Terence Looi

October 3, 2010
AP English Literature
Wuthering Heights
Analysis

Unreserved Love

Romanticized love and all-consuming monomania are ingredients for insanity. These

ingredients beget the aggrieved character Heathcliff, the antagonist of Emily Bronte’s

Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff personifies the expression “love kills.” His unreserved love

for Catherine gives him meaning, but at the same time is the source of many of the novel’s

conflicts. As a result of Heathcliff’s all-encompassing and impassioned love, he brings about the

destruction of those around him until ultimately it consumes him; pathological love leads to

destruction.

After Catherine Earnshaw betrays Heathcliff, his love for her gains an obsessive quality

that endures. When Mr. Earnshaw brings home Heathcliff, Catherine immediately takes to him

and the two develop a “thick” relationship. They were inseparable in their youth; the “greatest

punishment [invented] for [Catherine] was to keep her separate from him” (Bronte 33). The

couple shared a commonality that would serve as the backbone for each other’s demise. The love

the two share is genuine and meaningful. However, when Catherine starts to spend more time

with the Linton children, she begins to see the social differences of Heathcliff: his dark skin, his

inferior education and his lesser origins. Consequently, Catherine, with her new understanding of

social class, seeks to become the “greatest woman in the neighborhood” (Bronte 61). Despite her

fixation on prestige, her love for Heathcliff remains abiding: “My love for Heathcliff resembles

the eternal rocks beneath. [...] Nelly, I am Heathcliff! (Bronte 64) This conveys the full extent of

their love--a love that is so deeply grounded within them that intrinsically they “are” each other.
Nevertheless, Catherine ends up marrying Edgar Linton, justifying that she will be able to

support her true love in the process. It is this betrayal of love that moves Heathcliff from loving

Catherine to obsessing over Catherine. Her love seems to falter in places, but Heathcliff’s love

remains steadfast. Heathcliff is tortured by the unattainable union with Catherine, and by the

Lintons and Hindley for making him seem unworthy of her. This awareness sets forth

Heathcliff’s ongoing vendetta through the rest of the novel. His love, when spurned, leads him

down a path to lunacy, his obsession slowly turning into hatred for those around him.

For the sake of his love for Catherine and to gain revenge upon those who inhibited their

love, Heathcliff inflicts terror upon Isabella and Hareton. Heathcliff’s obsession with seeking

revenge on those who inflicted pain on him induces a hatred in him, in which he takes out on

those around him. When Isabella first met Heathcliff, she was genuinely attracted. However, he

never reciprocated any feelings, but when Heathcliff realizes that he can use Isabella as an

avenue for revenge he seizes the opportunity and encourages her to elope. He plans to use

Isabella as a way to take out his pain caused by the void of Catherine’s love, and as a way to

spite Edgar Linton by stealing away his kin. Isabella initially loves Heathcliff, but the latter

begins to make her life a living hell, keeping her imprisoned at Wuthering Heights: “When

Heathcliff is in I’m obliged to seek the kitchen and their society, or starve among the damp,

uninhabited chambers” (Bronte 135). She is treated not as a wife, but as an unwelcome outsider.

Within her own house, Isabella is neglected and she confesses to Nelly that “a serpent could not

rouse terror in me equal to that which he wakens. [...] I do hate him--I am wretched--I have been

a fool! (Bronte 140) Heathcliff successfully robs Isabella of her innocence. Instead of acting like

a devoted husband, he uses Isabella as an instrument of revenge, consequently bringing terror

and fear into her life. He torments Isabella as an act of reprisal for the betrayal of his love and the
pain it inflicted upon him. Another character that suffers from the wrath of Heathcliff is young

Hareton. Hareton was born a gentleman. But, Heathcliff in an act of malice for the wrongdoings

of Hindley, raises Hareton in a dark and savage environment and keeps him illiterate: “and the

curate does not teach you how to read or write, then? / No, I was told the curate should have his

------ teeth dashed down his ------ throat” (Bronte 87). The blank lines show Hareton’s vulgar,

ungentlemanly-like speech. Hareton is deprived of his birthright to become a member of the

gentry like his father. Because of the loss of Catherine, first as a lover then when she physically

dies, Heathcliff feels as though he needs to exact a plan of revenge on those whom he think are

responsible, as Isabella reveals: “He wishes to provoke Edgar to desperation: he says he married

me on purpose to obtain power!” (Bronte 119) Although Heathcliff’s love has turned to an

obsession for vengeance, he is fueled by his steadfast love for Catherine. It is the absence of

reciprocating love that leads him to torment others. His path to insanity, though the execution of

revenge, is an avenue in which he believes he can be closer to Catherine.

The result of Heathcliff’s obsessive love and diabolical hatred culminates in his self-

destruction. Heathcliff has sustained his plan of vengeance for over eighteen years. As time

elapses, Heathcliff shows signs of a tormented being desperate for remedy. He confides to Nelly

that he wishes “of dissolving with her [in the earth]” (Bronte 220). Heathcliff is obsessed with

connecting with Catherine in any way. Heathcliff’s talk of digging up her grave and peering her

face marks his increasingly deranged state. Yet, it is out of genuine love that he still pursues the

ghost of Catherine. And, it is this constant pursuing that leads to his own destruction. When

Heathcliff finally consolidates Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights under his name, he is

still unable to achieve one with himself. The imprisonment of Cathy at Wuthering Heights was

meant as an act of revenge against Edgar Linton, but it turns out that Cathy would present herself
as Heathcliff’s release from his tormented love. Through Cathy’s union with Hareton, Heathcliff

saw too many similarities between them and his monomaniacal image for Catherine: “Their eyes

lifted together [...] this resemblance disarmed Mr. Heathcliff and he walked to the hearth in

evident agitation” (Bronte 246). Heathcliff is “disarmed”, he realizes that his hatred and

vengeance for the people around him, did not bring the image of Catherine closer. Instead, the

love that he found between Hareton and Cathy echoed the past much clearer than his tormenting

of the people that took Catherine away. Heathcliff transitions from evilness to a sense of “I dont

care”. He reverts to a composed insanity, slowly starving himself because he “has nearly

achieved [his] heaven; and that of others is altogether unvalued and uncoveted by [him]”

(Bronte 255). Heathcliff emphasizes “his heaven” because his idea of heaven is to be fully

intertwined with Catherine Heathcliff in the physical world as well as his idea of the afterlife.

Vengeance, now clearly out of his mind, is no longer the way he will achieve his eternity with

Catherine. Instead, Heathcliff will destroy himself in order to be with Catherine.

Love can evolve. For Heathcliff it took many forms. He experienced the bliss of

adolescent love which failed to propel itself in his adult years. Catherine and Heathcliff were too

similar to be apart. When Catherine spurns his love, Heathcliff changes internally and twists his

idea of love into one that fuels his hatred and monomania. He is subsequently rendered insane as

he inflicts terror and vengeance on those around him. But, throughout his love remained, there

was never a point where he stopped loving Catherine. All he did was change the way in which he

loved. Youthful love turned into an obsession which lead to hatred which ultimately led to his

own destruction. Unrelenting and obsessive love destroys.