Essay

1979. Choose a complex and important character in a novel or a play of recognized literary merit who might on the basis of the character's actions alone be considered evil or immoral. In a well-organized essay, explain both how and why the full presentation of the character in the work makes us react more sympathetically than we otherwise might. Avoid plot summary.


The character Heathcliff in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights lives his life based on revenge upon returning to Wuthering Heights. He acts as an evil person to everyone around him due to his mistreatment during childhood and his anger deriving from Catherines death.
If we take a deeper look into why Heathcliff treats the people around him so poorly, we can come up with many reasons as to why he acts in that certain way. He treats Hareton like a slave and refuses to educate him. This reflects the way that Hindley Earnshaw treated Heathcliff during their childhood. Heathcliff is merely enacting his revenge by treating Hindleys son as bad as he was treated. It seems that everything Heathcliff does, he does it in spite of anyone who he feels has wronged him. He marries Isabella Lindley only to obtain a tie to Thrushcross Grange, and to get back at Edgar for marrying his loved one, Catherine Earnshaw. He repeatedly tortures Isabella for amusement, and to see how many more times she will come back to him awaiting more punishment. This type of treatment of Isabella is noted as nothing less than sadistic, being referred to as a demon by other characters of the novel. Throughout his adulthood, it seems that he gets weaker, and losses motive for living after Catherines death. She was his goddess, and his only purpose for living was to love her, and vice-versa. We realize later in the novel that all of Heathcliffs frustration comes from his undying love for Catherine. He is tormented all night and day by her love, and yearns to see Catherine's ghost whenever he can.
We sympathize for Heathcliff because he is a romantic hero that cannot escape the torture of love except with the price of death. Readers try to accept that Heathcliff is the romantic hero of Wuthering Heights but his malevolent actions show no change throughout the entire novel.