Catherine Earnshaw: Her Relationships and Development
             Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights is about the relationships between two families and how those relationships affect the members of their families. Catherine Earnshaw is considered a free spirit, but is torn between two worlds. She has to choose between Heathcliff, her childhood and friend, and Edgar Linton, the man who is socially acceptable for her to marry. She grew up at Wuthering Heights, which is considered
             Outside the law, outside the codes and forms of restraint imposed by society and civilized values...no limit to their passions, but love and hate with equal intensity, as if gripped by a monomania that will not allow compromise, that cannot heed the voice of reason or even self-preservation (Benvenuto 91).
             Catherine has to decide what will be the best choice for her, rather not letting her passionate emotions hinder any decision she may make. Her love for both men ultimately leads to her death. Catherine comments, " Her love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods...My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath"(65). Catherine Earnshaw is affected in her development by her relationships with Heathcliff, her marriage to Edgar Linton, and her stay at Thrushcross Grange as a child.
             Catherine and Heathcliff grew up together. When Catherine was young, her father, Mr.Earnshaw brought home an orphan from Liverpool, whom everyone in the house immediately dislikes because of his vulgar image. Mr. Earnshaw grew to love the boy as a son, as did his daughter. As Mr. Earnshaw began to die, Catherine and Heathcliff begin to grow and closer and their love for each other intensifies. The night Mr. Earnshaw dies they realize how much they need each other, and Catherine especially need their relationship (Winnifrith 657). "She was much too fond of Heathcliff. The greatest punishment we could invent for her was to keep her separate fr...