When Wuthering Heights was published it was blasted its contemporaries as obscene. They railed that Catherine and Heathcliff were the most immoral and in general worst people they had ever had the misfortune of reading about. Although Wuthering Heights has taken it’s rightful place as masterwork of 19th century literature and Emily Bront has receive credit for her work, it is still possible to see where the early attacks are based. Heathcliff especially behaves in a very obtuse manner.
The basis for this behavior is Heathcliff’s bizarre love/hate relationship with Catherine. His frustrated desire to be with her auses him deep personal pain, which he transfers to other characters in a sadistic attempt to force them to feel that pain as well. Heathcliff and Catherine’s relationship is neither stable nor in any way normal. Instead it is full of violent emotions which are either soaring high or dashingly low, with very little between the two. Catherine declares that she and Heathcliff “Whatever souls are made of, his and mine are the same”(73).
Heathcliff desires nothing more than to be with Catherine, but their relationship is undermined by the revelation that Catherine feels that “it ould degrade me to marry Heathcliff . . . “(73). Heathcliff was unsuitable to Catherine because he is poor with no family. However, Edgar Linton has both and for those shallow reasons Catherine marries Edgar betraying Heathcliffs feelings for her and her own feeling as well. Catherine had hoped to marry Edgar but also to keep on loving Heathcliff as well, to “have her cake and eat it too”.
What kind of living will it be when oh, God! Would you like to live with your soul in the grave? (147-48) Love and hate are so closely entwined that they are both expressed in a single sentence. No one will call that exchange normal but it contains the essence of their relationship. Despite the barbs of blame for the situation being thrown there is no doubt that Catherines death pains Heathcliff to the very soul. Heathcliff becomes determined to share the pain caused by Catherine’s betrayal and her death.
The victims of his deranged vengeance are Isabella Linton, Edgar Linton, Linton Heathcliff, and Catherine Linton II. “The more the worms writhe, the more I yearn to crush out their entails! “(140). Clearly a sadistic attitude and one that makes it absolutely clear that Heathcliff’s marriage to Isabella is a revenge on both Catherine and Edgar. The marriage of Heathcliff to her sister-in-law is emotionally damaging to an already frail Catherine. Edgar, who despises Heathcliff throughout the novel, is shock and very nearly disowns his sister for marrying a ruffian like Heathcliff.
So Heathcliff gets vengeance on Edgar as well. Poor Isabella is caught with a man who does not, in fact never, loved her. She writes Nelly, “”. There is another motivation for the marriage: money. Though his marriage with Isabella Heathcliff has placed himself in line for not just money, but Edgar Linton’s money. With Catherine and Isabella’s deaths and the birth of Catherine II and Linton Heathcliff, Heathcliff continues his manipulations into another generation.
The forced marriage between first cousins Catherine II and Linton, with all is a accompanying duplicity, is a the final act of revenge. The subsequent deaths of Edgar Linton and Linton Heathcliff leave Wuthering Heights and the Grange in Heathcliff’s possession. The vengeance is complete: Heathcliff has everything dear to Edgar, his property and his daughter; the younger Catherine, because he ould not control her mother and he may feels that shre should have been his and Catherines daughter; and Hinley’s son is turning out to be another Heathcliff.
Complete victory for Heathcliff, but then a strange thing happens: Heathcliff starts to mellow. He seems to realize that however complete his vengeance it gets him no closer to Catherine, her shade still wonders the moors. Heathcliff professes to Nelly, “she has disturbed me, night and day, through eighteen years” (264). It is when Heathcliff prepares to spent eternity with Catherine that he final finds peace, with her and himself. Catherines coffin, buried for eighteen years, is dug up and a panel removed so Heathcliffs remains can mingle with hers.
With Heathcliffs death there is at last peace at Wuthering Heights. He and Catherine are together for all time. The property, both Wuthering Height and the Grange have been returned to their rightful owners Hareton Earshaw and Catherine II. Heathcliff had schemed to leave her destitute, but she will end up with both properties after her marriage to Hareton. A full circle has been completed and everything is as it should be, finally.