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Characterization in Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights
Characterization in Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights
Characterization in Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights
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In life many people are in search of true love, but in Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë "true love" can really be mistaken for false, society forced relationships. The story of the slightly egotistical Catherine, who desires Heathcliff, but needs to make sure she does not end up homeless beggar, and then Heathcliff, a dark sided loner, whose obsession of Catherine leads him to destructiveness and depression. They struggle to be together and in the end the cycle of life catches up to them.
Early on Brontë describes Catherine and Heathcliff’s love “She was 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” (33). Love is a reoccurring theme and conflict throughout the novel. For Catherine and Heathcliff separation from each other was always the harshest punishment, their love was true, and they cared for each other as if they were family. However their love seems to thrive during times of drama and distress, which makes it questionable as to how their love would last under peaceful circumstances. Catherine and Heathcliff are soul mates that grew up together and do not have the social ability to get close to anyone other then each other. They do not have a romantic relationship because they are too young to experience love at a mature level. When Catherine is twelve she travels to Thrushcross Grange to become “proper”, while she is there she meets Edgar and at the age of fifteen the two become engaged. This is when Heathcliff runs away from Wuthering Heights, for he believes that Catherine and Edgar’s love is false. This accusation by Heathcliff is true, Catherine decides to marry Edgar based on the financial support he can...
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...s infuriating with rage. To express his hatred and disappointment for Edgar, Heathcliff uses a word like “puny” which means weak or small. Heathcliff believes that Edgar robbed Catherine of him and now the reality of the situation, combined with his jealousy is driving him to turmoil.
In the end, Heathcliff dies a slow lonely death; possibly he starved himself thinking that his heart is famished from the lack of Catherine so his body must suffer in the same way. We will never know the full ending but in can be interpreted in many ways. Heathcliff, Catherine, and Edgar are all buried next to each other, assumed to “rest in peace”, the irony in that itself, the three of them peacefully together at last, is chilling. It is unfortunate that Catherine and Heathcliff’s love thrived in dramatic fashion because the one time it has calmed down they are both six feet deep.
Heathcliff's love for Catherine transcends the normal physical "true love" into spiritual love. He can withstand anything against him to be with her. After Hindley became the master of Wuthering Heights, he flogged Heathcliff like a slave. Although Heathcliff could have simply run away, his decision to endure the physical pains shows his unrelenting devotion to Catherine. Fortunately, Catherine feels as deeply for Heathcliff as he does for her, explaining to Nelly that "Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same…" Their love for each other is so passionate that they can not possibly live apart. At Catherine's death, Heathcliff hopes that she will not rest, but will haunt him until he dies. This absurdity contradicts the traditional norm that one should pray that the dead rest in peace. Near the end of the novel, we learn that Catherine has haunted Heathcliff, allowing him only fleeting glances of her. This shows that despite their physical separation, nothing can part them spiritually. When Heathcliff dies and unites with Catherine once again, the neighbors see them haunt the moors. We finally see the power of their love; Not only does this love transcend physical barriers, it transcends time as well...
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
The situation is terrible: Catherine is married to a man she does not love and she is more than happy to fix the problem by cheating on her husband with Heathcliff. The situation worsens when she refuses to attempt to conceal this from her husband. As Edgar, her husband, is arriving and Heathcliff, her lover, is leaving, she tells Heathcliff “‘You must not go!” (Bronte 103). Then, acting as the voice of reason, Catherine’s servant asks Heathcliff: “‘Will you ruin her, because she has not wit to help herself?’” (Bronte 103). When Heathcliff stays, it shows a lack of empathy and just how blatantly they do not care about the effects of their immoral actions. This will irreparably “ruin” Catherine’s reputation, yet they do not have the foresight to cease or at least conceal their actions. Their blatant disregard for how their actions might affect the future and hurt Edgar is what makes Catherine and Heathcliff grossly
It is no longer an innocent love, but a consuming need to be together, regardless of the social implications. Their early friendship, before the messiness of romantic love enters the equation, seems to be Montaigne 's exemplary "…perfect friendship…[which] is indivisible: each one gives himself so wholly to his friend that he has nothing left to distribute" (67). However, in their treatment of one another, it remains throughout the novel that the relationship dynamics are unequal. Catherine is very wishy-washy and selfish in her feelings and attitude toward Heathcliff, and the hot and cold leaves him confused, frustrated, and unwilling to move on. The inequity that reigns over their relationship can be viewed as a relationship of utility, which as Aristotle says, "those who love for the sake of utility love for the sake of what is good for themselves…thus, these friendships are only incidental…Such friendships, then, are easily dissolved, if the parties do not remain like themselves; for if the one party is no longer pleasant or useful the other ceases to love him” (129). The “perfect relationship” that Brontë seems to be after is nothing more than a façade. She borrows concepts and themes from both Aristotle and Montaigne but fails to implement
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 is starving himself so he can be with Cathy again. This psychological disorder has immerged from his love for her. The fact that Cathy, has left him, drives him crazy. He doesn’t understand how she could be so selfish. Heathcliff’s death is long and drawn out. This is because Heathcliff believes Cathy to be haunting him, and by him drawing out his death, he also draws out Cathy’s suffering.
Catherine is trapped between her love of Heathcliff and her love for Edgar, setting the two men down a path of destruction, a whirlwind of anger and resentment that Catherine gets caught in the middle of. Catherine is drawn to Heathcliff because of his fiery personality, their raw attraction and one certainly gets the sense that they are drawn together on a deeper level, that perhaps they are soulmates. C. Day Lewis thought so, when he declared that Heathcliff and Catherine "represent the essential isolation of the soul...two halves of a single soul–forever sundered and struggling to unite." This certainly seems to be backed up in the novel when Catherine exclaims “Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He's always, always in my mind--not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being...” This shows clearly the struggle Catherine feels as she is drawn spiritually to Heathcliff, but also to Edgar for very different reasons. Edgar attracts Catherine predominantly because he is of the right social class. Catherine finds him "handsome, and pleasant to be with," but her feelings for him seem petty when compared to the ones she harbours...
Primarily, Heathcliff's hunger for revenge blindsides the character’s, Hindley, Catherine, Hareton, and young Catherine. Revenge is what Heathcliff wishes to
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.
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 destructive force, motivating him to enact revenge and wreak misery. The power of Heathcliff’s destructive love is conquered by the influence of another kind of love.
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.
Wuthering Heights is filled with different examples of the Romantic Movements. Heathcliff is an exceptionally difficult character to analyze because he displays numerous altered personalities. This raises the question: which Romantic Movement was most common in Wuthering Heights? An analysis of Wuthering Heights reveals the most common Romantic Movement in the text: Romanticism. Romanticism is based upon the ideas of subjectivity, inspiration and the primacy of the individual. Various examples of these from the text are when Heathcliff has Catherine’s grave excavated, the repeated possibility of supernatural beings, and the love from the past that is seen from Heathcliff and Catherine.
During the first half of the book, Catherine showed different types of love for two different people. Her love for Heathcliff was her everything, it was her identity to love and live for Heathcliff but as soon as she found out how society views Heathcliff, she sacrificed their love and married Edgar Linton in the hopes of saving Heathcliff from Hindley and protecting him from the eyes of society. In her conversation with Nelly, Cathy who professed her love for Heathcliff quoted “My great miseries in this world have been Heathcliff's miseries, and I watched and felt each from the beginning: my great thought in living is himself.” Catherine proved Nelly Dean that the only person who can make her feel pain and sorrow is Heathcliff. The extent of her love was uncovered when she sang her praise of “I am Heathcliff” because this was the turning point in the book that allowed the readers to truly understand and see the depth of Cathy's love for Heathcliff. On the other hand, Catherine's love for Edgar wasn't natural because it was a love that she taught herself to feel. It might have come unknowingly to Cathy but she did love Edgar as she said “My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees.” Cathy knew that it was not impossible to love Edgar for he was a sweet and kind gentleman who showed her the world but unlike ...
In the novel Wuthering Heights, the dark and mysterious Heathcliff once began his life with an open heart, but after mistreatment from Edgar and Hindley he turns to revenge. Heathcliff's actions are reasonable; he has been hurt from the unfair reason of discrimination. Heathcliff slowly becomes sickly obsessed with planning an elaborate revenge after eavesdropping a conversation between his beloved Catherine to Nelly. He hears his young beautiful and idolized Catherine say, “It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff” (77). Heathcliff, heartbroken and hopeless, abruptly leaves Wuthering Height for two years. Catherine is left wondering where he is. Heathcliff leaves in search of revenge.