Wuthering Heights Anger Analysis

Wuthering Heights is a novel that revolves around the story of Heathcliff and how he turns out to be an angry character. Anger is not an emotion that happens haphazardly, it has various motives and causes which arouse one 's fury. It has been mentioned before that anger can be caused by racism, social injustice and class distinction. These are the main reasons behind Heathcliff 's anger. From the beginning, Heathcliff has been discriminated and treated as an inferior. Mr. Earnshaw finds Heathcliff in the streets of Liverpool. He rescues him from poverty and death and decides to adopt Heathcliff, so he takes him to Wuthering Heights to live with the Earnshaws. When Heathcliff is firstly introduced by Mr. Earnshaw to his family, he gains

Hindley makes himself the master of the house and tells Heathcliff" You forgot that you have a master here" and orders his wife, Frances to "pull his hair" because he "heared him snap his fingers"! (3.18) Moreover, Catherine describes" Poor Heathcliff Hindley calls him a vagabond and won 't let him set with us, nor eat with us anymore, and he says, he and [Catherin] must not play together"(3.19) .His maltreatment towards Heathcliff becomes more "tyrannical" after the death of his young son. He deprives Heathcliff from his education; "He drove him from their company to the servants, deprived him of the instructions of the curate, and insisted that he should labour out of doors instead; compelling him to do so as hard as any other lad on the farm." .He even orders Joseph, the servant to "thrash Heathcliff till his arm ached" (6.39). All of these situations prove that Hindley is a sadistic child abuser who finds pleasure in tormenting Heathcliff.

The most important thing question now is what Heathcliff 's reaction towards all of such abuse and torture? In this regard "He seemed a sullen, patient child; hardened, perhaps, to ill-treatment: he would stand Hindley 's blows without winking or shedding a tear, and my pinches moved him only to draw in a breath and open his eyes, as if he had hurt himself by accident, and nobody was