Heathcliff - the romantic archetype

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I have read Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë. The story is about Heathcliff and Catherine, their relationship to one another, and how their love distroys and torments everything it touches. In this essay I will focus on one of the main characters, Heathcliff, and how some of the characteristic features of the romantic era is reflected in his personality and in his actions. I will also take a look at how the other characters and the environment help to bring out his personality and therefore prove my claim that a lot of the romantic and gothic features can be seen in and around Heathcliff.

The freedom of imagination is a big part of the romantic era, and also in Wuthering Heights. Heathcliffs background is, throughout the entire novel, a mystery. We never get to know where he comes from or who his parents are. Heathcliff comes to the Wuthering Heigths when he is around seven years old. He is brought there by Mr. Earnshaw, who found him on the streets of Liverpool and took him home. This mysterious and kind of spooky aspects are characteristic for the romantic and gothic period. The romantic writers thought of the mysterious and unknown as exciting, and it gives the reader more freedom, since you can use your imagination to figure out what you think would fit best in with the story.

Another part of the romantic era is emotion. The writers were committed to emotion and passion. In Wuthering Heights, this is seen in for example the love between Heathcliff and Catherine. It is very intense and deep, almost obsessive. He is even ready to kill Catherines husband to be with her. It might be arised from the fact that he was treated badly as a child, but also, from his intense love and passion for Catherine. The fact that even when they are dead, they never seem to rest, since the story tells that Mr Lockwood sees the ghost of Catherine outside the window of the Wuthering Heights. Afterwards Heathcliff finds out that the ghost of his lover has tried to reach him, and gets upset and screams after her to come back in. Later on in the novel it says that people have seen the ghosts of both Heathcliff and Catherine wandering the moors. Together at last.

The last thing I intend to talk about is the environment of the story. In the romantic era, the writers put a lot of effort in describing the environment since it is a very important part in putting the right feeling into the story. The story of Wuthering Heights is set in the English countryside out on the moors, where it is often very windy and the weather is quite rough. The reader might think that this helps to bring out the whole character of the story, and especially Heathcliffs personality. He is an unsettled, harsh man, and the environment the story is set in maybe symbolizes how he might feel inside.

You can see a lot of the characteristic features of the romantic and gothic era in Heathcliff. The imagination and mysterious aspects were very popular in the romantic era, and you can see that in Wuthering Heigths by the fact that we never get to know who Heathcliff really is and where he comes from, except for Liverpool. Another important feature of the novels from the romantic era is emotion. In this novel the emotion and passion is shown through Heathcliffs and Catherines love towards each other. They never stop loving each other, even when they are dead. That is the beauty of ever-lasting love, it really is never-ending. The environment of the story could be a reflection of how Heathcliff feels inside. The house is built on the windy moors, where it is rough weather. Heathcliff probably feels a bit lost and confused inside, considering his childhood. He has had a rough life. I would highly recommend this book to everyone who likes complicated lovestories and a bit of ...