Write a detailed character study on Heathcliff, focusing on the theme of evil and the question of whether he might really be a demon

Heathcliff arrives in the summer of 1771, a sm any, withdrawn boy. The old Mr. Earnshaw found him in the streets of Liverpool, and feeling compassion for the dirty, ragged black-haired child, he took him rachis to Wuthering Heights.He becomes an adopted member of the Earnshaw family and as they know nonhing about him background he is immediately labelled as a gypsy and bandaged to remain an out human facer, in exile from society receivable to his actions and personality.Straight by, his actions begin to put him apart from other people. He is a sullen, patient child hardened perhaps, to ill treatment. An example of this is when Hindley throws a rock at Heathcliff, and, instead of crying he receives the blow and gets up again. Hindley sees Heathcliff as a usurper of his fathers affections, and he grows bitter because of this, referring to Heathlcliff as an imp of Satan.Heathcliff let distri scarceively incident like this pass, and showed no outward emotion towards his abuser. In stead opting to bottle it and let his avenging build up, e.g. Im trying to settle how I shall pay Hindley back. I dont care how long I wait, if I can only do it, at last. I hope he testament not die before I do. For Heathcliff, the world becomes an increasing trying place to be in either to be shrunk back from, or lashed out at.To cope with the torrent of abuse directed at him from almost everyone he meets, he takes on a devilish character. aft(prenominal) adopting this role, he uses it to get revenge by making everyone elses life as difficult as possible.While Heathcliff is pondering on how to get back at Hindley and the others, he becomes oblivious to any insults or hardship he comes across allowing it only to stoke the fire of revenge and letting him be secure in the fact that they shall get what is due in time. For example when asked why he should not leave retri notwithstandingion to God, Heathcliff replies No, God wont have the satisfaction that I shall. I only wish I kne w the best way Let me alone and Ill plan it out while Im hark backing of that, I dont feel pain.Although at this point, Heathcliff could be called evil for making peoples lives around him miserable, even Nelly, with her simplistic view of the situation decided that Hindley, because of Frances death, had become so malicious that it was enough to make a ogre of a saint. This is not enough to let Heathcliff completely off the hook though as Hindleys actions are partly justified and Heathcliff interprets them differently, as he is quite young (all he sees is the abuse, not the reason why the abuse is given). In this way, Heathcliffs actions later in the novel are partly down to his naiveness/ignorance when confronted with certain situations.Heathcliff is not especially bright (at least consciously). This means that he sometimes does not take all of the factors of a situation into account when he makes up his mind to do something. Something I think Heathcliff has extreme difficulty in interpreting other peoples actions through their perspectives. For instance when Hindley threw a rock at Heathcliff when he was younger, Heathcliff only saw Hindley as the person who hurt him, not Hindley as an insecure boy who saw his father being taken away from him. Even Catherine did not see or help Heathcliff understand this, she only served as a catalyst that made Heathcliff want to aim strong and think of better times when they would be together.As life at Wuthering Heights was continually wearing him down, Heathcliffs assumed character began to assert itself even much. The next dissever illustrates thisHe had, by that time, lost the benefit of his early education continual hard work, begun soon and concluded late, had extinguished any curiosity he erst possessed in pursuit of knowledge, and any love for books or learning. And alsoPersonal appearance sympathised with mental deterioration he acquired a slouching gate, and ignoble lookThey serve to make evident that the ha rd physical labour, combined with the mental anguish Heathcliff is constantly suffering is taking its toll. Heathcliff loses all interest in bettering himself and conforming to established rules of etiquette and society. Instead he becomes withdrawn and so subdued that it seems as though he wakes up only to get the day over with. He took a grim pleasure, apparently, in exciting aversion rather than the esteem of his few acquaintance.When Heathcliff returns after running away, his character is more refined, cleaner and little confused. He no longer has mixed emotion and acts as if he has a plan to apply to life and steadily works on each waypoint towards the final goal.A half-civilised ferocity lurked yet in the depressed brows, and eyes full of black fire, but it was subdued and his manner was even dignified, quite divested of primitivism though too stern for grace.It shows how Heathcliff still has the strong, passionate outward shell. But inwardly he has learned to control how h e reacts. The alternate evil side has completely taken over, leaving Heathcliff emotionally cold, yet bent on revenge. Only now he is equipped to carry it out using his mastermind rather that his hands. He knows how he is to accomplish it and will nab at nothing to finish what has been started.It is noticeable that he does not try and hide what he is doing. Instead giving deep speeches to anyone who will stand to listen. His craving for revenge is so intense that it seems to leak as an aura around his body and disrupt the lives of those who come into hitting with him. Has but to speak to cause tempers to flare, emotions to rise, and situations to go to excess.The realisation that Heathcliff has not changed in his attitude since going away is to late for action to be taken to stop it and the groomed version of Heathcliff is described as he was when he counterbalance arrived. An unreclaimed creature, without refinement without cultivation an arid furiouserness of furze and whins tone.He bends people towards his will with ease, and before they know it he has coolly, calmly, and collectedly used them for his own purpose and then dropped them with nothing.Edgar sums up Heathcliff to a poignant sentence Your presence is a example poison that would contaminate the most virtuous. And, as Isabella writes after she has eloped with Heathcliff Is Mr Heathcliff a man? If so, is he mad? And if not, is he a devil?.Isabella does not explain what Heathcliff has been doing, but to constitute the above questions, it cannot have been normal.Heathcliffs revenge plan begins to fall into place when he confronts Hindley in his house. Catherine again acts as a catalyst by stuffy the two to a room and Heathcliff manages to rile Hindley so much that he draws a gun and knife on him. Hindley realises that he has been duped out of his house, his money, and all his possessions and wants to knock off Heathcliff for it.Oh, damnation I will have it back and Ill have his gold too and th en his blood and hell shall have his soul It will be ten times blacker with that guest than it ever was before.Heathcliff must have been pleased to see that Hindley was now suffering in the same way that he had and also that he had mostly accomplished what he came for.Heathcliffs effect can also be illustrated by the change in appearance and character of Isabella. When she first eloped with Heathcliff, she was young, nave, and very outgoing. When she came back however she already partook of the pervading spirit of neglect which encompassed her. Her pretty face was wan and listless her hair uncurled some locks break lankly down, and some carelessly twisted round her enquiry. Probably she had not touched her dress since yester evening.A double side to Heathcliff begins to emerge when Catherine begins to get ill. Edgar hides in his books and studies as anything he does will not help her to recover, while Heathcliff continues his vendetta when he could help Catherine.The only thing st opping him is Catherines love for Edgar.The moment her regard ceased, I would have torn his heart out, and drank his blood But, till then, I would have died by inches before I touched a single hair of his headThis shows that although Heathcliffs darker side is plainly visible, he has a set of morals that he stands by. One of them being that any close friends of those who have no revenge due are out of the firing line as far as a vendetta goes.Heathcliff succeeds in gaining all the material possessions he wants but does not have the icing on the cake. Because of this, the intensity of his need for more revenge grows exponentially and he becomes even malevolent as he bottles even more anger.I have no pity I have no pity The more the worms write, the more I yearn to crush out their visceraCatherine remains self-centred and, as a final example, drives Heathcliff insane by refusing him any pity.Heathcliff finally loses his drive for retribution and lets his true feelings be known. He lov es Catherine, and she loves him, but settling both of their scores kept them sharing their final goal being together.To conclude, I will decide that Heathcliff is indeed not the Devil, but has had all of the worst coincidences happen to him that lead to him being as unnatural as he is.An extremely bad childhood, combined with his lack of intelligence and empathy, finally commix with the fact that he has very strong emotions anyway make Heathcliffs actions easy to understand, yet hard to forgive.A large number of headstrong characters, isolation, and two sets of remote values made distress highly unavoidable.Therefore Heathcliff is a product of circumstance and misfortune rather than the spawn of the Devil or a wild beast.