Wuthering Heights Group

Question:

kirby131
kirby131
Student
High School - 10th Grade

Can you think of 5 characteristics to describe Heathcliff, as well as 3 quotes to explain each characteristic?

I go to school in New York, and I have a group in my L.A. class that is discussing this kind of thing. I'm a little behind because I've been out sick for days (stupid bronchitis). So I was wondering if anyone can help catch me up. I need 5 characteristics and 3 quotes from the novel that goes with each characteristic of Heathcliff.

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Posted by kirby131 on Tuesday February 10, 2009 at 1:58 PM and tagged with character, characteristic, heathcliff, heights, quote, wuthering, wuthering heights.

Answers:

  1. accessteacher
    accessteacher Teacher
    High School - 10th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    I am not going to answer your question completely, but one of the central debates within Wuthering Heights is the nature of Heathcliffe as a character. In particular, there is a dichotomy between descriptions of him presenting him as a monster, and descriptions that suggest he is a man just like one of us.

    A few quotes you may wish to use in this regard:

    1. Catherine herself urges Nelly to tell Isabella what kind of person Heathcliffe really is: ‘Tell her what Heathcliff is – an unreclaimed creature, without refinement – with out cultivation: and arid wilderness of furze and whinstone… he’s a fierce, pitiless, wolfish man.’

    2. Nelly comments on the degradation occurring at Wuthering Heights: "I felt that God had forsaken the stray sheep there to its own wicked wanderings, and an evil beast prowled between it and the fold, waiting his time to spring and destroy."

    3. When Heathcliffe bursts in on Catherine and Nelly, he is imbued with almost supernatural strength: "…the casement behind me was banged on the floor by a blow from (Heathcliff), and his black countenance looked blightingly through…His hair and clothes were whitened with snow, and his sharp cannibal teeth, revealed by cold and wrath, gleamed through the dark."

    In addition to these specific quotes you may wish to look at the various supernatural adjectives that are applied to the characther of Heathcliffe: "vampire" and "beast" to name but a few.

    However, despite these comments on Heathcliffe's monster-like qualities, he is also described as a human.

    1. An excellent quote to use is Nelly's reflection on Heathcliffe's misery at Catherine's death: "‘Poor wretch!’ I thought; ‘you have a heart and nerves the same as your brother men!’"

    2. Although Lockwood is, undeniably, an unrealiable narrator, he still believes that Heathcliffe is in form at least a gentlemen: "Heathcliff forms a singular contrast to his abode and style of living. He is a dark-skinned gypsy is aspects in dress and manners a gentleman – that is, as much a gentleman as many a country squire…"

    Any character study of Heathcliffe needs to investigate this disparity between his human qualities and his monster-qualities.

     

     

     

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/wuthering
    http://www.enotes.com/wuthering/characters

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    Posted by accessteacher on Thursday March 12, 2009 at 10:00 AM