Wuthering Heights Group

Question:

sweetpea51193
sweetpea51193
Student
High School - 12th Grade

Describe in specific detail the contrast between the two families the Earnshaws and the Lintons in "Wuthering Heights."

Focus on the differences in personality traits of the family members and how they treat each other and other people.

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Posted by sweetpea51193 on Thursday August 28, 2008 at 6:32 PM and tagged with contrast families, earnshaws, lintons, plot, themes, wuthering heights.

Answers:

  1. lit24
    lit24 Teacher
    Doctorate

    eNotes Editor

    The two families, the Earnshaws and the Lintons, are very different from one another in the following aspects:

    1. The Lintons are richer and enjoy a wealthier lifestyle: Heathcliff describes the drawing room of Thrushcross Grange: "Ah! It was beautiful... like soft tapers." Ch.5. 

    2. The lifestye of the Linton family is more 'normal' than that of the Earnshaws: Heathcliff wants to know, "whether the Lintons passed their Sunday evenings ...if they don't answer properly?"Ch,5.

    3. The Earnshaw family becomes dysfunctional  soon  after  the adoption of Heathcliff: "So, from the very beginning he bred bad feeling in the house." Ch.4. The elder Earnshaw loved  Heathcliff more than Hindley his own son which sets in motion the cycle of revenge on which the entire novel is structured. This is not the case in the Linton family.

    4. The relationship between Hindley and Catherine of the Earnshaw family and the relationship between Edgar and Isabella of the Linton family have one thing in common - the lack of warmth or affection between brother and sister. Catherine is more attached to Heathcliff than Hindley and Edgar and Isabella are introduced in the novel as quarrelling over a puppy dog Ch.5. Edgar and Isabella are permanently estranged after Isabella marries Heathcliff against her brother's wishes, "Hereafter she is only my sister in name: not because I disown her, but because she has disowned me." Ch.12.

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    Posted by lit24 on Thursday August 28, 2008 at 7:44 PM