Department of English Language

Faculty of Arts
University of Kordofan

Research on:
Love and Revenge in Emily Bronte’s

Wuthering Heights

This is submitted in partial fulfillment for the requirement

Of B.A degree in English Language and literature

Submitted by:

Sara Awad Aldaiey Mohammed

Supervision
Mr. Hassan Ibrahim

September 2020
 Dedication

To my parents for being kind and caring, who taught me to be

strong and believe in myself, for encouraging and supporting me in
all ways. My love Mohammed Kheder for being my soul mate and
such a great source of encouragement.
My family and friends for being supportive and helpful, my
supervisor for his insightful and helpful notes.

I dedicate this work

Acknowledgment
Special thanks are to my parents and my fiancé, who were such a
good resource for encouragement and support.
I would like to thanks Dr. Hassan Ibrahim for his insightful
remarks and advice.
My thanks are for everyone who helps me.

Table of Contents
Dedication..............................................................................................................................................i
Acknowledegmet...............................................................................................................................ii
Table of contents..............................................................................................................................iii
Abstract.............................................................................................................................................iv
1- Chapter One....................................................................................................................................
1.1 Introduction.................................................................................................................................1
1.2 Background .................................................................................................................................2
2- Chapter Two................................................................................................................................11
2.1 Plot Summary.............................................................................................................................12
2.2 Major Characters.......................................................................................................................15
3- Chapter Tree................................................................................................................................18
3.1 Themes : Love …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 22
3.2 Revenge ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..29
4- Chapter Four ...............................................................................................................................35
4.1 Critical Review...........................................................................................................................36
5- Chapter Five ................................................................................................................................46
5.1 Summary...................................................................................................................................40
5.2 Conclusion
5.3 Recommendation
5.4 Reference

Abstract
The basic aim of the study is to analyze the two major themes of the novel which
are Love and Revenge. For that purpose thematic technique of qualitative
methodology has been used to analyze the major and central themes of the novel.
Thematics is a qualitative methodical-framework in research which is widely used
to identify, pinpoint, describe, organize and report themes within a set of data. For
thematic examination the two major subjects, love and revenge have been
specifically taken. Although the novel has multiple themes and subjects such as
marriage, relationships and family problems etc. nevertheless this technique
summarized and unified chunk of ideas and diversified elements. Similarly
Wuthering Heights is romantic novel and the whole events, incidents, characters,
and author’s way of expression concern with only two major and central subjects.
The first half of the novel discusses much about love and the relationship between
different characters especially Heathcliff and Catherine. The second half of the
novel text revolves around Heathcliff’s revenge which emerges from the
unsuccessful and bootless love of Catherine, and consequently disturbed the peace
of the two houses.
 Chapter 01

1.1 Introduction
Wuthering heights is a famous prose work of Emily Bronte which has achieved
many appreciations for its natural qualities and unique subjects such as its gothic
effects, patterning of natural human behaviors, skillful diction and romantic
depiction. Bronte’s novel has presented the love triangles between many
characters, firstly the love between Heathcliff, Catherine and Edgar Linton while
the second one is about Hareton, Cathy and young Linton respectively. The first
one holds a deep undercurrent of hate, revenge and savagery. Heathcliff loses
Catherine yet Edgar is accepted by her instead because of his status and civilized
qualities. As a result, including Catherine’s acts and death, Heathcliff’s own frets,
obsession, and Childhood mistreatments a severe lust for revenge grows up in
Heathcliff’s character.

Heathcliff is the central figure of the novel that is shown as a sympathetic character
at the start of the novel but he becomes hateful because of his revenge, evil deeds,
destructions, destructions and torments on other innocent characters like young
Linton, Catherine and Hareton.

When Heathcliff is brought to the Wuthering Heights for the first time by Mr.
Earnshaw he is introduced as a strange sully orphan child with a malignity. He
seems exotic to everyone in the house and the waves of despise goes through the
family. However a sympathetic and friendly relationship develops between him
and Catherine but Hindley doesn’t compromise to share his familial love with the
stranger and later, after his father’s death he starts to torture Heathcliff. The novel
has a passionate romantic love story between Catherine and Heahcliff, and also

many kinds of love can be seen. The romantic is the primary one that drives the
story and causes major conflicts throughout the novel. There are two phases with
respect to the generation in the novel, firstly between the major characters
Heathcliff and Catherine while the second one is between the families’ offspring:
one ends up with misfortune while the love between young couples ends happily
and peacefully. The love between was based on shared perceptions that denies
sexual differences, and even cannot be explained by usual meaning. They
themselves even don’t know the meaning of their love for each other because they
were not siblings but they were gown up together in their childhood. On the other
hand the various love relations are presented in the novel are conventional one
which follow the traditional principles of societal love.

The story and plot revolves around not onlyromantic love and peaceful relations
but also focus the theme of revenge. The conflict breaks out when Catherine
decides to marry another rich person Edgar Linton. The failure of Heathcliff and
the childhood torments leads to his vengeance that makes the story’s plot more
powerful. Undoubtedly love and revenge are the dominant themes of Wuthering
Heights. However the two terms are reciprocal yet interdependently patterned
which makes the plot more interesting.

1.2 Background

Emily Bronte’s Biography and Work:

Emily Bronte was a famous English writer, born in 30th July 1818 in Yorkshire

England. She is mostly known for the very novel Wuthering Heights. Her sisters
Charlotte and Anne were also writers who had a successful career in literature. Her
father was a local curate of Haworth. When her family went to Haworth in 1821,
mother died of cancer. She and her sister Anne started to live with their mother’s
sister. She went to Clergy Daughters' School where she was studying with her two
sisters. The sister Maria and Elizabeth both became ill at school and died due to
serious tuberculosis in 1825.She stayed home with her siblings and started to make
stories Bronte joined Law Hill School in September 1837 as a teacher. She leaves
the school and traveled to Brussels in 1842 but she returned with her sister. Gondol
was a work which she and her sister Anne collaboratively composed. Further
Emily wrote poems some other fictional pieces. In December 1847 she wrote
Wuthering Heights. It is known to be the complex novel for its plot construction
and critical reviews. Among her works Wuthering Height is the only one which
made her name perennial. She and her sister both died of Tuberculosis on 1848.
There are many characters in the novel who also suffer the same disease which was
much deadly at that time.[ CITATION The14 \l 1033 ] When Wuthering Heights is firstly
published on December 1847, it did not receive much appreciation because of its
puzzling composition for readers. Firstly its plot construction and narration style
seemed confusing to readers and the excessively violent, torturing and morbid
scenes could not maintained readers’ interest. But later on the gothic effects, work
of crafty art, emotional evocations, haunting moor and the artistic depiction
attracted readers’ mind and earned a renowned name in literature. It is now
considered to be the emotional masterpiece of nineteenth-century and of all the
time. Its subject matters are not only concern with romantic

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Relationship but also discuss human life and the evil aspects of human nature.
Almost 10 adaptations have been made so far. [ CITATION The14 \l 1033 ]

Early life and loss:

Emily Brontë was born on 30 July 1818 to Maria Branwell and an Irish father,
Patrick Bronte. The family was living on Market Street in the village of Thornton
on the outskirts of Bradford, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, Northern England.
Emily was the youngest of five siblings, preceded by Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte
and Branwell. In 1820, Emily's younger sister Anne, the last Brontë child, was
born. Shortly thereafter, the family moved eight miles away to Haworth, where
Patrick was employed as perpetual curate In Haworth, the children would have
opportunities to develop their literary talents. When Emily was only three, and all
six children under the age of eight, she and her siblings lost their mother, Maria, to
cancer on 15 September 1821. The younger children were to be cared for by
Elizabeth Branwell, their aunt and mother Maria's sister. Emily's three elder sisters,
Maria, Elizabeth, and Charlotte, were sent to the Clergy Daughters' School at
Cowan Bridge. At the age of six, on 25 November 1824, Emily joined her sisters at
school for a brief period. At school, however, the children suffered abuse and
privations, and when a typhoid epidemic swept the school, Maria and Elizabeth
became ill. Maria, who may actually have had tuberculosis, was sent home, where
she died. Emily, Charlotte and Elizabeth were subsequently removed from the
school in June 1825. Elizabeth died soon after their return home.

4
The four youngest Brontë children, all under ten years of age, had suffered the loss
of the three eldest females in their immediate family.

Charlotte maintained that the school's poor conditions permanently affected her
health and physical development and that it had hastened the deaths of Maria (born
1814) and Elizabeth (born 1815), who both died in 1825. After the deaths of his
older daughters, Patrick removed Charlotte and Emily from the school. Charlotte
would use her experiences and knowledge of the school as the basis for Lookwood
School in Jane Eyre. The three remaining sisters and their brother Branwell were
thereafter educated at home by their father and aunt Elizabeth Branwell. A shy girl,
Emily was very close to her siblings and was known as a great animal lover,
especially for befriending stray dogs she found wandering around the countryside.
Despite the lack of formal education, Emily and her siblings had access to a wide
range of published material; favourites included Sir Walter Scott, Byron, Shelley,
and Blackwood's Magazine. Inspired by a box of toy soldiers Branwell had
received as a gift, the children began to write stories which they set in a number of
invented imaginary worlds peopled by their soldiers as well as their heroes the
Duke of Wellington and his sons, Charles and Arthur Wellesley. Little of Emily's
work from this period survives, except for poems spoken by characters. Initially,
all four children shared in creating stories about a world called Angria. However,
when Emily was 13, she and Anne withdrew from participation in the Angria story
and began a new one about Gondal, a fictional island whose myths and legends
were to preoccupy the two sisters throughout their lives. With the exception of
their Gondal poems and Anne's lists of Gondal's characters and place-names,
Emily and Anne's Gondal writings were largely not preserved. Among those that
did survive are some "diary papers," written by Emily in her twenties, which
describe current events in Gondal. The heroes of Gondal tended to resemble the
popular image of the Scottish Highlander, a sort of British version of the "noble
savage": romantic outlaws capable of more nobility, passion, and bravery than the
denizens of "civilization". Similar themes of romanticism and noble savagery are
apparent across the Brontë's juvenilia, notably in Branwell's The Life of Alexander
Percy, which tells the story of an all-consuming, death-defying, and ultimately
self-destructive love and is generally considered an inspiration for Wuthering
Heights. At seventeen, Emily began to attend the Roe Head Girls' School, where
Charlotte was a teacher, but suffered from extreme homesickness and left after
only a few months. Charlotte wrote later that "Liberty was the breath of Emily's

5
nostrils; without it, she perished. The change from her own home to a school and
from her own very noiseless, very secluded but unrestricted and unartificial mode
of life, to one of disciplined routine (though under the kindest auspices), was what
she failed in enduring... I felt in my heart she would die if she did not go home, and
with this conviction obtained her recall." Emily returned home and Anne took her
place. At this time, the girls' objective was to obtain sufficient education to open a
small school of their own.

Adulthood:

Emily became a teacher at Law Hill School in Halifax beginning in September

1838, when she was twenty. Her always fragile health soon broke under the stress
of the 17-hour work day and she returned home in April 1839. Thereafter she
remained at home, doing most of the cooking, ironing, and cleaning at Haworth.
She taught herself German out of books and also practised the piano.

In 1842, Emily accompanied Charlotte to the Héger Pensionnat in Brussels,

Belgium, where they attended the girls' academy run by Constantin Héger in the
hope of perfecting their French and German before opening their school. Unlike
Charlotte, Emily was uncomfortable in Brussels, and refused to adopt Belgian
fashions, saying "I wish to be as God made me", which rendered her something of
an outcast. Nine of Emily's French essays survive from this period. Héger seems to
have been impressed with the strength of Emily's character, writing that: She
should have been a man – a great navigator. Her powerful reason would have
deduced new spheres of discovery from the knowledge of the old; and her strong
imperious will would never have been daunted by opposition or difficulty, never
have given way but with life. She had a head for logic, and a capability of
argument unusual in a man and rarer indeed in a woman... impairing this gift was
her stubborn tenacity of will which rendered her obtuse to all reasoning where her
own wishes, or her own sense of right, was concerned.

The two sisters were committed to their studies and by the end of the term had
become so competent in French that Madame Héger proposed that they both stay
another half-year, even, according to Charlotte, offering to dismiss the English
master so that she could take his place. Emily had, by this time,

6
become a competent pianist and teacher and it was suggested that she might stay
on to teach music. However, the illness and death of their aunt drove them to return
to their father and Haworth. In 1844, the sisters attempted to open a school in their
house, but their plans were stymied by an inability to attract students to the remote
area.

In 1844, Emily began going through all the poems she had written, recopying them
neatly into two notebooks. One was labelled "Gondal Poems"; the other was
unlabelled. Scholars such as Fannie Ratchford and Derek Roper have attempted to
piece together a Gondal storyline and chronology from these poems. In the autumn
of 1845, Charlotte discovered the notebooks and insisted that the poems be
published. Emily, furious at the invasion of her privacy, at first refused but relented
when Anne brought out her own manuscripts and revealed to Charlotte that she had
been writing poems in secret as well. As co-authors of Gondal stories, Anne and
Emily were accustomed to read their Gondal stories and poems to each other,
while Charlotte was excluded from their privacy. Around this time she had written
one of her most famous poems "No coward soul is mine", probably as an answer to
the violation of her privacy and her own transformation into a published writer.
Despite Charlotte's later claim, it was not her last poem.

In 1846, the sisters' poems were published in one volume as Poems by Currer,
Ellis, and Acton Bell. The Brontë sisters had adopted pseudonyms for publication,
preserving their initials: Charlotte was "Currer Bell", Emily was "Ellis Bell" and
Anne was "Acton Bell". Charlotte wrote in the 'Biographical Notice of Ellis and
Acton Bell' that their "ambiguous choice" was "dictated by a sort of conscientious
scruple at assuming Christian names positively masculine, while we did not like to
declare ourselves women, because... we had a vague impression that authoresses
are liable to be looked on with prejudice". Charlotte contributed 19 poems, and
Emily and Anne each contributed 21. Although the sisters were told several
months after publication that only two copies had sold, they were not discouraged
(of their two readers, one was impressed enough to request their autographs). The
Athenaeum reviewer praised Ellis Bell's work for its music and power, singling out
his poems as the best: "Ellis possesses a fine, quaint spirit and an evident power of
wing that may reach heights not here attempted",and The Critic reviewer
recognised "the presence of more genius than it was supposed this utilitarian age
had devoted to the loftier exercises of the intellect.

7
Personality and character:

Emily Brontë remains a mysterious figure and a challenge to biographers because

there is limited information about her, due to her solitary and reclusive nature.
Except for Ellen Nussey and Louise de Bassompierre, Emily's fellow student in
Brussels, she does not seem to have made any friends outside her family. Her
closest friend was her sister Anne. Together they shared their own fantasy world,
Gondal, and, according to Ellen Nussey, in childhood they were "like twins",
"inseparable companions" and "in the very closest sympathy which never had any
interruption". In 1845 Anne took Emily to visit some of the places she had come to
know and love in the five years she spent as governess. A plan to visit Scarborough
fell through and instead the sisters went to York where Anne showed Emily York
Minster. During the trip the sisters acted out some of their Gondal characters.
Charlotte Brontë remains the primary source of information about Emily, although
as an elder sister, writing publicly about her only shortly after her death, she is
considered by certain scholars not to be a neutral witness. Stevie Davies believes
that there is what might be called Charlotte's smoke-screen and argues that Emily
evidently shocked her, to the point where she may even have doubted her sister's
sanity. After Emily's death, Charlotte rewrote her character, history and even
poems on a more acceptable (to her and the bourgeois reading public) model.
Charlotte presented Emily as someone whose "natural" love of the beauties of
nature had become somewhat exaggerated owing to her shy nature, portraying her
as too fond of the Yorkshire moors, and homesick whenever she was away.
According to Lucasta Miller, in her analysis of Brontë biographies, "Charlotte took
on the role of Emily's first mythographer." In the Preface to the Second Edition of
Wuthering Heights, in 1850, Charlotte wrote: My sister's disposition was not
naturally gregarious; circumstances favoured and fostered her tendency to
seclusion; except to go to church or take a walk on the hills, she rarely crossed the
threshold of home. Though her feeling for the people round was benevolent,
intercourse with them she never sought; nor, with very few exceptions, ever
experienced. And yet she knew them: knew their ways, their language, their family
histories; she could hear of them with interest, and talk of them with detail, minute,
graphic, and accurate; but WITH them, she rarely exchanged a word.

Emily's unsociability and extremely shy nature have subsequently been reported
many times. According to Norma Crandall, her "warm, human aspect" was
"usually revealed only in her love of nature and of animals". In a similar

8
description, Literary news (1883) states: "[Emily] loved the solemn moors, she

loved all wild, free creatures and things", and critics attest that her love of the
moors is manifest in Wuthering Heights. Over the years, Emily's love of nature has
been the subject of many anecdotes. A newspaper dated 31 December 1899, gives
the folksy account that "with bird and beast [Emily] had the most intimate
relations, and from her walks she often came with fledgling or young rabbit in
hand, talking softly to it, quite sure, too, that it understood". Elizabeth Gaskell, in
her biography of Charlotte, told the story of Emily's punishing her pet dog Keeper
for lying "on the delicate white counterpane" that covered one of the beds in the
Parsonage. According to Gaskell, she struck him with her fists until he was "half-
blind" with his eyes "swelled up". This story is apocryphal, and contradicts the
following account of Emily's and Keeper's relationship: Poor old Keeper, Emily's
faithful friend and worshipper, seemed to understand her like a human being. One
evening, when the four friends were sitting closely round the fire in the sitting-
room, Keeper forced himself in between Charlotte and Emily and mounted himself
on Emily’s lap; finding the space too limited for his comfort he pressed himself
forward on to the guest’s knees, making himself quite comfortable. Emily’s heart
was won by the unresisting endurance of the visitor, little guessing that she herself,
being in close contact, was the inspiring cause of submission to Keeper’s
preference. Sometimes Emily would delight in showing off Keeper make him
frantic in action, and roar with the voice of a lion. It was a terrifying exhibition
within the walls of an ordinary sitting-room. Keeper was a solemn mourner at
Emily’s funeral and never recovered his cheerfulness.

In Queens of Literature of the Victorian Era (1886), Eva Hope summarises Emily's
character as "a peculiar mixture of timidity and Spartan-like courage", and goes on
to say, "She was painfully shy, but physically she was brave to a surprising degree.
She loved few persons, but those few with a passion of self-sacrificing tenderness
and devotion. To other people's failings she was understanding and forgiving, but
over herself she kept a continual and most austere watch, never allowing herself to
deviate for one instant from what she considered her duty." Emily Brontë has often
been characterised as a devout if somewhat unorthodox Christian, a heretic and a
visionary "mystic of the moors".

9
Death

Emily's health was probably weakened by the harsh local climate and by
unsanitary conditions at home, the source of water being contaminated by run off
from the church's graveyard. Branwell died suddenly, on Sunday, 24 September
1848. At his funeral service, a week later, Emily caught a severe cold which
quickly developed into inflammation of the lungs and led to tuberculosis Though
her condition worsened steadily, she rejected medical help and all offered
remedies, saying that she would have "no poisoning doctor" near her. On the
morning of 19 December 1848, Charlotte, fearing for her sister, wrote: She grows
daily weaker. The physician's opinion was expressed too obscurely to be of use –
he sent some medicine which she would not take. Moments so dark as these I have
never known – I pray for God's support to us all. At noon, Emily was worse; she
could only whisper in gasps. With her last audible words she said to Charlotte, "If
you will send for a doctor, I will see him now" but it was too late. She died that
same day at about two in the afternoon. According to Mary Robinson, an early
biographer of Emily, it happened while she was sitting on the sofa. However,

Charlotte's letter to William Smith Williams where she mentions Emily's dog,
Keeper, lying at the side of her dying-bed, makes this statement seem unlikely. It
was less than three months since Branwell's death, which led Martha Brown, a
housemaid, to declare that "Miss Emily died of a broken heart for love of her
brother". Emily had grown so thin that her coffin measured only 16 inches wide.
The carpenter said he had never made a narrower one for an adult. Her mortal
remains were interred in the family vault in St Michael and All Angels' Church,
Haworth.

10
Chapter 02

11
 2.1 Plot Summary

Mr. Lockwood and Nelly Dean are the primary narrator of the story. Lockwood is
introduced as a renter of Thrushcross Grange, nearby manor where Heathcliff lives
in 1801. It was winter and Lockwood had to spend the night in Wuthering Heights
due to snowstorm. Heathcliff makes his curiosity increased and in the same night
Lockwood had nightmares of Catherines’s ghost who wails, cries and tries to come
in through the window.

Lockwood asks Nelly Dean, the housekeeper, to tell the pathetic story the house.
Then she comes towards the tragic tale of both Thrushcross grange and Wuthering
heights. She recounts by telling that she was a young girl here. Mr. Earnshaw, an
owner of the house, once goes to Liverpool and returns bringing an orphan, sully,
and gypsy-like child. Mr. Earnshaw named him Heathcliff. He suggests keeping
the child in his house as a brother of his children and makes him his son. Initially
both Catherine and her brother dislikes Heathcliff but soon Catherine holds
sympathetic feeling for him and a deep friendship develops between them. Soon
they grow up and playing together. On the other side Hindley could not accept his
father’s act of making an unclean stranger a part of his family. Not only Hindley
but also some other members of the house seems to be resentful of Heathcliff and
treat him stranger. Mr. Earnshaw sends away Hindley to college. Three years later
Hindley came back with his wife, Frances, which was surprising for the all since
he was only twenty. Hindley had already revengeful feelings for Heathcliff but
now he was also the sole head of Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff’s trouble increases
because Hindley comes up with his more inflictions and makes him

12
a servant of the house. However Catherine’s intimacy and care stay for him; who
teaches him what she studies and most of their time they spend together.

One night they go to Thrushcross Grange where Linton’s family lives. Linton
spoiled children; Edgar and Isabella Linton were playing in their room. Heathcliff
and Catherine try to teas them by watching and yelling at them through the
window. They are seen and try to rush out but is Catherine got caught by Bulldog
and bitten. They found that Catherine was Earnshaw’s girl so that makes Catherine
to stay until her recovery. They keep Catherine in good a care but treat Heathcliff
as a servant and cast away. It takes five weeks in house to be cured. The
efficacious and splendid house, the elegant children of Linton and Edgar’s special
care highly impressed Catherine. She looks changed when she returns home.
Catherine is now infatuated with Edgar which bears a new challenge for Heathcliff.

Hindley’s wife gave to a son, Hareton but dies due to tuberculosis. Hindley fell
into troubles and starts alcoholism. It leads more hatred and harshness to
Heathcliff. Catherine is influenced by Edgar status and well-mannered qualities
and soon becomes engaged with him. Heathcliff runs away when he hears the
conversation where she says that she would be degraded if she marries Heathcliff
though her love for Heathcliff is eternal and not to be fulfilled in this world. After
hearing the conversation Heathcliff rushes out and disappears for three years.
While looking for Heathcliff that night she becomes ill and went Grange again.
Catherine and Edgar got married, after three years Heathcliff comes back with
mysterious wealth, refined look and seemingly changed manner. Heathcliff
apparent figure holds extreme avenge inside now and later bursts out in the shape
of torments and everlasting revenge. Catherine glad to see him again but Edgar

13
feels unhappy. Heathcliff pays Hindley’s gambling debts and soon controls
Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff’s continuation of coming to the Grange and meeting
Catherine bother both Catherine and Edgar Linton. Edgar tried to disallow
Heathcliff to come to the house and calls his menservants to deterring him but
Catherine shows resentment on Edgar’s act. Hindley dies and Heathcliff becomes
the owner of Wuthering Heights. In another side Isabella elopes with Heathcliff
without knowing his evil intentions of getting revenge on Edgar and seizing the
Grange. The dilemma and illness increases and highly affect Catherine; at
midnight Catherine gives birth to Cathy prematurely and dies two hours later.
Heathcliff comes and curses Catherine by saying that she ruined his life. He says
that Catherine is responsible for his exploited life and caused to his pains. He begs
Catherine’s ghost to hunt him for the rest of his life. Thirteen year passed, Cathy
becomes inquisitive and beautiful lady. Without knowing the world outside she
finds Hareton accidently and meets him. On the other side a secret romantic
relationship establishes between Catherine and frail Linton through letters. Linton
pretends to be lover of Catherine and shows with his complains that she doesn’t
care him. He wishes Catherine to nurse himnot because he is really loves Catherine
but Heathcliff forces him to feign his love for Catherine since Heathcliff wants to
make Linton a part of Linton’s inheritance and seeks revenge on Edgar by taking
Thrushcross Grange. Isabella also dies; the child who had left is in that house and
treated badly by Heathcliff. Once Linton got seriously ill and Heathcliff makes
both Linton and Catherine to marry forcibly. Soon Linton dies after the marriage
and now Heathcliff control both Houses. Now Cathy also lives in the house like
the other servant and, as in the start of the novel shows, Lockwood is given a room
rent by Cathy. After six month when Lockwood pays another visit. Hareton works

14
in the Heights as a servant who never meets any books and education because of

the vengeance of Heathcliff. In these days Hareton is mocked and scorn by Cathy
for his ignorance and illiteracy. Heathcliff’s obsession increases, speaks to
Catherines ghost and soon he dies. Hareton and Linton do plan to marry next year
and finally they inherit Thrush cross Grange. At last by ending with the story
Lookwood visits Catharine’s and Heathcliff’s graves.

2.2 Major Characters

Heathcliff
Heathcliff was discovered on the streets of Liverpool, England by Mr. Earnshaw.
He could not find any family to take care of the boy, so he brought him home with
him. This was the moment which changed the lives of both Heathcliff and the
Earnshaw family forever. Heathcliff was sullen, indifferent to Mr. Earnshaw, and
trouble. He hardly talked except to cause trouble between himself and Hindley,
the son of Mr. Earnshaw. Mr. Earnshaw liked Heathcliff and would take his side
when he and Hindley would argue. After Mr. Earnshaw's death Hindley
remembered his treatment by his father and made Heathcliff a servant. This and
the beatings Heathcliff suffered at the hand of Hindley formed the basis for his
desire for revenge. Heathcliff and Catherine, Mr. Earnshaw's daughter, fell in love,
but because he was a servant, she could not marry him. She instead married
Edgar Linton, which Heathcliff used as an excuse to exact revenge against Edgar.
Heathcliff's desire for revenge knew no bounds, as he used his own son to
procure Edgar's lands and turned Hindley's son into a servant. Heathcliff was a
very unhappy man, who poured his unhappiness upon the lives of all who knew
him. Heathcliff died alone in his bed, only to be found by Mrs. Dean after she
noticed rain coming in though his bedroom window.

15
Catherine Earnshaw

Catherine Earnshaw was the daughter of Mr. Earnshaw. She and Heathcliff were
about the same age and became, after a time, close friends. They would play
together and after Hindley became the master of Wuthering Heights, they plotted
to find freedom by running on the moor. Catherine was not a very nice young
woman. She was so unkind to the servants and others in the household, that her
own father told her he could not love her anymore. Catherine was capable of love
and the love of her life was not her husband, Edgar Linton, but instead Heathcliff.
She could not marry Heathcliff, because Hindley had made him a servant and in
the late 1700's a woman of her social standing did not marry a servant. She did
come to love Edgar, in her own way. She and Edgar had a child, Catherine,
unfortunately Catherine died soon after giving birth. Catherine was a self -serving
woman who wanted people to jump to her orders and did not like to be told no.
She felt caught between her marriage and her love for Heathcliff.

Hindley Earnshaw

Hindley was Catherine's older brother and heir to Wuthering Heights. He was
mean to Heathcliff when he came to live with the family, because Mr. Earnshaw
liked Heathcliff better than Hindley. Hindley was sent away to college in an effort
to restore peace in the household. After Mr. Earnshaw's death, Hindley and his
new wife returned to take control of Wuthering Heights. This was Hindley's
opportunity to exact his revenge upon Heathcliff by making him a servant. He also
was unkind to his sister, Catherine, punishing her for the most minor or
infractions Hindley's life took a turn for the worse after his wife died. She died
shortly after giving birth to their son, Hareton. Hindley turned to drinking and
gambling in an effort to run away from the reality of losing his wife. He was a
mean drunk, which had him trying to harm anyone who came into contact with
him when he had been drinking. He was an even worse gambler, because of this
he had to mortgage Wuthering Heights to Heathcliff in order to pay off his

16
gambling debts. Heathcliff gained control of Wuthering Heights six months after
Catherine died, when Hindley died. Hindley through his own actions denied his
son his rightful inheritance. Indeed, Heathcliff repaid Hindley's unkindness to him
by making Hareton a servant, just as Hindley had done to Heathcliff.
Hindley was a jealous and vengeful young man who in the end turned into a
trembling and cowardly drunk. His actions caused the most harm to his son, his
niece, and his sister.

Edgar Linton

Edgar Linton was a childhood friend of Catherine's and as they grew older was her boyfriend.
They became engaged because she thought with his wealth and social position she could
somehow help Heathcliff. Edgar did love Catherine and endured her many moods in order to
make her happy. He even allowed Heathcliff to come and visit Catherine, until Isabella, Edgar's
sister, fell in love with Heathcliff. The two then had a verbal and physical fight over Heathcliff's
attentions to Catherine and Isabella. Edgar then banned Heathcliff from his home, Thrushcross
Grange. After Catherine's death, Edgar did the best he could to raise his daughter, whom he
adored. He tried to shelter her from Heathcliff and the rest of his household. His daughter,
Catherine, was a curious girl and ventured onto Heathcliff's land, which was how she met
Heathcliff and renewed her acquaintance of his son Linton. Edgar wanted to raise Linton
himself, because it was his sister, Isabella's dying wish. Linton was the son of Isabella and
Heathcliff, but Heathcliff came and took the boy to raise himself.
Edgar tried to put a stop to any type of relationship between the two, but he could not. He died
after Heathcliff had taken his daughter, Catherine, prisoner and had her marry Linton.
Edgar was a kind hearted man, who was not easily fooled by Heathcliff. He went along with
allowing his wife and then his daughter seeing him, because he wanted to make them happy.

Isabella Linton

Isabella Linton was Edgar Linton's sister. She lived with Edgar and Catherine after
their marriage. The three of them were best of friends, in fact she and Catherine

17
thought of each other as sisters. This all changed after Heathcliff came home and
started to visit Catherine on a daily basis. Isabella, who was 18 years-old, fell in
love with Heathcliff. She also became very jealous of any time Heathcliff and
Catherine spent alone, which caused a rift between Catherine and Isabella.
Catherine tried to warn Isabella of Heathcliff's bad traits, but she would not listen.
She regretted this later, after she had married Heathcliff and found out he had
only married her to get his hands on any property she might inherit. She also
found out he married her to cause misery for Edgar, who had in effect disowned
his sister. She died thirteen years later after she had run away from Heathcliff.
Edgar did go to be with her and he agreed to take in her son, Linton.
She was a head strong young woman, who would not listen to reason when it
interfered with her plans. She was loved by her brother, but that was not enough
to save her from Heathcliff.

Linton Heathcliff

Linton was a young teenager when he learned who his father was. His mother had
never told him anything about his father in order to shield him from Heathcliff. He
was a sickly child and was sickly his whole life. He was considered property by his
father, who could hardly stand to see him, because he looked so much like his
mother. Heathcliff also considered him inferior because he was not in Heathcliff's
estimation manly enough. Linton, was used to being coddled by his mother, so
the rough treatment his father bestowed upon him came as a shock to his
physical and emotional health. Linton did like Catherine Linton, who was his first
cousin. He wanted to be with her, because she did coddle him and make him
happy. He was afraid of his father and did whatever he was told to do, even
marrying his cousin and making his father the sole benefactor of his will. Linton
died young, but even had he lived he would have been a poor husband because
he did not have any real fortitude to live and behave as a husband should. He was
weak willed and at times mean spirited towards Catherine.

18
Mr. Earnshaw

He made a mistake by trying to do the right thing. He thought he was being

charitable by bringing Heathcliff into his home, little did he know the chaos
Heathcliff would cause his family. He did not help the situation by favoring
Heathcliff over his own son and daughter. He did not think how this would impact
his children. He, in his last days, became mean and had no tolerance for anything
which was the least bit annoying to him. He left his estate to his son, Hindley,
which started the quest for vengeance by Heathcliff. Heathcliff was not about to
let Hindley's decision to make him a servant go unpunished. Mr. Earnshaw was a
decent person who let his emotions rule his head, when it came to how he
treated his children and Heathcliff.

Mrs. Dean

Mrs. Dean is a housekeeper who had worked for the Earnshaw family her whole
life. She is at various times referred to as Ellen and Nelly throughout the book.
She was in charge of raising Hareton, until Hindley sent her to live with Catherine
and Edgar. Then she was the chief caretaker of Catherine Linton after her mother
had died. She at the start of the book is the housekeeper for Thrushcross Grange
and she narrates most of the story for Mr. Lockwood, the tenant, so he can better
understand the occupants of Wuthering Heights. She is a kind woman who only
wants the best possible life for the people she cares for.

Mr. Lockwood

He is the tenant at Thrushcross Grange. After visiting with Heathcliff and meeting
the people who live at Wuthering Heights, he has lots of questions about their
unusual behavior. He tries to visit them a second time and is caught there for the
night because of a snow storm. He has nightmares after reading some notes

19
written in books by Catherine Earnshaw. Heathcliff's reaction to Mr. Lockwood's
nightmares is unusual. He is angry that Mr. Lockwood has had a glimpse into the
inner thoughts of Catherine. Mr. Lockwood enlists Mrs. Dean to tell him the story
of Wuthering Heights and help him to understand what is going on there. He is
put off both by the people and the loneliness of the moor in winter, which leads
him to leave Thrushcross Grange after a few months of living there. He returns in
the early fall to find out that Heathcliff is dead and he learns of Catherine and
Hareton's engagement from Mrs. Dean. Mr. Lockwood is an amiable man, who is
trying to understand this strange new world into which he has cast himself.

20
Chapter 03

21
 3.1 Themes

Love:
In the novel romantic love takes many forms: the passionate love of Heathcliff and
Catherine, the secret love marriage of Hindley and Frances which dies away with
Frances death, love of Edgar and his proposal of marriage to Catherine which also
doesn’t keep its endurance, calamitous infatuation of Isabella, Cathy and Linton’s
love and the savage Hareton attraction of young Cathy. All of the varieties of these
relationships are characterized by distinct and common qualities but ended up with
many character’s death and separations. Furthermore, some of these are self-
centered who ignore the feelings of other while Heathcliff’s and Catherine’s is
much different of the rest and unique one; that love dominates the text throughout
the novel.

Love has many kinds in the novel. The romantic love is the primary one that drives
the story and functions as the major conflict of the novel. The love between
Heathcliff and Catherine was based on shared-perceptions which cannot be easily
interpreted on the ground of social conventions. They themselves even don’t know
the meaning of their love.

“They both promised fair to grow up as rude as savage”[ CITATION Emi92 \l 1033 ] Nelly
clears that savage is like immature and wildness which shows the natural quality.
They were completely boundless and unrestraint. For their relationship there were
no principles and no bondages rather they were free in their actions and
perceptions. They enjoyed natural liberty, closeness to heaven and divinity.

22
“They forget everything the minute they were together again.”[ CITATION Emi92 \l
1033 ] It was a kind of feeling which can only be availed by a child who never cares
about what is going around and what are the worldly matters. They never tried to
judge their love and it was neither their choice. Yet they had assumed it as
necessity. Their love is intensely based of passionate imaginations and emotions.
When they were together they forget to think about the world around. They were
highly governed by frenzy passions of love and unrestraint emotions. Smith says
that the passion is seen as their fate where they see ultimate happiness in it and it
was more than the societal norm for them. (Smith 177) They feel the passions more
than everything and even death cannot overcome or affect their love- Perhaps
Catherine has chosen Edgar for her marriage by thinking in that way. They have
their own approaches of love and its own extinction.[ CITATION Ann76 \l 1033 ]
Heathcliff goes mad when he gets the news of Catherine’s death: ‘Two words
would comprehend my future – death and hell: existence after Losing her, would
be hell”. And in great torment he cries out, “Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest
as long as I am living! …Be with me always take any form – drive me mad! Only
do not leave me in the abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh God it is unutterable! I
cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!’ [ CITATION Emi92 \p 122 \l
1033 ] The idea of love is expressed here to be eternal. ‘Take any form” suggests
that he will love her forever though death has intervened for a some time but he
demands her ghost to haunt him for the rest of his life or be with him by taking any
form. It also shows the exclusion of her union and physical presence and the
ultimate separation is still denied. Soon after Catherine’s death he further says
“’Her presence was with me ...I felt her by me ...It was a strange way of
killing…..to beguile me with the spectre of a hope, through eighteen
years!’[ CITATION Emi92 \p 210-211 \l 1033 ] The idea of
 23

love clears that their love is beyond the conventional bondages and usual limits.
They had no care about the worldly affairs and moral values; they were just under
the rules of frenzying passions. For them there were no differences of life and
death, and even there were no limits and restraints. In this view they expect death
and afterlife too to attain the demands of love.[ CITATION Emi92 \l 1033 ] Old field says
that the conflict occurs in the novel due to the choice of emotions and reasons.
[ CITATION Old76 \l 1033 ]. Catherine thinks that love is a complementary thing for life,
not only for identity but also for the embodiment of that identity. She thinks that
Heathcliff is herself with respect to her soul and Edgar draws and embodied herself
for her wholeness. That’s why she establishes a conflicting approach and chooses
Edgar for her marriage. Catherine says: though everybody hated and despised each
other, they could not avoid loving me’.[ CITATION Emi92 \p 104 \l 1033 ] Here Catherine
comes up with the need of love which she embodies for identity and
complimentarity. She shows that Heathcliff is herself when she says ‘I’m
Heathcliff” in another place. Her love for Heathcliff, she thinks is the abstract
phenomenon, the completion is only possible through death. She further says: “My
love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods, Time will change it, I’m well
aware, as winter change the tress. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal
rocks beneath- a source of little visible delight, but necessary”(59) she further says
that “I’m Heathcliff.”[ CITATION Emi92 \p 59 \l 1033 ] The love denies difference of
sexuality or gender unlike young Cathy’s and Hareton’s love which is conventional
one. They both finally reach to some destination that is marriage. The two
individual has affection and respect for each other that is a natural thing, because
most of the time they play together and spend time together consequently the
friendly and likely experience is obvious, true and pure. The love is ordinary in
nature because

24

they are not sibling although they grown up together. In such condition it’s
probable that they are considered to be deep friends. They have never shared
sexual love and one cannot say it was a carnal and incest. When Catherine says
that she is Heathcliff it clarifies that they were not physically attached rather
spiritually and emotionally. She feels that being physically two bodies they had
one soul. Their connectivity is ideal in its nature because this connectivity and love
principles were not conditioned by this world - worldly affairs, norms, culture and
convention- but itself. Since, it does not exist in that world and life. Their feelings
are below the conscious level of mind unlike the love for Edgar, young Cathy’s
love for Linton and Edgar’s love for Frances. In many places Catherine has
described her love to be impersonal. It is more complex because such kind of love
cannot be reached or execute in real relationship. As a result she chose Edgar and
thought that her marriage could not change and affect their relationship. They feel
emptiness a gap between their love and it’s consummated in this world and their
souls can only be united or love could only be fulfilled the life here after. They
further feel that they have immortal love and immortal relationship. Catherine says
to Nelly “……My great miseries in this world have been his miseries, and I
watched and left each from the beginning; my great thought in living is himself, if
all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue, and he were annihilated,
the universe would turn to a mighty stranger I should not seem part of it” (chap, 9,
p.64)

She says in another chapter that:

“I’m tired, tired of being enclose here(in this world), I’m wearying to escape into
the glorious world, and to be always there, not seeing it dimly through tears, and

25

yearning for it through the wall of an aching heart; but rally with it, and in
it.”[ CITATION Emi92 \p 125 \l 1033 ]

These are the line when she is near to death, she expresses her feelings about the
bliss of childhood life and she is sorrowful what she has lost in the moors.

Catherine declares that she loved Heathcliff more than anyone more than herself
but she is not ready to marry him. Instead she chooses Edgar Linton assuming that
it will not affect her relationship with Heathcliff. One reason of her choice was a
social setting of that time where marriage was supposed to be a social contract and
not a finest commitment between two lovers. Therefore, in her view, through her
marriage she could support and secure Heathclff’s life. Another reason was as they
both had admitted that nothing could change their love or connection because they
were one in their connectional respect. The relationship of love between Heathcliff
and Catherine was not mere romantic but also brotherly as well. It was not erotic
nevertheless that could may be applied to the other characters.[ CITATION Ric01 \l 1033 ]
In Wuthering Heights love comes up with the ideas lover’s tormenting and
suffering. Love is shown in the term of hurting each other and wrangles between
them. The two pair of lovers; Heathcliff and Catherine and the young pair of Cathy
and Hareton, both of their love and relationships deal with the quarrels whether in
conversations, in mind or in actions. ’I seek no revenge on you,” replied Heathcliff
less vehemently. ‘That’s not the plan … You are welcome to torture me to death
for your amusement, only allow me to amuse myself a little in the same style … If
I imagined you really wished me to marry Isabella, I’ll cut my throat!”[ CITATION
Emi92 \p 193 \l 1033 ] Here Heathcliff marries Isabella against Catherine’s wish which
shows his passion mixed of jealousy, anger and vengeful

26

intentions over Catherine’s marriage with Edgar. It was Catherine’s love which
prompted and motivated Heathcliff to be vengeful and cruel against not only
Catherine but also for him and others.[ CITATION Mrr70 \l 1033 ]. When Heathcliff
escapes and he comes back with full of mysterious wealth and figure after three
years, it was enough for him to be stable for the rest of his life nonetheless it was
Catherine’s love and her chosen of Edgar which makes him motivated for
revenge. In their childhood we see Heathcliff comes up with silent and not
complaining child who never resists against Hindley’s torments because at that
time he had a backup and support of Catherine’s love and console. “’I wish I could
hold you,’ she continued, bitterly, ‘till we were both dead! I shouldn’t care what
you suffered……. Why shouldn’t you suffer? I do! Will you forget me – Don’t
torture me till I’m as mad as yourself,’ cried he, Catherine, you know that I could
as soon forget you, as my existence! Is it not sufficient for your infernal
selfishness, that while you are at peace I shall writhe in the torments of hell. I shall
not be at peace,’ moaned Catherine…‘I’m not wishing you greater torment than I
Have, Heathcliff! I only wish us never to be parted”[ CITATION Emi92 \p 115 \l 1033 ] In
these lines Catherine expresses that she is afraid if she dies before Heathcliff she
would be forgotten and her relationship and memories dies away. They know that
they are going to be part. Catherine is frightened that he will forget her after her
death. She wishes that love shouldn’t be forgotten by changing situations of time.
Heathcliff reacts that he will never forget her love and even her death will increase
his pain. In the second pair of love of the young generation between young Cathy
and Hareton also concerns the idea of wrangle and psychological clashes between
the lovers. Sometime Cathy scorns and teases Hareton for his illiteracy and lack of
civilized behavior. Apparently it doesn’t matter for Hareton yet it hurts him in fact

27

and feels affected. “But his self-love would endure no further

torment……”[ CITATION Emi92 \p 219 \l 1033 ] It becomes intolerable for him and he
steals some of her books to read the ways to impress Cathy and to make himself
according to her ‘expectations’. ’But his self-love would endure no further
torment: I heard, and not altogether disapprovingly, a manual check given to her
saucy tongue … He afterwards gathered the books and hurled them on the fire. I
read in his countenance what anguish it was to offer that sacrifice to spleen-... He
had been content with daily labor and rough animal enjoyments, till Catherine
Crossed his path. Shame at her scorn, and hope of her approval, were his first
prompters to higher pursuits; and instead of guarding him from one, and winning
him the other, his endeavors to raise himself had produced just the contrary
results”[ CITATION Emi92 \p 219 \l 1033 ] In the passage the ideas is expressed that they
both tries to hurt each other. Cathy through her pride of being literate shows a
pride over him. Hareton also feels pain because of her scorn which directly shows
that Cathy’s ground of contempt matters to him and that’s how it is connected to
Hareton’s importance and love about Cathy. Catherine’s speech, “I wish I could
hold you…” expressed that their love cannot be fulfilled here in this world but
after their death. It shows that they were suffered of that world but now they wish
to be freed. According to conventional view Catherine did wrong to Heathcliff yet
it makes a sense too that she was selfless and protective towards Heathcliff which
show her loyalty in another angle. This powerful relationship of love arguments
that how the love was ordinate and inordinate. [ CITATION the \l 1033 ] Love demands
not only that life but also the eternity which is beyond the limits of space and time.
Love has been shown more than the ordinary life and even more important than
life here. It has been related only to themselves by excluding the rest of the world.

28

Revenge:
As Nicholas Marsh states that themes are the authors’ subjects that he concerned in
the text.[ CITATION Nic99 \l 1033 ] Themes are not named or identified by author in the
novel but they can be point out by reader’s own examination through carefully
reading. Emily has not used any word of revenge in the novel too yet a reader can
easily analyze that how revenge is the imminent and reoccurring subject of second
half of the novel. That’s why by going through various actions, events and subjects
revenge has been taken for thematic study. Emily Bronte has portrayed revenge as
a chaotic feeling and created a devastating environment. Though the novel has
dominant romantic qualities nevertheless by excluding the conflicting scenes
which are grows from the revenge, becomes inactive and steady, and mere a
romantic story between two lovers. Heathcliff’s revenge grows primarily because
of his unrequited love and Catherine don’t want marry below her station by saying
that if she marry Heathcliff she would be degraded. There are many other reasons
and grounds which aggravate his avenge. Some of which are Catherine’s marriage
with Linton and Hindley’s torments etc. Consequently he takes revenge on those
who are associated to Catherine’s love. When Catherine returns from the Thrush
cross Grange she becomes totally changed after spending five weeks. She is no
longer the ‘savage and wild’ girl but transformed into elegant young lady. She is
changed with respect to her observational lenses; she looks everything strangely
especially Heathcliff seems to her like a wild, dirty and ordinary boy. Catherine
laughed at his filthiness and sullenness: “If you wash your face, and brush your
hair it will be alright. You are so dirty!” [ CITATION Emi92 \p 94 \l 1033 ] Since they had
ever shared a kind of innocent and wild love but things are change when life
changes. “You needn’t have touched me! He answered, following her eyes and
snatching

29

away his hand. ‘I shall be dirty, I like to be dirty, and I will be dirty”. [ CITATION Emi92
\p 95 \l 1033 ] “Mrs. Linton begged that her darlings might be kept carefully apart
from that naughty swearing boy”[ CITATION Emi92 \p 95 \l 1033 ] When she arrived
home everyone astonished to see her figure and dress up. Hindley did the same
what he used do wrong with Heathcliff: “Heathcliff, you may come forward, cried
Mr. Hindley,….you may come and wish miss Catherine, like the other
servant.”[ CITATION Emi92 \p 94 \l 1033 ] Because of Catherine’s decision he was really
hurt. It was not possible for him to be educated, civilized and above all rich like
Linton. The society and environment which she has chosen was not easy to pass
since she was changed. “…..Did she say she was grieved? Asked Heathcliff. “well
I cried last night and I had more reason to cry than she.” [ CITATION Emi92 \p 97 \l 1033 ]

Catherine says in chapter 9 that she loves Edgar for his wealth, look, civilized life
style and well being. If she would marry Heathcliff she would be degraded before
Linton’s society so she has decided to marry Edgar Linton. However she feels that
hers and Heathcliff’s souls are same. When Heathcliff overhears these words he
rushes out from the house and disappeared for three years and returns with absolute
transformation. He looks handsome, intelligent, educated and tall gentleman. He
has money and he becomes mysteriously rich. The ideas we can observe here are
the reasons and evidences on which Heathcliff’s revenge could be justified and
measure. These maltreatments and rejections intensify his vengeance in his mind
and later which erupts in the form of his cruelty and torments not only to himself
but also suffers the whole family in Thrushcross Grange and Heights. His cruelty is
a natural instinct and natural phenomenon because he has once been victimized
and his vicious beast woke up from his miseries of childhood and life bitter
experiences. Some critics raise a question that whether Heathcliff was a human or

30

a gothic character, or whether he was a devil? According to Abraham Maslow all

human have a set of needs and basic requirements that must be fulfilled reasonably
and in a healthy way. These needs are love, safety, esteem, and healthy
relationships. If they go undone it prompts to establish defensive strategies to fill
up these gaps. Heathcliff was deprived of love and he was starving for safety. He is
shown as abandoned by his family and picked up by Mr. Earnshaw which follows
by a security and sympathy. He is brought house but he meets contempt and
rejection at first. All the member of the family like him to be disappeared but he
lives in the house because of Earnshaw’s advise although he was not still secure.
He suffers Hindley’s excruciates and hostility.[ CITATION Mas43 \l 1033 ]. The idea of
human motivation for defense in the term of Maslow’s theory has evidenced.
When the sole source of Heathcliff’s sympathy parted him it becomes intolerable
and motivates him to be cruel and take revenge.

Most the actions take place in the novel as a result of revenge and it repeats.
Hindley seems taking revenge from Heathcliff because he doesn’t want to share his
familial love with a stranger. Hindley inflicts lot of torment over him and keep him
away from education. He also makes it difficult for his sister to marry Heathcliff.
Heathcliff does in the same way in the retribution by winning his property in
gambling and keeping his son away from education. (Litchat) In chapter seventeen
the waves of revenge come over the characters and affect each other. When Isbella
is brought to the Grange she was sick and demented due to Heathcliff’s
mistreatments, she hysterically enters unlike the other days which she had once
spent here. Heathcliff is also tried to shoot by Hindley but he rushes out safely.
Some critics states that Hindley’s death was suicide because he has attempt to
shoot Heathcliff but failed and that is why he was afraid of Heathcliff lest

31

Heathcliff had a chance to do it instead. Isabella also dreams revenge on Heathcliff

and tells Ellen, “I’d rather suffer less, if I might cause his suffering and he might
know that I was the cause.” Heathcliff’s love of obsession and Catherine’s support
made it possible to endure the torments of Hindley and despises of his
surroundings. Her relationship motivated him and became a reason for his living. It
was the time when there was nothing in Heathcliff life except Catherine, the sole
reason of his life, console, comfort and contentment. Therefore he had endured
everything When the obsessive love turns into revenge he attempts to ruin all of
those who are associated to Catherine life, even he don’t grant a forgiveness to the
young innocent Cathy and Hareton. When he fails her he leaves the Grange and
returns with full of changed-behaviors-rage, hate, revenge- overwhelms him. He
changed and becomes able to join Catherine society-symbol so civilization- he
maintains his visit to the Grange despite Linton’s deterrence. Although he knows
the fact that he has already lost Catherine and it was not possible for them to be
integrated in this world he maintains his revenge over each and everyone. The
irony behind the idea is that his for Catherine with full of obsession outweighs his
rage and intensity of revenge. That is why he cannot fully forgive Catherine for
marrying Edgar. It means as far as her love existed in Heathcliff’s mind his
vengeance cannot be completed and for Heathcliff revenge is more powerful than
love. Heathcliff and Catherine both have been grown up together in the Heights
and moors. Each and every object of nature- the lands, grass, tress, houses, horses
etc- refreshes the memories their intimacy, so that directly intensifies the pain of
Heathcliff and his avenge. It is evident that Including Heathcliff and other
characters, they feel relief through their inflictions-either hurting themselves or
tormenting others. Catherine realizes the fact and tells Heathcliff that whatever she

32

suffers in less than the miseries of Heathcliff’s. They all suffer and their sufferings
lead to seek revenge on each other.

Frances Bacon says: “Revenge is a kind of wild justice; which the more man’s
nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out. For as for the first wrong, it doth
but offends the law; but the revenge of that wrong, putteth the law out of office
’And if any man should do wrong, merely out of ill-nature, why, yet it is but like
the thorn or briar, which prick and scratch, because they can do no other.” [ CITATION
Fra01 \l 1033 ] These lines reveals that avenge or vengeance is a part of human
instinct and nature. It is carried out not only by inflicting torments to other but also
through self-inflictions. The passion-driven characters in the novel are intensely
suffer yet also seeks some relief by tormenting others. In another words their
passions leads them to torture others where they find a kind of morbid relief. In the
novel some the character follows the same idea by being embark on self-
tormenting and also inflicting and agonizing others such as Hindley’s actions on
his wife’s death. Edgar also becomes self-indulgence when he suffers a lot.
Heathcliff puts responsibilities of pains and life exploitation on Catherine when she
dies. It is clear that these are the part of human nature and behavior nevertheless in
Heathcliff case some other factors also played role of his cruelty and tense
behavior, firstly his revenge grows from his childhood abuse, secondly lack of
basic necessities, especially love make him extremely vengeful who, along with
Hindley and his own self, he torment and torture the innocent characters such as
Isabella and Hareton. That is why Austin O’Malley says “Revenge is like biting a
dog that bit you.” Bacon says: “And if any man should do wrong, merely out of ill-
nature, why, yet it is but like the thorn or briar, which prick and scratch, because
they can do no other.”[ CITATION Fra01 \l 1033 ] The idea in the term of revenge is that
revenge is like a thorn and briar, or a biting of

33

dog which can only cause harm and pain to other. It means that there will be no
peace in it because harm, torture, inflictions and torments are the requisite nature
of revenge. Emily has shown and proved that there is no peace in vengeance
instead it involves many destructions, pains and agonies. Bacon states that the
offender or those who inflicts wrongs, they commit blunders. On the other hand the
retribution do commits another wrong while paying back. Heathcliff hurts Edgar
for his marriage with Catherine, Heathcliff take revenge on Catherine for making
her jealous, Hindley takes revenge on Heathcliff to not share his family with him,
Heathcliff torture Hindley for his mistreatment by winning his wealth in gambling
and eventually all the characters discover nothing but pains. Catherine is lost by
Heathcliff and she dies. Catherine says before her death that Heathcliff murdered
her. “You killed me, and thriven on it, I think” ([ CITATION Emi92 \p 158 \l 1033 ]

Heathcliff had a passionate love for Catherine, might be he could make her
remorseful and regretted on her act which could be enough for Heathcliff somehow
but she imputed Heathcliff to be her murderer.
 34

Chapter 04
 35

4.1 Critical Review

Early reviews (1847–1848)

Early reviews of Wuthering Heights were m ixed in their assessment. While most
critics at the time recognised the power and imagination of the novel, they were
also baffled by the storyline and found the characters prone to savagery and
selfishness. Published in 1847, at a time when the background of the author was
deemed to have an important impact on the story itself, many critics were also
intrigued by the authorship of the novels. Henry Chorley of the Athenæum said that
it was a "disagreeable story" and that the "Bells" (Brontës) "seem to affect painful
and exceptional subjects".

The Atlas review called it a "strange, inartistic story," but commented that every
chapter seems to contain a "sort of rugged power." Atlas summarised the novel by
writing: "We know nothing in the whole range of our fictitious literature which
presents such shocking pictures of the worst forms of humanity. There is not in the
entire dramatis persona, a single character which is not utterly hateful or
thoroughly contemptible ... Even the female characters excite something of
loathing and much of contempt. Beautiful and loveable in their childhood, they all,
to use a vulgar expression, "turn out badly.

Graham's Lady Magazine wrote "How a human being could have attempted such a
book as the present without committing suicide before he had finished a dozen
chapters, is a mystery. It is a compound of vulgar depravity and unnatural horrors.
The American Whig Review wrote "Respecting a book so original as this, and
written with so much power of imagination, it is natural that there should be many
opinions. Indeed, its power is so predominant that it is not easy after a hasty
reading to analyze one's impressions so as to speak of its merits and demerits with
confidence. We have been taken and carried through a new region, a melancholy
waste, with here and there patches of beauty; have been brought in contact with
fierce passions, with extremes of love and hate, and with sorrow that none but
those who have suffered can understand. This has not been accomplished with
ease, but with an ill-mannered contempt for the decencies of language, and in a
style which might resemble that of a Yorkshire farmer who should have

36

endeavored to eradicate his provincialism by taking lessons of a London footman.

We have had many sad bruises and tumbles in our journey, yet it was interesting,
and at length we are safely arrived at a happy conclusion. Douglas Jerrold's
Weekly Newspaper wrote "Wuthering Heights is a strange sort of book,—baffling
all regular criticism; yet, it is impossible to begin and not finish it; and quite as
impossible to lay it aside afterwards and say nothing about. In Wuthering Heights
the reader is shocked, disgusted, almost sickened by details of cruelty, inhumanity,
and the most diabolical hate and vengeance, and anon come passages of powerful
testimony to the supreme power of love – even over demons in the human form.
The women in the book are of a strange fiendish-angelic nature, tantalizing, and
terrible, and the men are indescribable out of the book itself. Yet, towards the close
of the story occurs the following pretty, soft picture, which comes like the rainbow
after a storm ... We strongly recommend all our readers who love novelty to get
this story, for we can promise them that they never have read anything like it
before. It is very puzzling and very interesting, and if we had space we would
willingly devote a little more time to the analysis of this remarkable story, but we
must leave it to our readers to decide what sort of book it is.

New Monthly Magazine wrote "Wuthering Heights, by Ellis Bell, is a terrific

story, associated with an equally fearful and repulsive spot ... Our novel reading
experience does not enable us to refer to anything to be compared with the
personages we are introduced to at this desolate spot – a perfect misanthropist's
heaven.

Examiner wrote "This is a strange book. It is not without evidences of

considerable power: but, as a whole, it is wild, confused, disjointed, and
improbable; and the people who make up the drama, which is tragic enough in its
consequences, are savages ruder than those who lived before the days of Homer.

Literary World wrote "In the whole story not a single trait of character is
elicited which can command our admiration, not one of the fine feelings of our
nature seems to have formed a part in the composition of its principal actors. In
spite of the disgusting coarseness of much of the dialogue, and the improbabilities
of much of the plot, we are spellbound.

G.H. Lewes, in Leader, shortly after Emily's death, wrote: "Curious enough is to
read Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wild fell Hall, and remember that the
writers were two retiring, solitary, consumptive girls! Books, coarse even for men,

37

coarse in language and coarse in conception, the coarseness apparently of violence

and uncultivated men – turn out to be the productions of two girls living almost
alone, filling their loneliness with quiet studies, and writing their books from a
sense of duty, hating the pictures they drew, yet drawing them with austere
conscientiousness! There is matter here for the moralist or critic to speculate on.

The English poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, although an admirer of the
book, referred to it as "A fiend of a book – an incredible monster  [...] The action is
laid in hell, – only it seems places and people have English names there.
 38

Chapter 05
 39

5.1 Summary
Thus Wuthering Heights successfully carries out the themes of love and revenge.

The lover in this novel turns out to be revengeful and destructive. The story begins
with the development of love between Heathcliff and Catherine and ends with their
spiritual union after their death. The revenge takes birth from Heathcliff’s
frustration in love and the cruel in just treatments made out or meted out to him by
the rich class. Thus it is the theme of love and revenge that constitute story of
Wuthering Height.

5.2 Conclusion
Researcher conductor concluded that how far the whole story of the novel
concerned with the two dominant ideas of love and revenge. A theme is a
reoccurring element in prose work related to subject matters. It is taken out not
directly rather expressed through the repetition of identifying events, symbols,
phrases and images. From the study literary texts enable us to find how the same
material is dealt with at a various time. The motifs cannot itself help in establishing
what the work of art is about and what it is focusing. Firstly the concept of theme
has presented with its processes and procedure and later through discussion the
identified and organized themes have explained with illustration and
exemplifications. Through various chapters we discussed the reviews and criticism
of the novel. A Wuthering Heights explores variety kind of loves and various ideas
which are associated to love have examined in all-inclusive manner. We discussed

40

that how passionate love between Heathcliff and Catherine drive the story and later
the unrequited love turns into revenge, and destructs the peaceful and gentle
environment in both Wuthering Heights and Thrush cross Grange. By discussing
the theme of revenge we explored that how revenge drives the novel with respect
to its literary importance. While in general it is also evident that love is natural
entity while revenge is a wild justice where temporal relief may be gained but
eternal peace and satisfaction could never be availed through inflictions and
tormenting others.

5.3 Recommendation
The researcher recommended English teachers and researchers to:

Encourage students to infer other emotional functions from literary works.

Draw teachers and students attention to the importance of novels precisely, This
novel in the teaching an literary works.
 41

5.4 Reference
An encyclopedia of British Women Writers

Edited by Paulschlueter & June Schlueter

1988 Paul Schluerter and June Schlueter all rights reserved

Published in the United Kingdom by

St. James Press

2- Boundary Row

London, SE1 8HP

England

www.scribd.com

www.softschools.com

www.wikioedia.org
42