived of love, friendship, and education, while the treatment from jealous Hindley is barbaric and disrupts his mental balance. He is separated from the family, reduced to the status of a servant, undergoes regular beatings and forcibly separated from his soul mate, Catherine. The personality that Heathcliff develops in his adulthood has been formed in response to these hardships of his childhood.
In the novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, Heathcliff is an orphan boy brought to Wuthering Heights by Mr. Earnshaw, who has two children of his own already - Catherine and Hindley. Heathcliff changes over the course of his life by the following; Heathcliff begins by getting along well with Catherine Earnshaw, however, Catherine Earnshaw is introduced to Edgar Linton and Heathcliff becomes jealous of their forming relationship, and once Catherine has passed away after delivering Edgar’s child, Heathcliff becomes haunted by her ghost, and wishes to only be united with her in death.
At first, the children of Wuthering Heights (Hindley, Cathy, Nelly) all rejected him for his appearance as a gypsy- they thought of him as knavish, grimy, and uneducated. Despite this, Mr. Earnshaw treated with a certain respect by letting him live as with the Earnshaws while still being an outsider to the family. Yet the spectrum of hostility didn’t end with the children. Mrs. Earnshaw questions her husband’s insight, “asking how [Mr. Earnshaw] could fashion to bring that gipsy brat into the house” when he added another mouth for her to feed at the dinner table. (Chapter 4). Mr. Earnshaw’s attempt to integrate Heathcliff fails once Hindley takes over Wuthering Heights. Despite basically being middle class under Mr. Earnshaw, Hindley takes it on his own to oppress and torture him. Before this, Heathcliff was on a level playing field class wise compared to the Earnshaws. Heathcliff now finds himself as a servant, a laborer working the fields. By subjugating Heathcliff, Hindley drew the line in the sand. Hindley has effectively forced Heathcliff into a lower class, Hindley has colonized