This shows that Heathcliff will not take revenge on Cathy directly, but will
hurt those who are close to her. This is because Cathy married Edgar Linton and said that it would degrade her if Heathcliff was her husband. In addition, he will take revenge on Hindley, by gambling with him and winning the Heights:
‘“…settle my score with Hindley…. The guest was now the master of Wuthering Heights”’.
This shows that Cathy and Hindley make Heathcliff vicious, because he wants to take revenge on them. Hindley also makes Heathcliff into a master, by gambling Wuthering Heights to him and losing.
Cathy also makes Heathcliff feel lonely:
‘“I cannot live without my soul”’.
This shows that Cathy makes Heathcliff lonely, by not marrying him and also dying. However, Cathy changes Heathcliff’s character indirectly. It is Heathcliff’s love for her that changes his character twice, so his character as a person wanting to be loved plays a part in his transformation.
There are also other significant events which shape Heathcliff’s character. Mr. Earnshaw’s death is important because after his death, Hindley makes Heathcliff into a servant, degrading him and also Heathcliff is neglected more. Mr. Earnshaw was the only barrier against Heathcliff becoming degraded.
When Heathcliff and Cathy visit Thrushcross Grange, Cathy is bitten by a dog and has to stay there. When she returns, she is a ‘well mannered lady’. This is significant because if she didn’t become so well mannered, she might not be snobby and say that it would degrade her to marry Heathcliff, which is the most significant say of the whole novel.
Also, Heathcliff abuses Isabella and Cathy’s child, also named Cathy: ‘blue eyes black… terrific slaps’.
This is because he wants to take revenge on Cathy by hurting those who are close to her. However, Heathcliff does commit an act of good, by catching Hareton when he falls from the stairs:
‘Heathcliff arrived underneath just at the critical moment; by a natural impulse, he arrested his descent’.
This shows that if Heathcliff was around people who loved him, then maybe he would have turned out good.
The language of the novel also changes in accordance to the transformation of Heathcliff’s character. At the beginning, diction such as ‘dirty’, ‘ragged’, ‘black-haired child’, ‘poor’ and ‘fatherless child’ is used to describe Heathcliff as a poor, homeless child with no parents. As Heathcliff becomes a neglected victim, words like ‘gypsy brat’, ‘it’, ‘persecuting’, ‘hate’, ‘injuries’, ‘thrashings’, ‘break’ and ‘kick’ are used. These words are used to describe a neglected victim, as they are words about hatred, neglect and abuse. However, there is also loving diction for Heathcliff, such as ‘favourite’, ‘affections’ and ‘privileges’. This shows that Heathcliff is a character who is both loved and hated.
After Mr. Earnshaw’s death, Heathcliff becomes a degraded lover. Words such as ‘servants’, ‘deprived’, ‘degradation’ and ‘degrade’ show that Heathcliff becomes degraded. Diction such as ‘love’, ‘souls’, ‘without Cathy’, ‘embrace’, ‘kisses’ and ‘good heart’ show that Heathcliff becomes a lover.
After Cathy gets married to Edgar and after her death, Heathcliff becomes a vicious, lonely master. Words such as ‘revenge’, ‘slaps’, ‘brutality’, ‘slitting up the flesh’ and ‘pain’ show that Heathcliff has become vicious. Diction such as ‘take any form’, ‘love’ and ‘broken…heart’ show that Heathcliff becomes lonely. The words ‘property’ and ‘master’ show that Heathcliff becomes the master of both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange.
After Mr. Earnshaw’s death, there is only one character left who loves Heathcliff and who Heathcliff loves- Cathy. At first, she treats him as a brother:
‘Miss Cathy and he were now very thick’.
This shows that Cathy is the only one apart from Mr. Earnshaw who shows Heathcliff any love. As Cathy’s and Heathcliff’s relationship develops from a brother-sister love to true love, Heathcliff’s character is altered dramatically.
After Mr. Earnshaw’s death, Hindley becomes the master of Wuthering Heights. He banishes Heathcliff, the story teller Nelly and Joseph to the servants’ quarters. Cathy is disgusted that Heathcliff has been degraded so Heathcliff and her go and spy on Thrushcross Grange to see if another family, the Lintons, live as miserably. Cathy is bitten by one of the guard dogs and has to stay at the Grange to recover. After much struggle, Heathcliff is sent back to the Heights to wait for her:
‘“I refused to go without Cathy”’.
This shows that Heathcliff really cares for Cathy. As Cathy showed Heathcliff love by helping him rebel against Hindley, Heathcliff shows Cathy love by being worried about her, and as their relationship develops, Heathcliff’s character is transformed from a neglected victim into a degraded lover and then to a vicious, lonely master.
After Cathy comes back from the Grange, her character is transformed into a well-mannered lady. During the time she was away, Heathcliff had been in deep neglect. Cathy laughs at his dirtiness, which angers him. However, she still loves Heathcliff and sneaks off to meet him, despite her brother’s refusal:
‘Instead of finding her outside, I heard her voice within’.
This shows that Cathy still loves Heathcliff, even though her character has changed. However, she also feels a bit of love for Edgar, mainly because of his beauty, his money and high status. Heathcliff is poor and low in status, and says he wants to look like Edgar Linton so he can match up with Cathy’s beauty:
‘“I wish I had light hair and a fair skin”’.
This shows that Heathcliff really wants Cathy to love him more. However, Cathy throws this right back at Heathcliff’s face in a sentence that will change the whole course of Heathcliff’s and indeed almost everyone else’s lives:
‘“It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff”’.
As a result of her words, Heathcliff runs away. Cathy tries to chase after him, but only falls ill in the torrid rain. She never really recovers from this illness. Heathcliff has taken the first step into altering his character from a degraded lover to a vicious, lonely master. This is because he feels lonely as Cathy said that she wouldn’t marry him.
After Heathcliff’s flight, Cathy decides to accept Edgar’s proposal. The two get married. Soon after, Heathcliff returns a more athletic and intelligent person. He learns that Cathy has married Edgar, and is angry by it. So he decides to take revenge on Cathy, by hurting those who are close to her. Isabella, the sister of Edgar, has an infatuated love for Heathcliff so he takes advantage of this, marrying her only to abuse her because she reminds him of Edgar:
‘“…and turning the blue eyes black, every day or two; they detestably resemble Linton’s”’.
This shows that Heathcliff wants to hurt Cathy by marrying Isabella, and on top of that abusing her because she is close to Cathy. Heathcliff also has an argument with Edgar, resulting in a melodramatic illness to Cathy maybe to signify that she has had enough.
Heathcliff really wants Cathy back:
‘“…for every thought she spends on Linton, she spends a thousand on me!”’
This shows that Heathcliff wants Cathy and him to be together again. Cathy still loves Heathcliff:
‘“Whatever our souls are made out of, his and mine are the same, and Linton’s is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire”’’.
This shows that Cathy would have liked to be with Heathcliff rather than Edgar. However, she has not recovered from her illness and is dying. Heathcliff visits her:
‘“Why did you betray your own heart, Cathy? I have not one word of comfort- you deserve this… because misery, and degradation, and death, and nothing that God or Satan could inflict would have parted us, you, of your own will, did it”’’.
Heathcliff is telling Cathy that it was her own fault and own will that they are not together. Cathy responds by saying that she forgives him for running away, and Heathcliff says: ‘“I love my murderer”’.
This means that he not being with Cathy is killing him, making him feel lonely and not loved. Cathy is the only person, apart from Mr. Earnshaw, in the novel who cares for him, cared for him or would care for him. However, she dies soon after. Heathcliff exchanges a lock of his hair for Edgar’s with Cathy’s in her trinket, and Nelly intertwines them, signifying that a part of Heathcliff will always be with Cathy and she has taken a part of him away.
After Cathy’s death, Heathcliff becomes more savage. However, he also becomes more depressed. This is because Cathy was the only character who loved Heathcliff, and now he has no-one. His loneliness turns to aggression. He abuses Cathy’s daughter, also named Cathy:
‘…administered with the other a shower of terrific slaps on both sides’.
This shows that Heathcliff still wants revenge on dead Cathy. He also still hates Edgar, because he does not allow small Cathy to go and see her dying father. He locks her and Nelly in Wuthering Heights, which he won from Hindley through gambling, who has died.
He also hurts Hindley, by putting Hindley’s knife through his own hand, after he attempted to hurt Heathcliff: ‘slitting up the flesh’. This shows that Heathcliff still hates Hindley. However, he bandages Hindley up after, assuming that if Heathcliff was loved more, he would not have turned out so bad.
Heathcliff also wants small Cathy to marry Linton, so he can get Thrushcross Grange. He knows that his son, Linton, will die because he is weak, so he gets small Cathy and Linton to marry each other so he will claim the Grange once Linton dies: ‘“…his property would go to me”’.
This shows that Heathcliff has become selfish and greedy. He wants to gain the Grange along with the Heights because he wants to prove that he has won to everyone, starting his life from a homeless child, to a neglected victim, to a degraded lover and now to the master. He gains the Grange after his son dies:
‘…moveable property to his father’.
This shows that Heathcliff has become greedy.
However, Heathcliff still has not recovered from losing Cathy. Even though
his grief has turned into anger and revenge, he still wants her:
‘“Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest, as long as I am living…take any form- drive me mad...I cannot live without my soul!”’.
This shows that Heathcliff is willing to become mad just to see Cathy. He doesn’t care about anything else apart from her, his soul. By saying this, Cathy is not able to rest. She wanders the world as a ghost looking for him. Heathcliff even digs up her grave and opens it, to see a body which is not decomposed. This shows that he is desperate to see her. Heathcliff has a feeling that Cathy will find him, and she does. However, she does not see Heathcliff, because Lockwood, the person Nelly is telling the story to, stops her from coming in. Heathcliff is enraged by this. He tells Lockwood to go.
Heathcliff has successfully altered his character to a vicious, lonely master. He is vicious because he abuses others, is lonely because his love Cathy has died and is a master because he gains both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. He has also grown greedy, by claming the Heights and the Grange. He even prepares his son’ death before he has died, which shows that he doesn’t care about Linton.
As the novel nears the end, Heathcliff starts to lose control. Hareton, Hindley’s son, was degraded into a servant by Heathcliff. He usually obeys him, but when small Cathy asks him to pick some flowers, he does it. Heathcliff is angry by this: ‘“And who ordered you to obey her?”’
This shows that Heathcliff is losing control. However, he also feels he has won everything and has nothing left worth fighting for. He dies soon after, drenching himself in the rain. However, he leaves an exulting face:
‘…life-like gaze of exultation’.
This shows that Heathcliff has left thinking he has won. He has left to be with Catherine, and the ghosts of them are spotted together, finally:
“They’s Heathcliff and a woman, yonder”.
Heathcliff is a character in “Wuthering Heights” whose character has altered tremendously and in turn altered so many others. This is due both to the other characters either showing him love or showing him hate and his own personality.
