Heathcliff is one of the most emotionally antagonizing characters possible. Brought from a lower class as an orphan- no family, no friends; nothing- to the rich Earnshaw family, he undergoes a dramatic shift in his life, and it is leads to such a twisted story.
Most people are sympathetic with Heathcliff in the beginning of the story, but then turn against him later on. This is incredibly typical of humanity, is it not? Once the poor little kid stops being a victim, we stop caring for him; but Heathcliff is still a victim during his victimizer years. He is traumatized by what has happened to him. He started out being loved by his new family, excluding Hindley. Then Mrs. Earnshaw passes away, and Hindley’s only advocate in the household is lost, and he turns even more bitter. Mr. Earnshaw ships Hindley away due to the turmoil between the boys which really is the final straw for him. All the while, Heathcliff is in love with Catherine. They grow an attraction, a relationship, but poor Heathcliff, Mr. Earnshaw dies, Hindley returns as a tyrannical authority, and his love marries Linton for the wealth and social status. I understand his pain. He was an orphan, unloved from the start. Then he came into love, given a taste of it for several short years before it was so mercilessly taken from him. By the time of his departure from Wuthering Heights, everyone he has ever loved and everyone who has ever loved him has either died or abandoned and betrayed him, and he is left with a hateful step-brother. Can one seriously not show sympathy for this? For everyone here? Honestly, there needed to be some serious serotonin and oxytocin increases in this family, heck put it in the water if they can’t make it occur naturally at first!
Love, love is what they need. Give them a hug once in a while; cry out the pains; talk. No, what happened to Heathcliff does not justify his horrible behavior later in the novel, but it makes if more comprehendible, does it not? And then his desperate love for Catherine crushes him farther than possibly conceivable when she dies. But what’s more, she comes back as an undead entity to haunt him for his life! Goodness, how does one cope with that? In a life with so much trauma, such a lasting, depressing love, of course Heathcliff would become what turned him into part of what ruined him! It’s a defense mechanism, an escape, a means to survive! Granted, it will only perpetuate the madness, the hatred, the pain- but it is what he uses, and I recognize that. He needed a hug. He needed love. He needed someone to talk to, a friend, a mentor, anyone who could relieve him of his tragedy.
Sympathy is abundant for all the characters if this novel, and that is what truly makes this novel so incredibly depressing. Once again everybody is in part a victim and in part a victimizer. It’s the agony that continues eternally. Hindley is a victim because an outsider entered his family and took up more attention than he, and he reacted negatively. They are all victims of society, all subjected to the ingrained idiosyncratic ways of their world. And yet, they are all members of this society and perpetuating its agony.
Such is the story of all humanity, only now in a more manifested, impacting form. Ignorant people roam all around, not noticing the damage they do, and I am no better. None of us are any better because we are all deplorable human beings ruining lives, destroying dreams, ending lives left and right and calling it justice, calling it defense, calling it ethical. Is there no end? Is there no stopping of this horrible disaster, this man-made agony we call humanity? What do we have left? Blind hopes and dying chances? Do we have god? Do we have each other? Who even knows anymore.
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