The Faces of Wuthering Heights

The purpose of this paper is to introduce and discuss “Wuthering Heights,” by Emily Bronte. Specifically, what does Bronte seem to imply are the main factors in shaping a person’s personality?

Bronte’s characters all exhibit strong emotions, it does not matter if they are kind or cruel, the emotions are strong and almost exaggerated. Heathcliff of course is the obvious, because early on the narrator discovers he is really just a mean, hateful, spiteful man. He does not even treat his dogs with kindness. Mr. Lockwood hears Heathcliff say, “‘Get it ready, will you?’ was the answer, uttered so savagely that I started. The tone in which the words were said revealed a genuine bad nature” (Bronte Chapter 2).

It seems to be Bronte’s suggestion that all the characters are creatures of their upbringing. Mr. Lockwood asks Ellen, “‘He must have had some ups and downs in life to make him such a churl. Do you know anything of his history?’” (Bronte Chapter 4). Indeed, when he first came to the house it seems his personality was already set. He was “hard,” and the other children picked on him, but he simply shrugged it off. By this, he was already accustomed to needing no one, and he never changed.

Class was a strong issue at this time in B

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Heathcliff married Heathcliff’s son, but she was the child of Catherine, and she had some of her mother’s selfishness and bitterness. He’ll love and hate equally under cover, and esteem it a species of impertinence to be loved or hated again” (Bronte Chapter 1), but he does not love, he only hates. She even agrees that if he was ugly and poor, she might have felt sorry for him, but certainly never married him. Yet, she marries him, for his money and his position in society. The people do not get along, and there are no genteel good manners or kind spirits. “…fortunately for my susceptible heart, the only sentiment they evinced hovered between scorn, and a kind of desperation, singularly unnatural to be detected there” (Bronte Chapter 2).

The Linton’s are the complete opposites of Heathcliff and Catherine, and they are another way that Bronte shows us how class and “breeding” make a difference in personality. They are certainly products of their parents, and their environment, but they are stronger than that, and they learn from each other. Lockwood says early in the book, “Here is the consequence of being buried alive: she has thrown herself away upon that boor from sheer ignorance that better individuals existed!” (Bronte Chapter 2). “They could not every day sit so grim and taciturn; and it was impossible, however ill-tempered they might be, that the universal scowl they wore was their everyday countenance” (Bronte Chapter 2). Many of the characters called her “wild” and “evil,” and her daughter seems to have inherited some of her mother’s attributes. Clearly, Bronte shows us the background of Heathcliff and Catherine’s childhoods because she feels they molded them as adults.

Approximate Word count = 1320
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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