Heathcliff, Class, and Compassion in Wuthering Heights

Heathcliff as Abusive Father and Instrument of Revenge

This passage is indicative of the depths to which Heathcliff has sunk. The quotation elucidates his character as he descends into being an abusive father. Heathcliff views his son as a tool to be used to gain property, referring to Linton as "mine" — not in the sense of paternal love, but because Linton can be the "prospective owner of your place." Heathcliff means by this that he wants Thrushcross Grange, not for the money or even the status, but as a means to secure symbolic vengeance and power over Edgar. Linton's name becomes increasingly symbolic at this point in the novel.

Heathcliff also reveals the depth of his anger, sorrow, loneliness, and despair in this passage. The reader wonders whether he is being truthful when he states, "I despise him for himself, and hate him for the memories he revives!" Heathcliff must feel a torrent of dredged-up emotions upon encountering Linton — a son he had not raised until this point, and who reminds him of losing Catherine in Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights. Brontë achieves ambiguity in this scene by hinting that Heathcliff still retains some of his humanity. Beneath the awful, misanthropic, almost psychopathic exterior lies a man who remains deeply insecure and deeply hurt.

Brontë has Heathcliff stress the words "mine" and "MY" to show that he has turned completely in on himself, shutting out the world. As soon as Catherine married Edgar, Heathcliff had begun to close himself off from others. His inability to open his heart to his own son — thinking only of himself — shows just how damaged the man had become.

Heathcliff is also self-aware. Brontë demonstrates this by having him declare outright, "I want the triumph of seeing…my child hiring their children to till their father's lands for wages." Here, Heathcliff makes it clear that he feels utterly defeated; otherwise he would not cling so desperately to an illusory "triumph." Likewise, he blames Edgar and the entire Linton family excessively for his lot in life, wishing to curse the generations still to come.

Young Catherine's Compassion for Linton

Catherine feels an inexplicable love for Linton. He is clingy, moody, and weak, and perhaps these very faults are what endear him to her. In this passage, Brontë shows that Catherine possesses great compassion and kindness, because she does not look down on Linton at all. She sees him as being inextricably tied to her destiny.

When she states, "He'll never let his friends be at ease, and he'll never be at ease himself," Catherine testifies to Linton's difficult character. It seems that Catherine may be the only person who can — or ever will — truly understand poor Linton. She pities him for his inability to make friends but rightly attributes that fault to his nature; it is not something Linton can help or control. She observes that he will never be at ease with himself. Linton is not comfortable in his own skin. He has a "distorted nature" that is no fault of his own.

Although the scene is technically about Linton and his character, Brontë wants readers to identify with Catherine here. It is Catherine's character that is being developed; Linton does not change much during his short life. Catherine's ability to forgive and show compassion toward Linton far surpasses her mother's, which is one of the central purposes of this passage. The passage parallels interactions that Catherine's mother had with figures like Heathcliff, whom she had viewed as beneath her. Young Catherine is deeper and more thoughtful, kinder and far more humane and mature than her mother. This scene encapsulates how Catherine can simultaneously acknowledge a slight disgust at Linton's physical and psychological condition while still keeping an open heart.