By Cristina Arranz

In order to understand why Heathcliffs character is how he is, it is necessary talk

about the live in Victorian Age and Emily Brontes background.
Victorian society was a period of prosperity to England thanks to colonialism and
industrialization. There was a very clear difference separation between the different social
classes and class mobility was not an option which means that, if you were born poor you
probably will die poor. This period was extremely difficult to women and working classes, the
first one for example had not enough rights, women had one only purpose in their lives which
was to become them in the Angel in the house so they had to be the perfect daughter, wife,
mother, lady and in my opinion the perfect slave. Thus women were the most injured by the
Churchs power.
On the other hand, working classes had a really tough work conditions. They only had
a one day off after working many hours all week and according to the Church they had to
spend that day going to church. This people sometimes came to the city from their small
villages and they had to live in place with too many people in unsanitary conditions. This
evidences and the power of the Church which had all power about behaviour and sexuality
because they used their afraid of the eternal condemnation to makes people do whatever they
wanted.
But in order to avoid social revolutions as in the rest of Europe, the British
government gave to middle and working classes more rights. However, there were a lot of
homeless without home and rights who were sent to workhouses to hide this poverty in the
streets.
Emily Bront lifes conditions
In all this conditions the Bront sisters were born and they grew up under their fathers
education who was a clergyman and after their mothers death they were sent to a school for
girls where girls were instructed in cooking, languages, history, geography because all this
subjects were considered skills appropriated to women. Bronts father wanted that his
children read a lot of good writers novels and the Bible as well, thanks to that Lord Byron
became in inspiration to Bront sisters.
They had to prepare themselves to be a workers because they did not have money to
get married and all their family money would be to their brother. Thus the only respectable
future possible for these women was become themselves in governess or nurses and they
chose the first one.
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Although being a governess was hard to all of them, to Emily was especially difficult
because she was too shy to hold up the constant humiliations. Emily only was happy writing
and helping to her father. When Charlotte discovered how beautiful poems her little sister
Emily had written, she convinced her to publish them under a pseudonym to be able to
publish because the women could not publish.
Emily did not believe in Churchs precept. She believes in the idea of God as part of
nature, so to be close of God it is necessary to be in contact to nature. Besides, Emily enjoyed
walking around nature because it was the only place where she felt free, to her the houses was
like prisons to women where they had to follow their father or husband rules.
Heathcliffs life
Heathcliffs character is the most complex character from a psychological point of
view in the Emily Bronts Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff breaks with all classical heros
stereotype because he is not a good man looking for glory or do good things to be
remembered, he does not care about this things, and the only thing about he cares is the love
that he feels for Catherine.
To understand why this innocent feeling can be the trigger to turn in beast a child with
his heart in the right place, we have to remember his origins. Although he is not a rich boy, in
fact he is an orphan boy, he receives the best education that money can pay because he finds
in Mr Earnshaw his saviour when Mr Earnshaw took him from the Liverpool streets. Mr
Earnshaw gave him a home and treated him as another son.
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. Well, the conclusion was, that my
mistress grumbled herself calm; and Mr Earnshaw told me to wash it, and give it clean things,
and let it sleep with the children. (Emily 37)
This is not a fairy tale and the problems started the same night he knew his siblings
Catherine and Hindley. Hindley hated Heathcliff only because he was jealousy of his father
loves by Heathcliff and he took advantage of he was a foreign, a thing that was very obvious
because Heathcliff had a dark skin and hair, and he tried to mistreat him all time. Emily
speculates with the idea of Heathcliff can be Spanish or maybe a gipsy. Hindley used to abuse
of him with the idea of he had not a rich family or at least a biological one. Hindley enjoyed
his free time abusing Heathcliff with his friend Nelly help. Another attack that Heathcliff used

to receive from Hindley every moment that they spent together was that he was maintained by
Hindley after Mr Earnshaw death.
But Heathcliff finds a valuable ally in his stepsister Catherine. They treated to spend
together the most time possible and they became in the best friend. After a while, this
friendship turn into an emerging romance which was something unexpected to Catherine.
Heathcliff suffered all pain that Hindleys humiliations in silence because he had Catherine in
his life and with her love he was happy and he did not need anything else.
But when she had the difficult decision of get married in front of her, she had to
choose between follow her heart and get married with Heathcliff or choose Linton who she
did not love as Heathcliff but he had a good family and he was kind with her. Catherine
shared this thoughts with her friend Nelly with so much bad luck that Heathcliff heard them,
My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I'm well aware, as
winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source
of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I AM Heathcliff! He's always, always in my
mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own
being. (Emily 82) it is the most transcendental moment in his life and in the novel because
after heard them he disappears and then Catherine got married to Linton.
After three years, Heathcliff comes back to Wuthering Heights and he has only one
objective, revenge which was take control of the two houses, Wuthering Heights and
Trushcross Grange.

We can see a different man that the man who ran away with his

heartbroken after Catherines words. He had changed, he was darker now and he did not care
about anyone else feelings, he only cared about himself and his revenge.
So with the money he earned for three years, he can go back into Hindleys house and
thanks to Hindleys vices he controlled the whole house and their residents. He had achieved
the first part of his evil plan, his aim now was Trushcross Grange.
Because that reason he starts to try to win Isabellas heart, who was Edgars sister,
with the excuse to go their house to see his dear friend Catherine. Despite all advises from
Nelly, Catherine and Edgar, Isabella felt deeply in love with Heathcliff and they decided to
run away together to get married. After the wedding, the couple moved to Wuthering Heights.
By this time, Heathcliff did not need to hide his double intentions anymore, so he
starts to mistreat to his wife like he had been doing with Hindley and his son, Hareton, since
he returned to Wuthering Heights. However, in Heathcliffs heart there was only a one feeling
which was his love for Catherine, he did not give up and tried to win Catherines heart again
and finally be together, but Catherine was loyal to Edgar and she was not going to leave him
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what infuriated Heathcliff. Edgar did not scare him and he used to go to their house whenever
he wanted to spend his time with Catherine. Only Nelly was the only one who dared to deny
him the entrance.
Now it was Heathcliff who annoyed Edgar with his presence and not vice versa like
they were children, and he enjoyed with the Edgars rage.
While his loved Catherine was dying he confessed that he needed her more than she
needed him. It when he shows their feelings for her and when she dies we can see the deeply
love that Heathcliff feels 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! (Emily 169).
These words are the last chink of humanity that we can see in Heathcliff character,
because after that moment the human being disappears to become in a monster. He has lost
the only thing he cared about and now he just has his revenge as purpose in life. Therefore, he
is waiting to Edgars death to reach it.
In order to control the situation after that his wife abandoned him, he change his plan
cleverly using to his own son as a puppet and praying for his health at least the enough time to
achieve his revenge because his son does not care anything just because his name was Linton
and he seems one of them instead his own son.
Finally, afterward he terrorises everyone around him, he loses his mind he leave
himself dies of a blend between sadness, starvation and a cold. But he dies happy because he
is obsessed with the idea of Catherine is a ghost and he is waiting for him, so she is following
him until he dies.
We are able now to understand why Heathcliffs character is like he is, and maybe
some people could feel sorry for him because he was consider by everybody as an outcast
without future, even when Mr Earnshaw pick him up from the streets, no one can see in him a
gentleman so he does not to try because his destiny according to everybody except Catherine
and Mr Earnshaw is written.
Heathcliff as Byronic hero
Emily Bront creates Hindley character with the same characteristic that her own
brother had and with Hindley story, she criticises the fictional social mobility in Victorian
times which she resolves with Heathcliffs character because he is an outlaw. In the whole
novel there is no moment that he is punished by all his crimes. He uses the fear as his own
weapon and he does not doubt to hit someone who disturbs his objectives.

With the purpose of making a good connection between Heathcliffs character and the
Lord Byrons hero, I am going to analyse each part of Heathcliff personality explaining why
is a Byronic characteristic.

High level of intelligence

It is possible to see how intelligent Heathcliff is only observing his manners and his

constant double intentions which he hides perfectly under a charming behaviour.

Mysterious and magnetic

We do not know as a readers where Heathcliff is from, Emily herself guesses about he

could be a gipsy or a Spanish but there is no evidence in the novel to support these
speculations. We do not know ether where he went for three years after hearing
Catherines doubts about get married to him.
He is magnetic because all people who do not know him from his childhood are
attracted by him. They see him as a respectful gentleman.

Problems with the law and morality

To him everything he is doing to take his revenge it is allow because in his mind all

these people deserves to suffer as he did. He does not care if he has to break the law to
reach it. He mistreats from a physical and psychological point of view, he hits, insults,
kidnaps, bribesSo he does not respect the society laws unless they benefits him.

Metaphysical
In the novel there is sentence that it says I believe I know that ghosts have

wandered on earth. Be with me always take any form- drive me mad! (Emily 169)
where it can see the Heathcliffs beliefs.
When Catherine says her famous I am Heathcliff (Emily 82) she is talking about a
one deep love that achieves the perfect union between the two lovers, because Heathcliff
feels in the same way that Catherine feels.

Destructive and self-destructive

His love for Catherine is destroying him and he knows it but the only thing he wants is

to be her lover, he wants to be with her despite she rejected him because his social class.
So to him she betrays him because they were in love. He was an outcast and she preferred
get married with a man from a good family to keep her social status. After all of these he
still loves her as they were children. But this love is not healthy because they hurt each
other, they are attacking each other until Catherines last moments Dont torture me till

Im as mad as yourself, cried he (Emily 162). This is a kind of love that makes you lose
your mind by passion feelings.

Have a mystery and conflict past

He lived in the Liverpools streets and he had not a family. We know nothing about

their early years and how he ended as an orphan boy. And the same thing happen when he
disappears for three years just before he comes back to Wuthering Heights. All we can do
is make any conjectures about where he was or what he happened.

Disdain for privilege and social classes

Although he is gentleman with a good reputation in the second part of novel, he rejects

the social classes especially after it was the guilty of all his problems, because if the social
class was not so important he would be married to Catherine and both of them would be
happy.

Sexy
He uses his physical attractive to begin the second part of his plan. He introduces

himself as a mysterious, handsome, elegant and sensitive man to Isabella or at least she
thinks this about him. She does not understand why everybody are telling her that
Heathcliff is a bad man, but after their wedding she figures out the truth and she realize
that nobody was lying to her.

Isolation
His behaviour makes people run away from him, for example when Cathy moves to

Wuthering Heights, she tries all time to not be in the same room than Heathcliff. But to
him is the same, because he does not tolerate anyone and he prefers to be alone to be able
to think in their own things.

Tragic ends
He does not die salving the world or an unknown life as a conventional heroes, he dies

when he cannot tolerate his suffering. It has spent more than fifteen years and he cannot
be happy, he continues reminding Catherine and he remember her every time he looks
Hareton or Cathy eyes and finally his grief drives him crazy. It is when he decides stop
eating and sleeping and only a few days later he dies.
There is another issue that I would like to comment to conclude this essay, and it is
that if Heathcliff is a battered boy or a batterer. Well, after all previous information I think he
is a little bit of both of them. Though maybe his most representative aspect is the second one.

It is true that he was humiliated when he was a child and he had a hard beginning in life but
the difference with the classical heroes is that they after a difficult childhood or a tragedy,
they do not make suffer everybody. They are strong and they prefer suffer them rather than
anyone else. They look their own happiness but never cost happiness to everybody.
In this case we can see how Heathcliff does whatever it is necessary in order to reach
their own purposes because after Catherine death he is not interested in his happiness even
when he could be happy in Wuthering Heights and have a good life because he has money, he
is respectable by society, and he is a landowner. But he prefers to prepare his own son death to
take the most advantage possible because he is not worry about his death he is worry about
his revenge and he can only think that if his son dies before get married to Cathy, he will loses
the Trushcross Grange for good.
Nowadays, it easy to find this type of hero in a best seller which has been a box-office success
around the world like Christian Grey (Fifty shades of Gray) or Anakin Skywalker (Star
Wars) so It can see the big attractive of these kind of characters.

Biography
Bront, E (1995). Wuthering Heights. London: Penguin Books
Byron, L (1812). Childe Harold's Pilgrimage.
Carlisle, K. (2012). Emily Bront's Heathcliff: His Journey of Jealousy. Explicator, 70(1), 4648.
Holland, M. (2009). Lord Byron's 'The Dream' and Wuthering Heights. Bronte Studies, 34(1),
31-46.
Lodine-Chaffey, J. (2013). Heathcliff's Abject State in Emily Bront's Wuthering
Heights. Bronte Studies, 38(3), 206-218.
Pike, J. (2009). "My name was Isabella Linton": Coverture, Domestic Violence, and Mrs.
Heathcliff's Narrative in Wuthering Heights. Nineteenth-Century Literature, 64(3), 347-383.
Stoneman, P. (2011). Rochester and Heathcliff as Romantic Heroes. Bronte Studies, 36(1),
111-118.