Healthcliff’s cold-hearted spirit engulfs Wuthering Heights. His cruel actions create misery within everyone. The deep love he feels for Catherine Earnshaw drives him to act in spite of her. When coming back after leaving Wurthering Heights for sometime, Healthcliff uses his acquired wealth to manipulate the people and take over the two estates, Wurthering Heights as well as Thrushcross Grange. Many if not all of the other characters perceive Healthcliff as a devil, or demon.
The relationship between Healthcliff and Catherine, in Wuthering Heights, is not your conventional love story. The relationship between the two literally drove them both insane. This love turns Healthcliff into someone who is cruel, greedy, and psychotic. He ends up doing some pretty cruel things, though they are all “in the name of love.” Even after Catherine’s death Healthcliff believing he has seen the ghost of Catherine shouts, “Cathy, do come. Oh do-once more! Oh, my heart’s darling! Hear me this time, Catherine, at last!”(Brontë 25) Healthcliff’s jealous and violent nature directs his life toward revenge and frustration over his love for Catherine. Obviously, the only reason Healthcliff married Isabella was to get back at Catherine, for choosing wealth over love. I find it hard to imagine that someone with so much love in their heart can inflict that much pain on themselves and others.
Mystery surrounds Healthcliff. No one really knows what goes on in his head or exactly what happened to him when he left Wuthering Heights. One is inclined to believe that there was some event that took place in his life to make him treat people the way he does. Perhaps it was because he was treated like a stable boy rather then a son or brother, when he was brought to Wuthering Heights. He believes that revenge and cruelty remain the only ways to get somewhere in life, and he lets theses beliefs control his life.
The Essay on Loved Catherine Heathcliffe Servant Life
At the beginning of Wuthering Heights Lockwoode makes a mistake in assuming that young Catherine II was Heathcliffes wife. It is easy to see how he, a stranger unfamiliar with the Earnshaw-Linton family history could have made such a mistake. But, had Lockwoode known about the life of the woman Heathcliffe had always wanted to marry, Catherine I, and then have been able to compare it to life of ...
Emily Brontë is very successful in making Healthcliff’s first appearance reveal much about his character. In his first appearance he is surrounded by a pack of snarling dogs. This leads me to think this symbolizes the controlling nature of his personality. Brontë also characterizes him by saying he has “black eyes that withdraw suspiciously under his brows.” (Brontë 1) By stating this, Mr. Lockwood can obtain a brief look into his true personality by knowing him for only a short period of time.
The whole story of Wuthering Heights is a bedlam of petty jealousy. It is a crazy soap opera portraying how one person’s obsession can turn into a vengeful hate. I pity all the characters in the play that had to deal with Healthcliff and his bad temper. Healthcliff was manipulative and uncaring. He was memorable not because he was such an eminent person, but rather because he was such a cold-hearted villain.