Heathcliff is the central male character of Emily Bronte's only novel, Wuthering Heights, published in 1847. Found as a homeless orphan in Liverpool and brought to the Yorkshire farmhouse Wuthering Heights by Mr. Earnshaw, he is raised alongside Earnshaw's daughter Catherine, with whom he forms an intense, obsessive bond, but he is treated cruelly by Catherine's brother Hindley after Earnshaw's death and humiliated by his lower social standing. After overhearing Catherine say marrying him would degrade her, Heathcliff disappears for several years and returns wealthy and hardened, methodically pursuing revenge against Hindley and the Linton family that Catherine married into. Heathcliff is regarded as one of literature's defining Byronic antiheroes, a brooding and often deliberately cruel figure whose capacity for violence and manipulation coexists with an unrelenting, lifelong devotion to Catherine that outlasts her own death partway through the novel.
Facts
Narrative RoleSourced to the subject's own accountCentral character of Emily Bronte's 1847 novel Wuthering Heights, often regarded as an archetype of the Byronic hero or the tortured antihero. 1 Defining TraitSourced to the subject's own accountHis youthful love for Catherine Earnshaw and his later years of methodical vengeance combine elements of both hero and villain into a rare, bizarre and absorbing character. 1 Narrative role (class)Sourced to the subject's own account Connections
Sources
1. Heathcliff (Wuthering Heights) (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationLead section, paragraph 1
he is often regarded as an archetype of the Byronic hero, or the tortured antihero, whose all-consuming rage, jealousy and anger destroy both him and those around him.
Lead section, paragraph 2
His complicated, mesmerizing, absorbing, and altogether bizarre nature makes him a rare character, incorporating elements of both the hero and villain.
View the Source Frequently Asked Questions
What is unusual about Heathcliff's name in Wuthering Heights?
It is his only name. Heathcliff serves as both his given name and his surname throughout the novel.
Emily Bronte gives Heathcliff a single name, taken in the novel from a son of the Earnshaw family who died in childhood, and never supplies him with a surname of his own. Every other major character in Wuthering Heights carries a full family name; Heathcliff's one-word name marks his uncertain origins as a foundling brought home from Liverpool by Mr. Earnshaw, and his permanent outsider status in the Earnshaw and Linton households.
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