Emily Brontë only had one book published in her lifetime, and it has become a staple in classic literature. Wuthering Heights is classified as a destructive romance between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff who are in love, but cannot be with one another because of the many obstacles set by other characters and, more importantly, themselves. But there is also a very dark element to this tale of romance. Many characters face abandonment, neglect, and physical and emotional abuse. Violence and cruelty is a reoccurring theme throughout Wuthering Heights that is developed through the actions of characters.
In the beginning of Nelly Dean’s story about the generations of characters living in the mansion of Wuthering Heights, she talks about Mr. Earnshaw. This man starts the story with taking in an orphan that he names Heathcliff (Brontë 24). Earnshaw only gives Heathcliff a first name and no last name to show that he will never
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be a real part of his family. Throughout Heathcliff’s childhood, not treated like the rest of his family, or even like a person at times (Shapiro). Mrs. Earnshaw takes an immediate dislike to Heathcliff and refers to him as a “gipsy brat” (Brontë 24). Hindley, the oldest child of Mr. Earnshaw, and Heathcliff were constantly in competition with each other. Mr. Earnshaw bought horses for each of the boys and Heathcliff took the prettiest one. The horse became lame, and Heathcliff told Hindley to switch horses with him. If Hindley did not comply, Heathcliff would show Mr. Earnshaw the wounds his sustained from Hindley beating him earlier in the week (Brontë 25). Hindley did not want to give up his horse and threw an iron weight at Heathcliff. Hindley hoped that if he took the horse, it would throw him and break his neck (Brontë 26). These actions just through the first few pages of the book already demonstrate the theme of violence and cruelty. Hindley and his adoptive brother never got along and as they went into adulthood, it did not get any better.
Mr. and Mrs. Earnshaw eventually grew very ill and passed away. Hindley is now in charge of Wuthering Heights, much to the chagrin of Heathcliff. Heathcliff becomes even more of an outcast through Hindley’s actions, constantly not referred to as a member of the family and treated poorly (“Wuthering”). At one point, Hindley locks Heathcliff out of the house and tries to shoot him with a pistol. As a result, Heathcliff beats up Hindley (Brontë 113-115). Hindley eventually drinks himself to death over his wife’s death due to childbirth, leaving Heathcliff with his son, Hareton. Heathcliff already has his son, Linton, who he refers to as his property, not his son. History repeats itself when Heathcliff brutalizes Hareton, denying him an education and isolating him from the rest of the world. There is a sense of irony as Heathcliff treats his own son like Mr. Earnshaw treated him and how he also treats Hareton as Hindley treated him
(Shapiro). Heathcliff seems the most violent of the characters, although his actions are reactions to other character’s torment. He marries Isabella Linton to punish her brother, Edgar, for marrying Catherine Earnshaw. He is frustrated and takes it out on poor Isabella. Isabella, once infatuated with Heathcliff, now despises him and believes he is some form of the devil due to actions like trying to strangle her dog and treating her with less respect than a servant (“Wuthering”). After Heathcliff is locked out of the house by Hindley, Isabella likes seeing him in pain and decides to make it worse. She taunts him about Catherine and how Heathcliff will never be with her, and he starts to cry. Then, he takes a knife and stabs Isabella just below her ear. She quickly retrieves the knife and throws it back at him (Brontë 116). Heathcliff and Isabella’s marriage was never going to turn out well, but adding abuse and emotional manipulation into it and it does not have a chance. Violence and cruelty is common among the characters in Wuthering Heights. Each character has at least received some sort of physical injury inflicted by another character or emotional manipulation. This novel may be considered a romance, but it has dark undertones that are shown through the cruel actions of the various characters.
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
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.
Emily Bronte, on the surface, appeared to be a very withdrawn woman and is said to be reclusive throughout her entire life. She was even incredibly embarrassed when her sister, Charlotte Bronte, found her book of poetry, even though Charlotte was incredibly impressed by it. Beneath the surface lies a woman full of passion and capable of powerful emotions, though she had never felt such emotions, to write a novel that is still discussed today and is regarded as a literary classic. Novels are often regarded as a window to the souls of the authors, and Wuthering Heights is no exception. Wuthering Heights is often seen as a type of construct of Emily’s life and personality, because of the similarity of characters to people in Emily’s life, and how the events that occur at Wuthering Heights are secluded in their own right, much like Emily’s own life.
Growing up as an orphan from a tender age, deprived of a structured family and family support system, exposed to the negative influences life offered, it is almost a certainty that his behaviour will not be that of an ideal gentleman. 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.
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.
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 is a novel which deviates from the standard of Victorian literature. The novels of the Victorian Era were often works of social criticism. They generally had a moral purpose and promoted ideals of love and brotherhood. Wuthering Heights is more of a Victorian Gothic novel; it contains passion, violence, and supernatural elements (Mitchell 119). The world of Wuthering Heights seems to be a world without morals. 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. Young Cathy’s love for Hareton is a redemptive force. It is her love that brings an end to the reign of Heathcliff.
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.
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...
Despite it’s slightly unnerving plot line, Wuthering Heights is a story of intrigue and ardor and what happens when you step step over the line between both. It is oddly realistic as it brings focus too many aspects of human thought. Because of it’s wild and relatable storyline, Wuthering Heights has proved to be a spectacularly unique novel on not only the faults of society , but also on the puzzling human mind. Emily Bronte brought to life a world with Wuthering Heights that was so raw and vivid, it became impossible to forget. The conflicts of society and it’s twisted love triangle resulted in a book almost as unpredictable as the moors it was set in.
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 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.
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