Isabella Tomasek

Honors English 12

May 29, 2015

Wuthering Heights Character Project

In the story, there are protagonists and antagonists. Protagonists are mainly the characters

being attacked or those who do nothing wrong. Antagonists are the characters that start the fights

and the characters that are evil. In Wuthering Heights, the protagonists mainly consist of

Heathcliff, Hindley, Catherine, Linton, somewhat Hareton, Joseph, and Kenneth. The antagonists

consist of Nelly, Edgar, Isabella, Frances, Lockwood, Cathy, and Hareton.

 Conflict One

In the beginning of the story, Mr. Earnshaw brings home a young, orphaned boy named

Heathcliff. His own children, Catherine and Hindley, do not like that because Mr. Earnshaw

tends to favorite Heathcliff, even though they are all now brothers and sister. Straight from the

beginning, Heathcliff is not welcome. There is a sense of foreignness to his being there and he is

definitely not wanted around, especially by Hindley. As they grow older, Catherine starts to

accept Heathcliff and finds him fascinating. Hindley absolutely despises Heathcliff for a reason

we are not totally sure of. He goes out of his way to make sure Heathcliff is not welcome. Over

time, though, the places switch. Heathcliff begins to go out of his way to make Hindley’s life

terrible, especially when it comes to petty things like having a lame pony. A sense of revenge has

been set and it follows through for the rest of the novel. Since Hindley felt the need to go out of

his way to make Heathcliff’s life miserable, Heathcliff has made it his priority to get revenge and

to make Hindley hate his life more than anything else in this world, but his love for Catherine

stands in his way. She would be utterly displeased and hateful towards Heathcliff if Heathcliff

killed Hindley. Heathcliff is stuck on the conflict of how to get his revenge on Hindley. In a way,

the conflict that burdens him is both internal and external. It is internal because it pains him to

see how Hindley has no repercussions for his attitude towards Heathcliff. It is external because

no matter what, Heathcliff has to deal with Hindley every single day- day in and day out. It

aggravates him and makes him despise everything within his life because he is unsure of how to

get revenge on Hindley. Although Heathcliff is the protagonist, Hindley adds to the problem. He

makes sure to treat Heathcliff with no respect, even after they are older. In the end, Heathcliff

gets his revenge on Hindley by making his own child, Hareton, ignorant. He followed through

with the same treatment he got growing up- no tutor or schooling, no time with anyone from the
outside, and no communication with anyone or access to any of his inheritance as if he is a

servant.

Conflict Two

Another main conflict in Wuthering Heights, is the conflict of society and class. In the

novel, Heathcliff falls in love with Catherine. Catherine falls in love with Heathcliff too, but then

Edgar comes into the picture and puts a huge burden on the two lovers. Edgar is of higher class.

He is wealthy and good looking- the complete opposite of Heathcliff. All Heathcliff wants is

Catherine to love him and be with him, but the burden of Edgar is standing in the way. At one

point of the book, Nelly and Catherine are speaking about her situation. Catherine states how she

has feelings for Heathcliff, but then she totally insults him by saying that it would degrade her to

be with him. Heathcliff’s society and class ruin the chance and possibility of him actually being

with Catherine. This conflict proves to mainly be internal because as soon as this happens,

unbeknownst to Catherine, Heathcliff hears and runs away because his feelings are hurt.

Catherine fueled the fire and was the reason why Heathcliff left. Due to his abrupt parting,

Catherine now has her mind made up on Edgar. She marries him and into his wealthy family.

Not too long after, Heathcliff returns with a complete change. He comes back wealthy and built

within his body, as if he was a soldier. In the end, the conflict is not really even resolved.

Heathcliff does not get Catherine’s love in return and he dies alone.

Conflict Three

Another conflict in Wuthering Heights would be the self centeredness that Linton has for

himself. In the story, Linton gets beat upon by Heathcliff, his father. Cathy, Linton’s future wife,

comes into his life, Linton takes the rightful place as the victim. All he wants is pity for how bad

his life is and attention to make up for the lack that he has received. Unfortunately, all Cathy
wants is to be with her father while he is laying on his deathbed. She wants to be able to see him

at peace and spend the moments that she can, with him, before he dies, so that stands in his way.

The conflict of his self centeredness is mainly internal because he just wants the feeling of

someone to be around, even if that’s not what that person wants. He makes it an external conflict

when he starts acting like a child by throwing himself around and making himself even sicker.

Linton makes the conflict bigger than it needs to be by only focusing on himself. In the end,

Cathy resolves the conflict by obliging to his wants and staying with him, instead of leaving to

go be with her dying father. Due to the resolution, Cathy learns that she is going to have a lot to

put up with and care for as soon as moves to Wuthering Heights.

Dear Diary,

Another day has passed where all I wish for is to see Hindley be gone

and out of my presence. Day in and day out, the thought of him being around

makes me feel utter agony and hatred. I have had many opportunities to put an

end to my misery, but the thought of Catherine hating me puts a halt to my

actions. My love for her is endless, even though the only thing I want in this

world is revenge on Hindley for what he did to me. She is the only reason why

Hindley is safe. If she were hurt because he was hurt, I would never be able to

forgive myself. As time goes on, Hindley digs himself in a deeper hole, with his

tombstone at the top. The next time he treats me as a servant like Nelly or

Joseph, he will have to suffer with the consequences coming to him. As for now,

I am counting down for it to happen because I so very crave the taste of

pleasure from a serving of cold revenge.

~Heathcliff
Dear Diary,

My dearest Hindley has yet pushed another foot deeper into his grave.

Ever since marrying Isabella and bringing her to Wuthering Heights, he has

made sure to find a way to turn her against me. Since I have last written,

things with my darling Catherine have been rough. The love of my life is very ill

and I am waiting for the day that her beautiful body stops working. Until then,

I am here dealing with everyone against me. Hindley and Isabella created a

scene where they wouldn’t let me into my own house. Isabella locked the doors

and I had to break through the window to try to get in. The amount of hatred

that is forming for her is almost as much as the heap that I have saved

especially for Hindley. After breaking in through the window, I beat Hindley

more than I ever have before. The amount of satisfaction I got from that was

actually very pleasing. I cannot wait to find out how it feels to finally have the

revenge that I so desire upon him. I can only imagine how pleasant I will feel.

~Heathcliff
Dear Diary,

Since Hindley’s death, my plan for revenge has worked out to my favor.

Hareton is an absolute nightmare. I have never been in acquaintance with

someone so very ignorant as him. The poor fellow cannot even read. Catherine’s

dear daughter and my own Linton take pleasure upon teasing him for his

ignorance. I do enjoy it as well. But, for some reason, I cannot hate Hareton.

In fact, I feel love for the poor lad and I am unsure as to why. In a way, I

can relate to him, but I feel bad for the fact that the revenge that I had sought

out had to be placed upon him. For at the end of the day, I prefer to have

Hareton as my son over my very own blood, Linton. Although I pity him, I do

not regret the path that I have taken to make my enemy’s spawn ignorant as he

had made me. For now, I enjoy seeing him uneducated and dumber than an

ass. Unfortunately, every time I look at him, all I see is my beloved

Catherine. Oh, how nothing will ever match up to the love that I have for her.

~Heathcliff