Wuthering Heights- Is Heathcliff a man or a devil? Essay -- English Li

Wuthering Heights- Is Heathcliff a man or a devil? "Wuthering Heights" was written by Emily Brontà « and was first published in 1847, it was written during the "romantic period", it is a story of love, lust and sorrow all held together by extreme passion, love and hate. One of the main characters in the book Wuthering Heights is Heathcliff, he was a orphan who lived in Liverpool, we find very little about Heathcliff's past before he is adopted by the Earnshaw's, which makes Heathcliff a mysterious character. When Heathcliff comes to live at Wuthering Heights after being adopted by the Earnshaw's, he feels displaced as he does not know where to fit in with the family who seem to have "tight knit family system". In the beginning it is clear that Heathcliff is rejected by his older step brother Hindly and turns to Catherine for affection, but Heathcliff feels he is not worthy of the affection shown to him by his step father and the family and this causes problems with members of the family. Hindly automatically feels threatened by Heathcliff's presence and his hate for Heathcliff grows as Heathcliff gets the attention from there father that Hindly feels he deserve and this causes friction between the two characters. But Heathcliff has needs and one of these is to be loved which he feels only Catherine can do even from a very young age, they become the best of friends and feel wild together running in fields and playing together, and it shows when Heathcliff is young Catherine is his sole source of self esteem. When Mr. Earnshaw dies Catherine takes comfort with Heathcliff, and Hindly comes back from university to attend to the funeral after a while Heathcliff was degraded by Hindly because of Hindlys jea... ...raded and running away from Wuthering Heights isolating himself from his past only returning when he knows his revenge can be had, Heathcliff is also filled with dark qualities which make him return to seek revenge, but a Byronic hero is usually passionate about a particular issue, this particular issue for Heathcliff is Catherine and we see this as he seems to be addicted to her. A Byronic hero exhibits several characteristic traits, and in many ways he can be considered a rebel. The Byronic hero does not possess "heroic virtue" in the usual sense; instead, he has many dark qualities. With regard to his intellectual capacity, self-respect, and hypersensitivity, the Byronic hero is "larger than life," and "with the loss of his titanic passions, his pride, and his certainty of self-identity, he loses also his status as [a traditional] hero" (Thorslev 187).