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<title> Heathcliff - Victim of Passion and Environment </title>
In this essay I will deal with Heathcliff in Emily Brontė's novel Wuthering Heights. I think he is a victim rather than a devil. Heathcliff is a victim of the environment he has grown up in, since he is treated badly he is bound to become vindictive and cruel. A person who has always been treated badly cannot be expected to have pity with his tormentors, it is natural for him to seek revenge. He has nothing to loose. Not even his beloved Catherine who has betrayed him and married another, this is what triggers Heathcliff's revenge. The bond between him and Catherine is stronger than death, and to Heathcliff it is a crime to neglect it. I will refer to two articles concerning the topic. One is written by Arnold Kettle and the other by Cedric Watts. 
	 Cedric Watts claims in his article that Heathcliff is a product of the environment he grew up in. He refers to Godwin's Enquiry Concerning Political Justice where it is argued that "people who are treated tyrannically may become tyrants in their turn" (p. 45). I think this is true of Heathcliff. There is nothing that hinders him from taking out his revenge, and no extenuating circumstances for his oppressors. Because he owes no one nothing and no one has ever been kind to him so he is not grateful to anyone. And what does he have to be grateful for? He owns nothing and has no position to retain at Wuthering Heights. Thus he has nothing to loose . He was taken in by a family and was treated badly. That is why he has no pity as he himself says in the book (p. 137). And how could he have pity with people who have never pitied him? Therefore, he is a victim of these circumstances and they make him a remorseless person.
	But this is not the only thing that makes Heathcliff a victim. He is also a victim of passion. His passion for Catherine makes him take out his revenge. Her marriage to Edgar Linton is what triggers his search for revenge. Heathcliff goes away and when he comes back he is determined to take out his revenge on everyone who has wronged him. Catherine and Heathcliff have a strong bond between them. And that is illustrated several times in the novel. One is when Catherine is talking to Ellen Dean about her marrying Edgar Linton and her bond to Heathcliff: "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" (p. 81). The passionate bond that ties the two together is of a supernatural kind. It is stronger than death. These are Heathcliff's words to the dying Catherine: "would you like to live with your soul in the grave?" (p. 144). Another evidence of their supernatural love is the fact that Catherine's body has not dissolved although it has been buried for eighteen years. She haunts him and she cannot die completely until Heathcliff joins her. And his passion for her is so strong that it is all he needs. This is what Heathcliff says to Ellen Dean about his funeral: "No minister need come; nor need anything be said over me-I tell you I have attained my heaven; and that of others is altogether unvalued and uncoveted by me" (p. 276).
	That is how strong their love is. Heathcliff believes they have to follow their hearts. And when Catherine chooses to become a rich mans wife instead, Heathcliff is devastated. He sees it as an enormous crime. This quotation illustrates this:
		Why did you despise me? Why did you betray your own heart, Cathy? 		I have not one word of comfort. You deserve this. You have killed 		yourself...You loved me - then what right had you to leave me? What 		right - answer me - for the poor fancy you felt for Linton? Because 		misery and degradation, and death, and nothing that God or Satan 			could inflict would have parted us, you, of your own will, did it. 			(p.144).
 These are Heathcliff's words to Catherine when she is dying, not even at that point does he have pity. Since her betrayal is a crime in his eyes he believes he has the moral right to his revenge. In Arnold Kettle's article he says that the reader sympathizes with Heathcliff (p. 33). He claims Heathcliff's revenge has a moral force. "We recognize a rough moral justice in what he has done to his oppressors and because...we understand why he is inhuman" (p. 38). I agree with this. As readers we feel that Catherine is morally wrong and Heathcliff is right. He only takes what really belongs to him. Heathcliff believes he and Catherine have to follow their hearts, he knows neither of them can live without the other. They have not chosen each other and they have no other choice but to stick together. This notion is his force.
	This essay deals with Emily Brontė's Heathcliff as a victim. He grew up in a cruel environment, and was treated badly, so there is no wonder that he wants revenge and he is entitled to it as well. Here I agree with what Cedric Watts says in his article, that tyranny turns people into tyrants. But this is not the only thing that compels Heathcliff to his actions, he also has an immortal passion with Catherine. This passion ties them together and it makes him take out his revenge. When she betrays him and chooses to live the life of a rich wife he is forced to seek revenge. His passion forces him to do all that he does because he has the moral law on his side. This is something that Arnold Kettle's article deals with. He says we as readers know that Heathcliff is driven by a moral force, and that that is why we sympathize with him, even though his deeds are cruel. Heathcliff considers Catherine's betrayal a huge crime, but he still loves her and neither of them can rest until they are reunited. 

Literature List
Brontė, Emily. Wuthering Heights. Penguin, 1994.
Watts, Cedric. "Tensions in the characterisation of Heathcliff" Longman Critical 	Essays. Eds. L Cookson and Brian Longley. Hadow, Longman, 1988.
Kettle, Arnold. "Emily Brontė: Wuthering Heights" Twentieth Century 	Interpretations of Wuthering Heights. Ed. Thomas A. Vogler Munpericod 	Cliffs, N.J: Prentize-Hall, 1968.
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