Heathicliff essays

Heathicliff essays When Wuthering Heights was published it was blasted its contemporaries as obscene. They railed that Catherine and Heathcliff were the most immoral and in general worst people they had ever had the misfortune of reading about. Although Wuthering Heights has taken it's rightful place as masterwork of 19th century literature and Emily Bronthas receive credit for her work, it is still possible to see where the early attacks are based. Heathcliff especially behaves in a very obtuse manner. The basis for this behavior is Heathcliff's bizarre love/hate relationship with Catherine. His frustrated desire to be with her causes him deep personal pain, which he transfers to other characters in a sadistic attempt to force them to feel that pain as well. Heathcliff and Catherine's relationship is neither stable nor in any way normal. Instead it is full of violent emotions which are either soaring high or dashingly low, with very little between the two. Catherine declares that she and Heathcliff "Whatever souls are made of, his and mine are the same"(73). Heathcliff desires nothing more than to be with Catherine, but their relationship is undermined by the revelation that Catherine feels that "it would degrade me to marry Heathcliff . . ."(73). Heathcliff was unsuitable to Catherine because he is poor with no family. However, Edgar Linton has both and for those shallow reasons Catherine marries Edgar betraying Heathcliffs feelings for her and her own feeling as well. Catherine had hoped to marry Edgar but also to keep on loving Heathcliff as well, to "have her cake and eat it too". The violence, hatred, love, and passion of Catherine and Heathcliffs relationship is encapsulated in their "conversation" on Catherine's deathbed: He [Heathcliff] could hardly bear, for downright agony, to look into her face. . . . She was fated, sure to die. ...