Notes on Wuthering Heights
... something diabolical and savage in his nature. Isabella agrees when she tells her visitor, "He's a lying fiend, a monster, and not a human being." In spite of his cruelty to Isabella, it is evident that Heathcliff still loves Cathy deeply. He demands that Nelly arrange a meeting for him with her. He is greatly concerned about her health and resentful of Edgar, "that insipid, paltry creature attending her." He says that if she were to die, he would deem himself dead as well, tortured in hell. His images of death echo those of Cathy; both the lovers recognize that their bond of love will not be limited to this lifetime. The reader is given a moment's relief from the tension of the plot with the arrival of the doctor, who has come to attend to Lockwood, causing a break in Nelly's tale. It also reinforces that this entire part of the novel is a flashback to previous events. The conflict of Wuthering Heights must be viewed on two levels: Level 1 - Heathcliff's story Protagonist: The main protagonist of the novel is Heathcliff, who was an orphan brought home to live at Wuthering Heights. From the beginning, he was a "sullen, patient child; hardened perhaps to ill-treatment." As he grew, he became even more dark, morose, and gypsy-like, introducing strife into the peaceful lives of the Earnshaws and the Lintons. During the novel, Heathcliff is described as "rough as a saw- edge and hard as a whinstone." His presence, like some brooding spirit of evil, darkly overshadows the events of the whole story. Antagonists: Heathcliff's antagonists are all the evil and demonic forces within him, especially his vengefulness. Throughout the book, he is always plotting to get revenge for the poor treatment he has received from various characters, such as the jealous and brutalizing Hindley, the sulking Edgar Linton, the ambitious and ferociously intense Catherine, and the infatuation-driven and foolish Isabella Linton. Climax: The climax for Heathcliff is reached in the novel with the death of Catherine. She has been the driving force of his life and his reason for living. After her death, he only wants vengeance for all the wrongs done to him. Outcome: Heathcliff's story ends in tragedy. At the end of the book, he dies a pathetic, lonely, and bitter man. Level 2 - The tale as a love story Protagonist: Viewed as a tale that is bigger that Heathcliff, the protagonist of the novel becomes the idea of love, in its true and purest form. Antagonists: The antagonists to true love are all the things in the novel that stand between two lovers committing themselves to one another. Although Heathcliff and Catherine passionately profess their love to one another, they are separated because Catherine has chosen to marry Edgar, a man who is more polished and civilized than Heathcliff. The younger Cathy is forced by Heathcliff to marry Linton, whom she does not love. By the end of the novel, however, she falls in love with an...