wh quotes

'his black eyes withdrew so suspiciously'

Shows Heathcliff to be mysterious, possibly threatening

'his fingers sheltered themselves'

Heathcliff hiding something?

'the gate over which he leant manifested no sympathising movement'

Major symbol of exclusion and imprisonment - emphasis on gothic theme of boundaries and claustrophobia

'It is astonishing how social I feel myself compared with him'

Shows Lockwood's changing attitude towards Heathcliff

'hard earth', 'black frost'

The landscape is portrayed as being unfriendly with a sense of coldness and exclusion

'I grasped the latch and shook it'

Another symbol of boundaries and exclusion in the locked door of Wuthering Heights

'revealed a genuine bad nature...'

Lockwood is re-evaluating his opinion of Heathcliff - realises what he is really like

'felt secure against the vigilance of Heathcliff'

Ironic that Lockwood feel secure in the closet/bedroom

'foolish palaver that we should be ashamed of'

Cathy mocking Hindley and Francis in diary entry - pairs herself with Heathcliff - their love is a different type of love

'The intense horror of nightmare came over me'

Horror \= an element of the gothic - renders the reader incapable of resolution

'I pulled its wrist on the broken pane...'

Foreshadowing Cathy and Heathcliff's relationship - based on pain and suffering

'He must have had some ups and downs in life to make him such a churl'

Was Heathcliff born evil or did his background and childhood make him evil?

'it's as dark almost as if it came from the devil'

Associated with the devil straight away

'from the very beginning he bred a bad feeling in the house'

Heathcliff is unwelcome, caused trouble as soon as he arrived

'A wild, wick slip she was'

Nelly describing Cathy - shows she was full of energy/life

'I could not help wishing we were all there safe together'

Last line of the chapter - implies everyone would be safer in heaven than alive from now on

'under the drawing room window' 'we were both able to look in'

The window of Thrushcross Grange is another boundary of civilisation - Cathy and Heathcliff are outside of the civilisation, looking in

'he is that strange acquisition'

The Linton's register Heathcliff's 'Otherness' - the alienation of Heathcliff

'Why, Cathy, you are quite a beauty!'

Physical transformation of Cathy symbolises her deeper rift with Heathcliff - she is now civilised

'you are so dirty!'

We feel pity for Heathcliff as he is no longer worthy of Cathy - still uncivilised - the start of the rejection of Heathcliff

'beautiful, fertile valley' 'bleak, hilly coal country'

Shows contrast in description of Edgar and Heathcliff

'Why do you love him?' ... 'because he loves me'

Cathy's response to Nelly's question - doesn't sound like real love

'they flung me out into the middle of the heath on top of Wuthering Heights'

Cathy's dream - links to her ghost in chapter 3 - almost as if she was really flung out of heaven

'very dark evening for the summer'

usual gothic pathetic fallacy

'It was not the thorn bending to the honeysuckles, but the honeysuckles embracing the thorn'

The thorn is a metaphor for Cathy and the honeysuckles a metaphor for the Lintons

'He's a fierce, pitiless, wolfish man'

Cathy describing Heathcliff to Isabella - makes him sound animal-like

'He's a bird of a bad omen'

Omen associates Heathcliff with the devil and hell

'His abode at the Heights was an oppression past explaining'

Development of gothic hero villain - he is not welcome - impression of threat

'it is as bad as offering Satan a lost soul'

Portrays Heathcliff as satanic hero villain

'The wife of a stranger: an exile'

She does not belong at the Grange, it is not her natural home

'they may bury me twelve feet deep... but I won't rest till you are with me'

Cathy talking about Heathcliff - foreshadowing - she will not lie still in her grave and will haunt Heathcliff

'Nelly has played traitor!'

Showing her to be an unreliable narrator

'Is Mr Heathcliff a man? If so, is he mad? And if not, is he a devil?'

Isabella's questions in the letter to Nelly - Nobody knows the answer - born evil or made evil?

'valences hung in festoons, wrenched from their rings...'

Important for gothic hero villain - Heathcliff's bedroom - shows his frustration at not being with Cathy

'a tiger or a venomous serpent could not rouse terror in me equal to that which he awakens'

Tiger and serpent imagery - Heathcliff becoming more violent and satanic

'...picturing in me a hero of romance'

Heathcliff knows what Isabella expected from him

'very pale' 'whiteness of her dress' 'unearthly beauty'

Very gothic and ghostly quality of the dying woman (Cathy)

'he gnashed at me, and foamed like a mad dog'

Again showing Heathcliff to be animalistic

'hers of perfect peace'

Shows Nelly to be unreliable - Cathy not at rest, she said she would haunt Heathcliff

'incarnate goblin'

What Isabella calls Heathcliff - portrayed a satanic hero villain

'his sharp, cannibal teeth'

Heathcliff shown to have animalistic features

'ailing, peevish creature'

How Linton is described - worst qualities from both parents

'Damned - thou saucy witch!'

Hareton says to Catherine

'He wanted all to lie in an ecstasy of peace; I wanted all to sparkle and dance in glorious jubilee'

The incompatibility of Linton and Catherine's ideal heavens and themselves

'He shut and locked it also'

Heathcliff traps Nelly and Catherine in Wuthering Heights - gothic theme of imprisoned female

'He died blissfully'

Edgar died happy, kissing the cheek of Catherine

'remove the earth off her coffin-lid and I opened it.'

Heathcliff dug Cathy up - necrophiliac quality - very gothic

'I had neither to climb the gate, not to knock - it yielded to my hand.'

Gate is open - things have changed - no longer threatening

'a fragrance of stocks and wallflowers, wafted on the air, from amongst the homely fruit trees'

Dark threatening gothic atmosphere replaced by friendly and romantic shown by smell of flowers - space has been feminised

'The crown of all my wishes will be the union of those two'

Nelly talking about if Hareton and Catherine get married - essentially a happy ending but not the end of the novel - allows last chapters to return to gothicism

'Last night I was on the threshold of hell. Today, I am within sight of my heaven'

The ghost of Cathy has now taken form and he can see her

'Is he a ghoul or a vampire?'

Supernatural references brought back by Nelly

'My soul's bliss kills my body'

He is happy he can see Cathy but he must destroy his body to be with her

'Darked skinned gypsy', yet a 'gentleman' C1

Heathcliff - contextually, his appearance is physically conflicting, use of juxtaposition emphasises the peculiarity of his role as 'master' of Wuthering Heights and the Grange. Additionally it betrays perhaps the internal conflicts that will consume Heathcliff throughout the novel.

'Violent emotion' C3

Heathcliff - his anguish is established through the adjective 'violent', his outpour of grief is extreme; indicative of all Heathcliff's feelings - nothing about him is impartial. Throughout the novel Heathcliff's griefs are all tied to Cathy, further emphasising the extent of his devotion and love for her.

'Oh! My heart's darling' C3

Heathcliff - use of the short sentences creates an atmosphere of frenzy, additionally the abrupt exclamatory sentences reinforces the pains that rapidly strike Heathcliff upon any remembrance of Cathy.

'Dark...from the devil' C4

Heathcliff - use of this metaphor links Heathcliff from the very being to evil and the supernatural. From a Post colonialist perspective, Brontë illustrates the racist sentiment of Victorian society, where people of colour are instantly associated with sources of satanic evil. Heathcliff's race is therefore the attribute which will irrevocably segregate him apart from typical society at Wuthering Heights.

'Heathcliff' for 'Christian and surname' C4

Heathcliff - he takes the literal place of the Earnshaw child who died as a baby, from the very beginning his presence is unnatural and intrinsically linked with death. With one name, and no surname, he is both a part of the family and yet still withdrawn from it; attributing to his feelings of displacement within society.

'Do her bidding in anything' C5

Heathcliff - a strong bond is almost instantly struck between Heathcliff and Cathy, there relationship appears the most natural throughout the novel.

'Not the manners to ask me to stay' C6

Heathcliff - currently, he is naive about the differences between himself and Cathy in terms of class, race, and origin.

Call him an 'acquisition' . 'American or Spanish castaway' C6

Heathcliff - betrays the racist sentiment of Victorian society, his race and birth origin is defining in regard to how others interpret from him. Upon his first experience with the inhabitants of Thrushcross Grange he is discriminated, acting as the first reason for the path of vindictive retribution Heathcliff will assume as an adult.

'So immeasurably superior...to everybody on earth' C6

Heathcliff - use of the superlatives emphasises how Heathcliff places Cathy above all others in his world. Shows the intensity and extremity of his love for her, foreshadowing the subsequent extremes he will go to after she is taken from him by Edgar.

'Three months service in mire and dust' C7

Heathcliff - the first time Cathy and Heathcliff have been truly separated, their situations directly juxtapose, as Cathy at the Grange becomes 'refined' Heathcliff becomes 'degraded' and supplicant under Hindley's 'tyranny'.

'I don't feel pain' C7

Heathcliff

'I struggled only for you' C10

Heathcliff - use of pronouns, the personal pronoun 'I' shows the raw emotion of Heathcliff as he confesses how he sought self betterment in order to make himself worthy for Catherine, so it would not 'degrade' her to marry him. Additionally, the direct address, 'you' creates a sense of personal explicitness, meaning Cathy cannot escape Heathcliff and her feelings for him. From this point guilt perhaps succumbs Cathy, resulting in her feelings of entrapment within the Grange and her marriage with Edgar. For the reader this is a moment of intense tragedy, as Heathcliff's efforts have ultimately been in vain, as Cathy has already married Edgar.

'No marks of former degradation' C10

Heathcliff - Brontë initiatives a progressive message for her Victorian audience, demonstrating that the social class system is not a rigid hierarchy but volatile and fluid.

'Sweeping survey of the house-front' C11

Heathcliff - reveals his purely financial and monopolistic reasons for marrying Isabella, linking him perhaps with Eliza Bennet of 'Pride and Prejudice' - who also considers becoming the 'Mistress of Pemberly' due to the greatness of the estate.

'I'm not your husband: you needn't be jealous of me' C11

Heathcliff - the situation has now flipped, instead of Cathy causing Heathcliff torment and jealousy, now as his marriage to Isabella approaches she will be the one to feel jealous. This could be a method which Heathcliff intended to use to gain his revenge on Cathy, as well as using Isabella as a tool for his own financial gain.

'Is Mr Heathcliff a man? If so, is he mad? And if not, is he a devil?' C13

Heathcliff - Isabella, an outsider to Wuthering Heights, cannot effectively outside the society there or Heathcliff. Use of the three rhetorical questions represents her feelings of surprise and horror as Heathcliff's true nature is revealed. Again, Heathcliff is described as being sub-human, it is perhaps unclear to a modern audience whether Isabella's negative feelings towards him are due to his actual behaviour or as a result of his racial origins.

'He was the only thing there that seemed decent' C14

Heathcliff - he juxtaposes with the 'degradation' his rule at Wuthering Heights, has caused upon Hindley, Hareton and Isabella, his toxic character thrives upon dysfunction. Even then, Nelly's use of the tentative language through the verb 'seemed', demonstrates that Heathcliff is still only in part successful and functional. Due to his revenge, he will never truly be able to gain status as a true human, linking with Birmingham's idea that revenge makes Heathcliff 'powerless to form emotionally satisfying relationships'.

'Existence, after losing her, would be hell' C14

Heathcliff - despite his moral shortcomings, his raw emotion regarding Cathy causes the reader to feel extremely sympathetic towards her. All his vitality and happiness is within her, his life is only an 'existence' - this abstract noun furthers Heathcliff' representation as a supernatural rather than human being.

'It is not in him to be loved like me: how can she love in him what he has not' C14

Heathcliff - his jealousy shrouding Edgar, due to his marriage to Cathy, generates further bad feeling between the two men - use of negation in the repeated declarative 'not', shows this.

'You loved me - then what right had you to leave me?' C15

Heathcliff, structurally use of dashes mirrors the stunting emotion ripping through Heathcliff, additional use of rhetorical questions conveys his sustained feelings of disbelief and anger that Cathy chose Edgar over him. His outlook is perhaps myopic, in that he neglects to acknowledge Cathy's financial and social position at Wuthering Heights, both of which she could only escape by an advantageous marriage to Edgar.

'I have not broken your heart - you have broken it; and in breaking it, you have broken mine.' C15

Heathcliff - a semantic field of Heathcliff's shattered heart is created using variations of the verb 'broken'.

'May she wake in torment' C16

Heathcliff - all intense feelings of Heathcliff, whether they be of anger or bereavement, manifest into violent and vindictive displays of emotion. He does not wish Cathy peace after death as Christian Nelly and Edgar do.

'I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!' C16

Heathcliff - indicative of the existential love Heathcliff and Cathy share, now that she has died, as in Aristotle's teachings, he is now living with no soul. Edgar, in comparison is able to more effectively get over Cathy's death, further demonstrating the further depth and superior magnitude of the love between Cathy and Heathcliff.

'His eyes rained down tears among the ashes' C17

Heathcliff - after Cathy's death. All his displays of emotion are due to Cathy, demonstrating his love and desperation after her death.

'Now, my bonny lad you are mine! And we'll see if one tree won't grow as crooked with another, with the same wind to twist it' C17

Heathcliff - use of the metaphor of the 'crooked' 'tree', introduces the themes of nurture and nature, betraying Heathcliff's desires to 'twist' Hareton, in order to cause him pain and 'degradation' as Hindley caused him.

'the guest was now the master of Wuthering Heights' C17

Heathcliff - shows Heathcliff's social progression, emphasising the fluidity of the class system, despite perhaps the opinions of the orthodox Victorian reader being the exact opposite.

'Usurper' C18

Heathcliff - appears as a machiavellian character, such as Macbeth, who has assumed a position that he is not worthy of, a position that he will be punished for having through his death.

Calls Linton 'my property' C20

Heathcliff - like Linton's mother before him, Heathcliff views his son as a financial asset with which he can further progress his plans for revenge and monopolistic collection of property.

Calls Linton a 'whey faced whining wretch' C20

Heathcliff - use of the alliterative 'w' sound, has an almost onomatopoeic effect, mirroring Linton's 'whining' and snivelling behaviour which makes him despicable to the reader, and the reader 'ultimately do not care what happens' to him.

'delighting to wrong and ruin those he hates' C21

Heathcliff - use of the verb 'delighting', accurately describes the corrosive and negative aspects of his personality, the pain and suffering he has endured in his life, has bred his vindictive nature - which causes his enjoyment of bringing pain to others. His desires, are perhaps what promote his vindictive actions, rather than an actual desire for revenge.

'treat myself to a slow vivisection of those two', C27

Heathcliff - a 'vivisection' means too dissect a body, creating an increasingly grotesque and violent image for the reserved and relatively emotionless Victorian audience.

'shall enjoy [himself] remarkably in thinking your father will be miserable: I shall not sleep for satisfaction.' C27

Heathcliff - use of alliteration 's' evokes Heathcliff's poisonous and reptilian like qualities, as a man who is overwhelmingly vindictive and venomous. This is reiterated by Brontë's use of the declarative sentence.

'rather be hugged by a snake' C27

Heathcliff - the simile reinforces his feelings of hatred towards Cathy Linton, who acts as a reminder both of his lover Cathy and how he lost her.

'he's such a cobweb, a pinch would annihilate him' C29

Heathcliff - metaphor demonstrates the differences between Heathcliff and his son; his son's comparative physical weakness is yet another reason for his feelings of hatred and bitterness towards him.

'Mr Heathcliff, you have nobody to love you' and 'Nobody will cry for you when you die!' C29

Heathcliff - another link to Birmingham's opinion that revenge makes Heathcliff 'powerless to form emotionally satisfying relationships', after Cathy's death he will never love or have a friendship again. He could have been a surrogate father to his own double Hareton, who is orphaned at a young age, instead he choses to 'twist' him cruelly, using him as a further mechanism or revenge.

'she has disturbed me, night and day, through eighteen years - incessantly - remorselessly' C29

Heathcliff, despite for the reader Cathy Earnshaw being dead now for a long time, it appears that Heathcliff is still 'disturbed' and cannot escape her memory at all. Use of the superlative adverbs 'incessantly' and 'remorselessly' emphasise this, ironic as Heathcliff feels despair at how Cathy haunts him still - yet in Chapter 16 after her death he begged her to 'haunt' him and denied her 'peace' after death.

'I felt that Cathy was there: not under me, but on the earth' C29

Heathcliff - his belief in Cathy's ghost and her continual presence around him. Their love defies the invisible boundaries between the dead and the living.

'when I look for his father in his face, I find her every day more! How the devil is he so like? I can hardly bear to see him' C31

Heathcliff - reveals to the reader that he sees more of Cathy in Hareton, than in her actual daughter, perhaps why he has more feelings of affection towards Hareton. Cathy instead merely reminds him of his sworn enemy Edgar, who he believes took his Cathy from him

'restless, anxious expression' C31

Heathcliff - as his death nears he becomes more and more unsettled.

'Your land, insolent slut? You never had any!' C33

Heathcliff - elements of misogyny infiltrate his bitter invective towards Cathy, his hatred manifests into the frenzied use of rhetorical and declarative sentences.

'I am surrounded with her image!' C33

Heathcliff - the exclamatory sentence conveys the extent of his bereavement still, even though it has been years since Cathy's death. Her 'image' taking form visually through the presences of her daughter and Hareton at Wuthering Heights, who are getting increasingly closer - mirroring the relationship Heathcliff had with Cathy at the beginning of the novel.

'The entire world is a dreadful collection of memoranda that she did exist, and that I have lost her' C33

Heathcliff - he cannot find comfort in anything, everything is intrinsically bound to the memory of Cathy.

Has 'monomania' regarding Cathy C33

Heathcliff - meaning an overriding obsession with one single thing, from a psychoanalytical perspective his desires for Cathy are what drive his every action.

'I have neither a fear, nor a presentiment nor a hope of death' C33

Heathcliff - does not 'fear' death, so strong is his will to now be with Cathy

'Ready to tear Catherine in pieces' shifts to 'calmness' C33

Heathcliff - his erratic behaviour is demonstrated using juxtaposition as he nears death

'it was unnatural - appearance of joy under his black brows' C34

Heathcliff - any presence of happiness within him is perverse, emphasising how serious and melancholy an atmosphere must perpetually shroud him

'would not shut; they seemed to sneer at [Nelly's] attempts' C34

Heathcliff - even in death he 'delights' at the suffering and difficulty others face.