Heathcliff a Victim of Villainry - 915 Words

Heathcliff: A Victim of Villainy In Wuthering Heights, we see tragedies follow one by one, most of which are focused around Heathcliff, the antihero of the novel. After the troubled childhood Heathcliff goes through, he becomes embittered towards the world and loses interest in everything but Catherine Earnshaw Ââ€"his childhood sweetheart whom he had instantly fallen in love with.Ââ€"and revenge upon anyone who had tried to keep them apart. The novel begins with a few short introduction chapters which Bronte had most likely used to illustrate how incompetent the character of Lockwood was, and to foreshadow what was to come in later chapters. After these, it begins to immediately demonstrate to the reader the plight of Heathcliffs†¦show more content†¦The same could not be said about Catherine herself. In Chapter 9, Catherine mentions how her love toward Heathcliff and that with Edgar was could not be so less alike: He [Heathcliff] is more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same. My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods. Time will change it, Im well aware, as winter changes the trees-my love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath-a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I am Heathcliff-hes always, always in my mind-not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself-but, as my own being. Even though she claimed to love Heathcliff so totally and unquestionably, the fact remains that she did marry another man and birth his child. I believe that had Catherine not betrayed him so absolutely, Heathcliff could have forgave his tormentors and lived a happy life with the love of his life, without anyone else having to suffer. Heathcliff is not a villain, but he is not exactly a victim either. Like most aspects of the novel, Heathcliffs character is not just black or white. He is both a victim of the villainy h e experienced as a child, as well as a villain to his own victims. It