Essay on 'Wuthering Heights' Characters

A Bildungsroman is considered a novel in which “regular development is observed in the life of the individual, with each of the stages having its intrinsic value and is at the same time the basis for a higher stage” (Boes, 2006). The Bildungsroman genre became popular and was spread during the Victorian era, when writers forged protagonists, such as Jane Eyre and Fanny Price, through developments related to her morals, growth and psychological issues, “childhood complications, conflict of generations, self-education, alienation, and an ordeal by love”. (Buckley, 1974.) One example of a bildungsroman was the novel Wuthering Heights, written by Emily Bronte, where the protagonists, Heathcliff and Catherine, underwent several developments in two different settings: Wuthering Heights with its rough violent surroundings and inhabited by harsh, crude, yet passionate “Earnshaws” and Thrushcross Grange with the pleasant nature and civilized cultivated weak inhabitants, “Lintons”. This article discusses the ways the novel traced Heathcliff and Catherine’s development whether it is considered a male or female Bildungsroman, and whether was it old or young Cathy who developed in the novel.

At the beginning of the novel, Bronte introduces the orphan Heathcliff, with a description told by Nelly, suffering from childhood complications.

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“Dirty, ragged, black-haired child / repeated over and over again some gibberish that nobody could understand / I was frightened / gypsy brat”.

Heathcliff was subjected to discrimination, violence, pain, and loneliness. The Earnshaw’s children even refused to sleep with him in the same room and were referred to by the pronoun it.

“Not a soul knew to whom it belonged”

Heathcliff was not given a name, and by that, he was deprived of “existence”. With all that, Bronte turned Heathcliff into a tragic figure (WOOD, 2018) gathering rage and anger toward those who tormented him. By this, feelings of pity are aroused toward Heathcliff and that creates a bond between him and the reader. Several critics shed light on this matter as F.H. Langman who said that “sympathy is drawn toward Heathcliff” because “Hindley’s brutality, tyranny, and murderous violence far outdo anything of which Heathcliff can be accused on the evidence” (WOOD, 2018). He was a victim and suffered racism, but he was full of contradictions as he carried utter brute. This childhood complications and development led Heathcliff to plot his revenge against the Lintons and his brother Hindley. Later on, Heathcliff disappeared after he overheard Catherine in the kitchen talking about Edgar Linton, and then suddenly came back as a powerful charismatic, educated man seeking his position in the family alongside revenge. He acquired all property rights to Wuthering Heights and Hareton‟ 's – Hindley’s son - inheritance. Once this is accomplished, he refuses to educate Hareton leaving him a brutal, illiterate, savage as if he was mirroring his childhood. He becomes even more “diabolical and ensnares Isabella into marriage only to degrade and violently abuse her, and later he possessed Edgar’s properties too” (Balola, 2017). Heathcliff’s character developed from sympathetic to revolting and repulsive. He manages to destroy Catherine's character without even touching her and harassing Isabella, his wife, and Edgar’s sister, without brutalizing Edgar directly.

On the other hand, old Catherine’s childhood and development were somehow by Heathcliff’s wildness. She was untamed and rebellious nature and she was born for the wilderness. She was strong and violent, as she spent most of her time in the moors around Wuthering Heights. Catherine would be described as a “tomboy” (Boyles, 2018) and has no interest in proper society. After the Thrushcross Grange incident, Catherine developed a “double personality”, Catherine Linton and Catherine Heathcliff. She was proper in the grange and wild in the Heights, especially after meeting Heathcliff. She couldn’t break her bonds with Heathcliff. Many critics tend to say that she was in love with Heathcliff, but this relationship wasn’t romantic. It didn’t involve any physical or sexual encounters. Charlotte Bronte explains this love as “perverted passion and passionate perversity. Their love exists on a higher or spiritual plane; they are soul mates, two people who have an affinity for each other which draws them together irresistibly. (Balola, 2017). She was in pain and danger and found her haven with Heathcliff.

“My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He’s always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my being.”

Catherine’s development was obvious after her return from Thrushcross Grange, as she turned into a civilized middle-class woman. This signified a sense of maturity in her. Wealth and materialism won over her wild savagery and her selfish character appeared. In addition to that she gave up her masculinity in favor of a more feminine role, with her marriage to Edgar Linton. B. Gorsky considers Catherine’s position at this point, “the veneer with which civilized society covers raw nature”. (R, 1999).

“So that, instead of a wild, hatless little savage jumping into the house, and rushing to squeeze us all breathless, there lighted from a handsome black pony a very dignified person, with brown ringlets falling from the cover of a feathered beaver, and a long cloth habit, which she was obliged to hold up with both hands that she might sail in.”

By marrying Edgar who does not match her nature at all, she became a “female face value”, and by that she was able to survive in a Victorian society that gave men a dominant position and women’s status was very low. One of the aspects of Catherine's development is when she realizes that she can’t have both, Edgar as a husband, and Heathcliff as her friend and companion, she manipulates people around her with her sickness. As she reached her death moment, she realized her wrong choices and dreamt of returning to the wild. She admits that after marrying Edgar, she deserted herself. In the final stage of her life, Catherine Linton admits that she was forever, Catherine Heathcliff. It was Catherine's “Self Return” after she suffered from her “False Self”. (Sun, 2015)

As we talk about the main characters of Wuthering Heights, we can’t neglect the presence of Cathy, Edgar, and Catherine’s daughter. Cathy was the “child of warmth and light compared to her mother” (HARRIS, 1980). Cathy managed to fit herself within the surrounding nature.

“Mine was rocking in a rustling green tree, with a west wind blowing, and bright, white clouds flitting rapidly above; and not only larks, but throstles, and blackbirds, and linnets, and cuckoos pouring out music on every side, and the moors seen at a distance, broken into cool dusky dells; but close by great swells of long grass undulating in waves to the breeze; and woods and sounding water, and the whole world awake and wild with joy

She was kinder and a better version of her mother due to her relationship with her dad. She was very curious and explored the medium away from Thrushcross Grange. She cared for hurting people and that appeared after hurting Linton as she wept and regretted her misdeed. Her feelings were so obvious toward people who surrounded her, till she married Linton, Heathcliff’s son. She shows signs of anger and patience and she even ridicules Hareton once. Her stay at Heathcliff’s house developed her into a “self-confident and strong mature woman.” (Wolfgang Burkle, 2004)

In conclusion, concerning the details and all the situations that Heathcliff, old Catherine, and Cathy suffered, we can say that the novel does include both male and female Bildungsroman. Heathcliff developed and moved toward his goals, even if it was vengeful. He was a stranger and oppressed and turned to be the one rog the properties and the oppressor. A dominant person in the novel. As for Catherine, in a time when women were expected to be delicate humans incapable of making decisions outside the house and making sure that values were inherited by her children, she was aroused as a wild arrogant female and showed rebellion against her father and brother first. Later, she decided to marry one of her choices, aside from the fact that it was right or not. She was a symbol of women's consciousness. Young Cathy, on the other hand, harmonized everything around her. She learned from the first generation of Wuthering Heights and accepted the past and longed for the future. In the end, she opened the windows of the Heights. She was more mature than her peers.

From a poor homeless child to a vicious master, along with a rebellious and wild female with a later self - self-consciousness, in addition to a young elegant spoiled beautiful girl with a rigid future to earn, proves that the novel includes true male and female bildungsroman.

Works Cited

1. Balola, A. M. (2017). The Portrayal of Heathcliff's Character in. International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research.
2. Boes, T. (2006). Modernist Studies and the Bildungsroman: A. Yale University.
3. Boyles, D. D. (2018). Retrieved 4 02, 2019, from study.com: https://study.com/academy/lesson/catherine-earnshaw-in-wuthering-heights-description-character-analysis.html
4. Buckley, J. H. (1974.). Season of Youth: The Bildungsroman from Dickens to Golding. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
5. HARRIS, A. L. (1980). Psychological Time in Wuthering Heights. The International Fiction Review, 112-116.
6. R, G. S. (1999). I'll Cry Myself Sick: Illness in Wuthering Heights.
7. Sun, H. (2015). On Catherine’s Self-alienation in Wuthering Heights. International Conference on Arts, Design and Contemporary Education (pp. 172-175). Huanghe Science ＆ Technology College.
8. (2004). Wolfgang Burkle. Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.
9. WOOD, K. B. (2018). “Prince in Disguise” or “Imp of Satan”? (Mis)Reading Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights. Middlebury College.