Wuthering Heights, Oliver Twist and Death of a Salesman - A comparative analysis

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Introduction

Children are treated differently in different homes and cultures. There has been, and there still are many discussions on the topic of whether it is the children´s surroundings that make them a certain way. In this essay I intend to show you that that is not always the case.

Thesis statement:

Even though both Heathcliff (Wuthering Heights) and Oliver (Oliver Twist) are physically and psychologically mistreated and grow up in a non-loving environment, their personalities show vastly different characteristics, making it clear that a person´s childhood does not allow us to predict that person´s future character. Biff (Death of a Salesman) is another example for this, as his comparatively solid and happy childhood nevertheless results in unhappiness and frustration.

Argumentation

Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights is a prime example of a person who has been treated badly by the people around him turning out bad himself. From the moment Heathcliff is brought home by Mr. Earnshaw, he holds a special place in his heart. This caused Hindley to feel jealous and because of that, treat Heathcliff as badly as he could.
"the young master had learned to regard his father as an oppressor rather than a friend, and Heathcliff as a usurper of his parents’ affections and his privileges; and he grew bitter with brooding over these injuries." (Brontë, 46)
"when Hindley finished his speech by knocking him under its feet" (Brontë, 47)
Initially Heathcliff took his mistreatment calmly, but after Mr. Earnshaw died and Hindley took over as master of Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff´s situation only worsened until he was treated like nothing but a slave.
"He drove him from their company to the servants, deprived him of the instructions of the curate, and insisted that he should labour out of doors instead; compelling him to do so as hard as any other lad on the farm." (Brontë, 52)
"Nobody but I even did him the kindness to call him a dirty boy" (Brontë, 57)
Even Cathy, his best and only friend, made him feel left out and unworthy, first by going out with Edgar Linton, and then by talking about her engagement saying that marrying Heathcliff would be degrading. However, this was unintentional, and he left before hearing the full statement.
"It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now" (Brontë, 80)
"Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He´s always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being." (Brontë, 81)
Being so poorly treated made Heathcliff the man he later became. The passion for revenge Heathcliff feels goes so deep that he is willing to ruin his own life in order to get it. The fact that Cathy betrayed him and married another man was the last straw leaving him with no more excuses for not getting the revenge he had once vowed to get.
""I´m trying to settle how I shall pay Hindley back. I don´t care how long I wait, if I can only do it at last. I hope he will not die before I do!"" (Brontë, 62)
When he came back after three years his only objective was revenge and he used any means possible to get it; taking over Wuthering Heights after Hindley´s death since Hindley had lost money to him in a card game, marrying Linton´s sister just to make him hurt, kidnapping Miss Catherine and forcing her to stay at Wuthering Heights against her will.
"There were some people sitting at cards; Heathcliff joined them; my brother lost some money to him" (Brontë, 95)
""His father died in debt," he said; "the whole property is mortgaged" (Brontë, 163)
This was certainly done on purpose on Heathcliff´s part. He knew that if Hindley could not pay him back the money he would get Wuthering Heights, which would be one of the easiest ways for him to get his revenge.
""She´s gone, she´s gone! Yon´ Heathcliff´s run off wi´ her!"" (Brontë, 121)
"He shut and locked it also." (Brontë, 227)
"I´m come to fetch you home; and I hope you´ll be a dutiful daughter" ( Brontë, 239)

Oliver (Oliver Twist) is also treated badly and looked down on through out the story, but in contrast to Heathcliff, that does not make him resentful or angry. He does not understand it, but he never takes it out on his surroundings. Oliver grows up as an orphan and is treated thereafter. At the age of nine he ends up in a work house and is forced to work for whatever small amount of food he will receive, and it is not much. He is even punished when he one time asks for more.
"´Please, sir, I want some more.´" (Dickens, 15)
"For a week after the commission of the impious and profane offence of asking for more, Oliver remained a close prisoner of the dark and solitary room to which he had been a consigned by the wisdom and mercy of the board." (Dickens, 17)
This treatment seems very unnecessary and exaggerated. It is obvious that one of the unwritten commandments of today´s society, that we shall give our children better than what we ourselves have had, does not exist when it comes to poor peoole.
Oliver is taken as an apprentice by Mr. Sowerberry, the parish undertaker, and all is well until he attacks Noah Claypole when he speaks ill of his dead mother. For this he is beaten and locked up. I do not believe violence ever is the answer to anything, but I do believe that what Oliver shows is not an example of bad character but, rather the impulsiveness possessed by a nine year old boy.
"´Oh, you little un-grate-ful, mur-de-rous, hor-rid villain!´" (Dickens, 53)
"Oliver´s clothes had been torn in the beating he had received; his face was bruised and scratched; and his har scattered over his forehead." (Dickens, 59)
"he at once gave him a drubbing, which satisfied even Mrs. Sowerberry herself, and rendered Mr. Bumbles subsequent application of the parochial cane, rather unnecessary." (Dickens, 60)
He finally decides to leave and ends up in London with a gang of thieves who train him to join them.
"´See if you can take it out, without my feeling it: as you saw them do, when we were playing this morning.´" (Dickens, 79)
However, as soon as he finds out what they are up to, he wants nothing to do with them. He knows what is right and wrong and he chooses to do the right thing. Even though being a thief and burglar would guarantee him food and shelter, he cannot bring himself to do anything bad. He would rather die than break into a house belonging to good people. This shows what a genuinely good person he really is.
"What was Oliver´s horror and alarm as he stood a few paces off, looking on with his eyelids as wide open as they would possibly go, to see the Dodger plunge his hand into the old gentleman´s pocket, and draw from thence a handkerchief!" (Dickens, 82)
"´Oh! for God´s sake let me go!´ cried Oliver; ´Let me run away and die in the fields."
Things might have turned out differently had it not been for the kindness of Mr. Brownlow and other people around Oliver. They looked beyond the surface and they showed faith in him when none other would.
"´Come said Mr. Brownlow, ´these are not the characteristics of young Oliver Twist; so he needn´t excite your wrath.´" (Dickens, 123)
"What is he, after all, they would say? A runaway. Judged by mere wordly considerations and probabilities. his story is a very doubtful one.´
´You believe it, surely?´ interrupted Rose.
´I believe it. strange as it is; and perhaps I may be an old fool for doing so,´ rejoined the doctor" (Dickens, 274-275)


Biff in Death of a Salesman was not treated badly by the people around him, on the opposite, he was probably treated too well by his family, and was seen to be the greatest person in the world by his father.
"Then when you´re all set, there´ll be plenty of girls for a boy like you." (Miller, 21)
"That´s why I thank Almighty God you´re both built like Adonises." (Miller, 25)
He saw his family, especially his father, as some kind of super humans who knew everything and never made any mistakes. He was heartbroken when he discovered his father having an affair with another woman, and giving away his mother´s stockings to her. He came there being so sure his father was going to save him when he failed math, but left having realized his father was not, and never had been, perfect. Biff had trusted his father completely, he had been his hero, the one person in the world which he looked up to. His father was the perfect image of the successful man, and when Biff found that image to be untrue his entire world shattered and he had to rebuild it by himself. Maybe this was Willy Loman´s biggest mistake in raising his sons; that he never showed them that people do make mistakes and that they still can be good people.
"He admires Pop." (Miller, 43)
"You gotta talk to him before they close the school. Because if he just saw the kind of man you are, and you just talked to him in your way, I´m sure he´d come through for me." (Miller, 93)
"You fake! You phony little fake! You fake!" (Miller, 95)
His father had too high hopes for his Biff, and refused to see what kind of person he had become as an adult. He only sees him as the person he wants him to be, not the ´real´ person, and this makes Biff angry and frustrated with him.
"Dad, you´re never going to see what I am, so what´s the use of arguing?" (Miller, 102)
"We never told the truth for ten minutes in this house!" (Miller, 104)
Biff has stolen things, he does not even know why he does it, but he keeps doing it. He even goes to prison for it, but never tells his parents until the very end.
"Well, I borrowed it from the locker room" (Miller, 23)
"I took his fountain pen." (Miller, 82)
"You know why I had no address for three months? I stole a suit in Kansas City and I was in jail." (Miller, 104)
Willy Loman was a very righteous man and believed in the importance of being well liked and doing the right thing. In stealing, Biff found the perfect way of defying his father´s beliefs and in a way becoming his own person.
"Bigger than Uncle Charley! Because Charley is not - liked. He´s liked, but he´s not - well liked." (Miller, 23)



Conclusion

All of the above described characters were very influenced by what happened in their lives when they were young. But this does not mean that they became what was expected of them. Heathcliff was treated badly by his foster family and he does want revenge when the opportunity comes along. He became what he hated the most, the person who treats people as if they had no worth. Come to think of it, in his quest to get back at Hindley, he became him. Oliver Twist shared the same awful background as Heathcliff, in being badly mistreated and judged by his appearance, but the difference between them is that one chose to become what people thought he was and that the other defied his place in society and showed the people around that he was not a bad person.
Biff is the Joker. His background is nothing like the one of the others. He was loved by his parents and so praised that the thought something bad happening to him was never a possibility until he failed math and found out about his father´s infidelity. He did not turn out a bad person, but he did do things that are not seen as likely when you are dealing with a person from a stable and happy home. Oliver Twist on the other hand would have been more likely in society´s eyes to fall into the pit of criminality. Oliver is seen as either a very weak boy, or one that would d...