Heathcliff And Isabella Linton

Heathcliff and Isabella Linton

Isabella: Edgar’s younger sister. Weak and spoilt as a child, she becomes infatuated by Heathcliff, seeing him as a romantic hero. He despises her and uses her purely as a tool in his revenge. She is a contrast both physically and spiritually to Catherine.
Heathcliff: Catherine’s love and the anti-hero of the story. The book essentially follows his story from first appearance at Wuthering Heights to his death there. He is badly treated by Hindley and his love for Catherine becomes all-enveloping. But she prefers to marry Edgar for his position and breedind, and he vows vegeance on Hindley, Edgar and their children.

Heathcliff marries Isabella for the sole purpose of revenge, as he aims to control both the Wuthering Heights and the Thrushcross Grange when Edgar dies.
Isabella loves Heathcliff in an adolescent way because she is only young at the time and does not know any better. Isabella's love for Heathcliff was based on a „delusion” → „hero of romance”
Her delusion was so deep it reached a willingness to risk her relationship with her own brother by eloping with Heathcliff
On the other hand Heathcliff treats Isabella poorly and evidence of this is that she is not permitted to leave the Heights.
Heathcliff's hatred and cruelty towards Isabella is evident through the verbal abuse he exerts on her. He insults Isabella and his insults become progressively stronger and mean-spirited hence procuring a genuine disgust Heathcliff has for Isabella. He calls her a 'creature' ,a 'pitiful, slavish, mean-minded brach' and 'an abject thing', reducing her to a subhuman level.
Isabella gives birth to Linton Heathcliff. This name alone is evidence of the power Heathcliff had at the time.
The only way to escape Heathcliff is either “to die or to see him(Heathcliff) dead.” Isabella starts to understand the need for self preservation. Isabella says“I've recovered from my first desire to be killed by him:I'd rather he'd kill himself!”

„[Isabella] abandoned them under a delusion,' [Heathcliff] answered; 'picturing in me a hero of romance, and expecting unlimited indulgences from my chivalrous devotion. I can hardly regard her in the light of a rational creature, so obstinately has she persisted in forming a fabulous notion of my character and acting on the false impressions she cherished. But, at last, I think she begins to know me: I don't perceive the silly smiles and grimaces that provoked me at first; and the senseless incapability of discerning that I was in earnest when I gave her my opinion of her infatuation and herself. It was a marvellous effort of perspicacity to discover that I did not love her. I believed, at one time, no lessons could teach her that!”
Catherine the Elder and Edgar Linton

Catherine: falls powerfully in love with Heathcliff, the orphan Mr. Earnshaw brings home from Liverpool. Catherine loves Heathcliff so intensely that she claims they are the same person. She marries Edgar. Her character, both alive and dead, haunts Heathcliff. She is free-spirited and beautiful, but can also be spiteful, arrogant and childish.
Edgar Linton :well-bred but rather spoiled as a boy.He is almost the ideal gentleman: Catherine accurately describes him as “handsome,” “pleasant to be with,” “cheerful,” and “rich.” He is a spoiled, cowardly man although tender and loving to Catherine and his daughter. He is a contrast to Heathcliff both physically and spiritually.

Catherine marries Edgar because he is a part of the right social class. Catherine is attracted to Edgar's lifestyle. Thrushcross Grange symbolizes a comfortable idyllic world. Edgar can provide security to Catherine, something Heathcliff cannot.
She finds him "handsome, and pleasant to be with".
Catherine plans on using Edgar's money to help Heathcliff rise in the class system.
They seem to be a happy couple, but after Heathcliff returns, Catherine cannot hide how happy she is to see him. Edgar sees she is still attracted to Heathcliff and asks Catherine to choose between Heathcliff and him.
She later blames Edgar and Heathcliff for breaking her heart because she could not choose between her love for Heathcliff and the life that Edgar could give her.
Edgar was the only way that Catherine could be a part of the upper class. She used him and then blamed him for her unhappiness.
Their relationship grows from abuse, her power over him and his willingness to give her that.
Nelly : “he possessed the power to depart as much as a cat possesses the power to leave a mouse half killed, or a bird half eaten.” →irony: Catherine is the cat and Edgar the mouse or bird.
Catherine could never dominate Heathcliff: with him she meets her match, he is as powerful as she, and in that way is her “soul mate.”