Wuthering Heights Characters

Character Analysis:
Heathcliff:
Heathcliff is a key main character of the novel ‘Wuthering Heights’. In the first chapter there is a physical description of Heathcliff- a dark haired, dark skinned orphaned ‘gyspy’ that a middle class gentleman brought home. Throughout the novel there is a desire by the reader to understand him and, his actions that motivates readers to continue reading the stories of Heathcliff. The author Emily Bronte has used Heathcliff to tease readers; the character is portrayed as a simple man-(due to being an orphan) however as the story progresses, readers can start to question if Heathcliff is more than he seems. At the beginning Heathcliff is cruel to Catherine (the youngest child of the gentleman- who brought Heathcliff home) however we start to wonder that is this cruelty is just his confused love for Catherine.
After realizing that Catherine and Heathcliff were in love, it was frowned upon by Hindley. After Catherine’s father died her older brother Hindley became man of the house and wanted revenge against Heathcliff. (When their father brought Heathcliff home, he was treated like a son and Hindley was degraded). So Hindley took revenge by not letting Catherine and Heathcliff marry. As Catherine becomes sad, she decides to marry a local handsome and rich bachelor Edgar Linton. When Heathcliff finds out about the marriage of Catherine and Edgar, he leaves Wuthering Heights. However he later returns and begins to take revenge against Hindley for forbidding his love to Catherine.
Heathcliff’s behavior originates from being orphaned as a young child living in Liverpool during the 1840s. During the 1840s living in Liverpool was harsh; the living conditions were horrid with poverty at its greatest. The upper class families feared for their lives as they believed one day that those in working class would rebel and become violent towards them. (Despite Heathcliff being an orphan he, grew up in a middle class family).
Catherine:
Catherine was raised by her older brother Hindley and ‘gyspy’ boy Heathcliff- brought home one day by her father. Catherine is a Selfish and flippant young lady but also shows that she is a dominant female, who quickly falls in love with Heathcliff, which later becomes an obsession. However her love becomes short lived after he father dies and her older brother Hindley becomes the man of the house. She is banned by her brother that her love between her and Heathcliff cannot continue. Unable to marry Heathcliff, she became sad, and decides to marry handsome, rich local bachelor Edgar Linton. Catherine says: ‘my love for Edgar is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it’. Catherine becomes obsessed with Heathcliff as she believed that she was Heathcliff- this had begun during her childhood. Whilst she is married to Edgar she refused to take her role as a good wife, but Edgar knew why. She is torn… During her marriage of Edgar; Heathcliff returns and begins a fight over the love of Catherine, of which she becomes ill; not knowing that at the age of 18, she would die during child birth of baby Cathy.
At an early stage of Catherine’s and Edgars marriage, Catherine’s passions was described as ‘gunpowder which which lay as harmless as sand because no fire came near to explode it’.
Edgar Linton:
Edgar is a handsome and rich bachelor who happily marries Catherine; but when Catherine dies during child birth, Edgar’s character changes and fears for his daughter.
Edgar is cowardly when faced with Heathcliff, so much so that his own wife Catherine refers to him as a ‘milk-blooded coward’. Edgar’s character is revealed as a coward and feared his wife; meaning he would do anything for Catherine dreading a slip up. As Edgar feared his wife he allowed Heathcliff to visit Catherine in his stately home; scared of what Catherine capable of, he even set up two tables in the dining room instead of Heathcliff eating with servants. But Edgar challenges Catherine to choose between him and Heathcliff. However when Catherine is ill, his love and devotion is shown to the readers.
Edgar’s character changes when his sister Isabella dies; he becomes more generous towards Heathcliff. Edgar offers to take care of Linton- (son of Isabella and Heathcliff).
Wanting to keep his wife still alive inside; the daughter of Catherine and Edgar ‘Cathy’ is protected as a young child. But facing his death was soon upon him; Edgar agreed to let Cathy venture to Wuthering Heights instead of staying in the Grange. Upon she would interact with her cousin Linton- the son of Heathcliff and Edgar’s Sister Isabella. However to Edgar’s distress, Linton had inherited the temper of his father. Edgar wanted to do anything he could possibly do to make Cathy happy. He wanted to make sure Cathy would be content for the rest of her life, instead of being like her mother- a star-crossed lover. This causing her death.
Cathy Linton
Cathy Linton is introduced at the beginning of the novel of being the daughter of Catherine and Edgar, Cathy was brought up and heavily protected by her father Edgar due to her mother passing during her birth. Edgar wanted Cathy to be happy, so he allowed her to visit her cousin Linton and; if she wanted to marry him, Edgar gave her his blessing. Since Edgar’s wife Catherine had died he wanted the best for their daughter. Cathy’s marriage to her cousin Linton was very short; however it showed many sides of her personality. Cathy showed pity and patience for Linton, although they were not alike. Cathy was similar to her mother, she liked the idea of being Linton for the rest of her life- but in reality Linton wouldn’t make her happy, nor would it last.
Other Characters:
Nelly Dean- Narrator of novel. She grew up alongside Hindley and Catherine, but has strong feelings for many of the characters.
Lockwood- He also narrates alongside Nelly. Lockwood is a presumptuous character.
Hareton Earnshawn- The son of Hindley and Frances Earnshawn. Catherine’s Nephew. He is easily humiliated, but shows a good heart and a desire to marry young Cathy Linton.
Linton Heathcliff- A weak son of Isabella and Heathcliff. He is raised until 13years old by his single mother until she dies, then he meets his father- who forces him to marry his cousin Cathy. This forced marriage was so that Heathcliff could gain land owned by Edgar Linton at the Grange.
Hindley Earnshawn- Catherine’s Brother and Mr Earnshawn son. After his father dies he starts to abuse young Heathcliff (forcing him to work of the farms like the servants) and forbidding any relations between his sister and the orphaned Heathcliff. However when Hindley wife dies after giving birth to his son, he became depressed and turn to alcohol.
Isabella Linton- Edgar Linton’s Sister, who falls in love with Heathcliff and becomes pregnant, shorty running away from Heathcliff due to feeling a tool in Heathcliff’s revenge towards Hindley and Edgar, to, captures Catherine’s heart. She gives birth to Linton, who she raises till 13 years old- at this time she tragically dies.
Mr Earnshawn- Father of Catherine and Hindley, He adopts orphaned Heathcliff who he prefers over his son Hindley.
Mrs Earnshawn- Catherine and Hindley’s Mother, who didn’t like or trust the orphan Heathcliff. However she died soon after the orphan moved in.
Joseph- A religious servant at Wuthering heights.
Frances Earnshawn- Hindley’s simple wife, she was cruel to Heathcliff. She died during child birth to Hareton.
Mr Linton- the father of Edgar and Isabella. He raised his children to be respect and well-mannered adults.
Mrs Linton- mother to Edgar and Isabella. But a snobbish woman who did not like Heathcliff to play amongst Edgar and Isabella.
Zillah- A house keeper in Wuthering heights.
Mr Green- Edgar Linton’s Lawyer, who arrives too late to hear Edgar’s Will- which would have prevented Heathcliff taking his land at the Grange.

Themes:
The novel Wuthering Heights is a romance novel, however it does have many different themes such as revenge by Heathcliff to Hindley and Edgar, torn love between Heathcliff, Edgar and Catherine. When Mr Earnshaw brings home Heathcliff, he opened his family to an orphan; when Heathcliff and Edgar fight over Catherine, she suffers by becoming ill. Throughout the novel the theme of social classes. As Heathcliff is an orphan he is degraded to a working class citizen when Mr Earnshaw dies. Edgar Linton is a rich bachelor who welcomes his home to Catherine Earnshaw.
Revenge:
When Hindley Earnshaw, tells that Heathcliff and Catherine cannot continue their romance, Catherine goes and marries rich bachelor Edgar Linton. When Heathcliff hears about the marriage her leaves Wuthering Heights, but when her returns he vows to take revenge on his ‘brother’ Hindley and to win back Catherine. When Mr Earnshaw dies, the oldest son Hindley takes leadership of the family, this meant that Heathcliff would be degraded as revenge for Mr Earnshaw preferring Heathcliff than his own son Hindley. Heathcliff takes revenge and ends of becoming the masters of Wuthering Heights and the Grange; this would only happened when France- Hindley’s wife died as he turned to gambling and drink. This revenge for Heathcliff was too easy.
Emily Bronte, used the character Heathcliff to survive on revenge to all those who degraded him, by Heathcliff succeeding in his revenge he gained a hefty inheritance and owner of Wuthering Heights and the Grange. But he didn’t win the one thing that he wanted the most, his lover Catherine who died during child birth of Edgar’s baby.
Love:
In the novel Wuthering Heights there are two love triangles. The first triangle is Heathcliff, Catherine Earnshaw and Edgar Linton.
Emily Bronte has used the characters Heathcliff and Catherine as Soul Mates- this started at the beginning. When Catherine’s father Mr Earnshaw brings home orphaned Heathcliff, they both showed great affection towards each other; hoping that one day they would marry and be happy for ever. In the novel Catherine and Heathcliff frequently mention that they are each other’s souls. “Two halves of a single soul–forever sundered and struggling to unite." When Catherine marries Edgar she says, that the marriage won’t separate them. - "Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same, and Linton's is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire.''
Emily Bronte uses Catherine and Heathcliff as true love characters. The characters are written to have fallen in love during their childhood; then as they grew older and started to separate from each other, one character starts to move on whereas Heathcliff’s characters stays attached to his true love. But when Catherine’s death was near, they both rekindled their passion for each other. As these characters represented true love; it shows the characteristics of a relationship- Heathcliff was loyal and devoted to win Catherine’s heart back, Catherine yearned for love off her true love.
Family:
Middle Class Gentleman Mr Earnshaw brought home a young ‘gyspy’ orphaned boy- Heathcliff. The novel Wuthering Heights is based on two families, the Earnshaw’s and the Linton’s. Even-though Heathcliff is taken in by the Earnshaw family, he doesn’t accept the placement as a son or brother. So when Heathcliff took revenge, he doesn’t consider taking land off his family.
Suffering:
In Wuthering Heights eventually all the characters suffer from physical and emotional pain. Catherine, causes many characters especially Heathcliff and Edgar suffer. Catherine loves Heathcliff but also liked the life of being rich Mr Linton’s wife. Heathcliff suffered not being able to be with Catherine- his true love. Even though Edgar feared Catherine, he showed devotion and suffered the death of his wife. Surprisingly Catherine suffered, when Heathcliff and Edgar fought over her, this making her very ill.

Social Class:
Both families are classed as comfortable middle class. However when Catherine marries bachelor Edgar Linton, she idealises the thought of being a wealthy wife. ‘Greatest Woman of the street’
However as Heathcliff was an orphan he had no family, no inheritance therefore the character is at ‘rock bottom’. He had nothing. This can be seen when Hindley forces Heathcliff to work like a servant, even though he was an ‘adopted’ brother. So when Heathcliff takes revenge and, gains Wuthering Heights and the Grange he becomes a top middle class figure.