The Reasons for Heathcliffs Immoral Behavior
The Reasons for Heathcliff’s Immoral Behavior
“Gift of God”(35). Mr. Earnshaw used this line to describe Heathcliff when he first brought him home. It is a common belief shared by many cultures, that children come into this world being pure and innocent thus, it is their surrounding in which they grow up that shapes their personality. This is what happened to Heathcliff. How could an innocent child turn into an immoral monster? Throughout the novel Wuthering Heights we witness Heathcliff committing acts of pure hatred and neglect. However, his acts should only be judged from the prospective of the circumstances that influenced his character, which are horrible childhood, constant mistreatment by others, and the betrayal of the true love of his life. Throughout his life on the level of his subconscious he kept feeling that he was being oppressed by the paradigm of the society.
Heathcliff’s nasty behavior exhibited towards many other characters appearing in the book may be interpreted as an anxiety he kept experiencing throughout his life as a result horrible childhood. His relationship with his step mother could never be described as a normal and standard relationship of a mother and son, he was rather hated by her. Within the adoptive family he found little to no understanding and love and encountered bullying by his brother Hindley. The only two people who had any kind of warm feelings for him were Mr. Earnshaw and Catherine, who even fell in love with him. Even though he was treated badly, he was a “patient child”(37), he was not a complainer and took without resentment everything that was happening in his life. Even when all the children had measles and he had it the worst, he was “as uncomplaining as a lamb”(37) and the “quietest child that ever nurse watched over”(37). As Mr. Earnshaw passed away and Hindley became the man of the house, the social status of Heathcliff’s within the family dropped even more, as he started being treated like a free servant and was forced to stay home and not go to school. This hardship resulted in gradual change of the Heathcliff’s behavior. This resulted in a projection of troubled childhood into parenthood, stimulating improper relationship between Heathcliff and his child Linton. As Heathcliff never resolved his issues from the past and was still emotionally trapped in the misery of his childhood, this protruded in an attitude towards other people and his sometimes inhumane treatment by him. This is why, without as sense of regret he trapped physically his wife Isobel in Wuthering Heights, while on the emotional level he managed to trap Catherine in making the decision of when she was choosing between him and Edgar. Although Catherine officially chose his challenger, she never got out of chain of emotional attachment to Heathcliff. Hence, it can be concluded that the events of Heathcliff’s childhood greatly affected his behavior as an adult.