Heathcliff’s metamorphosis in Wuthering Heights | Our Lite Notes

Heathcliff, the protagonist of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, victim of the stereotypical phenomena of the Victorian Age, goes through bulk transformation because of status quo leading to identity crisis, thus forming and reforming him at various stages of life, by various characters.

Being an orphan and adopted by Earnshaw, Heathcliff gets a new ray of life. Earnshaw members, except the daughter Catherine, have not accepted him as a member of the family because Healthcliff was a ‘no-body’ as he was ‘everybody’, as an orphan, as a no-blue-blood.
All the characters are affected by the concept of “pseudo-need” (Guy Debord’s ‘The Society of the Spectacle’) and thereby class struggle forms. Heathcliff and Catherine, the two protagonists, become victim because of the “Super-Ego” (Sigmund Freud’s ‘The Theory of Psychoanalysis’). Thus, they become prey to society’s expectations and thereby form their ideology in the way they have witnessed the surroundings and been treated by the people in the society.
With the death of Mr. Earnshaw, Heathcliff’s life becomes more miserable. Hindley and all others living in Wuthering Heights treat him very cruelly, even the servant Nelly, as he does not belong to any ‘class’, and thereby ‘marginalized’, ‘excluded’, and ‘otherized’ by the ‘power’ (Karl Marx, ‘The Communist Manifesto’).
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“He would stand Hindley’s blows without winking or shedding tear, and my pinches moved him only to draw in a breath and open his eyes as if he had hurt himself by accident.”(Chapter-4)
Even the servant Nelly doesn’t like him. “Hindley hated him, and to say the truth I did the same.” (Chapter 4)
On the other hand, Catherine Earnshaw, day by day, started liking Heathcliff. They gradually fell in love with each other. They were attached so much to themselves that they could not be separated, not even a single day.
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Tragically, Heathcliff is again excluded by Catherine when the time arrives to select a groom; At this point Heathcliff realizes the need of ‘pseudo identity’ based on class and wealth. From here on the journey of his metamorphosis sets sail.
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“It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff” (Chapter 9)

The separation of Cathy is a punishment for Heathcliff. Heathcliff, through her love, finds his identity with Catherine whom he loves. He begins to feel he exists in and through Catherine does.
Catherine belonging to the bourgeois class feels weak toward Edgar Linton of another bourgeois class despite of loving Heathcliff so earnestly. She gives consent to Edgar to marry him as her words follow:
“To-day Edgar Linton has asked me to marry him, and I’ve given him and answer.”
Catherine gets trapped into the class consciousness and consents to marry Edgar instead of marrying Heathcliff which brought a set of metamorphosis in the life of Heathcliff.
"My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary.”( Chapter 9)
Controlled by the Super-Ego, Catherine establishes her existence, ‘Ego’, by coming to the decision of marrying Edgar, not Heathcliff. Catherine is Heathcliff’s only reason to exist, only childhood friend, and he cannot afford to lose her. After that Heathcliff is desperate to have a status in bourgeois society, and this very crisis provoked him to look for a new fortune, a new change in his identity.
Heathcliff’s crisis rises high as he receives cruel treatment from the people around and fails to gain Catherine, and so he decides to do something to prove his existence and identity.
Catherine is the mirror image for him. He identifies himself only with Catherine as he is brought up with Catherine and they share their love for each other from their childhood. For Him, there is no world except Catherine. For him, his only existence is Catherine as he says:
“Catherine, you know that I could as soon forget you, as my existence.” (Chapter 15)
“Two words would comprehend my future-death and hell- existence, after losing her, would be hell.” (Chapter 14)
“And Catherine has a heart as deep as I have.” Chapter- 14
When Cathy separates herself by marrying Edgar Linton, he becomes miserable. He then feels that he has no identity, needs to form one and the pursuit of which leads him to be an ill-transformed man.
Heathcliff runs away to earn a ‘name’, a fortune that the society embraces, includes. And Heathcliff returned with vengeance:
“I'm trying to settle how I shall pay Hindley back. I don't care how long I wait, if I can only do it at last. I hope he will not die before I do!” (Chapter 7)
From an orphan to an elite, Heathcliff goes through metamorphosis because of the crisis that helps him obtain his identity, his existence (Satre’s ‘Existentialism’). Heathcliff is desperate to establish his existence in the society and longs to establish his class in the society. Thenceforth, his class and identity struggle begin to take shape.
Heathcliff marries Edgar’s sister Isabella and tortures her and also becomes the owners of both Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights, though, eventually he suffers from guilt, “O, God! it is long fight, I wish it was over!” (Chapter … )
On returning with having money, he marries Isabella to take revenge on Edgar and behaves with her with utmost cruelly in order to inflict pain on Edgar.
Heathcliff returns the treatment to Hindley even more cruelly, as he was treated by him and gradually grabs Wuthering Height as Hindley dies after long suffering and being debt to Heathcliff who provides him money for drinking and gambling.
Out of revenge, Heathcliff turns Hareton Earnshaw a servant depriving him the Wuthering Heights and education. He treats all very badly, who caused him pain in his life. Even his treatment to Linton is like a savage.
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Heathcliff takes advantage of junior Cathy’s weakness to Linton who already suffers from mental and physical sickness. He tricks to marry Cathy (the daughter of the late Catherine) to Linton as he would be the heir of the Grange.
At the death of Edgar Linton, Linton becomes the heir who is married to Cathy. Linton too dies after some days and finally Heathcliff becomes the owner of both; Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange as well.
Heathcliff learned from the ‘real’ (Lacan’s three stages), which he never expected that Catherine can exclude him, that material gain can provide what he never gained: respect and love. But eventually, no material provided him the peace he desired. Thereby, he transformed again, from the spirit of vengeance to guilt, and got indulged in non-material desires – thinking of the dead Catherine and her company in his imagination. In the end, Heathcliff seems stoned to Mr. Lockwood, the tenant of Grange, at present.
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Heathcliff he is exhausted of taking revenge which does not allow him to live in peace. He feels the wish of his establishment of his existence and identity has seen a tragic fall. So, he says in anguish,
“It has devoured my existence - I am swallowed in the anticipation of its fulfillment.”(Chapter 33)

                                By Ahmed Tahsin Shams