Wuthering Heights: The Fine Line Between Love and Hate

From the time they were young children, Heathcliff and Catherine formed an almost otherworldly bond. No one else around them could understand such an attraction; even they had trouble comprehending it themselves. Heathcliff was a dark, tortured soul, a mysterious stranger thrust into the lives of the Earnshaws. Catherine was selfish and naïve, aware only of her own emotions and apathetic of how her actions affected others. Through their vast differences both in temperament and in social status, Heathcliff and Catherine grew closer than they could have imagined. Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights is by no means a love story, but a tale of twisted, murderous, obsessive love.

Heathcliff’s thoughts and actions throughout the novel make it easy to presume that he has no human emotion, that he is too much of a monster to ever love another person. Even as a child, he is conniving and bitter and lashes out at Hindley when even slightly antagonized. Heathcliff is not a good person. He is a man filled with terrible flaws and a desperate desire for revenge, an uncontrollable rage that dominates his personality. It would be easy to view Heathcliff as a monster, if not for the one factor that makes him perhaps more human than anyone else; he loves Catherine more than life itself. In a world that has beaten him down to the point where he is almost completely jaded and hateful, he is able to feel an immeasurable adoration for a woman who is not easy to love. Heathcliff’s passion for Catherine encompasses his whole being and drives him absolutely crazy; his world revolves around making her love him.

When Edgar Linton comes into the picture after an unfortunate injury causes Cathy to spend several weeks at the neighboring Thrushcross Grange, Heat...

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... way, even if that means haunting him. He believes himself to be her “murderer” and loathes himself for the very thought that he took away the only thing in the world that mattered to him.

Love is an addiction. Love is a connection beyond any other. Heathcliff and Catherine’s love for each other was intense and tormented, riddled with insanity and obsession. They shared a violent love that bordered on hate at times, as love often does. However monstrous Heathcliff behaves, his passion for Cathy is undeniable. Through every catastrophe that occurred at Wuthering Heights, the one thing that remained unchanged was the connection between Heathcliff and Catherine, the unbreakable bond that outlasted even death. Although this is certainly not a love story, it is a story about undying love and the great, terrible, life-altering effects it has on every person involved.