Heathcliffs Revenge

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such as “idiocy, slavish, pitiful” suggests that he lacks any true love for his wife, and can only seem to take enjoyment from his cruelty towards her.

Another example of Heathcliff’s despot like cruelty is found in the treatment of his son. Nelly remarks that “I could not picture a father treating a dying child as tyrannically and wickedly as I afterwards learnt Heathcliff had treated him”(198). Heathcliff’s utter lack of regret towards his actions suggest his loss of common decency, and this is seen in his comments about his boy; Heathcliff refers to his own son as merely “tin polished to ape a service of silver” (169). Just as Heathcliff tortures Hareton as a way to attack Hindley, his unfiltered cruelty and abuse of Linton is a masterful manipulation aimed at Catherine Linton in order to cement his rights to both the Grange and the Heights.

Although Heathcliff succeeds in his attempt to gain both control over the lands and his revenge, he feels empty. Heathcliff laments to Nelly, “But where is the use? I don’t care for striking, I can’t take the trouble to raise my hand… I have lost the faculty of enjoying their destruction”(247). Bronte uses Heathcliff’s resignation to show the fallout of a life lead only for revenge. Once his goal has been attained, Heathcliff loses his incentive to be cruel to others, and thus loses his reason to live. He starts to recede into himself, hardly “[remembering] to eat and drink”(247). This mental state illustrates the void in Heathcliff’s soul that has been opened due to his single minded and ruthless pursuit of revenge. Once he realizes that he can have his vengeance at any moment, his desire flees and nothing remains to drive him. He is left as the shell of a man, hollowed out by his pursuit of revenge.

Heathcliff ultimately succumbs to the grave because he loses himself trying to get his revenge. By the time that he is successful, there is nothing left of his humanity, morality and he loses the motivation to keep living. He is destroyed from the inside by his own hand. Bronte uses this self-destructiveness to emphasis her belief that once the desire for revenge overtakes one’s humanity, they lose an essential piece of themselves that ties them to the rest of the world. Heathcliff remarks that nothing besides Cathy and Hareton “[retains] a distinct material appearance,”(247) and this dissociation from the real world serves as the final warning of what happens when humanity is sacrificed in order to get vengeance.

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