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Characters in wuthering Heights
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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.
Mr. Earnshaw does not have a problem with Heathcliff being a part of the family, unlike his wife and son. However, with a bit of time he is accepted by Catherine, but does not have as much freedom as she does. As Mr. Earnshaw stated when he first brought Heathcliff to Wuthering Heights “But you must e’en take it as a gift from God, though it’s as dark almost as if it
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.
Heathcliff was adopted into the Earnshaw home when he was a young boy. The Earnshaw family consisted of Mr and Mrs. Earnshaw, Hindley, and Catherine. Since he was first brought to the home by Mr. Earnshaw, he has caused trouble. Heathcliff’s actions throughout the book alone could be considered evil or immoral, but readers feel sympathetic because of his inability to share his thoughts or feelings in a considerate manner or because some characters treat him worse than he treats them.
In the early lives of Catherine and Hindley Earnshaw, their father 's overzealous love for Heathcliff causes a jealous rage in Hindley that starts the chain of disastrous events to come in the future. Mr. Earnshaw fails to remedy the situation, and Hindley, "learnt to regard his father as an oppressor rather than a friend … and he grew bitter with brooding over these injuries." The envious feelings that Hindley harbors for Heathcliff leads him to treat the orphan with contempt and cruelty. This in turn generates an intense hatred in Heathcliff for Hindley that fuels a craving for revenge that lasts for nearly all of his life.
Catherine Earnshaw: a spoiled, selfish child that gains the love of both Heathcliff and Edgar.
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.
Unlike Satan, the premises of the revenge of Heathcliff take root in his childhood, rather than in a specific moment. Heathcliff grows up with the Earnshaws, a family with two children, Catherine and Hindley. Mr. Earnshaw especially favored Heathcliff, although not related by blood. Because of the favoritism shown, Hindley expresses his anger by antagonizing Heathcliff. In a letter written by the young Catherine Earnshaw, she states that Hindley “has been blaming our father (how dared he?) for treating H. too liberally; and swears he will reduce him to his right place” (Brontë 22). The love of Heathcliff for Catherine helps him survive the time during his childhood after the death of Mr. Earnshaw. However, the “social and intellectual meanness” of Hindley “produces a Heathcliff whose manner and intellect Catherine finds unacceptable” (Vargish 10). Heathcliff does not accept the harsh treatment he receives, as he states “I’m trying to settle how I should pay Hindley back. I don’t care how long I wait, if I can only do it, at last. I hope he will not die before I do!” (Brontë 61). When Nelly tells Heathcliff that God should punish, Heathcliff responds by saying that “God won’t have the satisfaction that I shall” (Brontë 61). The thirst for vengeance Heathcliff harbors has begun to grow into a
He runs away from the life where he is a stable boy, only to come back to be with her, but she has moved on to a man named Edgar Linton. “The ledge, where I placed my candle, had a few mildewed books piled up in the corner, and it was covered with writing scratched on the paint. This writing, however, was nothing but a name repeated in all kinds of characters, large and small- Catherine Earnshaw, here and there varied to Catherine Heathcliff, and then again to Catherine Linton,” (19). Her true love was Heathcliff, but she ended up becoming Catherine
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
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.
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 starts off as a young innocent boy, who does not know anything. He is adopted by the Earnshaw family, and then Hindley mistreat Heathcliff as they grow up. Hindley notice that Mr. Earnshaw, his father favors Heathcliff more than him, right away he sees Heathcliff as an enemy. Hindley goes to college and later returns after his father death and seeks revenge on Heathcliff by putting him back to his place. “He has been blaming our father (how dared he?) for treating H. too liberally; and swears he will reduce him to his right place.”(pg15) Hindley starts by mistreating Heathcliff again just as Hindley did in the first place. His grudge of Mr. Earnshaw's love for the gypsy sets off a reaction for abuse and mistreatment towards him. He physically abuses Heathcliff makes him sleep next to the horses, brings him down to a servant and is not allowed to see Catherine. Hindley’s determ...
Isabella is Edgar Linton's sister and although pleasant, well-educated person has the soft and civilised traits of Thrushcross. Grange. Heathcliff marries her as a way of revenge against Cathy and Edgar as part of his overall plan to own both estates. Not Realising Heathcliff's intentions, she is taken in by his magnetism and
After Hindley’s father dies, he begins to abuse poor Heathcliff, taking away his education and forcing him to work out in the field’s and. Mr. Earnshaw’s resentful son Hindley oppresses Heathcliff and treats him as a servant. Ever since Heathcliff had arrived at Wuthering Heights, Hindley had loathed him and “from the very beginning, he bred bad feeling in the house; and at Mrs. Earnshaw’s death, which happened in less than ...
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.