The Faces of Wuthering Heights

A detailed Summary of The Faces of Wuthering Heights

The purpose of this paper is to introduce and discuss "Wuthering Heights," by Emily Bronte. Specifically, what does Bronte seem to imply are the main factors in shaping a person's personality?

Bronte's characters all exhibit strong emotions, it does not matter if they are kind or cruel, the emotions are strong and almost exaggerated. Heathcliff of course is the obvious, because early on the narrator discovers he is really just a mean, hateful, spiteful man. He does not even treat his dogs with kindness. Mr. Lockwood hears Heathcliff say, "'Get it ready, will you?' was the answer, uttered so savagely that I started. The tone in which the words were said revealed a genuine bad nature" (Bronte Chapter 2).

It seems to be Bronte's suggestion that all the characters are creatures of their upbringing. Mr. Lockwood asks Ellen, "'He must have had some ups and downs in life to make him such a churl. Do you know anything of his history?'" (Bronte Chapter 4). Indeed, when he first came to the house it seems his personality was already set. He was "hard," and the other children picked on him, but he simply shrugged it off. By this, he was already accustomed to needing no one, and he never changed.

Class was a strong issue at this time in B

All of these characters have one thing in common. They never change, they never grow, they never learn from their mistakes, or from their past. The only two characters that do change is, "young" Catherine and Hareton, Hindley's son, they are the redeeming characters in the novel. They are certainly products of their parents, and their environment, but they are stronger than that, and they learn from each other. Catherine makes fun of Hareton because he cannot read, and so he learns to read, to please her, and to better himself. They are the only two "winners" in the book, because they are the only characters that are three-dimensional. They are more than their emotions, and they know there is more to life than pain and anger.

Hindley is another example of surroundings. He was always evil in the story, but he proved there was some good in him because of the great love he felt for his wife and his child. Unfortunately, that good did not live on. When his wife died, he was twice as bad. Instead of letting the love change him, he reverted to his old ways.

By Chapter 3 we know that the way Heathcliff is treated is not any better at Wuthering Heights than he would have been on the streets, he just had a roof over his head. Clearly, Bronte shows us the background of Heathcliff and Catherine's childhoods because she feels they molded them as adults. How could such a violent and hateful upbringing (after Catherine's father died) not affect the way you look at the world as an adult? However, Heathcliff's personality was already carved in stone. Kindness did not seem to make any difference to him; he was a product of something earlier.

Mrs. Heathcliff married Heathcliff's son, but she was the child of Catherine, and she had some of her mother's selfishness and bitterness. Many of the characters called her "wild" and "evil," and her daughter seems to have inherited some of her mother's attributes. As the narrator, Mr. Lockwood, says, she was beautiful

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Approximate Word count = 1320
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels