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How Does Heathcliff Change Throughout The Novel

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Heathcliff was the primary character that drove the plot of Wuthering Heights. The novel began and ended with him and his vindictive actions are most important to the progression of the story. He was unique from the other characters in the way that he looked, with “black eyes [withdrawn] so suspiciously under their brows...[and] dirty, ragged, black hair” (Bronte 3, 37). Mr. Earnshaw had generously brought this gipsy boy when he returned from a trip, picking him up from the miserable factory towns occupied by the lower classes in 1840. Earnshaw’s family did not receive this boy well, so Heathcliff was often characterized as a demon, epitomizing the equivocal attitude of the upper class, who at times felt charitable to and at times afraid of the lower class.
Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, Mr. Earnshaw’s daughter, quickly became inseparable forming an innocent yet incestuous bond. The only sentiment Heathcliff held was loyalty to Catherine and Mr. Earnshaw, so when they were both taken away from him, Earnshaw by death and Catherine by Edgar Linton, he adopted a resolute vengeance. Jealousy led him to lash out at Edgar Linton because he felt entitled to …show more content…

Hindley, Mr. Earnshaw’s son, despised Heathcliff, whom he saw “as an usurper of his parent’s affections and his privileges, and he grew bitter with brooding over these injuries” (Bronte 38). Hindley vituperatively abused Heathcliff, breeding the anger, vengeance, and cruelty that Heathcliff possessed when he grew older. Heathcliff even recognized to Nelly that “[he] felt no pity” (Bronte 122). While Heathcliff grew numb to the abuse, he became anesthetized to any type of feeling. When he returned after fleeing Wuthering Heights and obtaining a fortune, he capitalized on the suffering of all those he loved and hated: Hindley, Hareton, Catherine Earnshaw, Cathy Linton, Isabella, Edgar, and his own son,

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