How Is Heathcliff A Sympathetic Character

Brooding, mysterious, and relentlessly vengeful, Heathcliff is perhaps the most memorable and compelling character of Emily Bronte’s novel Wuthering Heights, a story of love, loss, and revenge. His fire, his passion for vengeance, and his cruelty towards others all grow out of his past experiences. However wickedly unforgiving he may seem, throughout the plot, Heathcliff gains several justifications for his vengeful actions, making him a sympathetic character to the reader.
Arguably, Heathcliff is not controlling, violent, and abusive by nature. Rather, experience makes him so. Unwelcome into the Earnshaw home as an orphan, throughout his childhood he is considered an outcast because of his darker skin tone and strange speech. Heathcliff “[breeds] bad feeling in the house” (37), especially with regard to Hindley, the Earnshaws’ son, who often beats him and ridicules him. Thus Heathcliff’s repeated exposure to abuse, mockery, and violence in his early years instills within him a fire for revenge against those who have wronged him. This fire is a driving force of the plot, as much of Heathcliff’s ambitions arise out of hatred for his enemies.
This hope is soon obliterated by a soul-crushing moment of truth revealed. Much to his disappointment, Heathcliff overhears Catherine disclosing to Nelly that it would degrade her to marry him. Unfortunately, he storms off in a rage prior to her confession of intense love for him. He takes her condescending comment as another blow to his soul, causing more inner desire for vengeance. A cord breaks within Heathcliff’s heart when he hears this conversation, however incomplete. Catherine’s vocalized perception of him feeds fuelwood to the growing fire within him. Thus his cruelty does not arise out of nothingness. The events of his dismal past collectively create the vindictive and cruel person he