Heathcliff's Inner Conflict
EVIDENCE:
1. The animosity felt by Heathcliff toward Hareton at the beginning of the
novel appears to be just bitterness of an old man without any reason. Later
the reader learns about how badly Hindley treated Heathcliff and discovers
why he acts this way. Nelly declares his “bitterness” on page 99, with
emphasis.
2. He competes with Edgar for Catherine’s affection. After he loses her due
to unworthiness, he seeks to prove that his equality with Edgar’s society.
3. Upon his return, Heathcliff begins an intrigue with Edgar’s sister
Isabella. This reveals a change in character (103) with his involvement
with the higher class that he despised as a child. He struggles with
himself in an attempt to raise himself from the status that he was born
with, and plans to hurt those who care for him along the way in an act of
“revenge.” In an argument Catherine exclaims, “’ I’ve treated you
infernally- and you’ll take revenge! How will you take it, ungrateful
brute? How have I treated you infernally?’” (103). Heathcliff chooses to
take his revenge by marrying Edgar’s sister, who is naïve to his evil plot.
Catherine describes their courtship as giving “Satan a lost soul
(Isabella).”
4. Heathcliff is also “haunted” by the ghost of Catherine Earnshaw. Through
structural foreshadowing, the reader may infer that her ghost indeed may
exist. On page twenty-two the ghost of a young woman comes to the window of
Lockwood’s bedroom and states, “It is twenty years…twenty years. I’ve been
a waif for twenty years” (22). Later in the novel on page 145 the ghost of
Catherine reveals herself again in the heart of Heathcliff. He asks her,
“what will you be happy when I am in the earth? Will you say twenty years
hence…” (145). Catherine has been dead for almost 18 years and Lockwood
visits Wuthering Heights almost twenty years after her death. Her haunting
resembles the inner conflict from within Heathcliff throughout the novel
that drives his evil spirit.
5. Following the death of Edgar, Heathcliff unburies his former love.
Ironically, he states that he will be with her soon, but actually she is
with him, “haunting” him (264). Throughout the following pages Heathcliff
continues on his downward spiral plummeting towards insanity. He feels the
presence of Catherine all around him. (265).
SHIFTS IN CONFLICTS:
1. Heathcliff’s character shifts several times throughout the novel. At
first he is so enthralled with his love for Catherine, that he never has
time for anything else. This however shifts upon his overhearing of her
feelings towards Edgar and her decision to marry him. This is where he
discovers that in his present state he will never become worthy of loving
her. “I have no more business marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in
heaven…it would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he should never know
that I love him…” (73).
2. Another shift occurs upon his return to the Grange. Heathcliff’s new
plan is to seek revenge on those who oppressed him as a child. Objectives
include, ruining Edgar’s life by marrying his sister, taking what was
rightfully his (Wuthering Heights) back from Hindley and foregoing his
demise by using his weakness (greed) against him, and bringing harm to all
those who are connected to the two families (all children).
3. His final transformation occurs near the end of the novel where he
reaches the climatic occurrence in his life. He no longer feels the need to
bring pain and misery to those surrounding him. He feels that he has
succeeded in becoming a bitter old man and this has caused him to lose all
the people that he cared for. (295).
THEMATIC STATEMENT:
In Emily Bronte’s Victorian novel Wuthering Heights, she expresses the inner conflict faced by Heathcliff. Struggles of love and revenge plague
his life in his attempt to gain the affection of Catherine Earnshaw. Ironically, Heathcliff loses all that he holds dear to him due to the bitterness grown from his tormented youth. The love Heathcliff once felt for Catherine brings peace in the aftermath of his fury.
TEXTUAL ANALYSIS
