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Revenge - Wuthering Heights and The Count of Monte Cristo


It is possible that Heathcliff is naturally an evil being, and would, even if untainted by cruelty, become a vengeful creature as suggested by the suspicion afforded to him by the Earnshaw's upon his arrival. However, there is only the account of the opinionated, gossiping Nelly to recall how "Hindley hated him, and to say the truth [she] did the same," and how "from the very beginning, [Heathcliff] bred bad feeling in the house" there is little other evidence to support this, especially considering Cathy's almost immediate attachment to him. This shows that his maltreatment is a greater contributor than an inherently evil nature, helping to represent the corrupting influence the abuses of society had on Heathcliff.
             It has been suggested that the cause of Heathcliff's anger is his love of Cathy. Edgar "steals" Cathy, who feels it would "degrade" her to "marry Heathcliff" due to his class and despite her belief that their shared love is as strong as "the eternal rocks beneath". She chooses Edgar for the fact that he is "handsome," "cheerful," "pleasant to be with," and, most importantly, "rich", a quality Heathcliff does not possess at the time. Heathcliff is a character caught between love and hate, Bronte uses Cathy's sleight to force him to focus on his revenge instead of her. This becomes especially true when he is "left" without Cathy following her death begging to be driven "mad" rather than lose her. Loss of Cathy leaves him bitter, maddened and further focussed on vengeance. Some claim that his love for Cathy gave him just cause to react violently. He finds her death "unutterable" believing himself unable to carry on and describing her as "my life!. my soul!" and seeing everything around him, as nothing more than "a dreadful collection of memoranda that she did exist, and that [he] lost her." This establishes the idea that his vengeance stems from the loss of Cathy, and suggests that his vendetta is against all those socially superior to him, in retaliation to his loss of her to Edgar, a character above him in society.


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