HEATHCLIFF'S ADOPTION : THE REJECTION OF THE NEW MEMBER.
Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights is the story of an adoption that goes dreadfully incorrect. Heathcliff, one of the central characters in the novel, is made to feel rejection from the first moment he is brought to the family.
When he arrives to Wuthering Heights, is seen as an alien figure inside the family and is said to interfere with the affections of the Earnshaws. He also suffers from Hindley's abuses and is betrayed by Catherine in favour of social status. She opts for marrying Edgar.
Because of that wrongs done to him in his childhood, he sets himself to ruin Hindley, Edgar, and their families. He blames both of them of having caused his loss of Catherine.
However, he defeats his plan of revenge when he sees Catherine Earnshaw in the figure of Hareton and Cathy. They both remind him more of Catherine than of their parents.
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EMILY BRONTE'S WUTHERING HEIGHTS.
HEATHCLIFF'S ADOPTION : THE REJECTION OF THE NEW MEMBER.
Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights is in essence a novel of adoption. However, this adoption instead of bringing happiness to the family, as most adoptions do in real life, goes terribly wrong. That is because the child who finds his way back to Wuthering Heights under the protective arm of Mr. Earnshaw is so obviously out of place socially, culturally and in appearance that he is soon looked upon as a chink in the family's elitist armour. .
The story begins with Mr. Earnshaw bringing home to the Heights a seven-year-old foundling from the streets of Liverpool. This "dirty, ragged, black-haired child- (36) is seen as an intruder instead of as a new member of the family. When he is brought to Wuthering Heights, the first thing that Mrs. Earnshaw did was throwing a tantrum about her husband bringing home a "gipsy brat-(37). We can also see the rejection of the rest of the members of the family between the lines of the following account:.