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<title> HEATHCLIFF - A HEARTBROKEN SAVAGE </title>
It is certainly no easy task to put a label on the character of Heathcliff in Emily Bront''s Wuthering Heights. He is neither a devil nor a victim. He is a human being who might have more untamed elements inside him than most of us, but he has also been ill-treated and betrayed to an extent that most of us cannot relate to. He has a heart and it is when his heart is broken that the bad side of his vital, untamed force takes over and takes him too far in his revenge. That shows that he has an element of evil and cruelty in him, a demon-like feature, but to actually call him a demon is taking it too far. Not many would take such a cruel revenge like he does, but savage is a better name for his cruel streak than demon. He is a heartbroken savage, not a demon. Why I believe so is what I intend to elucidate in the following paragraphs. 
	First of all, Heathcliff has a reason to be vindictive. When he first arrives he is only treated kindly by one person, Mr Earnshaw. Mrs Earnshaw "was ready to fling it out of doors" (p, 37), Catherine shows her feelings by "grinning and spitting at the stupid little thing" (p, 37), Hindley hates him instantly and so does Nelly. Even when he and Cathy become friends, Hindley's cruel treatment continues and Nelly describes Heathcliff as " hardened, perhaps, to ill-treatment: he would stand Hindley's blows without winking or shedding a tear" (p, 38). After Mr Earnshaw's death the terror even escalates and Hindley becomes "tyrannical" (p, 46), beats Heathcliff habitually and degrades him to a servant. 
	We are really never given any reasons why Heathcliff is subjected to this awful treatment. He is described as "a dirty, ragged, black-haired child" (p, 36) in the beginning, and the descriptions soon include adjectives such as "diabolical" and "fiend-like", but in my opinion he does not do anything during those early years to deserve such a description. Sure, he steals attention from Mr Earnshaw, Hindley's father, and he threatens to tell when he is beaten, but what younger sibling would not? That is the way families work. One can perhaps understand that an outsider is not welcome if the children of the family are at a sensitive age, but Hindley's harassment only increases when he is supposed to be older and wiser. Being subjected to harsh treatment is bad, being subjected to brutality and for no reason is worse.
Clearly, Heathcliff's early years were anything but easy, and it is commonly known that children who are oppressed often grow up to be oppressors. The treatment Heathcliff receives is the worst imaginable so nobody can really blame him for adopting a cruel streak. Hindley's behaviour alone is enough to provoke retaliation. Unfortunately, yet another person hurts him, his beloved Catherine.
The relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff grows into something quite extraordinary, it is "an affinity deeper than sexual attraction, something which is not enough to describe as romantic love" (Kettle, p 31). They are inseparable soul-mates and it is that closeness that makes it possible for them to endure Hindley's oppression. However, Catherine eventually develops a taste for the good life and even though she describes Heathcliff as "my own being" (p, 80) she decides to marry Edgar Linton. 
	The betrayal is realised before it is fulfilled, for Heathcliff overhears Catherine tell Nelly that "it would degrade her to marry him" (p, 80). After he has sneaked out she goes on to tell Nelly how much deeper her love for Heathcliff is than that for Linton. He does not hear that but I believe Heathcliff already knew that and that fact is one of the two reasons why her betrayal is so fundamental. 
According to Allott "Lintons are better for Earnshaws than Heathcliff is" (p, 188), but if it was so then maybe Heathcliff would have understood Catherine's choice. Instead I agree with Kettle who states that "what he [Heathcliff] stands for, the alternative life he has offered Catherine is more natural, more social and more moral than the world of Thrushcross Grange" (p, 35). That is something which, I believe, Heathcliff and Catherine are also aware of, and that is the other thing which deepens her betrayal. Her betrayal is really of the worst kind. Well aware of the fact that without her Heathcliff has nothing, she abandons him and their moral, her love and soul-mate, for status. Heathcliff has now been beaten, insulted, degraded and betrayed. Not surprisingly, that was the last straw and Heathcliff leaves.
	When he returns several years later the primary victims in his revenge are Edgar and Hindley. To get to them he also uses Isabella, young Catherine, Hareton and even his own son, but why does he not take revenge on Catherine? Certainly, he speaks very harshly to the sick Catherine, telling her that "I have not one word of comfort - you deserve this" (p, 161), but even in his harsh words his strong love shines through: "You loved me - then what right had you to leave me? --- I have not broken your heart - you have broken it - and in breaking it, you have broken mine." (p, 160 ff). We know that what he says is true, that he is not the cruel one of the two, Catherine is, and still she is never a target for his revenge. This proves that his love for her is so strong that even if she has betrayed their bond, broken his heart and taken away his joy of living, he cannot be cruel to her. Is that the characteristics of a devil?
Apart from that exception that Catherine makes, he is a smart, conscious, successful and cruel avenger. We do not blame him for retaliating against Hindley and we cannot really blame him for his treatment of Edgar, but his treatment of Isabella, young Catherine and his son is inconceivably cruel and unjustified. The difference between him and a demon in this case is that he does not enjoy it. As Watts says "he seems to be suffering a hell or purgatory on earth" (p, 47). It is as if he has to hide behind an evil shell to protect himself from the hurt he is really feeling. The hurt that was caused to him in his child-hood and the hurt caused by Catherine. 
Even if what Watts says is also true, that "he chooses to be deliberately destructive, and may be judged accordingly" (p, 47), I still feel that we must take the fact that he has been horribly wronged into consideration before we judge him. I do not believe that he is a devil, I believe that if he had not been ill-treated and betrayed all his forceful vitality would have been used for something good instead. 
Kettle states that "Heathcliff becomes a monster: what he does to Isabella, to Hareton, to Cathy, to his son, even to wretched Hindley, is cruel and inhuman beyond normal thought" (p, 37), but Kettle also talks about a "rough moral justice" (p, 38) and that "we understand why he is inhuman" (p, 38). I think that that sums it up pretty well. Heathcliff becomes a monster, he is not a monster from the beginning, and he has a good reason for doing what he does even if he takes it too far. He has our sympathy because he goes with his heart as opposed to Catherine. When his heart is then broken the bad side of his untamed, vital force takes over and everybody who deserves it, according to him, is subjected to his cruelty. He is a stormy person who, when hurt, acts devilish.
	However, before he dies he changes again. The constant nightmare he has been through and put others through since the death of Catherine is coming close to its end. He has succeeded in everything he set out to do but "when everything is ready, and in my power, I find the will to lift a slate off either roof has vanished!" (p, 320) He recognises in Hareton and young Catherine the same kind of love, loyalty and rebellion against oppression as he once shared with Catherine. Their mere presence annoys him but he says that he has "lost the faculty of enjoying their destruction, and I am too idle to destroy for nothing" (p, 320). (As I stated earlier I do not believe he ever really enjoyed it) His sole ambition hereafter is to be reunited with Catherine, once again the vastness of his love for her is the engine behind his actions. Unconsciously, driven by visions of Catherine on the moors and by her grave, he starves himself to death. 
In conclusion, Heathcliff is no devil, nor can he be titled a victim. A devil is someone who is all together evil, enjoys being evil and is evil whether he has a reason to or not. That is not Heathcliff. His retaliation rules him out as a victim too, leaving him somewhere in between. If he had chosen to stay away and start a new life, a good life, he had been even less of a victim, but he has no choice but to go with his heart. He is a person with more savage elements in him than most people, but he also has a heart which is capable of loving deeper and stronger than most hearts. When his heart is broken the savage takes over and he becomes a heartbroken savage with vengeance on his mind. 

LIST OF REFERENCES

Allott, Miriam. The Rejection of Heathcliff? 1958. 
Bront', Emily. Wuthering Heights. Penguin Classics. 1995.
Kettle, Arnold. Emily Bront': Wuthering Heights. 1968.
Watts, Cedric. Tensions in the characterisation of Heathcliff. 1988.
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