Emily Bronte’s “Wuthering Heights” Essay

The story of Heathcliff, the sadistic protagonist of Emily Brontes Wuthering Heights is so upset that Edgar Linton does not indispensability his lovely daughter, Cathy, to hear it. Heathcliff and Cathy, both prominent characters in the novel, interact in the second half of the novel. Heathcliffs passages reveal that the tortured character comes about from a childhood without the c ar of pargonnts (33) while Cathys goodness (164) reflects her being raised by a loving father. The different supervision each character experienced while growing up is reflected by their behavior, showing that nurture is a greater factor over unitys personality than nature.Beginning her comment of Heathcliff with the lowly word degradation, Nelly, the narrator, tells Lockwood how Heathcliff and Catherine (the mother of Cathy) grow more reckless daily without parental guidance. Nelly recalls these events right before Catherine is injured and stays at Thrushcross Grange for fiver weeks. Nelly also said t hat Heathcliff and Catherine promised to grow up stark(a) as savages. The punishments the two received from Joseph and the Curate, Nelly notes, havent helped her increase the small power she holds over the two, receivable to the lack of parental guidance. It is also important to note some of the foreshadowing that occurs here Heathcliffs return al mavin in the rain foreshadows his demise. His lack of discover for the church also symbolizes his lack of will and later on immense greediness. Brontes genius shines throughout this passage, mixing savagery, love, symbolism, and foreshadowing all in one page.Nellys description of Cathy is spoken on a very positive note, including many of the same devices seen in Heathcliffs passage. She says that Cathy has not seen or even hear of any bad deeds except for her slight acts of noncompliance, and that Cathy is amazed at the blackness of spirit of Heathcliff. Nelly describes Cathy as a sheltered, gentle, book-loving young daughter of Edgar. In addition, Cathy is said to be extremely well mannered within this section.Edgar tries to protect his daughter from having to know about an evil soul such as Heathcliff, attempting to bar the malicious outside force from corrupting her personality. The passage even contains Cathy crying over the miseries of someone she has only met twice so far. She also has a passably convincing argument as to why she should meet Lintonagain, foreshadowing her disobedience of her father by going to meet Linton, her only companion outside of Thrushcross Grange. This disobedience will be the main factor in her future encounters with Heathcliff.Cathys extreme kindness and Heathcliffs great roughness contrast very well. Heathcliffs description shows him as a wild, undisciplined being. Cathy, on the other hand, is portrayed as a very nice, helpful daughter and a devoted ace to Linton. Heathcliffs lack of education (Catherine being his only educator) also differs from Cathys lessons for a couple of hours that she has. Heathcliffs vow to grow up as rude as a savage is far from Cathys melancholy over not being able to meet Linton again. There is not much that is similar between the two characters, due to both of them being on opposite ends of the spectrum. This lack of similarities is what makes these two characters interesting to follow throughout the novel.The language in these passages is quite interesting. Nelly uses much harsher language in the passage with Heathcliff than the passage with Cathy, representing the behavior of the two characters. The paces of the narratives also differs, with Heathcliffs being a more intense rate than Cathys, also due to their contrasting actions. Another interesting thing to note is the use of the word naughty. Both passages employ this word, showing a mild form of being disobedient, which cannot be explained by any other means other than just saying that the both have the same author and narrator Emily Bronte and Nelly Dean, respectively. Also, as seen throughout the book, an unusal amount of referrals to doors are present, most likely to show frames within the framed narrative. Studying these two passages against each other brings one to a deeper meaning than reading each one separately.Nellys descriptions of Heathcliff and Cathy shows that nurture predominates over nature. Cathy, the mix between the peaceful Edgar Linton and the wild Catherine Earnshaw, shows only her positive traits, due to the fact that she was brought up by Edgar alone. Heathcliff, an orphan brought crime syndicate by Mr. Earnshaw, has had his good qualities disappear through a process which Nelly calls degradation because he was raised up with Hindley, who constantly thought of Heathcliff as an other.These two characters are sodramatically different, even though they were both blessed with good looks and intelligence. One might argue, however, that because Bronte does not give the origins of Heathcliff, he might be innate(p) of a family with a tendency to be selfish and greedy. This idea can be countered, though, because Heathcliff was said to have bore his degradation pretty well at first, a quality that not many natural tyrants can boast of. Also, the fact that Cathy is the daughter of Catherine and yet shows few of the violent characteristics of her mother tells us that genes play no, or very little, role in how she behaves.