Wuthering Heights- Heathcliff

Heathcliff is a dark character around whom the plot of Wuthering Heights revolves. His unhealthy obsession with Catherine spurs along the plot of the novel even after her death. Although the narration follows Catherine Earnshaw and her daughter, making them the protagonists of the story, the plot depends entirely on Heathcliff’s actions. By the end of the novel it is clear that his actions dictate the theme of the book.

Heathcliff enters the story as a sad outcast- loved by a few but hated by many. He quickly grows close to Catherine who offers him his first and only glimpse of love.  Her love for him, steady but ignored, leads him to drastic measures. An evil nature takes root deep within him as he decides that the civil, society loving Lintons stole his Catherine from him. Heathcliff never sees redemption, but instead dies looking for Catherine’s ghost. To his last days, he is haunted by visions of Catherine that “communicated… both pleasure and pain in exquisite extremes.” (page 278) Readers empathize with the troubled man all the way through the book. At the end of the story he finds redemption as his revenge on the Lintons ceases and he is laid to rest beside his one love, Catherine.

Brontë, Emily. Wuthering Heights. New York: Random House, 1943. Print.