Suggestions
Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select.Please wait while we process your payment
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
Please wait while we process your payment
By signing up you agree to our terms and privacy policy.
Don’t have an account? Subscribe now
Create Your Account
Sign up for your FREE 7-day trial
Already have an account? Log in
Your Email
Choose Your Plan
Save over 50% with a SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan!
Purchasing SparkNotes PLUS for a group?
Get Annual Plans at a discount when you buy 2 or more!
Price
$24.99 $18.74 /subscription + tax
Subtotal $37.48 + tax
Save 25% on 2-49 accounts
Save 30% on 50-99 accounts
Want 100 or more? Contact us for a customized plan.
Your Plan
Payment Details
Payment Summary
SparkNotes Plus
You'll be billed after your free trial ends.
7-Day Free Trial
Not Applicable
Renews June 15, 2023 June 8, 2023
Discounts (applied to next billing)
DUE NOW
US $0.00
SNPLUSROCKS20 | 20% Discount
This is not a valid promo code.
Discount Code (one code per order)
SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4.99/month or $24.99/year as selected above. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. You may cancel your subscription on your Subscription and Billing page or contact Customer Support at custserv@bn.com. Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. Free trial is available to new customers only.
Choose Your Plan
For the next 7 days, you'll have access to awesome PLUS stuff like AP English test prep, No Fear Shakespeare translations and audio, a note-taking tool, personalized dashboard, & much more!
You’ve successfully purchased a group discount. Your group members can use the joining link below to redeem their group membership. You'll also receive an email with the link.
Members will be prompted to log in or create an account to redeem their group membership.
Thanks for creating a SparkNotes account! Continue to start your free trial.
Please wait while we process your payment
Your PLUS subscription has expired
Please wait while we process your payment
Please wait while we process your payment
Love preoccupies nearly all of the characters in
When Heathcliff comes home determined to seek revenge for Catherine’s betrayal, his behavior can be interpreted as at best childish, and at worst cruel. Hindley may be half the man Heathcliff is, but nevertheless, the two were raised as brothers. Moreover, whatever Hindley’s childhood sins, he is now a broken man, a drunk and a gambler. In light of these facts, we cannot help but look askance on Heathcliff’s willingness to coldly and methodically wrest Wuthering Heights from him and to turn Hindley’s own son, Hareton, against him. Heathcliff treats Isabella equally unmercifully. She is a silly woman, but an innocent one. Heathcliff, who thinks of her as nothing more than a pawn in his revenge game, treats her unfairly. And his professed willingness to punish her for her brother’s crimes may strike us as slightly unhinged.
Heathcliff’s quest for revenge is never seemly, but it becomes downright grotesque as the years pass. After Catherine’s death, Heathcliff’s vengefulness is less easy to understand: After all, the woman he loves, the woman he wants to punish and impress, is no longer around (at least in bodily form). As Heathcliff’s motivations turn sour and confusing, his actions spiral downward, too. In an attempt to get Edgar’s estate, Heathcliff manipulates Cathy and his own son, Linton, into an ill-advised romance and then forces the two to wed after kidnapping Cathy and holding her prisoner. Out of general ill will and a specific desire to punish Catherine’s relatives, he abuses Hareton, the character who most closely resembles him. By denying the intelligent boy an education and keeping him in a state of servitude, Heathcliff re-creates the very ill treatment that was visited on him when he was young. It is a crime just as morally repugnant as is his manipulation of his own son.
Yet however bad Heathcliff’s behavior, his desire for revenge makes him just as endearing as it does objectionable. First, while Heathcliff is a brute, he is an intelligent, capable brute. Those he controls are frailer and stupider than he, and part of us understands his desire to manipulate them as the natural dominance the strong feel over the weak. Second, his vengefulness arises from his deep love for Catherine. He is cruel not for cruelty’s sake, but because the woman he loves has broken his heart. This is a familiar motivation in literature, and a difficult one to dismiss or condemn.
After Catherine’s death, even the shocking manifestations of Heathcliff’s vengefulness can be interpreted as touching. Were his need for revenge to die with Catherine, it would suggest that his love for her was a temporary passion. Because his need for revenge only increases after her death, we are likely to conclude that his love for her is timeless, undying, and classically romantic. In one interpretation, the more outrageous and monstrous his actions are, the more clear, concrete, and passionate his love seems.
By the time Heathcliff dies, his hunger for revenge has also passed away. But that vengefulness is what keeps him alive in our minds, and makes him the most vivid of Brontë’s fictional creations.
Please wait while we process your payment