Can we just talk about Heathcliff for a second?

So it’s 1 AM and I really just need to get this blog done. I have put off this first blog for way too long because I really don’t feel like I have anything really insightful to say yet. The only class discussions that I really participate in are the ones after we finish a book; at any other time, I force myself to BS something just to get the participation points. This is because when I read a book for the first time, I am not trying to predict anything. I am not purposefully trying to make any connections. I am not looking for themes, motifs, or symbols. When I read a book for the first time, I am just soaking in all the information. If some symbol or character jumps out at me, great, now I have something to discuss in class, but if not I just wait till I finish the book and am able to look at the entire story before I make any judgement or connections. I say this because I am well aware that this is not going to be the deepest of blogs and I guess I should apologize for that?

That said the one thing that really sticks out to me in Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights is the character Heathcliff. (Quick disclaimer: I have not read tonight’s reading so if I am missing anything crucial from chapters 15-16 that’s why.) Going into this novel the only things I knew about him was that he had the misfortune of having the name Heathcliff (Anyone else picturing a scrawny kid with buck teeth?) and from Sparknote’s Instagram page that he was a pretentious ass. While none of this has been exactly proven wrong, it has definitely been added upon.

To put it simply Heathcliff is not a good person. He manipulates, he lies, he low-key abuses his wife, he never forgives, and he actively works to ruin the lives of those around him. But he justifies it by claiming that he would never hurt Catherine and that all of this is for her. (I’m getting some serious Snape and Lily vibes here.) He even goes so far as to say “That for every thought she spends on Linton, she spends a thousand on me!” (144). That quotation made me stop reading and literally laugh out loud. Imagine having enough audacity to think that a woman thinks about you, a childhood friend who just abandoned her one night, a thousand times more than her actual husband. To be fair, he does have some justification as he overheard Catherine telling Nelly that “Every Linton on the face of the earth might melt into nothing, before I could consent to forsake Heathcliff…He’s always , always in my mind” (79-80). That said Catherine has been married to Mr. Linton for years, and while I will not say that their marriage has been joyous with no problems, Catherine has not been unhappy. It just seems very presumptuous of Heathcliff to come barging back into Catherine’s life and expect to be welcomed back by everyone.

My other problem is with how Heathcliff treats Isabella. Now Isabella is not perfect. She is naive and spoiled but she is not a bad person, and does not deserve to be treated the way Heathcliff treats her. He claims to have never lead her on or given her any reason to love him, yet he tried to embrace her in the garden and asked her to marry him. He married her only to get revenge on Mr. Linton for daring to marry Catherine and keep him away from her, but honestly who wouldn’t banish Heathcliff from their house? The way he treats others is awful. Isabella and Heathcliff’s marriage is so bad and he acts so abhorently that Isabella says something along the lines of “I would rather die than let you use me to hurt my brother.” I am almost impressed by the amount of hatred Heathcliff inspires in others.

I will acknowledge that his childhood, from living on the streets, to being spoiled by Catherine’s father, to be abused verbally and physically by Hindley, probably messed him up in some serious ways. But that does not excuse his inability to be decent to a single person outside of Catherine.

Ok that’s it. This blog is done. Did it just turn into a vent/rant about Heathcliff? Yep. Do I care? Nope. I am now going to go to bed without proofreading this and hopefully not sleep through my alarm so that I can join the google meet.