The Importance Of Revenge In Wuthering Heights

Whenever someone tries to forget or bury a past event, it often comes back to affect them because nothing ever truly stays buried, or forgotten, it can and does becomes relevant in present or future times. Most times these events affect both the future and present activities in positive ways, but in some cases negative ways; many novels such as Wuthering Heights, use their characters to show how these events, especially the negative ones, can affect a character’s, values, relationships to others, and even give to its meaning of the work. One of the central meanings in Wuthering Heights is revenge which is portrayed by the novel’s main character Heathcliff; his desire for revenge is an offshoot of both his physical abuse as both a child, …show more content…
He had grown to be very cruel because of both Hindley’s abuse of him as a child, and because he was forced to be a servant because Hindley disliked. An example of Heathcliff’s cruelty, the way he turned Hindley’s own son Hareton against him, and keeping him a dull-witted brute. He began by teaching Hareton to cuss and throw rocks at his father every time he saw him, which brought immense joy to Heathcliff because in his eyes this was one he could enact his revenge against Hindley and thereby destroy any love that Hindley may have had left for his son, which also follows one of the novel’s main themes of how revenge, and hatred can conquer love. As by this shown by the future relevancy of this singular aspect of past hatred for Hindley, Heathcliff shows that his thirst for revenge is undying, which contributes to the works meaning by saying love cannot be as strong as hate. Eventually Heathcliff finished enacting his revenge towards Hindley directly, because he died, but this did not stop him from forcing his revenge upon everyone else. He constantly harassed Mrs. Dean, and Edgar Linton, another man from his past whom he had thrown hot applesauce on, because he had said that Heathcliff’s hair was “like a colt’s mane over his eyes!” (62), in other words he insulted Heathcliff who is known from the past to have temper and proceeded to throw hot apple sauce into Edgar Linton’s face, and because he had married Catherine Earnshaw the woman he loved. Which much like what had happened between him and Hindley sparked a hatred of Edgar within Heathcliff and this kept the flame of revenge burning within him; therefore ensuring his lust for revenge is undying. As much as Heathcliff loved Catherine in the past, he hated her as much as Edgar in the present