Usually I try to write a blog that hits on key scenes or themes of the novel as a whole, but it wouldn’t feel right to leave my Heathcliff trilogy incomplete. So here is yet another blog about Heathcliff.
As you probably know from my last two blogs, I don’t like Heathcliff as a person. I find him manipulative, obsessive, vindictive and abusive. I wanted so badly to hate, and I would have been justified if I did as his actions certainly merit some hatred. Yet by the end of Wuthering Heights I found myself sympathizing with him despite his abhorrent actions. It’s definitely not because as the novel went on Heathcliff actions became less repulsive; he went from mental abuse to physical abuse to holding Catherine and Nelly hostage. I think my sympathy for him stems from the consistency in his motivations and actions. Everything he does; every thought, every action, every word, can be traced back to his horrible, unhealthy, obsessive, yet heartfelt and sincere love for Catherine Earnshaw. I will admit that sometimes it takes a rather circuitous route to get there, but it always comes back to her.
It was honestly disturbing how he does everything because of his love for Catherine, especially when it came to his action with her daughter. He hates her for all that she represents. She’s gotten must of her features from Edgar not Catherine, reminding Heathcliff that Catherine did not chose him. Yet she looks and acts just enough like Catherine to constantly remind him of what he’s lost. While I disapprove of Heathcliff’s actions, stripping her of her property, forcing her out of her house, and blackmailing her into marriage, I can sympathize with him because I can recognize all the pain she represents to him.
The moment, however, that garnered the most sympathy from me was when Heathcliff came back to Wuthering Heights to the sight of Hareton and Catherine sitting together as she teaches him to read. When they look up at his approach he is struck by how much they resembled Catherine Earnshaw. They both had her eyes, and their mannerisms and “mental faculties” bore a striking resemblance to hers. He goes onto to tell Nelly how he sees Catherine everywhere in them and the house, and that he has to remind his very heart to beat and lungs to breathe when he remembers she’s not with him. Catherine was his whole life. Catherine defined him. Catherine was him. It doesn’t excuse his actions – I don’t think anything really can – but it does bring clarity to them and reminded me of the genuine “love” Heathcliff had for Catherine before it morphed into something much more vengful and obsessive.
When Heathcliff finally dies it’s not a peacefull picture that Nelly presents us with; in fact, it’s rather ghastly. Heathcliff’s eyes are wide open, his mouth is pulled into a sneer, and his teeth are sharp and white, yet on his face is a look of exultation, as he is finally reunited with her in death. It’s a perfect snapshot of his entire relationship with Catherine. It’s a ghastly and horrible thing to behold, but there’s a true joy and devotion in it as well.
Heathcliff was truly an awful person and, yet, I understand his actions and find myself hoping that in death he can achieve what he couldn’t in life – reunification with his childhood friend and love Catherine Earnshaw.
Mary's AP English Blog 