Heathcliff has been described as both an archetypal romantic hero and an intrinsically evil villain - Explore the contradictory character of Heathcliff in “WutheringHeights”, with reference to these generic categories.

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Heathcliff has been described as both an archetypal romantic hero and an intrinsically evil villain. Explore the contradictory character of Heathcliff in “Wuthering Heights”, with reference to these generic categories.

“She abandoned them under a delusion” he said, “picturing in me a hero of romance and expecting unlimited indulgences from my chivalrous devotion.”

Heathcliff is portrayed as a villain but at the same time, a romantic hero. It seems that he is double edged. He schemes to get Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights, but he is not always so vengeful and rancorous. For example, when the ghost of Catherine Earnshaw came to the window, he wept for her and begged for her to come back. “Come in! Come in! Cathy do come. Oh do once more! Oh! My heart’s darling! Hear me this time, Catherine at last!” in this he shows his hypersensitive side and emotional side. He begs Catherine to go to him and be with him forever. However, his vengeful side does get the better of him quite often and demonstrates him to be gothic, dark, evil and morose. “Though it’s as dark, almost as if it came from the devil.” This explains his gothic and dark approach. The evil and morose trait is unveiled with Hindley, where he swears revenge on him for all the grief and pain Hindley inflicted on Heathcliff. Hindley was so callous and malicious towards Heathcliff and always belittled him as well as treating him like a dog, that this made Heathcliff become so vengeful, he became bitter, twisted and calculating. This vengeance has built up inside Heathcliff stemmed from the mistreatment that he received as a young boy. The fact that he ran away from Wuthering Heights was because of an Earnshaw, just not Hindley, but Catherine.

        An archetypal romantic hero is one that was typical and habitual. They can be dark and moody and vampiric, like Heathcliff, or hypersensitive, passionate and emotional, also like Heathcliff. In the Victorian era, there would’ve been lots of heroes like Heathcliff, called Byronic heroes. Brontë challenges the morals of the Victorian era, by creating a dark, bitter, twisted mind that is Heathcliff. Also she challenges the morals of the Victorian era by giving Catherine the more dominant role. Her husband, Edgar Linton, is made out to be more feminine than Catherine is. In the Victorian period, the male would’ve played the dominant role traditionally. Brontë defies convention by portraying Catherine as the more dominant of the two. Brontë depicts Edgar as somewhat womanly up against Heathcliff. She describes Heathcliff as a tall grown man and up against him; Edgar looks and acts more pale and feminine than normal. Brontë also makes Edgar out to be the weaker sex. He is always being pushed around by Catherine and is a complete walkover. He never sticks up for himself around Heathcliff and cannot fight Heathcliff on his own. Edgar is constantly hiding behind his men or Catherine because he is so weak and anxious. Even his sister, Isabella, completely makes him out to be superfluous and unneeded. Brontë also defies convention by giving the females the authoritive role. She gives Nelly the role of the person who stirs things up and blows things right out of proportion. Nelly always interferes with other people’s business and meddles in other people’s affairs. She stirs up a rumour about Catherine and Heathcliff ‘arguing’ and tells Edgar. This sparks off a massive argument between Catherine and Edgar because he won’t fight Heathcliff on his own.  Catherine is thought to be attention seeking by Nelly, who doesn’t believe her at all. By being an attention seeker, Catherine gets what she wants, and if she doesn’t, then she will do her damnedest to make sure she gets it. Because she cannot have both Edgar and Heathcliff, she makes herself terribly ill because they have both broken her heart by arguing. By doing all of this, Catherine makes herself so ill, that she eventually dies. But before she dies, Heathcliff wills to see her.

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He is portrayed as the romantic hero then towards Catherine. He cries when she is drastically ill and dying in his arms. “Oh Cathy! Oh my life! How can I bear it?” This shows how hypersensitive he can be. He truly loves Catherine and doesn’t want to lose her. He blames her for inflicting pain on him by making herself ill. He hates her for it but he still madly and deeply loves her and cannot find it in himself to hate her forever. He has an absolute determination to be with her for as long as they both shall ...

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