Talk:Heathcliff (Wuthering Heights)

Untitled
The title should read "Heathcliffe (Wuthering Heights)" - it does not appear to be possible to alter the titels through editing. Does anyone know how this can be done? Blickcat (talk) 10:06, 11 July 2008


 * Hi, Blickcat. First of all, welcome. Secondly, can you please sign your posts on talk pages by typing four tildes, which will convert into your signature with a link to your user page and talk page, plus the date. (I've just added your signature for you.) Thirdly, I presume you'd change it by moving the page. You may not be able to move pages yet, as I think that function is disabled for very new users with very few edits, but when you've been around for a while, you'll see an option "move" at the top of the page, just between "history" and "watch" (or "unwatch"). But fourthly, and most importantly, are you quite sure that it's supposed to be "Heathcliffe"? What edition are you using? I don't have my printed copy right here, but I'm pretty sure that it's Heathcliff. The article Wuthering Heights talks about Heathcliff, not Heathcliffe. The article Laurence Olivier mentions that Olivier took the part of Heathcliff. The text of the novel at Wikisource uses Heathcliff throughout. So I'd be very hesitant about making such changes without further input from others. Cheers. Stratford490 (talk) 12:43, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

I (L) Wuthering Heights —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.219.81.184 (talk) 12:25, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

Citizen Kane
Does anyone besides me see similarities between Heathcliff and Charles Foster Kane from Citizen Kane? Both men come from poverty but are highly intelligent and manage to get an education. Through intellect and ruthlessness they both acquire vast wealth and power at the expense of their innocence. In this sense Cathy could be thought of as Heathcliffe's "Rosebud." --86.138.52.77 (talk) 11:53, 27 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Bit of a tenuous link if you ask me.--EchetusXe 14:51, 4 August 2010 (UTC)

Suggestions for Improving the Article on Heathcliiff
This article does not take into account the structure of the novel. Wuthering Heights is a tale related to Mr. Lockwood by Nellie Dean, a servant of the Earnshaw family and later the Lintons. It is Lockwood, who recounts the story; thus we, the readers, are privy to a sort of gossip. We never directly know Heathcliff.

In any discussion of Heathcliff, it is important to note that Nellie Dean has never liked Heathcliff and, like Hindley, sees him as an interloper. This is very clear in the early chapters where Nellie admits she, Hindley, Missus Earnshaw and other servants routinely mentally and physically tormented Heathcliff when he was a small child. A close reading also reveals many instances where Nellie contradicts her pronouncements that Heathcliff was a sullen, selfish child. For instance, she states that Heathcliff felt nothing for Mr. Earnshaw, so long as the master of Wuthering Heights gave Heathcliff whatever he wanted. Yet a few paragraphs later Nellie tells Lockwood how bitterly Heathcliff wept when Mr. Earnshaw died and, with Cathy, invented a beautiful heaven for his patron to reside in after death. This is extremely confusing to the reader, since it is hardly the behavior of an uncaring opportunist all of thirteen.

Throughout the novel there are many examples like this, which taken as a whole show Nellie to be an unreliable narrator. These contradictions cause tension in the reader, since we never know what is slander and what is true. This is the lens through which Heathcliff is presented to us, and from this we must extrapolate the truth. For instance, without a doubt, Heathcliff suffered prolonged and severe child abuse at the hands of members of the Earnshaw household. Or that Heathcliff did not 'swindle' Hindley out of Wuthering Heights, but instead purchased it. In a sense saving it, since Hindley would have sold the property off to any buyer with enough money, in order to support his various dissipated habits. Further Heathcliff restored the property, which Hindley had let fall into disrepair.

The comments in this article show a comprehension similar to that of the gullible Lockwood, and need revising. Nicholas Templar (talk) 19:19, 17 July 2011 (UTC)NicholasTemplar

Swindle?
It has been a while since I read the text, but I wonder why the article states that Heathcliff "swindled" Hindley.

As I recall it, Heathcliff lawfully purchased the debts that Hindley ran up during his alcoholic decline. Hindley died in considerable debt to Heathcliff. There is no description of any settlement of Hindley's will or prior court action for debt by Heathcliff, though Nellie Dean might have been unaware of such.

It is arguable that Heathcliff swindled Hareton, but Hindley created his own mess. Qlangley (talk) 19:48, 6 November 2013 (UTC)

In Popular Culture
No mention of the character Heathcliff Huxtable, played by pre-villain Bill Cosby on the immensely popular Cosby Show. Nor of Heathcliff the Cat. It seems doubtful these were named after "other" Heathcliffs.Venqax (talk) 17:59, 15 September 2017 (UTC)

Mr. Earnshaw's son
Should the hypothesis about Heathcliff being Mr. Earnshaw's illegitimate son be included in the article? It's obvious that Mr. Earnshaw's walking trip was too short for his destination to be Liverpool. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 42.108.247.151 (talk) 10:53, 3 August 2022 (UTC)