Wuthering Heights

Sharma (1994) explains that “Wuthering Heights” is a romance novel that is socially relevant. The novel describes a several centuries old farmhouse that symbolizes passion, wildness, and simplicity. It is a substantial and stubborn house that is in the fierce and unchanging surrounding of moors. The inhabitants are constantly in touch with their raw, natural and animal-like inherent aptitude. The characters in the novel include Heathcliff, Isabella Linton, and Catherine Earnshaw among others. The winds and storms that swept through Wuthering heights is a symbol of the characters being victims of uncontrollable forces (Bront%u0117, 2006).

Bronte (2006)contends that Heathcliff, an orphan who was brought by Mr. Earnshaw, falls in love with Catherine, Mr. Earnshaw’s daughter. Heathcliff is treated as a servant after the death of Mr. Earnshaw. This is done by Hindley, the indignant ill-willed son of the bereaved.  Heathcliff’s miseries and humiliation continue when Catherine does not marry him but opts to marry Edgar Linton to gain social prominence (Bront%u0117, 2009). Catherine’s marriage to Edgar is unconventional in her eyes, but she could not tie the knot with Heathcliff. This is  because            “ Hindley has cheapened him so much that I can not tie the knot with him”. The later, powerful, cruel and fierce Heathcliff spends most of his life seeking to revenge on Hindley, Catherine, and their respective children (Jim Pipe, 2009).

Deepak Verma (2009) asserts that Heathcliff begins his revenge mission by using his acquired fortune and extraordinary powers of will to acquire Wuthering Heights and Edgar Linton’s estate (Thrush cross Grange). Hindley later dies, and Heathcliff feels redemption in burying him and in turning the atmosphere of the burial to look like a joke (Bloom, 2008). He also forces his son to marry young Catherine, the daughter of Catherine, to cement his control over Thrushcross Grange after the death of Edgar Linton. He takes control of Hareton Earnshaw, Catherine’s nephew, after Hindley’s death and trains him as an uneducated field worker just as Hindley had done to him (Randolph Carter, 1966).

Isabella Linto, Edgar Linton’s younger sister, is infatuated with Heathcliff because she sees him as a romantic hero. She is a spoilt weak girl who is used by her husband (Heathcliff) in his revenge mission. She undergoes a process of redemption by escaping Wuthering Heights and being away from her disastrous and terrifying marriage. "The foremost thing she witnessed me do, on getting out of Grange, was to bummer up her little dog..." (141). A person would have to be a sick man to hang your fiancée's puppy on your wedding night. This shows the extent of mistreatment, infatuation,  and brutality of her husband. She escapes from her brutal husband and their marriage once and for all after provoking her husband that leads to a brawl between them (Berg, 1996).

Catherine Earnshaw,  the daughter of Mr. Earnshaw, is a beautiful yet spoiled lady who falls in love with Heathcliff, an orphan that her father brings home, and even claims that they are the same person.  She, however, marries Edgar Linton because she wants to advance socially. Despite her free spirit and beauty, she gives misery to both men who love her. After her death, the location of her coffin between that of Heathcliff and Edgar symbolizes conflicting loyalties which tear apart her short life. The burial is done at a corner in the kirkyard. She does not undergo the process of redemption and lives a short life (Moore, 2012).