To me, Heathcliff is the ultimate incarnation of the man all women hate to love but do anyway. He is handsome, wild, free-spirited, headstrong, quiet, and completely in love with you. His unruly temper and morose disposition make him hard to handle and can present a challenge that keeps Catherine intrigued, and their equal pride and mutual understanding give her a level of comfort that forms a perfect balance for their relationship. When I picture Heathcliff, I see a tall man with a strong, muscular build, strong facial features that make him seem as though he is thinking of beating someone up when he is actually just thinking quietly of nothing. He has dark eyes and dark skin from working outside all the time, but the seldom times he does smile is enough to compensate for all his grumpiness. He is cynical, pessimistic, a rebel, unruly, stubborn, and quiet, but also understanding, compassionate toward what he does love, and willing to do anything for Cathy, as long as he can be with her and she happy. However is also completely closed off and brutal because he has been betrayed so many times throughout his life. It is difficult to understand his character because he has such love for Cathy and such hatred for anything and everything else that tries to keep them apart and everything in his path.Continued notes from class:
We get very differing views of Heathcliff throughout the first 10 chapters. At the beginning Mr. Earnshaw treats Heathcliff as the favorite son over Hindley and this gives Heathcliff a lot of power in the house and over Hindley.
First we see Heathcliff being cruel to his dogs and his tenant Mr. Lockwood, but on hearing Cathy Linton coming to try to see him in the middle of the night, his disposition changes and he becomes loving and passionate. Next we have a flashback to his childhood and see how he was at first favored by the late Mr. Earnshaw and then tortured and hated by Hindley Earnshaw after their father dies. Cathy and Heathcliff run wild without supervision, but after staying at the Linton's house for 5 weeks, Cathy becomes a young woman and comes home with the favor of the young Edgar Linton. She agrees to marry Edgar but knows that it is wrong because she is in love with Heathcliff, as shown when she explains "he is more myself than I am." This means that they are soulmates, she can keep up with him and acts as herself with him, they have no expectations where they can just be completely comfortable with each other. Unfortunately however, Heathcliff hears only that it will degrade her to marry him from the point of view of the people around them. He leaves and Cathy gets sick standing in the rain waiting for him, and Mrs. Linton nurses her back to health and then she and her husband die. Cathy marries Edgar and moves with Nelly to Thruscross Grange. 3 years later Heathcliff comes back, rich and successful, and Isabella falls in love with him. Cathy doesn't want him to be with her and Heathcliff beats her because he despises her brother.
She claims to be a strong character but is weak in the sense that she conforms to the social shallow ideals of money and title and power instead of an eternal love.
Do you want to be in a kind of relationship like that?
There are good and bad things about it. I think that I would like that sort of relationship. It could be sort of suffocating but I think that it allows you to have a sense of home and comfort in that person, especially in the sense that they are so isolated from everyone and everything. I think that there is something irreplaceably amazing about having someone who is so like you in knowing and understanding you in your life. It is the ideal love but is it realistic?
There is good and bad intertwined throughout this novel. No character is completely good or evil, it is important because their are no black and white characters, there are no good guys or bad guys, it is more realistic.
Perhaps the three directions of the crossing, Wuthering Heights, Gimmerton - the town, and Thrushcross Grange represent the 3 directions your soul can take. One is the town which is community, one is WH which is isolation and darkness, and one is TG which is perhaps too controlled by societal pressures.
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