Mr Earnshaw forgets his children’s presents in bringing Heathcliff back to the Heights. This could be seen as their father replacing the items they wished for with this boy, or, even further, forgetting his children in favour of Heathcliff. Heathcliff’s progress in becoming Hindley’s friend, and being accepted by the family group is also badly hindered by Mr Earnshaw’s favouritism towards Heathcliff which causes jealousy in Hindley.
Heathcliffs lack of family connections places him outside the normal social circuit and the supposed warmth and friendliness of parents and siblings. This is shown by Nelly’s descriptions of the cosy life the Earnshaw’s led before Heathcliff arrived at the Heights. Heathcliff’s previous life where he was, “starving and houseless”, and, “to not a soul knew to whom he belonged”. Contrast between Heathcliff, and, Hindley and Catherine are made again this time in Mrs Earnshaws scolding of her husband, she refers to Heathcliff as a “gipsy brat” and her children as “their own bairns”.
The first reactions of the Earnshaws are to crowd round Heathcliff and peer at him as though they have never seen anything like him before. Nelly is frightened of this, “dirty, ragged, black haired child”; and refers to him as “it” rather than “he” emphasising that Nelly is not quite sure whether Heathcliff is human, an idea that will be built upon later on in the novel. Hindley is fourteen yet cries when he sees that Heathcliff replaces his ideal present and Catherine spits at him like an immature bully. This part of the book is when Mrs Earnshaw is shown to be the most sensible and rational character in the story. She shows dislike to Heathcliff and is ready to, “fling him out of doors” but is the only one that stops to think about why. The others react on their first impulse and don’t really have a right to be frightened as they do not know Heathcliffs true personality yet. She is concerned that they do not have enough time or money to feed or fend for another child. Even Mr Earnshaw, who is the only one that is not frightened of Heathcliff, can be seen to be irrational because he doesn’t stop to think about the consequences when he sees Heathcliff, he just takes him home.
When Heathcliff is left to his own devices, and put on his own feet, for the first time at the Heights he just stands still, staring around, muttering words that the Earnshaw’s can’t understand. The line “and repeated over and over again some gibberish that nobody could understand” suggests one of the themes running throughout this book, one that Heathcliff is a devil, because as the words he is speaking are incomprehensible and repeated they could be witchcraft. As he speaks, “gibberish that nobody could understand”, and is, “as good as dumb”, communication is impossible, and he is again perceived as an outsider.
Heathcliff can start to be seen as be a victim of bullying from the first moment he comes to Wuthering Heights as when Catherine realises that her present was forgotten by her father because of Heathcliff she spits at him, a form of abuse. Hindley punches Heathcliff and Nelly pinches him, showing again childlike physical violence; and Heathcliff like all victims remains silent about these attacks showing himself to be an outsider.
The last line of this extract starts to show how Heathcliff will react to these early childhood traumas, “though hardness not gentleness made him give little trouble”. This shows Heathcliff becoming an introvert, and suggests the harshness he shows to other people later on in the novel. The idea of him being an outsider also suggests the way he will die, as in the latter part of the novel he spends long periods out on the moors by himself, and doesn’t like to be in the room with anyone. His status as an outsider in this extract also shows the way he will treat the younger Cathy and his own son when they are under his roof, as he sends them up to their bedrooms and frightens them to leaving the room whenever he joins them.
