Did Heathcliff beat Isabella? Why does Catherine not marry Heathcliff? Did Catherine really love Heathcliff? Who was Heathcliff in love with? How does Heathcliff get his revenge? What Wuthering means? Where does the name Heathcliff come from? His frustration for not finding his love has made him sadistic and evil. At several points, it appears like he uses his vicious attitude to hide his real emotions and his longing for Catherine. However, it also seems that he is authentically bent at punishing others around him.
At least it so appears because he does not hesitate to demonstrate through his cruelty that he is truly as cynical as he appears. Still, despite his arrogant attitude it is his longing for his lost love that proves him a hero. However, his pain is what justifies his behaviour to some extent and makes readers sympathize with him.
In the initial scenes, he appears as a stubborn, arrogant and inhospitable landlord. People in his family also look just as wild and inhospitable with no sense of manners and civilization. In his initial few experiences Lockwood becomes aware of what kind of person he is. Nelly narrates him the rest of the story and why Heathcliff has become such evil and brutally offensive. Heathcliff still remembers Catherin e and wails like a child for her to be back.
He longs for his love, praying for Catherine to return. He is embittered by the harsh treatment of Hindley and disillusioned by what he considers the treachery of Catherine. He is not, therefore, a wicked man voluntarily yielding to his wicked impulses. He becomes destructive only when he is crossed. He is a natural force which has been frustrated of its natural outlet, so that it ultimately becomes devastating. This gives him not only the pathos orphan but an air of mystery that deepens into the suspicion that he is connected with the devil.
He is brought to the Earnshaw family as an orphan by Mr. Earnshaw from Liverpool on his business-trip to that town.
At that time Heathcliff was able to talk and walk. Although he is quite helpless, he strikes one as having a sharp understanding and keen sense of dignity as a human being. He does not consider himself inferior to anybody on the basis of material possessions or property.
He considers it infra dig to raise himself up to the level of Edgar Linton and asserts before Cathy,. Being brought to Wuthering Heights by Mr. Earnshaw and lodged with his family, Heathcliff is regarded by everyone in the house with abhorrence chiefly because of his colour. But the master, Mr. Earnshaw, is very fond of him and likes him even more than his son, Hindley.
He ill-treats Heathcliff and thrashes him frequently. However, Heathcliff bears the ill-treatment with patience. His fortitude is boundless which enables him to endure suffering to any extent. He always keeps calm and uncomplaining. This habit endears him both to Mr. Earnshaw and his daughter Catherine. Heathcliff reacted to injustice and misfortune very strongly but never lost mental balance.
After getting frustrated in love he did not become reckless like Hindley, nor submit to the darts of fortune like Edgar Linton. He was a conscious rebel. Heathcliff, however, defies being understood, and it is difficult for readers to resist seeing what they want or expect to see in him. The novel teases the reader with the possibility that Heathcliff is something other than what he seems—that his cruelty is merely an expression of his frustrated love for Catherine, or that his sinister behaviors serve to conceal the heart of a romantic hero.
Traditionally, romance novel heroes appear dangerous, brooding, and cold at first, only later to emerge as fiercely devoted and loving.
However, Heathcliff does not reform, and his malevolence proves so great and long-lasting that it cannot be adequately explained even as a desire for revenge against Hindley, Catherine, Edgar, etc. As he himself points out, his abuse of Isabella is purely sadistic, as he amuses himself by seeing how much abuse she can take and still come cringing back for more.
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