Wuthering+Heights+Character+Identification

** Return to Wuthering Heights ** **Catherine/Cathy** **Lockwood** **"Young" Catherine/"Mrs. Heathcliff"** **Mr(.) Earnshaw** **Hindley Earnshaw**
 * Heathcliff **
 * Bossy with servants
 * //__**LOVES**__// Catherine
 * Loner
 * Has VICIOUS dogs, ,not used to company
 * Came from Liverpool
 * Abused by Hindley
 * Angry, mean, violent
 * Orphan, found by Mr. Earnshaw
 * Superstitious
 * Present: owns WH, Thrushcross Grange
 * "He is a dark-skinned gipsy in aspect, in dress and manners a gentleman: that is, as much a gentleman as many a country squire: rather slovenly, perhaps, yet not looking amiss with his negligence, because he has an erect and handsome figure; and rather morose."
 * "His reserve springs from an aversion to showy displays of feeling - to manifestations of mutual kindliness. He'll love and hate equally under cover, and esteem it a species of impertinence to be loved or hated again."'
 * "Poor Heathcliff! Hindley calls him a vagabond, and won't let him sit with us, nor eat with us any more; and, he says, he and I must not play together, and threatens to turn him out of the house if we break his orders. He has been blaming our father (how dared he?) for treating H. too liberally; and swears he will reduce him to his right place - '"
 * " 'Rough as a saw-edge, and hard as whinstone! The less you meddle with him the better.'" (according to Nelly)
 * "A dirty, ragged, black-haired child; big enough both to walk and talk: indeed, its face looked older than Catherine's; yet when it was set on its feet, it only stared round, and repeated over and over again some gibberish that nobody could understand...he was really half dead with fatigue, and all that I could make out, amongst her scolding, was a tale of his seeing it starving, and houseless, and as good as dumb, in the streets of Liverpool, where he picked it up and inquired for its owner. Not a soul knew to whom it belonged..."
 * "Miss Cathy and he were now very thick; but Hindley hated him..."
 * Sent to the cellar by Isabella when Cathy was attacked by the dog, "'Frightful thing! Put him in the cellar, papa.'"
 * No one seems to know his identity - or cares to find out: "'a little Lascar, or an American or Spanish castaway."
 * Seemingly falls apart when Cathy is at TG: " If he were careless, and uncared for, before Catherine's absence, he had been ten times more so since. Nobody but I even did him the kindness to call him a dirty boy, and bid him wash himself, once a week; and children of his age seldom have a natural pleasure in soap and water. Therefore, not to mention his clothes, which had seen three months' service in mire and dust, and his thick uncombed hair, the surface of his face and hands was dismally beclouded. He might well skulk behind the settle, on beholding such a bright, graceful damsel enter the house, instead of a rough-headed counterpart of himself, as he expected."
 * Holds a grudge: "'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!'" (Chapter 7)
 * So loved by Cathy: "he's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same..." "my great thought in living is himself. If all else perished, and HE remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger: I should not seem a part of it." "My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. 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. " (Chapter 9)
 * Object of Heathcliff's affection
 * Daughter of Earnshaw - "CATHERINE EARNSHAW, here and there varied to CATHERINE HEATHCLIFF, and then again to CATHERINE LINTON."
 * "Ghost" at the beginning
 * Makes men suffer
 * Wild, free-spirited - "She put all of us past our patience fifty times and oftener in a day: from the hour she came down-stairs till the hour she went to bed, we had not a minute's security that she wouldn't be in mischief. Her spirits were always at high-water mark, her tongue always going - singing, laughing, and plaguing everybody who would not do the same. A wild, wicked slip she was - but she had the bonniest eye, the sweetest smile, and lightest foot in the parish: and, after all, I believe she meant no harm; for when once she made you cry in good earnest, it seldom happened that she would not keep you company, and oblige you to be quiet that you might comfort her. She was much too fond of Heathcliff. The greatest punishment we could invent for her was to keep her separate from him: yet she got chided more than any of us on his account. In play, she liked exceedingly to act the little mistress; using her hands freely, and commanding her companions: she did so to me, but I would not bear slapping and ordering; and so I let her know."
 * Spoiled, arrogant,mischievous
 * Loves Heathcliff
 * Hurts her ankle - forced to stay for a while because the Lintons think she isn't being raised right ("'Run, Heathcliff, run!' she whispered. 'They have let the bull-dog loose, and he holds me!' The devil had seized her ankle..."
 * "Changes" during her stay at Thrushcross Grange - "It's a kindness to let you have a glimpse of her genuine disposition." (Nelly, Chapter 8)
 * Vindictive
 * Frame - first narrator
 * Visits WH, attacked by dogs
 * Stuck for the night
 * Considers himself more sociable/cultured
 * Vain
 * Visited by the ghost of Catherine
 * Introvert
 * Nosy
 * Visited by the ghost of Catherine
 * Tenant at Thrushcross Grange
 * Talks to Nelly about the ghost-he wants the story about H and C
 * Joseph **
 * "Joseph was an elderly, nay, an old man: very old, perhaps, though hale and sinewy..."
 * Superstitious
 * Believes Catherine is a demon
 * Arrogant- stuck up
 * Very religious - "'Oh, wicked, wicked!' gasped the elder; 'may the Lord deliver us from evil!'"
 * Servant
 * Has been with the family for a long time
 * Talks a lot; Yorkshire accent
 * Stubborn; paranoid
 * "Vinegar-faced"
 * "The wearisomest self-righteous Pharisee that ever ransacked a Bible to rake the promises to himself and fling the curses to his neighbours. By his knack of sermonising and pious discoursing, he contrived to make a great impression on Mr. Earnshaw; and the more feeble the master became, the more influence he gained. He was relentless in worrying him about his soul's concerns, and about ruling his children rigidly.
 * Hareton Earnshaw **
 * Ignorant/rude
 * Rough around the edges/crass
 * Lives/works at Wuthering Heights (hired hand)
 * "His dress and speech were both rude, entirely devoid of the superiority observable in Mr. and Mrs. Heathcliff; his thick brown curls were rough and uncultivated, his whiskers encroached bearishly over his cheeks, and his hands were embrowned like those of a common labourer: still his bearing was free, almost haughty, and he showed none of a domestic's assiduity in attending on the lady of the house. In the absence of clear proofs of his condition, I deemed it best to abstain from noticing his curious conduct."
 * "'The clown at my elbow, who is drinking his tea out of a basin and eating his broad with unwashed hands..."
 * "And who is that Earnshaw: Hareton Earnshaw, who lives with Mr. Heathcliff? Are they relations?' 'No; he is the late Mrs. Linton {Catherine}'s nephew.'"
 * raised by Nelly
 * "She was slender, and apparently scarcely past girlhood: an admirable form, and the most exquisite little face that I have ever had the pleasure of beholding; small features, very fair; flaxen ringlets, or rather golden, hanging loose on her delicate neck; and eyes, had they been agreeable in expression, that would have been irresistible: fortunately for my susceptible heart, the only sentiment they evinced hovered between scorn and a kind of desperation, singularly unnatural to be detected there."
 * Heathcliff's daughter-in-law
 * Curious
 * Lockwood thought Heathcliff was her husband
 * Widow
 * Zillah **
 * Servant at Wuthering Heights
 * Attempts to help Lockwood
 * Aware of the "strange goings on"
 * Nelly/Ellen (Dean) **
 * Servant at Thrushcross Grange
 * Present: tells the story of Heathcliff & Catherine to Lockwood
 * Takes over as narrator from Lockwood
 * Sensible, intelligent
 * Has been around T. G. and W.H. for a long time
 * "I was almost always at Wuthering Heights; because my mother had nursed Mr. Hindley Earnshaw, that was Hareton's father, and I got used to playing with the children: I ran errands too, and helped to make hay, and hung about the farm ready for anything that anybody would set me to."
 * Takes Heathcliff into his family- adopts him
 * Loves his children - tries to spoil them
 * Dies about six years after bringing Heathcliff to Wuthering Heights
 * Favored Heathcliff over his children
 * Catherine's brother
 * Hated Heathcliff - was abusive to him
 * Told Heath that C couldn't play with him
 * Sent away to college/university, came home when his father died
 * Married Frances
 * Sends servants to "back quarters" upon his return to Wuthering Heights
 * Of Heathcliff: "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."
 * Alcoholic, abusive after Frances' death

**Frances Earnshaw**
 * Married Hindley Earnshaw
 * "I imagined her as little likely to die as myself. She was rather thin, but young, and fresh-complexioned, and her eyes sparkled as bright as diamonds."
 * Dies shortly after giving birth to Hareton

**Edgar Linton** **Wuthering Heights (Law Hill, High Sunderland)** **Thrushcross Grange** **Moor/Yorkshire Moor**
 * Isabella Linton **
 * Edgar's sister
 * Grew up at Thrushcross Grange
 * Comes between Heathcliff and Catherine
 * Marries Heathcliff
 * Heathcliff treats her badly
 * Isabella's brother
 * Grew up at Thrushcross Grange
 * Spoiled as a boy, cowardly
 * Marries Catherine
 * Wealthy and good looking (this is why Catherine marries him - for his status)
 * "Wuthering Heights is the name of Mr. Heathcliff's dwelling. 'Wuthering' being a significant provincial adjective, descriptive of the atmospheric tumult to which its station is exposed in stormy weather. Pure, bracing ventilation they must have up there at all times, indeed: one may guess the power of the north wind blowing over the edge, by the excessive slant of a few stunted firs at the end of the house; and by a range of gaunt thorns all stretching their limbs one way, as if craving alms of the sun. Happily, the architect had foresight to build it strong: the narrow windows are deeply set in the wall, and the corners defended with large jutting stones."
 * "Before passing the threshold, I paused to admire a quantity of grotesque carving lavished over the front, and especially about the principal door; above which, among a wilderness of crumbling griffins and shameless little boys, I detected the date '1500,' and the name 'Hareton Earnshaw.'"
 * "Heath and mud"
 * Owned by Heathcliff (present)
 * Four miles from Wuthering Heights
 * Childhood home of Isabella Linton & Edgar Linton
 * "Ah! it was beautiful - a splendid place carpeted with crimson, and crimson-covered chairs and tables, and a pure white ceiling bordered by gold, a shower of glass-drops hanging in silver chains from the centre, and shimmering with little soft tapers." (Chapter 6)
 * "Do you know that you run a risk of being lost in the marshes? People familiar with these moors often miss their road on such evenings; and I can tell you there is no chance of a change at present.'"
 * Northeast England
 * Swampy, desolate lands
 * Largely untouched