HEATHCLIFF IN EMILY BRONTE’S WUTHERING HEIGHTS : DEVIL OR A WRONGED HERO

ABSTRACT

Heathcliff is a fictional character in Emily Brontë’s novel Wuthering Heights. Owing to the novel’s enduring fame and popularity, he is often regarded as an archetype of the tortured romantic hero whose all-consuming passions destroy both him and those around him. He is better known as a romantic hero, due to his love for Catherine Earnshaw, than for his final years of vengeance in the second half of the novel, in which he grows into a bitter, haunted man, and for a number of incidents in his early life that suggest that he was an upset and sometimes malicious individual from the beginning. His complicated, mesmerizing, consumable and altogether bizarre nature makes him a rare character, with components of both the hero and villain. Heathcliff has been a point of debate and discussion since its oeuvre, however, none has come forward with a satisfactory explanation of his persona. The question of Heathcliff being a wronged hero or a character with sinister and sadistic overtones remains unanswered till today. The present paper portrays the character of Heathcliff as a symbolic representation of society corrupting the natural goodness in humans. His character is a manifestation of a staunch portrayal of love, a cut- throat criticism of society and a perceptive and trenchant exploration of humanity. 

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