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Now and then character analysis
Now and then character analysis
Now and then character analysis
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In Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, the Earnshaws, a middle class family, live at the estate, Wuthering Heights. When Mr. Earnshaw takes a trip to Liverpool, he returns with an orphan whom he christens “Heathcliff”. During their formative years, Catherine, Mr. Earnshaw’s daughter, plays with Heathcliff on the moors and becomes close with him. As a result, they form a special bond and Heathcliff and Catherine fall in love, unlike Hindley, Mr. Earnshaw’s son, who does not get along with Heathcliff. While Heathcliff benefits from his relationships, his connections are disadvantaged in terms of status, reputation, financial stability, and happiness. As Heathcliff’s status improves, the statuses those who he is close to deteriorates. Heathcliff …show more content…
Mr. Earnshaw believes that “the young man, [Hindley], should be sent to college”(45) as Hindley is not treating Heathcliff properly. This shows how Mr. Earnshaw is favoring Heathcliff to Hindley and is forcing Hindley to leave. Catherine becomes good friends with Heathcliff. One night, they spy on the Lintons, their neighbors, and are caught. Mrs. Linton is disgusted that “Miss Earnshaw [was] scouring the country with a gypsy”(53). Catherine is expected to behave like a proper lady, implying that she should not associate with those inferior in status to her because she is part of the middle class. Even though Catherine and Heathcliff have a strong friendship, he ruins her reputation in the eyes of the Mrs. Linton. While having connections proves to benefit Heathcliff status, they appear to be detrimental to his connection’s …show more content…
When Hindley is drunk, Heathcliff “cheat[s] Mr. Hindley”(63) at cards. This is part of Heathcliff’s revenge on Hindley. Eventually, Hindley has to mortgage Wuthering Heights in order to pay his debts, and Heathcliff is able to gain possession of Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff tells Cathy, Catherine and Edgar’s daughter, that Linton, his son, “is on his deathbed”(255) and that she should come visit him. Cathy feels obligated to go help Linton, so she and Nelly go to Wuthering Heights. Once they arrive, Heathcliff locks them in and tells them “you shall not quit this place till it is fulfilled”(261); implying that they will not be able to leave until Cathy marries Linton. Heathcliff wants them to marry so that he can get the inheritance. While Heathcliff gains money from his connections, d Cathy and Hindley loses their inheritance, money, and
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 complicated nature surrounding Heathcliff’s motives again adds an additional degree of ambiguity to his character. This motivation is primarily driven by Catherine’s marriage to Edgar and past rejection of Heathcliff, since he was a servant whom Hindley disapproved of. Prior to storming out of Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff overhears Catherine say, “It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now…” (Brontë 87). The obstacles that ultimately prevent Heathcliff from marrying Catherine provide insight into Heathcliff’s desire to bring harm to Edgar and Hindley. The two men play prominent roles in the debacle, Edgar as the new husband and Hindley as the head figure who refused Heathcliff access to Catherine. Following this incident, Catherine says, “Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same…” (Brontë 87). Catherine’s sentiment indicates she truly would rather be with Heathcliff, but the actions of others have influenced her monumental decision to marry Edgar. Furthermore, Heathcliff is motivated to not only ruin Edgar’s livelihood, but also gain ownership of his estate, Thrushcross Grange. This becomes clear when Heathcliff attempts to use Isabella
Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights is a novel about lives that cross paths and are intertwined with one another. Healthcliff, an orphan, is taken in by Mr. Earnshaw, the owner of Wuthering Heights. Mr. Earnshaw has two children named Catherine and Hindley. Jealousy between Hindley and Healthcliff was always a problem. Catherine loves Healthcliff, but Hindley hates the stranger for stealing his fathers affection away. Catherine meets Edgar Linton, a young gentleman who lives at Thrushcross Grange. Despite being in love with Healthcliff she marries Edgar elevating her social standing. The characters in this novel are commingled in their relationships with Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange.
Catherine Earnshaw appears to be a woman who is free spirited. However, Catherine is also quite self-centered. She clearly states that her love for Edgar Linton does not match how much she loves Heathcliff. She is saying that she does love both, and she is unwilling to give one up for the other; she wants “Heathcliff for her friend”. Catherine admits that her love for Linton is “like the foliage in the woods”; however, her love for Heathcliff “resembles the eternal rocks beneath”. She loves Heathcliff and yet she gives him up and marries Linton instead, Catherine believes that if she marries Heathcliff it would degrade and humiliate her socially.
The Lintons and Earnshaws are part of the Gentry class of Victorian England; they are both landowning families, fairly high up in the class hierarchy. But the genetic natures of the families are entirely different: the Lintons are well behaved, subdued, spoilt, steady, sensible and arrogant; in comparison, the Earnshaws are strong willed, moody, generous, free spirited, easily influenced, laid back and non-formal. The nurture of the characters is connected very strongly to social status: Heathcliff is denied social status initially by his birth and subsequently by Hindley, which creates great hatred in Heathcliff: this denial of status is perceived much more seriously than what we consider serious today. Catherine chooses Edgar over Heathcliff for reasons of social status, even though she and Heathcliff are so similar. Hareton is also denied social status, which turns his attitudes against the Gentry class and creates rifts between him and other characters: for example, it makes Cathy and Linton, who would be his equals, look down on him.
Hindley, being the only biological son of Mr Earnshaw was envious of the relationship shared between Mr Earnshaw and Heathcliff and burned with fury. He made no effort to hide his resentment toward Heathcliff. Hindley despised Heathcliff to such an extent that when Mr Earnshaw died, he treated Heathcliff more like a servant and for bided him to talk to Catherine. Life then became miserable for Heathcliff and then became revenge driven. Hindley’s abusive and arrogant attitude toward Heathcliff, resulted in the chain of revengeful events that occurred in the novel. Hindley was instrumental in moulding Heathcliff into the destructive character he became.
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.
Hindley’s hatred for young Heathcliff is fueled by jealousy. Hindley Earnshaw, as a child, instantly sees Heathcliff as a rival. Mr. Earnshaw favorites Heathcliff over all of the other children, and this infuriate Hindley, making him “regard his father as an oppressor rather than a friend (75)” and Heathcliff as “a usurper of his parent's affections and his privileges (75).”Throughout the beginning of the novel, Bronte portrays Hindley as a villain towards the orphaned Heathcliff; however, this is all as a result of a lack of attention from his father. Because Heathcliff came in and stole his spot as the young man of the house, Hindley must retaliate. Hindley is sent away to college, and returns a very different man. “He had grown sparer, and lost his color, and spoke and dressed quite differently (89)”, but this in no way changes his relationship towards Heathcliff. He also returns a married man. His wife, Francis, eventually becomes ill and passes away, and this dramatically affects Hindley’s psyche. He “neither wept nor prayed; he cursed...
After a realization of his true noble personality, Elizabeth then found true love with Mr. Darcy, which cannot be said for the beautiful Catherine Earnshaw, in Wuthering Heights, who is a daughter from a gentry family. At a very young age, an orphan named Heathcliff joined the Earnshaw family. Both Catherine and Healthcliff have been madly in love with one another since then. One would expect them to marry due to their strong attraction for one another but because Catherine has an immature desire for social advancement, she married Edgar Linton, instead of Heathcliff. Catherine is a very spoiled socialite which very well contradicts the honest and virtuous Elizabeth Bennet, but although they make different decisions and are different as a person, both these free-spirited women want to choose their own future that satisfies their desires.
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.
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...
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...
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.
In the novel Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte strongly emphasizes the dynamic and increasingly complex relationship of Mr. Heathcliff and Catherine. Heathcliff, the abandoned gypsy boy is brought to Wuthering Height by Mr. Earnshaw to be raised with his family. After Mr. Earnshaw's death, he suffers harsh abuses from his "brother" Hindley and from Catherine, whom he dearly loves. This abuse will pave the way for revenge. The evolving and elaborate plans for revenge Mr. Heathcliff masterminds for those who he feels had hurt him and betray him is what makes Wuthering Heights a classic in English literature. The sudden change in feelings and emotions in Mr. Heathcliff are powerful scenes. Revenge becomes the only reason to live for him. Revenge is the main theme in Wuthering Heights because it highlights important events, personality flaws, and the path of destruction.
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