Character+Descriptions

//Heathcliff// – Heathcliff is the antagonist //and// the hero of //Wuthering Heights//. He falls tragically in love with Catherine as a child, but is betrayed by her when she decides to ignore his love and pursue Edgar Linton. Heathcliff as a child is animal-like and extremely moody. Since he is disliked deeply by Hindley, the master of Wuthering Heights, he often avoids the manor and lives in the stables with the animals. Heathcliff vows to take revenge on Hindley for his cruelty, but ends up taking extremely amoral measures to do so. Heathcliff is both a villain and one to be pitied by the end of //Wuthering Heights.// //Catherine// – Catherine is a girl torn between two lives and two men. By nature she is quite wild and untamable, similar to Heathcliff. However, she extremely tempted to live a more civilized, upscale life that Heathcliff could never provide for her. Though she is at first contemptuous of the Lintons, she becomes fascinated by their classy lifestyle when she lives with them for a month in her youth. Soon Catherine finds herself caught between loving Heathcliff and loving Edgar. When forced to make a choice between the two, her mental health deteriorates dangerously and she dies before she can act on her intuitive desire to be with Heathcliff. //Hindley// – Hindley despises Heathcliff because it is Heathcliff who won his father’s affection and because Heathcliff and his sister, Catherine, are in love. Hindley eventually becomes the owner of Wuthering Heights and is very cruel to Heathcliff. When Hindley begins drinking after his wife’s death, his addiction bests him and he becomes abusive and hateful. His alcoholism makes him ignore his son and gamble his fortune. Because of this, his son becomes who Heathcliff was as a child and his fortune is cleverly seized from him by his enemy, Heathcliff. Edgar – Edgar is an upscale man who has little courage or backbone. He seeks the affection of Catherine, and receives it strictly because of his social class. When he and Catherine marry, Edgar is protective and feels very threatened when Heathcliff shows back up. In a scene in which Heathcliff and Edgar face off, Edgar is //terrified// of Heathcliff and escapes the fight by dealing Heathcliff an unfair blow to the throat.
 * Characters **