HEATCLIFF

HEATCLIFF-He he main character of the story. His father adopts him when he was a poor and orphan child in the streets of Liverpool. When he arrives at Wuthering Heights Catherine and Hindley, Mr Earnshow's sons, are jealous. But Catherine learns to love him, while Hindley continues to hate him. At the end he wants to take revenge on Hindley and Edgar, because they have ruined his life. Heatcliff is not grateful and his behaviour is not correct.

CATHERINE-She is the sister of Hindley. When Heatcliff arrives at Wuthering Heights she plays with him and she is kind with him. When she is a young woman, she knows that Heatcliff loves her. She loves him too, because she says he is more herself than she is. But she considers a possible marriage with him degrading for her. So she decide t marry Edgar because she wants to become rich and respectable.

THEMES

Love and passion

The love between Heathcliff and Catherine is the principal theme in the novel and the whole story revolves around the passion that Catherine and Heathcliff feel for each other.

Their love is true but tormented and never realised during their lives. They will be reunited only after the death, as written at the summary at page 57("After his death, people claim to see the ghosts of a man and a woman wandering on the moor"). The love is wild and eternal. In facts, Heathcliff and Catherine continue to love each other even if they get married with other people, they live in separated houses and after Catherine's death, Heathcliff remains in love with her until he dies.

The lovers identify with and as each other and Catherine declares "Nelly, I am Heathcliff" (extract six, line 8)  

The passion is what divides Catherine from Edgar.  She says that her love for Edgar is like the foliage in the woods and her love for Heathcliff is like the eternal rocks(extract six, lines 5-7). So I can infer that her feelings for Edgar are changeable and her feelings for Heathcliff will be the same forever. Catherine's passion for Heathcliff ruins the lives of many people at Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange.

Revenge
This is the most dominant theme of the second half of the novel, although in the last chapter Heathcliff abandons his plan for revenge.

Heathcliff takes revenge on Edgar and Hindley treating Isabella (Edgar's sister) and Hareton (Hindley's son) badly.

Heathcliff first believes that if he can avenge the death of Catherine and he will somehow grow closer to her. However, the exact opposite occurs. When Heathcliff gives up on his plan for revenge, he is soon reunited with Catherine in eternal bliss.

Selfishness
Heathcliff is probably the most selfish person in all of Wuthering Heights. He ruins Catherine's life when he disappears for four years. He also ruins Isabella's life by marrying her only for revenge. Heathcliff forces young Cathy to marry Linton. These are only the major actions that show Heathcliff's selfishness.

Catherine's selfish character is evident when she wants both Edgar and Heathcliff at the same time. Catherine wants Edgar for his life and Heathcliff for his soul. She doesn't want to choose between the two of them, and therefore she never did. Thus, she caused pain for Heathcliff and Edgar.

EDGAR-He is Catherine cousin. He lives with Isabella at Trushcross Grange. He is calm and his behaviour is always correct. He is the opposite of Heatcliff, as such as Wuthering Heights is the opposite of Trushcross Grange. He asked Catherine to marry him and she accepts. So he is the rival of Heatcliff.

HINDLEY-He is Catherine's brother. He hates Heatcliff because he thinks he is a thief of his father's love. He becomes master of Wuthering Heights and wants his sister to marry Edgar Linton.

Nelly Dean

She's sensible and she believes in the true love. In fact she supports the relation between Heathcliff and Catherine as shown in the extract five, lines 1-5, and she accepts to give Heathcliff's letter to Catherine. She often acts as the "bridge" between the worlds of Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights.

She tries to shelter others from the truth. She may not lie to Lockwood, but she lies to some characters of the story but with good motives. For example in the extract four she lies to Catherine saying to her to stop talking because Heathcliff is coming with Joseph but in reality Heathcliff is hidden. In the same time she doesn't want Heathcliff knows the truth. She shelters Edgar from the truth because she doesn't tell him the relation between her wife and Heathcliff and she lies to a servant saying him to go to the village to buy some oranges for his mistress but, in reality, she wants to stay alone with Catherine and to give her Heathcliff's letter (extract seven, lines12-15).

Mr Loockwood-He is one of the two narrators. I think he is a cold person, in fact he decides to spend some time at Trushcross Grange to recover from an unhappy love affair (summary page 45) and he's insincere too because he wants to stay alone but after all he craves company at Wuthering Heights when it's clear he's not wanted.

NARRATOR

In Wuthering Heights there is multiple narration, which means that the story is told by more than one narrator. The two main narrators are Lockwood and Mrs. Dean. The latter relates the events that happened in the past, from her own personal experience. Her role is very important because she explains the story of the inhabitants Wuthering Heights and Thrusshcross Grange. She tells Lockwood the events, who also retells her story to an anonymous audience (the readers) writing it on a diary. Lockwood also adds information about the present course of events, again from his own experience. He uses a more sophisticated language than Mrs.Dean.

Lockwood is the only real stranger to the moors. He's pleasant, courteous and educated.