Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
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.
Heathcliff comes to live with the Earnshaw's, which also includes their children Catherine and Hindley. As Graham Holderness states, "The 'gipsy brat' old Mr. Earnshaw brings home with him has neither name nor status, property nor possessions. He emerges from the darkness, which is the outside of the tightly-knit family system: an outsider who tests the family by introducing an alien element into a jealousy-guarded system of parental and filial relations, of inheritance and possession." (Holderness 30) Heathcliff wonders weather he is good enough for the Earnshaw's, if he will be able to be a part of the "tight-knit family system" that they had created. Heathcliff feels that he is unworthy of the affection that he so desperately needs. This creates conflict with the other members of the Earnshaw family.
Heathcliff's most important need is the need to be loved. Catherine is the only person who can do this for him. (Holderness 30) Catherine and Heathcliff's relationship is addictive. Debra Goodlett quotes Stanton Peele author of "Love and Addiction" which says that "An Addiction exists when a person's attachment to a sensation, an object, or another person is such as to lessen his appreciation of and ability to deal with...
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...ng Heights. He starts out trying to receive love and ends up creating love. He seems to change along the way throughout all of his internal and external conflicts.
Bibliography:
Bibliography
Benvenuto, Richard. Emily Bronte. Boston, Mass: Twayne Publishers, 1982.
Berg, Maggie. Wuthering Heights: The Writing in the Margin. New York, NY: Twayne Publishers, 1996.
Articles
*"Making the Territory Heathcliff, Edgar and Homosocial Desire"
Bronte, Emily Wuthering Heights. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1975.
Leone, Bruno, ed. Wuthering Heights: Literary Companion Series. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1999
Articles
*"Love and Addiction in Wuthering Heights" by Barbara Gates
*"Heathcliff is both Tyrant and Victim" by Graham Holderness
*"The theme of Haunting" by Rachel Trickett
*"Heathcliff's Monomania" by Graeme Tytler
Heathcliff cried vehemently, "I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!" Emily Brontë distorts many common elements in Wuthering Heights to enhance the quality of her book. One of the distortions is Heathcliff's undying love for Catherine Earnshaw. Also, Brontë perverts the vindictive hatred that fills and runs Heathcliff's life after he loses Catherine. Finally, she prolongs death, making it even more distressing and insufferable.
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
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...
Heathcliff and Cathy have a sadistic relationship. They are only truly in love when they are hurting each other. As Catherine lay dying, she wants Heathcliff, her love, to join her in death. She pleads to him:
Healthcliff- An adopted member of the Earnshaw family. As a child, he was sullen and
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.
Shapiro, Arnold. “‘Wuthering Heights’ as a Victorian Novel.” Nineteenth Century Literary Criticism. Vol. 16. Eds. Joann Cerrito and Paul Kepos. Detroit: Gale Research, 1992. 108-110.
Catherine Earnshaw is the daughter of Mr. Earnshaw and his wife; Catherine falls powerfully in love with Heathcliff, the orphan Mr. Earnshaw brings home from Liverpool. She was born at Wuthering Heights and was raised with her brother Hindley. Catherine loves Heathcliff so intensely that she claims they are the same person but does not marry him because Hindley has degraded him after their father's death so her desire for social advancement motivates her to marry Edgar Linton instead, a neighbour from Thrushcross Grange and he is handsome and rich, another reason for Catherine marrying him. She is quite passionate about Heathcliff though, and does not want to give him up. She becomes ill when Heathcliff and Edgar fight, and dies in childbirth.
Wuthering Heights. 1847. The. Ed. Richard J. Dunn, Ph.D. 4th ed.
Web. 8 Dec. 2010. . Mitchell, Hayley R., ed. Readings on Wuthering Heights.
Wuthering Heights, written by Emily Bronte, has 323 pages. The genre of Wuthering Heights is realistic fiction, and it is a romantic novel. The book is available in the school library, but it was bought at Barnes and Nobles. The author’s purpose of writing Wuthering Heights is to describe a twisted and dark romance story. Thus, the author conveys the theme of one of life’s absolute truths: love is pain. In addition, the mood of the book is melancholy and tumultuous. Lastly, the single most important incident of the book is when Heathcliff arrives to Edgar Linton’s residence in the Granges unannounced to see Catherine’s state of health. Heathcliff’s single visit overwhelmed Catherine to the point of death.
Heathcliff is obsessed with catherine. He's so obsessed with her that he as remind his heart to beat Heathcliff has obsessive checking. Repeated doubts, such as wondering if one has hurt another person; wondering if one locked the door. Brinkerhoff, 22. “I discovered the yell was not ideal.
Bloomfield, Dennis. "An Analysis Of The Causes And Effects Of Sickness And Death In Wuthering Heights." Bronte Studies 36.3 (2011): 289-298. Academic Search Complete. Web. 13 Feb. 2014.
Although, Mr. Earnshaw tried to make Heathcliff an equal part of the family, Heathcliff never truly fits in. Heathcliff is from a completely different social class than the rest of his “family”. This led to the hatred that Hindley felt towards Heathcliff. Hindley robs Heathcliff of his education, forces him to work as a servant at Wuthering Heights and frequently beats him. Throughout this all, Heathcliff never complains.
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.