Characterisation

Heathcliff
Protagonist Anti-hero/outsider Raised by Mr. Earnshaw The novel tracks his story from first appearance at Wuthering Heights to his death there. In love with Catharine Tortured, brooding, obsessive Lacks guidance/mentor Significant that Heathcliff begins his life as a homeless orphan on the streets of Liverpool. When Bront composed the novel, in the 1840s, the English economy was severely depressed, and the conditions of the factory workers in industrial areas like Liverpool were so appalling that the upper and middle classes feared violent revolt. His background and rejection rouses sympathy within the responder and supports his intrigue throughout the entirety of the novel

His almost inhuman devotion to Catherine is the moving force in his life, seconded by his vindictive hatred for all those who stand between him and his beloved. He is cruel but magnificent in his consistency, and the reader can never forget that at the heart of the grown man lies the abandoned, hungry child of the streets of Liverpool.

Byronic Hero
Heathcliff is the embodiment of The Byronic Hero; a variant of the Romantic hero as a type of character, named after the English Romantic poet Lord Byron. Byron, a British poet acclaimed as one of the leading figures of the Romantic Movement. The "Byronic hero"lonely, rebellious, and broodingfirst appeared in Manfred (1817). Among his other works are Childe Harold (1812-1818), The Prisoner of Chillon (1816), and the epic satire Don Juan (1819-1824). Byron was notorious for his love affairs and unconventional lifestyle. (The free dictionary by Fairfax, 2013) The Byronic hero typically exhibits several of the following traits:

Arrogant Cunning and able to adapt Cynical Disrespectful of rank and privilege Emotionally conflicted, bipolar, or moody Having a distaste for social institutions and norms Having a troubled past or suffering from an unnamed crime Intelligent and perceptive Jaded, world-weary Mysterious, magnetic, and charismatic

Rebellious Seductive and sexually attractive Self-critical and introspective Self-destructive Socially and sexually dominant Sophisticated and educated Struggling with integrity Treated as an exile, outcast, or outlaw Tortured Brooding (Wikipedia, 2014)

Appearance
Though the mystery of Heathcliff's background is never solved, there is endless speculation and fascination about his appearance. Mr. Earnshaw introduces him to his new family by saying that he is "as dark almost as if it came from the devil", and he is called a "gipsy" by several different characters. (Shoomp, 2014) His appearance is important in supporting his embodiment of the Byronic hero, an important aspect of the novel.

Characterisation; continued
Quotes depicting Heathcliffs Appearance
(1771, aged about 7) I had a peep at a dirty, ragged, black-haired child; big enough both to walk and talk: indeed, its face looked older than Catherine's; yet when it was set on its feet, it only stared round, and repeated over and over again some gibberish that nobody could understand All that I could make out, amongst her scolding, was a tale of his seeing it starving, and houseless, and as good as dumb, in the streets of Liverpool, where he picked it up and inquired for its owner. Not a soul knew to whom it belonged, he said; and his money and time being both limited, he thought it better to take it home with him at once, than run into vain expenses there: because he was determined he would not leave it as he found it. (1771, aged about 7) He seemed a sullen, patient child; hardened, perhaps, to ill-treatment: he would stand Hindley's blows without winking or shedding a tear, and my pinches moved him only to draw in a breath and open his eyes, as if he had hurt himself by accident, and nobody was to blame He took to Heathcliff strangely, believing all he said (for that matter, he said precious little, and generally the truth) (Childhood) Cathy and her brother harassed me terribly [during their illness with the measles]: he was as uncomplaining as a lamb; though hardness, not gentleness, made him give little trouble. (Childhood) I wondered often what my master saw to admire so much in the sullen boy; who never, to my recollection, repaid his indulgence by any sign of gratitude. He was not insolent to his benefactor, he was simply insensible; though knowing perfectly the hold he had on his heart, and conscious he had only to speak and all the house would be obliged to bend to his wishes. (1777, aged about 13) You are younger [than Edgar], and yet, I'll be bound, you are taller and twice as broad across the shoulders; you could knock him down in a twinkling; don't you feel that you could? (1777, aged about 13) Do you mark those two lines between your eyes; and those thick brows, that, instead of rising arched, sink in the middle; and that couple of black fiends, so deeply buried, who never open their windows boldly, but lurk glinting under them, like devil's spies? (1780, aged about 16) Then personal appearance sympathised with mental deterioration: he acquired a slouching gait and ignoble look; his naturally reserved disposition was exaggerated into an almost idiotic excess of unsociable moroseness; and he took a grim pleasure, apparently, in exciting the aversion rather than the esteem of his few acquaintance. (1783, aged about 19) A ray fell on his features; the cheeks were sallow, and half covered with black whiskers; the brows lowering, the eyes deep-set and singular. I remembered the eyes. (1783, aged about 19) He had grown a tall, athletic, well-formed man; beside whom [Edgar] seemed quite slender and youth-like. His upright carriage suggested the idea of his having been in the army. His countenance was much older in expression and decision of feature than Mr Linton's; it looked intelligent, and retained no marks of former degradation. A half-civilised ferocity lurked yet in the depressed brows and eyes full of black fire, but it was subdued; and his manner was even dignified: quite divested of roughness, though stern for grace. (1783, aged about 19) *Edgar+ had sense to comprehend Heathcliff's disposition: to know that, though his exterior was altered, his mind was unchangeable and unchanged. (1801, aged about 37) He is a dark-skinned gypsy in aspect, in dress and manners a gentleman: that is, as much a gentleman as many a country squire: rather slovenly, perhaps, yet not looking amiss with his negligence, because he has an erect and handsome figure; and rather morose.

Catharine Earnshaw

Mr. Earnshaw's daughter and Hindley's sister. Heathcliffs object of love, desire and affection Heathcliffs foster sister She marries Edgar Linton and has a daughter, also named Catherine. Heathcliff calls her Cathy; Edgar calls her Catherine significant Passionate Torn between the two setting, the two worlds, the two affections. Internalising emotions sees you cannibalise yourself, Catharines emotional exhaustion leads to her death.

Cathy Linton

The daughter of the older Catherine and Edgar Linton. Marries Linton Heathcliff to become Catherine Heathcliff, then marries Hareton to be Catherine Earnshaw. Not wild unlike her mother

Mr. Earnshaw

Father of Catharine Earnshaw Plain, well-off farmer Kind He takes in Heathcliff despite his family's protests. His death acts as a catalyst for the darker turn of the novel. Cathys focal point of affection is lost and Heathcliffs affections are turned upon Catharine, as they both lost Mr. Earnshaws.

Hindely Earnshaw

Antagonist Son of Mr. and Mrs. Earnshaw Catherine's older brother. Hates Heathcliff due to jealousy in his father's affection toward Heathcliff Heathcliff too hates him and his influence over him as a young boy and be seen as the root of much of Heathcliffs anger and torment. After his father dies and he inherits the estate, Hindley begins to abuse the young Heathcliff, terminating his education and forcing him to work in the fields. Violent alcoholic when his wife, Frances, dies.

Edgar Linton

Isabella's older brother

Marries Catherine Earnshaw Fathers Cathy Linton. Contrasts Heathcliff - well bred, refined, patient husband, loving father. Grows into a tender, constant, but cowardly man. He is almost the ideal gentleman: Catherine accurately describes him as handsome, pleasant to be with, cheerful, and rich.

Characterisation; continued
Lockwood

Novels narrator A gentleman from London distinctly contrasts the other rural characters. Lockwoods narration forms a frame around Nellys; he serves as an intermediary between Nelly and the reader. Somewhat vain and presumptuous gentleman.

Ellen Dean/Nelly

One of the main narrators Servant to the Earnshaws and the Lintons knows the extremely well. Independent Maintains a meddled, emotionally driven, viewpoint on those she serves, bias especially in portraying Heathcliff. She has strong feelings for the characters in her story, and these feelings complicate her narration. A sensible, intelligent, and compassionate woman.

Isabella Linton

Edgar's younger sister. Marries Heathcliff Linton Heathcliff = her son. Her unhappy marriage brings out an element of cruelty in her character Heathcliff never returns her feelings and treats her as a tool to impart revenge on the Linton family.

Joseph

Household servant at Wuthering Heights Heavy Yorkshire accent adds to the stylistic elements within the novel fanatically religious Elderly Strange Stubborn Unkind

Linton Heathcliff

Son of Heathcliff and Isabella.

He combines the worst characteristics of both parents, and is effeminate, weakly, and cruel. He uses his status as an invalid to manipulate younger Catherine. Heathcliff despises him. Linton marries Catherine. Weak, sniveling, demanding, and constantly ill, Raised in London by his mother and does not meet his father until he is thirteen years old. Goes to live with Heathcliff after his mother dies.

Setting

Yorkshire Moors, Northern England; approx. 1750-1802 All the action of Wuthering Heights takes place in or around two neighboring houses on the Yorkshire moorsWuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. Wuthering Heights is dark and cold, located on a hill high above the more bright and inviting. Harsh/Isolated The feelings of desolation and confusion provoked by the setting strongly contribute to the tone of the novel.

Symbolic Settings

Weather is heavily symbolic and tends to reflect some of the desolate attitudes of the characters "pathetic fallacy." E.g. The landscape pitiless and forbidding as with Lockwood's snowbound night at Withering Heights. Gimmerton - provides the location for characters like Mr. Kenneth, the doctor, and Mr. Green, the lawyer. Liverpool - distant port city associated with the dark, foreign, gypsy child, Heathcliff. Barren landscape reflective of the barren nature of Heathcliff etc. Withering by definition is, wild, out of control, destructive winds. Constant emphasis on landscape within the text endows the setting with symbolic importance. E.g. The Moors The landscape is comprised primarily of moors: wide, wild expanses, high but somewhat soggy, and thus infertile. Moorland cannot be cultivated, and its uniformity makes navigation difficult. It features particularly waterlogged patches in which people could potentially drown. (This possibility is mentioned several times within the text.) The moors serve as symbols of the wild threat posed by nature. Its inhospitable literal nature serves as a symbolic representation of those living on and around them.

Major/ Symbolic Events

Major Conflicts: Heathcliffs great natural abilities, strength of character, and love for Catherine Earnshaw all enable him to raise himself from humble beginnings to the status of a wealthy gentleman, but his need to revenge himself for Hindleys abuse and Catherines betrayal leads him into a twisted life of cruelty and hatred; Catherine is torn between her love for Heathcliff and her desire to be a gentlewoman, and her decision to marry the genteel Edgar Linton drags almost all of the novels characters into conflict with Heathcliff.

Rising Action:
Heathcliffs arrival at Wuthering Heights, Hindleys abusive treatment of Heathcliff, and Catherines first visit to Thrushcross Grange set the major conflicts in motion; once Heathcliff hears Catherine say it would degrade her to marry him, the conversation between Nelly and Catherine, which he secretly overhears, drives him to run away and pursue his vengeance. Climax: Catherines death is the culmination of the conflict between herself and Heathcliff and removes any possibility that their conflict could be resolved positively; after Catherines death, Heathcliff merely extends and deepens his drives toward revenge and cruelty. Falling Action: Heathcliff destroys Isabella and drives her away, takes possession of young Linton, forces Catherine and Linton to marry, inherits Thrushcross Grange, then loses interest in the whole project and dies; Hareton and young Catherine are to be engaged to be married, promising an end to the cycle of revenge. (Spark Notes, 2014)

Pathetic Fallacy
Withering Heights

Aggressive nature Symbolic representing the paradigms of Romanticism Passion Desire Quench Embodied in Heathcliff

Thrushcross Grange

Embodied through Linton Closed gate Order Confinement of nature and ones spirit as portrayed/championed through the neo-classical era. Imprisonment. Control Pragmatism Realism

Mr. Earnshaws death catalyst for change the symbolic nature of the storm is heightened, it washes and blows things away; the emotions of all the characters.

Voice/Perspective/Narration
Narrator:

Lockwood Narrates the entire novel as an entry in his diary. Newcomer to Wuthering Heights. Lockwood records what is told to him by a servant Nelly, Lockwood writes most of the narrative in her voice (describing how she told it to him.) Occasionally, Nellys stories are narrated by other characters, e.g. through a letter from Isabella.

Point of view:

Majority of events are narrated in Nellys voice, from Nellys point of view, focusing only on what Nelly can see and hear, or what she can find out about indirectly (through Lockwood) Not an omniscient narrator Frequently comments on what other characters think and feel etc. thus bias must be accounted for Past tense

Tone:

The melodramatic quality of the first half of the novel suggests that Bronte views Catherine and Heathcliffs doomed love as a tragedy of lost potential and wasted passion. The outcome of the second half of the novel suggests that Bronte is more interested in celebrating the renewal and rebirth brought about by the passage of time, and the rise of a new generation, than she is in mourning Heathcliff and Catherine.

The Supernatural

Adds to the allure of mystery A sense of comfortably surrounds the super natural within the text resulting in the responder being comfortable with its presence e.g. on the table at height for the fairies The natural is used to suggest supernatural. To the moors and surrounding village, appear to be touched by something sinister. Ambiguity is a tool utilized to suggest is at supernatural play and encourage engagement and suspense. Ghosts appear throughout Wuthering Heights existence is ambiguous the world of the novel can always be interpreted as a realistic one as a result e.g. Certain ghosts, such as Catherines spirit when it appears to Lockwood in Chapter III, may be explained as nightmares. Whether or not the ghosts are real, they symbolize the manifestation of the past within the present, and the way memory stays with people, permeating their day-today lives. The concept of finality through death is nonexistent Ill have her in my arms again! If she be cold, Ill this it is the north wind that chills me; and if she be motionless it is sleep this allows the responder to engage with thoughts of love after death. The supernatural aids in the romanticism of the novel. The paranormal enables Catharine and Heathcliff the opportunity t spend eternity together. As a child, Heathcliff is teased by others for being a dark and unnatural representative of the supernatural (e.g. an "imp of Satan"). The book ends with the suggestion that together Heathcliff and Catherine will haunt the moors for ever after.

Quotes depicting Supernatural Elements

knocking my knuckles through the glass, and stretching an arm out to seize the importunate branch: instead of which, my fingers closed on the fingers of a little, ice-cold hand. The intense horror of nightmare came over me: I tried to draw back my arm, but the hand clung to it, and a most melancholy voice sobbed, "Let me in let me in!" I suppose that she wanted to get another proof that the place was haunted, at my expense. Well, it is swarming with ghosts and goblins! You have reason in shutting it up, I assure you. No one will thank you for a doze in such a den! I obeyed, so far as to quit the chamber; when, ignorant where the narrow lobbies led, I stood still, and was witness, involuntarily, to a piece of superstition on the part of my landlord which belied, oddly, his apparent sense. I was superstitious about dreams then, and am still; and Catherine had an unusual gloom in her aspect, that made me dread something from which I might shape a prophecy, and foresee a fearful catastrophe. .It's a rough journey, and a sad heart to travel it; and we must pass by Gimmerton Kirk to go that journey! We've braved its ghosts often together, and dared each other to stand among the graves and ask them to come. "Oh! you said you cared nothing for my sufferings! And I pray one prayer I repeat it till my tongue stiffens Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living; you said I killed you haunt me, then! The murdered do haunt their murderers, I believe. I know that ghosts have wandered on earth. Be with me always take any form drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! It is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live

without my soul!"

Thematics
Vengeance

Revenge Heathcliff When Heathcliff cannot have the woman he loves, he turns his attention to revenging his childhood tormenter, his adoptive brother Hindley. Hindley already has a tendency to drink and gamble to excess makes Heathcliff's vengeance all the easier. Heathcliffs desire for revenge would have had nothing to do but pine after Catherine, so revenge becomes a major motivator for his character. Heathcliff succeeds in his revenge: thwarting property and inheritance laws, he manages to become owner of the two houses. But by his own admission Revenge loses its thrill in the end for Heathcliff

Quotes depicting vengeance

He [Hindley] has been blaming our father (how dared he?) for treating H. [Heathcliff] too liberally; and swears he will reduce him to his right place. Hindley started the whole revenge cycle by mistreating Heathcliff in the first place. His envy of Mr. Earnshaw's love for the orphan sets off a chain reaction of abuse and mistreatment. So, from the very beginning, he bred bad feeling in the house; and at Mrs. Earnshaw's death, which happened in less than two years after, the young master had learned to regard his father as an oppressor rather than a friend, and Heathcliff as a usurper of his parent's affections and his privileges; and he grew bitter with brooding over these injuries. Hindley's resentment has a very clear beginning. Before Heathcliff arrives, he is clearly the young man of the house, and he does not easily give up this privilege. Catherine helped make the misery more bearable for Heathcliff. She is not only his friend and sister, but his co-conspirator in revenge. Clearly Heathcliff was unwilling to sit back and accept poor treatment, even as a child.

Isolation

Heathcliff in his familial situation The literal physical setting

Loyalty

Heathcliffs everlasting love for Catharine

Love

Its destructiveness Source of most major conflicts I n the novel love transcends social norms, time its self and conventional morality of the time Heathcliff and Catharines love is based upon their perception of each being each other I am Heathcliff (Catharine) Heathcliff, upon Catherines death, states he cannot live without his soul, (Catherine) Is void of physical connection Love is presented as an immortal being capable of both torture and enjoyment. Catherine and Heathcliff experience some sort of transcendent romantic and erotic connection. Heathcliff and Catherine's fanatical, impassioned affection connects to the nostalgia of their childhood and reaches beyond the grave into the afterlife.

Quotes Depicting Love

"Come in! come in!" he sobbed. "Cathy, do come. Oh, do once more! Oh! My heart's darling, hear me this time Catherine, at last!" Just a glimpse of Catherine would assuage the long-suffering Heathcliff, who believes in communication beyond the grave. He is far from afraid of ghosts and has clearly spent a lot of time trying to get Catherine to haunt him. She was much 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. For Catherine and Heathcliff, love and punishment will always intermingle. Theirs is a tormented love that would probably not do well under peaceful circumstances. They seem to thrive on drama. The soft thing looked askance through the window: he possessed the power to depart as much as a cat possesses the power to leave a mouse half killed, or a bird half eaten. Ah, I thought, there will be no saving him: he's doomed, and flies to his fate! . . . I saw the quarrel had merely effected a closer intimacy had broken the outworks of youthful timidity, and enabled them to forsake the disguise of friendship, and confess themselves lovers With Edgar and Catherine as with most relationships in Wuthering Heights violence and desire go hand and hand. Edgar is so taken with Catherine that he refuses to heed the warnings of her troubled behavior. In this sense, he shares one thing with Heathcliff: a masochistic attraction to drama.

Suffering

Physical and emotional trauma. Heathcliffs love for Catherine causes an extraordinary amount of suffering, both for himself and others.

Quotes depicting Suffering

Heathcliff gradually fell back into the shelter of the bed as I spoke, finally sitting down almost concealed behind it. I guessed, however, by his irregular and intercepted breathing, that he struggled to vanquish an access to violent emotion. Heathcliff yearns to believe in Lockwood's vision of a ghostly Catherine. He is so physically overcome by emotion that he can't even be angry at Lockwood for sleeping in the bed. "Don't get the expression of a vicious cur that appears to know the kicks it gets are its desert, and yet, hates all the world, as well as the kicker, for what it suffers."

Good advice, Nelly, but it's lost on the vengeful Heathcliff. Still, she tries, and this is an important moment. Though Heathcliff has no mentor (see "Character Roles"), Nelly makes an attempt here to provide some useful guidance. (Plus, the dog metaphor is a good one for that house!) "I never saw Heathcliff last night," answered Catherine, beginning to sob bitterly: "and if you do turn him out of doors, I'll go with him. But, perhaps, you'll never have an opportunity: perhaps, he's gone." Here she burst into uncontrollable grief, and the remainder of her words were inarticulate.

Though unwilling to treat him well, Catherine is bereft the very moment Heathcliff departs. She lacks the sort of self-awareness that would lead her to see that much of this mess is her fault One of the last things Heathcliff says to Catherine, as she lies dying in his arms: "Misery, and degradation, and death, and nothing that God or Satan could inflict would have parted us, you, of your own will, did it. I have not broken your heart you have broken it and in breaking it, you have broken mine."

Romantic Paradigms

Emergence from the 1st generation

The Conflict Between Nature and Culture

Wuthering Heights, Bront constantly plays nature and culture against each other. Nature is represented by the Earnshaw family and by Catherine and Heathcliff in particular. These characters are governed by their passions, not by reflection or ideals of civility. Correspondingly, the house where they liveWuthering Heightscomes to symbolize a similar wildness. On the other hand, Thrushcross Grange and the Linton family represent culture, refinement, convention, and cultivation. The reader may interpret Wuthering Heightss impact on the Linton family as an allegory for the corruption of culture by nature, creating a curious reversal of the more traditional story of the corruption of nature by culture. However, Bront tells her story in such a way as to prevent our interest and sympathy from straying too far from the wilder characters, and often portrays the more civilized characters as despicably weak and silly.

Connection to 2nd generation

The notion of the sublime. Pathetic fallacy is commencernt to her exploration of the sublime.

Context of Ellis Bell

Douglas Jerrold's Weekly Newspaper, was one of the first receptions to Emily Brontes novel, and concluded with the line, "we must leave it to our readers to decide what sort of a book it is." Besides Wuthering Heights, only a few poems of hers exist Bronte was one of six children born to Reverend Patrick Bronte and Maria Branwell Bronte. Born in Thornton, Yorkshire, England, on July 30, 1818, she was the sister of Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte, Anne, and Branwell. Moved to Haworth when she was two years old, and here she first experienced the moors lived until she died 30 years later influence can be seen in the novel A variety of conflicting influences shaped her life. Her father, of Irish descent, was known for his poetry and imagination even though he was the cleric. Her mother, a staunch Methodist, died when Emily was only three years old. What she knew of her mother she learned from her siblings and her Aunt Elizabeth (Maria's sister), who raised the children after Maria's death. Brontes environment shaped her life and her work. The village of Haworth was isolated and surrounded by moors; thus, the one world she knew and lived in became the setting for her only novel. Paralleling her own life, she creates motherless characters in Wuthering Heights. Possessing a reclusive nature, she had longings and desires for her home on the moors, which prompted her return home after only three months. In 1842 she went with Charlotte to Brussels to study foreign languages and school management in order to open a school in Haworth. Bronte had success there. One of her professors stated that she "had a head for logic and a capability for argument, unusual in a man, and rare indeed in a woman," but she returned to Haworth when her aunt died in 1843. Living with her father at the parsonage in Haworth, this became a period of creativity. Although the earliest dated poem is from 1836, the majority of her poetry that survives was written during this time. During her life she had no close friends. Was interested in mysticism. Enjoyed her solitude outdoors. She caught a severe cold that spread to her lungs, and she died of tuberculosis on December 19, 1848.