Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Heathcliff is one of the most fascinating characters in Wuthering Heights, an ineffable masterpiece of Emily Bronte. More than any of the other characters, Heathcliff is subject to multiple extremes -- he feels love and hate, is alternately loved and hated, is rich and poor, magnanimous and misanthropic. Perhaps it is because of these extremes he has experienced that he is one of the characters in the novel that is mad. An examination of the circumstances that contributed to his madness helps to underscore the meaning of the novel as a whole. Quite simply, Heathcliff went crazy because he was struck by love; the author implies that true love -- the sort that struck Heathcliff -- has an enduring quality that transcends temporary circumstances, the mortal world, and even sanity.
The fact that love is singularly responsible for Heathcliff's madness is a fact that is readily apparent from the initial pages of this novel. He regularly speaks to a dead person who is several years removed from living; he initially does when his new tenant, Mr. Lockwood, is recently becoming acquainted with him. However, it is key to understand that the dead person Heathcliff speaks to in vain is his true love, Catherine Linton, who defied him in life by saying that she would never consummate her feelings with him and marrying another. When she tragically dies at an early age, Heathcliff is overwhelmed by two feelings, grief and...
Although the former eventually passes the latter does not. Torridly loving and desiring anything that one cannot have and is constantly reminded of is enough to make anyone crazy -- Heathcliff's attempts to talk to Catherine are evidence of this fact. Still, he only does so because the love he felt for Catherine is ultimately beyond the bounds of mortality and sanity.
The nature of true love that possesses Heathcliff and is responsible for his madness is a selfless sort of love, and one that is unrequited. Catherine made an immense mistake by denying her love for Heathcliff and marrying another -- or perhaps by thinking that she could simply keep Heathcliff as a friend while she gave her body, children, and some semblance of love to someone else. In doing so she made Heathcliff suffer by effectively removing herself outside of his boundaries. Once she married there was nothing he could do to consummate the feelings that he had for her and which, on some level, she had for him. Thus, Heathcliff now had to endure something even worse than true love: unrequited true love. The effect of this reality is that even while Catherine was alive she was still inaccessible to Heathcliff. This fact tortured Heathcliff because he really loved Catherine since they were children, and contributed to his madness.
Lastly, Heathcliff attempted to change his life for Catherine. One of the most poignant moments in the novel is when Heathcliff…
