Understanding Heathcliff's Role in Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights is a novel written by the English writer Emily Brontë, and Heathcliff is a fictional main character in her novel. The novel genre was influenced by Romanticism and Gothic fiction.
Lockwood and Nelly Dean
He is the first narrator of the novel. The events begin when a Southern man named Lockwood decided to live in North England. He rents a house on a farm called Thrushcross Grange.
The people there in Wuthering Heights were strange, and the owner of the place was stranger than them.
Mr. Earnshaw
Mr Earnshaw travelled to Liverpool and came with an orphan child called Heathcliff and decided to rise him with his children. In the beginning, his children Hindley and Catherine reject him because of his dark skin, but after a while Catherine loved him and they become more than friends. They used to play around Wuthering Heights and its people.
Mr Earnshaw began to prefer Heathcliff over his son Hindley because of his aggressive actions. When Hindley becomes rude, Mr Earnshaw sent him away to study.
After the Death of Mr. Earnshaw
After three years, Mr Earnshaw died and Hindley inherited Wuthering Heights. Hindley returns with his wife to revenge on Heathcliff who used to be treated like a prince. He forced Heathcliff to work on the farm and serve him.
Heathcliff and Catherine
They kept their relationship, and while playing around the Thrushcross Grange and harassing Edgar and Isabella Linton, the family dog bites Catherine. She had to be treated so they force her to stay with them and teach her some morals as a woman.
Catherine finds herself in love with Edgar but she also loves Heathcliff which makes their relationship strange. She decided to marry Edgar, and Heathcliff felt betrayed and left Wuthering Heights for years.
Heathcliff Revenge
Heathcliff came back with a mysterious wealth and education. He wanted to revenge on anyone who hurts him and decided to take their wealth. Marrying Isabella Linton was the solution to inheriting both the Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange.
After the death of Hindley, he controls Wuthering Heights and inherited it. Catherine gave birth to a daughter and got sick then died, the news was horrible for Heathcliff and he begged her soul to not leave him alone even if she will make him crazy.
The Full Revenge
Heathcliff's wife Isabella gave birth to a son and called him Linton. She left Wuthering Heights because her son is weak and sick and Heathcliff was aggressive with everyone. When Isabella died, he inherited both Wuthering Heights and Thrishcross Grange.
Heathcliff took his son and despises him, treats him contemptuously, and forcing him to marry Catherine, he also uses him to cement his control over Thrushcross Grange after Edgar Linton's death. Linton himself dies not long after this marriage. Now Heathcliff has full control of their whole wealth, but he still thinks about Catherine and feels like his heaven is buried in the earth.
Leaving Wuthering Heights
That was Nelly's story in the past twenty years about Heathcliff the owner, which make Lockwood scared and leave Wuthering Heights. Years later, he came back to check on Nelly and see what happened to Heathcliff and his family.
Nelly told him that he was trying to talk to Catherine'a and lost his mind and died. While Catherine's daughter married Hareton who is Hindley's son, and inherited everything. Lockwood went to Heathcliff grave and find him next to Catherine and Edgar's graves.
References
Nicolas J & Shafquat T (eds) , ‘Romantics and Victorians’, .