Discuss the importance of the two extracts from Chapters 4 and 26 and how they develop the reader’s opinion of Heathcliff.
These two extracts are important in terms of the way Heathcliff is presented. They come from very different stages in the novel and are both narrated by Nelly, making the text very biased. The extract from Chapter 4 recalls Heathcliff’s arrival at Wuthering Heights and shows the way he is treated. The extract from Chapter 26 is an account of Catherine and Nelly’s meeting with Heathcliff’s son Linton, on the moors by Wuthering Heights. This extract is particularly important as it suggest the way Heathcliff is supposedly treating Linton and how this features in his revenge and retaliation towards him. The audience is not given Heathcliff’s perspective and he remains an enigmatic figure throughout the play.
When the audience is introduced to Heathcliff for the first time in Chapter 4, the Earnshaw household immediately rejects him. Racial slurs are often thrown at Heathcliff by people who respond to him in a negative way because of the way he looks, such as ‘ploughboy’ and ‘gypsy boy.’ As soon as Heathcliff is brought to Wuthering Heights, Catherine, Hindley and Mrs Earnshaw are against the ‘street child.’ Nelly’s narration is not impartial as she is describing events that occurred twenty years previously and she does not like Heathcliff. Evidence which suggests Nelly does not like Heathcliff and that she and the rest of the family rejects him is shown a little further on in her account in the chapter when she says ‘they entirely refused to have it in bed with them or even in their room ….so I put it on the stairs, hoping it might be gone on the morrow.’ The language that Nelly uses suggests that Heathcliff is an animal, not a human being. Nelly continues to describe one of Mr Earnshaw’s children as ‘little Cathy’, which shows how she is sympathetic towards her, and sees Cathy as innocent. Nelly uses this particular language to influence the reader, and make them sympathise with Cathy rather than Heathcliff. Her narration goes on to stress the affect that Heathcliff has on the Earnshaw family, ‘and at last the children got tired of running down to the gate to look.’ This part of Nelly’s narration suggests the disruption due to Mr Earnshaw’s lateness caused by Heathcliff. It also shows how the family was happy and devoted but the father’s absence has put a strain on them. Nelly’s narration in this part of chapter 4 makes Heathcliff look as if it is his fault that the family are waiting for their father to arrive home. The reader feels for the Earnshaw household and Nelly’s narration makes the reader aware of the trouble Heathcliff is causing. However, the reader may feel sorry for Heathcliff, because in some ways, it is not Heathcliff’s fault that he was brought to Wuthering Heights, and therefore should not of been blamed by Nelly and the rest of the Earnshaw residents. This idea is lengthened by Nelly’s language that is used to emphasise the trouble caused by Heathcliff, ‘but they begged sadly to be allowed to stay up.’ The audience considers the fact that Heathcliff has taken back a level of attention from Mr Earnshaw’s children. Nelly stresses the late time, by describing the time as being ‘just about eleven o’clock.’ Her description of the time is ultimately un-needed and it was not necessary for her narration to include the exact time that Mr Earnshaw arrived home. This is another example of Nelly’s use of language, which she uses in order to focus on the negative aspects of the story to turn the audience against Heathcliff. After Mr Earnshaw arrives, he introduces Heathcliff to the family and there is a prejudice against him because of the way he looks, ‘though its as dark almost as if it came from the Devil.’ In many ways when you consider some of the things Heathcliff later does in the novel, it is as if he has come from the devil. Such as his obsession with the dead Catherine, his manipulation of Isabella, his supposed ill-treatment of his son Linton, and his revenge on the whole of the next generation. However, at this stage in the novel, the reader does not see Heathcliff as the devil and they become more sympathetic towards him. Nelly’s opinion does not look at his arrival at Wuthering Heights on a somatic level. In the first paragraph of Nelly’s description of Heathcliff’s arrival upon Wuthering Heights, it is clear that Heathcliff immediately harbours resentment. While growing up, Heathcliff was a strange, silent boy, who appeared not to mind the blows he received from Hindley, although he was in fact very vindictive. When Heathcliff returns to Wuthering Heights, he takes revenge on Cathy and Edgar Linton by marrying Edgar's sister, Isabella, who he also treats very badly.
