at ties two people together, even if the world is against them. In fact, when the world is against them and their love, it often drives them even closer together, as is the case with Catherine and Heathcliff. This is especially rue for these two lovers because even in childhood they had had a very close relationship in which they were themselves fighting the world together.In that first scene, from their childhood, Catherine and Heathcliff are spying on their neighbors, who have everything material and are believed to be happy. But when Heathcliff and Catherine look through the window, they see a miserable family screaming at one another. Heathcliff’s reaction in telling this story gives us an idea of his deep feeling for Catherine as well as his rage at the rest of the world;The idiots! That was their pleasure! To quarrel… and cry… We (Catherine and himself) did despise them! When would you…. find us by ourselves, seekingentertainment in yelling, and sobbing, and rolling on the ground…. ? I’d not exchange, for a thousand lives, my condition here, for Edgar Linton’s at Thrushcross Grange--- not if I might have the privilege of flinging Joseph off the highest gable, and painting the house front with Hindley’s blood! (89).We see Heathcliff’s hatred for the world, except for his beloved Catherine, and also his pride. He fears that he is socially inferior to others, and in response he wants to destroy them. This sense of inferiority was born in childhood, and it is not cured by adulthood when he has become rich and dignified. He still hates the world in part because of his pride. As Nelly Dean the narrator says, “Proud people breed sad sorrows for themselves” (97), and, she might have added, for others as well, especially those they love and who love them. This is part of the reason that the love between Heathcliff and Catherine becomes evil. Love cannot be healthy if one of ...
