Taylor 1

Jayne Taylor

Ms.Hill

English

Nov.23rd

Heathcliff an evil character

As many young people endure reading Wuthering heights in grade 12 English,

and study the themes, characters, and symbols. We also study one more major point. That

is that, “Heathcliff is an evil character”, due to his up bring and the way other characters

interact with him.

Through Heathcliff’s up bring he has been treat awful:

You have walked away from this…but your memories remain. That

relationships, as well as your childhood, created thousands of emotional

memories. Emotional Memories are those that contain both the details of an

experience and the mood you experienced at that time. When we have a collection

of these Emotional Memories, it’s very common for them to surface during the

day — often changing our mood suddenly.( http://counsellingresource.com/ask-

the-psychologist/2008/04/02/dreams-after-bad-childhood/)

The quote before explains the theory of what Heathcliff could have gone through after

coming to live with the Earnshaws. Heathcliff as a young child was homeless. He thought

no one loved him. He had just grown up with that in the back of his head, which means

that he has no understanding when Mr. Earnshaw picked him up, that could of been his

turning point.
 Taylor 2

Heathcliff’s involvement with the characters seems to be very mean. He seems to

have a difficult time interacted with the characters in the novel. His relationship with each

character in the novel differs, from loving Cathy the1st and then hating Hindley.

Heathcliff and Cathy the 1st are in love. Heathcliff and her use to play in the

moors together. Then one day Edgar came into Cathy life and Cathy fell head over heels

for him. This made Heathcliff very mad and upset which made most of his hatred end up

on Cathy. This whole scene in the novel is Heathcliff’s major revenge and really shows

the true Heathcliff. This happens due to the fact that Cathy started to down talk to

Heathcliff when she came back from Edgar’s:

It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love

him; and that, not because he's handsome, Nelly, but because he's more myself than I am.

Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same, and [Edgar's] is as different

as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire. (http://www.sparknotes.com

/lit/wuthering/quotes.html)

Heathcliff and Hindley on the other hands is more relate to the fact that Hindley

did not like Heathcliff from when his father brought him home. He hated that Heathcliff

and Cathy had such a good relationship. One day out in the fields when Cathy and

Heathcliff were riding there horse, Hindley and Heathcliff got in a fight and Heathcliff

states that he will get revenge on him! “For the most part of the novel Hindley strikes us

as a mirror image of the younger Heathcliff. He is bad tempered, uncivilized and

vicious.”( http://homepage.eircom.net/~splash/Hindley.html”)

Another reason that Heathcliff is evil is due to all the revenge that he brings up

with each character.

 Taylor 3

Heathcliff never finds peace through his revenge. In fact, the only time he truly

finds happiness is when he gives up his plan for retaliation. Austin O’Malley states

“Revenge is like biting a dog that bit you” (O’malley 1). O’Malley’s quote reflects

Heathcliff’s immature need to propagate agony in those who have offended him.

Heathcliff’s plan for revenge on Edgar and Catherine is to marry Isabella, who is ignorant

of love and of men because she has never experienced either. He wants to hurt Edgar

because of his marriage to Catherine, and he wants to get revenge on Catherine by

making her jealous. Catherine’s death proves that this flawed plan of repayment helps

nothing. Heathcliff, haunted by the ghost of Catherine because he is her “murderer,” still

is motivated by the need for revenge and tries to get young Cathy away from Edgar by

having her marry his son, Linton. Heathcliff never finds peace until he gives up his plan

for revenge just before he dies. When Heathcliff gives up his plan for revenge, he meets

Catherine in death and truly becomes happy once more.(

http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=2643)

Hindley is one of the main reason for all the revenge in this novel. Right from the

get go Hindley did not like Heathcliff. One day when Heathcliff was playing in the fields

with Cathy , Hindley pushed Heathcliff off the horse and this is where the whole revenge

parts came in. But it took Heathcliff a long time before he did get his revenge. Mean

while Hindley became the head off the household and Heatchcliff became a slave. Which

made his revenge towards Hindley increase.

 Taylor 4

Heathcliff only purpose for living is to get back at the Linton family from ruining

his child hood with Cathy, this is yet another thing that builds up on him from his past.

All Heathcliff wanted from the beginning was Cathy and Edgar Linton got to her first.

This entitle that any relative after Edgar got all the anger and hatred from Heathcliff.

“Finally, he decoys Cathy to Wuthering Heights where he forces her to marry Linton. In

this way, he gains control of both houses, and obliterates both family names. Edgar and

Linton die in turn” (http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/wuthering/section4.rhtml)

Heathcliff and Edgar have never like each since they both were fighting for Cathy.

Heathcliff once again says he will get revenge. Heathcliff is so mean to Edgar, When

Cathy had die he switched that hair in the locket, which is a major symbol in the book

“At one point, Edgar leaves, and Nelly permits Heathcliff a moment alone with the body.

Afterwards, Nelly finds that he has opened the locket around her neck and replaced a lock

of Edgar's hair with a lock of his own. Nelly twines Edgar's lock around Heathcliff's, and

leaves them both in the locket.” (http://www.novelguide .com/

wutheringheights/themeanalysis.html) Since Edgar got Cathy, Heathcliff shows a lot of

revenge towards him.

Overall this shows many ways of how Heathcliff is an evil character. A

background does matter and the way he interacted with the character show his evilness.

Healthcliff craves revenge, and when push around by some character his revenge craving

grew very fast.

 Taylor 5

Work Citied

"Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte." ChapterXV-XX. sparks notes. 24 Nov 2008

<http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/wuthering/section4.rhtml>.

"The character of Wuthering Heights." Hindly . 10/June/07. Leaving Cert. 24 Nov 2008

<http://homepage.eircom.net/~splash/index.html>.

"Revenge in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights." 123HelpMe.com. 24 Nov 2008

<http://www.123HelpMe.com/view.asp?id=2643>.

Carver, Dr Joesph. "Counselling resourse." Survived Bad Childhood, But Will I Ever Be

Free of the Dreams and Memories? 2 April 2008 24 Nov 2008

<http://counsellingresource.com/ask-the-psychologist/2008/04/02/dreams-after-

bad-childhood/>.

“Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte.”Quotations.Sparks notes. 24 Nov 2008

<http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/wuthering/quotes.html>