Wuthering Heights

What usually comes to mind when one thinks of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights? Most will visualize tortured lovers against the extraordinary moors. Perhaps one will even recall the scene of one lover, Heathcliff, opening the grave of his Catherine to dig a space where they can be joined eternally. Yet another equally powerful emotion appears throughout the novel as an antithesis to love, that of revenge. Revenge first forms the basis of the actions of Hindley, the Earnshaw son, toward Heathcliff. Later revenge is mirrored in the vengeful actions of Heathcliff after he loses Catherine. In the process of gaining revenge, both characters lose their own humanity and their souls.

Hindley Earnshaw, the son and heir, reacts badly to his father's bringing home a stray gypsy boy from the streets of Liverpool and to demands that Heathcliff be treated like his own brother. Both Catherine, his sister, and Hindley refuse "to have it in bed with them, or even their own room" at night so that Heathcliff has to sleep on the landing outside (Bronte 41). While Catherine learns to love Heathcliff, Hindley spends his days in revenge toward the intruder, especially after Heathcliff becomes Mr. Earnshaw's "favorite" (42). Hindley's beatings of Heathcliff further alienate Mr. Earnshaw, who is infuriated "when he discovered his son persecuting the poor, fatherless child, as he called him" (42). Hindley regularly beats Heathcliff and threatens to turn Heathcliff out in the cold when Mr. Earnshaw dies (43). When Heathcliff blackmails Hindley into swapping colts for the secret beatings, Hindley shows reasons for his jealousy toward Heathcliff, "Take my colt, gipsy, then, and I pray that he may break your neck, you beggarly interloper! And wheedle my father out of all he has" (43). When Mr. Earnshaw dies and Hindley returns from college to claim his inheritance, he takes his revenge unchecked. "He drove him from their company to the servants, deprived him of the instructions of the curate, and insisted that he should labour out of door instead, compelling him to do so as hard as any other lad on the farm" (49). He also orders floggings for Heathcliff and deprives him of even speaking to Catherine, whom he loves dearly, after an adventure at the Lintons. All these punishments Heathcliff could have stood except when he finally realizes that Hindley has made it impossible for Catherine to marry him. He overhears Catherine explain to Nelly, "If the wicked man in there had not brought Heathcliff so low, I wouldn't have thought of it [marriage to Edgar Lindley]. It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now" (82). Heathcliff now has been pushed to take revenge on Hindley and on all those standing in his way of gaining Catherine as a wife.

Norman Sherry in Emily and Charlotte Bronte describes Heathcliff's revenge as being "not only an extension of the inhospitable treatment he received as a child in both houses, it is a revenge on the degradation in social terms which he suffered, and on the taking of Cathy from him" (121). The character Heathcliff has a high complexity to his revenge. After he comes back after his disappearance, he begins his road of vengeance. When he arrives, Heathcliff goes to visit Catherine at Thrushcross Grange, which makes Edgar jealous. Edgar shows his disdain of Heathcliff saying, "He never struck me as such a marvelous treasure" (Bronte 95). Heathcliff has changed to a great degree. He is no longer the boy he once was; he has developed into a "tall, athletic, well-formed man," who is the envy of Edgar Linton (96). Over time, upon his return, Heathcliff begins to act more and more mysteriously. Nelly observes this change and declares that she is "determined to watch his movements" (107). Nelly has the right idea in watching Heathcliff. On her next visit, Nelly discovers that little Hareton talks with vulgar language, and when asked about who taught him this language, Hareton explains, "I known't--he pays Dad back what he gies to me--he curses Daddy for cursing me. He says I mun do as I will" (110). Even though Heathcliff has shown an interest in Hareton, it is not for Hareton's good as he does not permit the tutor to teach Hareton, therefore repaying what was done to him as a child when he was kept ignorant. Heathcliff is also planning his revenge on Edgar Linton for marrying Catherine. He tells Catherine that she has really hurt him by marrying Edgar, and Catherine says that Heathcliff should take his revenge out on her. Heathcliff replies to Catherine, "I seek no revenge on you. That's not the plan" (112). So, it appears that Heathcliff still carries a love for Catherine, but pure hatred towards everyone else.

Denis Donague explains that the revenge has taken on a much wider scope than the immediate characters who have mistreated Heathcliff to extend to "undermining the entire ruling order from within" (42). In order to spite Edgar, Heathcliff takes his sister, Isabella, for a wife. Isabella and Heathcliff elope without Edgar's permission, and when they arrive home after their absence, Edgar disowns Isabella. Isabella is treated harshly when she arrives at Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff acts as if she is an object to him. In a letter to Nelly, Isabella says, "He [Heathcliff] told me of Catherine's illness, and accused my brother of causing it, promising that I should be Edgar's proxy in suffering, till he could get hold of him"(143). She also confesses, "I do hate him" (143). Heathcliff has completely dedicated himself to his plan for revenge, which involves everyone, innocent and guilty.

After Catherine's funeral, everyone seems to be on edge, and then Heathcliff's revenge escalates. Isabella visits Thrushcross Grange to talk to Nelly while Edgar is sleeping. Isabella tells Nelly how Heathcliff has treated her, "He's not a human being, and he has no claim on my charity. I gave him my heart, and he took and pinched it to death, and flung it back to me"(168). She also comments on Hindley's decline in health. Hindley tries to stay sober for Catherine's funeral, but decides not to go, then sits down and drinks. The situation between Hindley and Heathcliff has gotten even worse over time. One night when Hindley is drunk, he plans to shoot Heathcliff and informs Isabella of this plan, who in return informs Heathcliff. When Hindley is trying to carry out his plan, he is shot in the wrist by Heathcliff. Hindley dies a few months later, and when Nelly asks to take Hareton back with her, Heathcliff replies, "I have the fancy to try my hand at rearing a young one...I don't engage to let Hareton go" (182). Heathcliff proves that he is the owner of Wuthering