Catherine I And Heathcliff's Relationship Analysis

Heathcliff 's relationship with Catherine I is Bronte 's first example of a failed connection due to lack of understanding. Though their love for one another seems to be strong, both Cathy I and Heathcliff eclipse the other’s true identity with their own perceived version of it. Heathcliff believes that Cathy I’s real self is exactly the person whom he thinks she is, and misinterprets whom he thinks she is as what he wants. By forcing Cathy I into the walls of his perception of her, Heathcliff erases her personhood completely. When Catherine I returns from Thrushcross Grange dressed up like a proper lady, she is unrecognizable to Heathcliff. Cathy I has evolved into a more complete version of herself that he cannot accept. She tries to hug …show more content…
Though Cathy II was born on the Grange, she repeatedly crosses to Wuthering Heights because as the daughter of Catherine I and Edgar Linton, she has the capacity to travel between worlds. Hareton has spent his whole life at the Heights, but he is the son of Frances and Hindley Earnshaw, who envied and tried to emulate the Grange. Hareton is a lamb, so he can be framed, but the frame still must suit him. Catherine II is not a lamb, but she can survive both in and out of a frame depending on the frame itself. She was miserable under Heathcliff’s control because his frame was unfit for her, and yet loosely satisfied with the frame of Thrushcross Grange and then happy at Wuthering Heights after Heathcliff has died. Linton, the son of Heathcliff and Isabella Linton, was a lamb who belonged at Thrushcross Grange but was raised at Wuthering Heights under an extraordinarily oppressive Heathcliff. Linton could not truly love or connect with Cathy II because he had no idea whom he was while under Heathcliff 's control. He came from a union without any love that never should have existed because Isabella Linton had absolutely no idea who Heathcliff was and Heathcliff was still failing to understand himself and could never get over Cathy I, and was completely stifled. Hareton, however, managed to survive, and is rewarded by Bronte with a perfectly suited love of and connection with Catherine II. Bronte establishes that Hareton and Cathy II are potentially an ideal couple to lay a foundation for her argument: "[Hareton 's] startling likeness to Catherine connected him fearfully with her" (Bronte 247). Bronte ensures that Hareton and Cathy II are as similar to each other as were Heathcliff and Cathy I so that the secret to their